“The official priests of the old faiths accept without questioning the authorized judgment of the political government. They are engaged ... in calling upon their God of Battles (can it be, their God of Mercy?) to keep the British soldiers—the invaders, the burners of villages, the hangmen of [native] priests—in his good and holy keeping.... A system of slavery prepares the slave-holding caste for any inhumanity that may seem to defend it.... If it hardens our politicians, it degrades our churches. The thirst for rule, the greed of the market, and the saving of souls, all work together in accord. The Churches approve and bless whilst the warriors and the merchants are adding new provinces to empire; they have delivered the heathen to the secular arm.... Christianity in practice, as we know it now, for all the Sermon on the Mount, is the religion of aggression, domination, combat. It waits upon the pushing trader and the lawless conqueror; and with obsequious thanksgiving it blesses his enterprise.” Who, indeed, shall deliver us from war? Our pastors? Hardly. The pastors’ economic masters will not permit them to do so. Tho’ the machine guns mow down a million of the world’s choicest working men, pile up windrows of human carcasses and desolate the huts, flats, hovels and “homes” of the poor; tho’ ten million pairs of calloused hands of agonizing working class women be stretched toward well-fed, comfortable pastors, begging for a _united, effective declaration_ against war; tho’ these ten million humble working class mothers, their eyes streaming with tears, on their knees beseech the “holy men of God” to unitedly cry aloud against the accursed “Death’s feast” where their dear ones are devoured; tho’ multitudes of little working class children in mute despair dread the roar of the belching cannon that slay their fathers and brothers; still the pastors (most of them) will “stand by the administration” in any and all wars, as usual. “The administration,” “the government,” under capitalism, is simply the _executive committee of the capitalist class_. The capitalist class are internationally struggling for the world market. In these international struggles the capitalists need the support of public opinion. Public opinion can be created and controlled by the pastor. The pastor must therefore be controlled by the capitalist. The campaign begins—to capture the market and the minister. The soldier goes to war and the capitalist goes to church. The soldier takes a gun, the capitalist takes gold. The soldier slays. The capitalist prays—by proxy. Being “the will of God” it is, of course, “mysterious.” The capitalist occupies the very best pew in the house of God—and lays beautiful bank-bills in the collection plate. The minister is embarrassed—and impressed. The pastor and his master divide up. The war? Isn’t _war hell_? It beats hell. But it is “all for the best”—mysteriously.