Sources on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. To get the opinion that matters the most, its your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan. Powered by cable. All right, good morning, everyone, and we are going to wrap up one part of americas experience in the First World War by addressing explicitly the question of American Religion during the war. The role of the churches during the war. A vast topic, and well only get part way through that today. For class next time, you have the readings that are more focused on social gospel clergy and a response to social gospel clergy. So we wont be done with this today, but we are going to give , work our way through a broad overview of the question. On the first day of class, you read Woodrow Wilsons neutrality proclamation from august 19th, 1914. Within the first two weeks or so of the war. And in that, theres a section that i said, im going to come back to this. And this is a section of the neutrality proclamation i wish i had paid closer attention to years ago. This is the sentence. Wilson, in pleading with the nation, pleaded for neutrality and fought word and deed, said the spirit of the nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in Public Meetings do and say. Upon what newspapers and magazines contain. Upon what ministers utter in their pulpits. And men proclaim as their opinions on the street. So that key phrase there were going to zero in on, what ministers utter in their pulpits. Whats striking about this original neutrality proclamation is that here, unlike whats going to happen after u. S. Intervention in 1917 and on through the war itself and on through the peace process, at this point, wilson is appealing for caution, restraint, what not to say, the passions not to stir up in the churches from the pulpit. Not to divide america ethnically, religiously, since americans have conflicting loyalties, especially if theyre recent immigrants coming from many different nations at war with each other. So this is in the context of an appeal to hold back. Be cautious. And thats not the case after u. S. Intervention in april 1917. Then, its a question of vocalizing the churches. A little bit earlier, come to think of it, there was an effort to mobilize the churches for the sake of preparedness, maybe already in 1916. But much more directly in 1917. But now that question, what did ministers utter in their pulpits . Do job without getting too without getting too technical. There is a serious obstacle here, for us, if we want to understand, even accumulate a record of what pastors, priests, rabbis said in the bolded. Of course, this question, the american churches in world war i fits into a much much broader question. There is nothing new about religion and were, in 1914 through 1918. Nothing new about this. Any agent civilization, mobilizing religion. Making sure it was on their side and defeated the enemys god. There is no way to escape religious practice, religious worship and the violence of warfare. Part of that broader problem of human society. Human conflict. By the time that you get to the enlightenment and thinking back on the socalled wars of religion of the 1600s a common idea emerges that religion actually makes the world a more violent and dangerous place. Religion is a problem to be solved. It makes the world a more problem. And an assessment of war, imperial warfare, of the 1700s. This is a common concern. It intensifies warfare, is that actually true . Does religion you can hear im doing this with no nuance at all. We have to nuance this a bit. Does religion intensify warfare. It doesnt encourage the totalizing of war. We can think about that. We think about it already in the case of president wilson. Does religion automatically get coopted eby governments for th sake of war. Does religion automatically get coopted, taking control of, by the government, for the sake of justifying the war, mobilizing manpower, material wealth, continuing wars especially when they become controversial. And all we can really say about it. Is that the story of the experience, that religion just gets coopted. And it does not have the integrity, the institutional integrity, to really defend itself in times of war and im going to talk about one historian who made that argument, concerning america in the First World War. Without telling the entire story, this would be a great upperlevel crass class. Maybe you can talk me into this. The u. S. Wrestled america, preUnited States, its always confronted the question of the role of religion, the role of the churches and wars. You can find that in colonial america. The entire series of colonial warfare. What is the role of the church . You have local pastors, preaching malicious sermons. During the french and indian war. So, this is a common theme. Preaching from the pulpit, preaching on fast days. Preaching election day sermons. This is true during the war for independence. True during the war of 1812. A strong millennial redemptive explanation given to the war of 1812 with americas victory. The mexican war and the problems of a largely promising nation waging war against a predominantly catholic nation and that comes up all the time. The u. S. Civil war saturated with questions of religion, questions with role of the churches. Questions with the churches on the floor itself. And justifying the role north and south. The spanishamerican role war. The second world war, a y culturally divisive, during the vietnam war, quite a bit of reading on this over the summer doing some more research and writing about american civil religion and being reminded of the efforts, especially by the american west, to be mobilizing the churches. They constantly said the church must have a prophetic witness. Prophetic witness when it comes to civil rights and ethically and a prophetic witness when it comes to International Relations and waging war in southeast asia. Really, directed efforts, serious efforts to mobilize the clergy, mobilize congregations, to raise the consciousness about these questions, this is we cannot escape this. We cannot escape this. And, we can also safely say that every nation at war from 1914 until 1918 also wrestled with this very problem of the churches and the war. The german clergy, there are famous statements released by the german clergy during the war. Sa justifying germanys warfare. The church of england, we wont have time to explore this, but the difference that makes two have a nation with an established church, and the nation with truly voluntary