Religion: Christian Program

The greatest, most tragic failure of the Christian Church in modern times was that it was unable to halt the slow march of Christendom toward World War II. The World Council of Churches, a federation of the greatest non-Roman communions, was born too late to help; it is not even yet operating officially. Unofficially, the Council last July summoned a “board of strategy” of 32 men and two women to meet in a Swiss hotel, draw up a program of Christian international strategy. A long statement of their views was published last week in The Christian Century, with an introduction by one of the 34: Dr. Albert Wentworth Palmer, president of Chicago Theological Seminary.*The statement will be issued as a pamphlet by the Federal Council of Churches.

Even though war did not seem inevitable in July, the board of strategy was realistic: it said nothing about calling a peace conference. Wrote Dr. Palmer (before the war began) : “Recommending a peace conference was like advocating the wisdom of insurance in the midst of a city-wide conflagration.” The board surveyed the background of the world’s disorders, presented some political and economic principles based upon its belief that “the Church Universal … is not a mere idea but a reality, transcending the nations. It is created by the will of God, not by the will of men. For this reason faith in the Universal Church is the very basis of work towards a better order. . . .” The board concluded its statement with a seven-point program for the church in time of war. It urged:

“1) That preaching and prayer should be truly Christian. Prayer must not degenerate into a means of national propaganda. . . .

“2) That brotherly relations between the churches be maintained. … It will be exceedingly difficult for the churches to keep in touch with each other . . . but techniques can be developed through church leaders in neutral countries. . . .

“3) That the churches should work, in such ways as are open to them, for a just peace. . . . Mass hatred is difficult to check, but the churches must make the effort.

“4) That the churches should guard against becoming agencies for the propaganda of hatred. . . .

“5) That the churches should minister to prisoners of war. . . .

“6) That the churches should give such spiritual help and comfort to the victims of war’s tragedies as they alone can give.

“7) That Christians should show in their own lives a willingness to share the blame for the sin of war. …”

*Among other U. S. members of the group: John R. Mott, Foreign Relations Expert John Foster Dulles, Professor Georgia E. Harkness of Mount Holyoke College, Professor Charles G. Fenwick of Bryn Mawr (Roman Catholic internationalist, present as a technical adviser).