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. Opposing15Eisenhower, August 19, 1954 Address at the Second Assembly of the World Council ofChurches, Evanston, Illinois, Public Papers of the Presidents: Dwight D.Eisenhower, 1954(Washington: United States Government Printing Office 1960), 734 740.16 A Path to Peace Through Prayer, Life editorial, printed as full-page advertisement in NewYork Times, 29 September 1954.Emphasis original.17October 27, 1954 letter from Cavert to Eisenhower; OF Box 738, Folder: OF 144H; DDE Papers. 72 PART ONEideologies compete for the minds and souls of men.Rival power blocs imperilthe peace of nations large and small. It condemned equally totalitariantyranny and aggression as well as the exploitation of any people by eco-nomic monopoly or political imperialism thinly-veiled references to theSoviet and American spheres, respectively.The report called for a strength-ening of the United Nations, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction,and the development of a new international ethos. 18 The CCIA report alsomarked the beginning of a turning point, as the influence of Niebuhr andhis Christian realism on mainline organizations such as the CCIA and theNCC began to wane.The divisions evident at Evanston appeared as well in several evaluationsfollowing the conference.Henry Van Dusen of Union Seminary admittedthat the WCC had been sharply divided on a number of issues, but heoptimistically viewed these rifts as signs of diversity and strength, not asparalysis or weakness.19 Ernest W.Lefever, on the other hand erstwhileNCC staff member and Yale doctoral student under H.Richard Niebuhr wrote a withering critique of the CCIA report for Christianity and Crisis.Lefever found the report thoroughly flawed.Among other things, the WCChad rather insouciantly urged the United States and the USSR to turn theirdisagreements over to an impartial international organization and abide byits decisions, an idea that Lefever found ludicrous and no less than a demandfor world government now. He concluded that the report offered nothingbut peripheral, irrelevant and ineffective recommendations for improvingthe world situation. Walter Van Kirk a leading NCC official and architect of the WCC report,who had also served as Lefever s supervisor at the NCC until Lefever s resig-nation just two months earlier took great umbrage at his former employee scriticism.In a letter to the editor, Van Kirk denounced Lefever s blunder-buss attack as pathetically inadequate. He defended the report as merely another stage on a long ecumenical journey that did not pretend to solveall global problems, and should be lauded instead of lambasted.20 But thebeleaguered WCC came under attack from the Kremlin as well.Soviet radiopropagandists, seizing especially on Eisenhower s address, denounced theconference as a religious ploy organized by the United States solely for18CCIA, Christians in the Struggle for World Community, Report to WCC Second Assembly,August, 1954; WCCPapers, RG162, Box9, Folder 62; YDSA.19Van Dusen, Evanston in Retrospect, Christianity and Crisis, 18 October 1954, 131 134.20Ernest W.Lefever, Evanston on International Affairs: A Critique of the Report from SectionIV, Christianity and Crisis, 29 November 1954.Walter Van Kirk, letter to editor, Christianityand Crisis, 27 December 1954, 173, 176. UNITY DISSOLVED: PROTESTANTS AND FOREIGN POLICY, 1953 1960 73the purpose of making political capital. 21 Criticized from without and fromwithin, from the left and from the right, the WCC coupled a confused identitywith an uncertain future.iiiAmerican evangelicals, meanwhile, entered the Eisenhower era with unbridledoptimism.What they still lacked in institutional and intellectual credibility,they tried to compensate for with organization and energy.But evangelicalforeign policy concerns remained distinctly parochial.Bulletins and pressreleases from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) still centered onCatholic persecution of evangelicals in Latin America, Spain, and Italy, andon the needs of missionaries.22 Clyde Taylor, the NAE Executive Secretary,traveled in 1953 to Spain for meetings with Spanish evangelicals, missionaries,and diplomats at the American Embassy, the latter of whom admitted toTaylor their own frustrations with Franco s Catholic theocratic proclivities.Taylor and other evangelical leaders continued to pressure Congress andthe Eisenhower Administration to terminate financial assistance to Franco sregime, which the United States had offered in exchange for strategic air basesin Spain.23 Much as evangelicals loathed communism, they would not supportwhat they regarded as compromising alliances with Catholic powers in theCold War cause.Evangelical leaders likewise obsessed over keeping at bay any possibleCatholic influences on the new Eisenhower Administration, an agenda thatat times took rather bizarre turns.For example, a confidential memo written21 Russians Told U.S.Sponsored Evanston Assembly, Christianity and Crisis, 18 October 1954,130.22See, for example, January 1, 1953 NAE News Release; Herbert J.Taylor Papers (hereinafter Tay-lor Papers), Box 67, Folder 26; Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton, Illinois (hereinafterBGCA).23June 22, 1953 letter from Taylor to Miss Nona McClure; Taylor, August 17, 1953 ConfidentialReport on Spain ; Taylor, September 15, 1953 Memorandum on Spain; September 30, 1953letter from Taylor to Rev.Samuel Vila; EFMA Papers, Box 88, Folder 6; BGCA.See alsoJune 3, 1954 letter from Taylor to Ernest H.Trenchard and Rev.Charles W.Whitten; EFMAPapers, Box 88, Folder 7; BGCA.For evangelical concerns that the marriage procedures forAmerican military personnel based in Spain not be governed by Catholic law, see December28, 1954 letter from NAE President Henry Savage to Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson,and the January 20, 1955 letter of reply; EFMA Papers, Box 88, Folder 8; BGCA.Finally, notethat liberal Protestant leaders were also concerned over religious liberty in Spain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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. Opposing15Eisenhower, August 19, 1954 Address at the Second Assembly of the World Council ofChurches, Evanston, Illinois, Public Papers of the Presidents: Dwight D.Eisenhower, 1954(Washington: United States Government Printing Office 1960), 734 740.16 A Path to Peace Through Prayer, Life editorial, printed as full-page advertisement in NewYork Times, 29 September 1954.Emphasis original.17October 27, 1954 letter from Cavert to Eisenhower; OF Box 738, Folder: OF 144H; DDE Papers. 