religious organizations like the u. S. Its going to look very different. The Russian Orthodox church, maybe youve seen pictures. The battlefields. Maybe youve seen pictures of soldiers. Preparing for battle on the eastern front. And there is the orthodox priest , blessing the troops. Blessing the weapons, blessing even Something Like a symbolic ceremonial drum for the troops. The Catholic Church in france, italy, austria et cetera. As americans, we talk a lot about, and we debate a lot about church and state. And, we boast about our institutional constitutional separation of church and state, first on the National Level with the bill of rights i am then statebystatee even though states like massachusetts, by the 1830s, there is no state in united dates that has the established church. Separation from top to bottom of church and state. But, what if, and im stealing this from a smarter historian, what if we are switching the question . We focus so much on relationships between church and state in america, and our Supreme Court decision. But what if we substitute words for church and state . What if we say religion and nation . And does america have separation of religion and nation, the answer is emphatically, no, here. And, this gets noticed by our friends in europe. When they observe our inaugural inauguration ceremonies. When ththey hear a president ial inaugural address. They notice, that our speeches, political speeches, they sound like sermons and sermons sound like political speeches. We are really good at that, weve been known for that for at least 200 years. So, we routinely makes religion and nation. Politicians, left and right. Democrat, republican, independent. Quoted from the bible. You can go through the most recent inaugural addresses as we did last semester with students and american heritage. And, every new president , whether its donald trump, joe biden, every president is quoting from the bible. So, why we affirm the institutional separation from churches of the government, we defend freedom of worship, we mix religion and politics all the time. There is currently the really hot topic, of Christian Nationalism. But, the more you look, the more careful you look at ofthe history of Christian Nationalism, you find that it is not a recent development. It is not a product of right wingers. It has been a long time coming. We are going to see some of that today. This is part of the controversy during the First World War, this is part of the one of the causes of concern, in various denominations, that the government was creating with the cooperation of other churches, a Christian Nationalism. Was putting the churches of america totally in the service of the government i and its war aims and mobilization efforts. And if you hear people talk about Christian Nationalism and raised the alarm about it, pause. Stop. Think. It goes way back in American History, and it is as much a product of the american left as it is, and this is so easy to demonstrate. It is a part of the left as it is the right. World war i makes all of this obvious. I think, in most cases, the real question is, which religious convictions gets mixed with which political agenda . Not who mixes and who doesnt the more diagnostic question, which religious convictions get mixed with which political agendas. So, whose theology mixes with whose ideology . That is the question. And the rare voice, it is any pastor or Church Member who calls for an apolitical pulpit. The nonpolitical pulpit. And im going to walk you through examples of this today. This voice is been there, it has been heard, it was heard at the time. Though, muted, and every american war. And with your handout, im going to walk you through some of these concerns. And the problem is, and, this is been a 30 year long, more than 30 year long struggle for me. Thinking about the First World War and religion. Historians are blind to this, to these distinctions. Im going to show you exactly what goes wrong in the way that weve tried to tell the story of religion and war. And i have to say that some of h the earliest scholarships on this in the 1930s was actually driven by unanimous against religion. It was driven by that conviction that religion makes the world a more dangerous and intolerant, violent place. So, of course, if we are going to tried to work against the modern totem of warfare, if we say we are never going to enter Something Like world war i again, then, those scholars are going to say yes to make we keep religion out of this. And, there is a flaw. There is a flow right at the heart of this scholarship. Big question, here. That kind of big question you put a star by. The question that is not new and world war i and does not go away, the question that you can ask in the 21st century about domestic issues as well, is, what does the church of the government. Specifically, here, what does the church of the nation and the time of warfare. And you have deep disagreements about that. What does the church owe the nation when it comes to political issues. Y just saturday, i heard a pastor , a retired pastor, who wanted to remind all of the pastors he was talking, Ballot Initiatives in november. You have to get out there. Mobilize the troops. If you want brochures, i have them that you give out your people. Whatever the merits of that, there is that question. What does the church owe the people . What does it all the government , in this case, and more times . This is coming up with the justice book. And in the graphical essay which he says there is no history, of religion , American Religion and world war i. That is true. It has been 100 years and counting and we have no history , standard history. Think about all of the military histories of world war i. Think of the economic histories. The political histories. Biographies. Autobiographies. We do not have a standard conference of history of the question of the churches of religion and the First World War. And, that article that i sent out, if you took a look at it, its something i wrote about 10 or 12 years ago, that is something im driving to a neckpiece. And what i said in 2010 or 2012, it still just as true. That we have never gotten busy to tell the story and to tell it well of American Religion and the warfare. So, no general history. One of the earliest is a very dramatic visual aid. One of the earliest to come out and still the most influential, preachers present arms, by ray h abrams. A sociologist, circa 1933 and, the book appeared to be so thorough, so deeply researched, so authoritative, that