72 PART ONEideologies compete for the minds and souls of men.Rival power blocs imperilthe peace of nations large and small. It condemned equally totalitariantyranny and aggression as well as the exploitation of any people by eco-nomic monopoly or political imperialism thinly-veiled references to theSoviet and American spheres, respectively.The report called for a strength-ening of the United Nations, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction,and the development of a new international ethos. 18 The CCIA report alsomarked the beginning of a turning point, as the influence of Niebuhr andhis Christian realism on mainline organizations such as the CCIA and theNCC began to wane.The divisions evident at Evanston appeared as well in several evaluationsfollowing the conference.Henry Van Dusen of Union Seminary admittedthat the WCC had been sharply divided on a number of issues, but heoptimistically viewed these rifts as signs of diversity and strength, not asparalysis or weakness.19 Ernest W.Lefever, on the other hand erstwhileNCC staff member and Yale doctoral student under H.Richard Niebuhr wrote a withering critique of the CCIA report for Christianity and Crisis.Lefever found the report thoroughly flawed.Among other things, the WCChad rather insouciantly urged the United States and the USSR to turn theirdisagreements over to an impartial international organization and abide byits decisions, an idea that Lefever found ludicrous and no less than a demandfor world government now. He concluded that the report offered nothingbut peripheral, irrelevant and ineffective recommendations for improvingthe world situation. Walter Van Kirk a leading NCC official and architect of the WCC report,who had also served as Lefever s supervisor at the NCC until Lefever s resig-nation just two months earlier took great umbrage at his former employee scriticism.In a letter to the editor, Van Kirk denounced Lefever s blunder-buss attack as pathetically inadequate. He defended the report as merely another stage on a long ecumenical journey that did not pretend to solveall global problems, and should be lauded instead of lambasted.20 But thebeleaguered WCC came under attack from the Kremlin as well.Soviet radiopropagandists, seizing especially on Eisenhower s address, denounced theconference as a religious ploy organized by the United States solely for18CCIA, Christians in the Struggle for World Community, Report to WCC Second Assembly,August, 1954; WCCPapers, RG162, Box9, Folder 62; YDSA.19Van Dusen, Evanston in Retrospect, Christianity and Crisis, 18 October 1954, 131 134.20Ernest W.Lefever, Evanston on International Affairs: A Critique of the Report from SectionIV, Christianity and Crisis, 29 November 1954.Walter Van Kirk, letter to editor, Christianityand Crisis, 27 December 1954, 173, 176. UNITY DISSOLVED: PROTESTANTS AND FOREIGN POLICY, 1953 1960 73the purpose of making political capital. 21 Criticized from without and fromwithin, from the left and from the right, the WCC coupled a confused identitywith an uncertain future.iiiAmerican evangelicals, meanwhile, entered the Eisenhower era with unbridledoptimism.What they still lacked in institutional and intellectual credibility,they tried to compensate for with organization and energy.But evangelicalforeign policy concerns remained distinctly parochial.Bulletins and pressreleases from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) still centered onCatholic persecution of evangelicals in Latin America, Spain, and Italy, andon the needs of missionaries.22 Clyde Taylor, the NAE Executive Secretary,traveled in 1953 to Spain for meetings with Spanish evangelicals, missionaries,and diplomats at the American Embassy, the latter of whom admitted toTaylor their own frustrations with Franco s Catholic theocratic proclivities.Taylor and other evangelical leaders continued to pressure Congress andthe Eisenhower Administration to terminate financial assistance to Franco sregime, which the United States had offered in exchange for strategic air basesin Spain.23 Much as evangelicals loathed communism, they would not supportwhat they regarded as compromising alliances with Catholic powers in theCold War cause.Evangelical leaders likewise obsessed over keeping at bay any possibleCatholic influences on the new Eisenhower Administration, an agenda thatat times took rather bizarre turns.For example, a confidential memo written21 Russians Told U.S.Sponsored Evanston Assembly, Christianity and Crisis, 18 October 1954,130.22See, for example, January 1, 1953 NAE News Release; Herbert J.Taylor Papers (hereinafter Tay-lor Papers), Box 67, Folder 26; Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton, Illinois (hereinafterBGCA).23June 22, 1953 letter from Taylor to Miss Nona McClure; Taylor, August 17, 1953 ConfidentialReport on Spain ; Taylor, September 15, 1953 Memorandum on Spain; September 30, 1953letter from Taylor to Rev.Samuel Vila; EFMA Papers, Box 88, Folder 6; BGCA.See alsoJune 3, 1954 letter from Taylor to Ernest H.Trenchard and Rev.Charles W.Whitten; EFMAPapers, Box 88, Folder 7; BGCA.For evangelical concerns that the marriage procedures forAmerican military personnel based in Spain not be governed by Catholic law, see December28, 1954 letter from NAE President Henry Savage to Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson,and the January 20, 1955 letter of reply; EFMA Papers, Box 88, Folder 8; BGCA.Finally, notethat liberal Protestant leaders were also concerned over religious liberty in Spain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]