it has been quoted for 90 years now as the definitive study of religion and world war i in america. And that is really unfortunate for us. Really unfortunate. Later, he published a new addition, other, to include the clergy during world war ii. And to include them during the vietnam war. 30 something years later, he was still focusing on this problem, this question. As a sociologist, abrams argued , presupposed, that the Institutional Church had been, the word i used earlier, co opted by the federal government. It had been sort of naovely cooperative, complacent, and it had just allowed itself to be sucked into the war efforts. Which, it is not the story. It is not the story what he did here, and, it is a remarkable bid of research. This is way before the digital age. Way before newspapers. Com. This guy went through hundreds and hundreds of newspapers, and, they drew out what the preachers had said about the meaning of the war. Why we are fighting, who we are as america. Who the germans are. What is the cause, what is the meaning of the war. And, he piled up damning quote after damning quote, and that is easy to do. So, here is my historical method point. We talk in method about what is our principle of selection and what is our principle of exclusion. You might call it cherry picking. It is easy to go out, and find everything, find all of the most embarrassing things that every bishop, pastor, evangelist, seminary professor, every religious editor, it is so easy to go out and find the most quotable of the quotable and string them altogether and say open quote see . And because historians pull this book off the shelf, i see t this happen all the time. Pulling off the shelf, i look at the footnotes, there it is. Abrams, preachers present arms. Congratulations for having a or great book. But youve distorted our understanding of the war and it seems to be so hard to loosen the grip of this book. And, so then you end up with selective quotations from selective quotation. And, that makes the problem compounded. And, to work beyond this, that requires an entire reconceptualizing of the entire Historical Research problem. Now, i do not want to distort this book, there is a lot of valuable information inside, and it can lead you to other sources. But, let me let me think about a related problem, here. Lets think about lets think about lets think about what we would have to do. Lets think about what we would have to do if we are going to write a better book. How would we do this . If you want to steal all of this, just check with me first. I dont know if im going to live all around to this project. I badly want to. Just check with me. So, what would it take to do a better job as a historian . An more nuanced, a more sensitive portrayal. How can we help make visible what historians, and im not even saying intentionally. What historians made invisible. We are really good at that, as historians. We can draw all of these things to the surface, and make Everything Else disappear. And, we can bring things to the surface that are not truly representative, that are not truly in proportionate it to what everything was saying and thinking and then somebody reads the book says, thats what americans thought. And, thats my least favorite abstract noor tagouri. Bite up there with the north and the south. In the north, they thought this. Ive said this before the semester. Except for those who didnt. So, american christians, they thought this, during world war i. I. Except for those who didn and that, mentally add that, to every claim like this. Where did it go . We want to look at the sermon. This is what president wilson said. It matters what was uttered. You cannot say said, it has to be uttered. Whatever wilson uttered in the pulpit. You want to do that. I will talk about how hard that is. You want to think about how do christians worship. Did they worship in every different way during the war . Did they sing different songs . And, there were hymns edited and books during world war i for the sake of world mobilization. The battle hymn of the republic, added to the church of england hymnbook during the war. Added to the presbyterian book, here, in United States. So, would there be patriotic songs, anthems, would there be special music that was patriotic . America the beautiful. How about, flags, and churches . Now, this is where, this is where people get really nervous, and they think, okay, i knew you were going to do something unamerican eventually. If you even raise this question, why is the United States flag in the church, people get very nervous. What are you up to . You cant be up to anything good if you ask this question. This is really unusual, 100 years ago. Really unusual when this happens during the First World War. Other examples earlier, there are examples during the civil war of union flags flying on top of churches and church towers. That is true. But, it did not become ordinary for there to be the star spangled banner at the front of the church. And, it is there so often now, typically, that we do not even notice that it is there. Also, on saturday, in the same meeting, i looked up and there was the American Flag and a christian flight. Some people are not familiar with the wrist in flight. They are both at the front of the church. Being the annoying historian, there is a history to that christian flight. That was developed by the National Council of churches. Why might that be controversial . There were about a flags brought into the church. There were ceremonies to bless them as well. Well, if nothing else, it is an emblem of sovereignty. An emblem of sovereignty this belongs to the United States. Do you think about that in a worship service. Is a common question im people talk about the necessary of gratitude. But this was startling to be both during world war i and bringing the war inside the church. Then you come into church and your singing the battle hymn of the republic. There is the battle flag. There is a sermon about the war. There is i read yesterday, a pastor during what was called liberty bond sunday, a series of these. The u. S. Government provided sermon outlines, entire prepared sermons, for pastors to preach on these special sundays. And there was a pastor who preached the provided sermon on liberty bond sunday and then at the end of the service, he publicly purchased 100 worth of war bonds right there. He was doing his bit, and he wanted the congregation to invest in bonds right there at the end of the service. There is the thing that is puzzling. Ann carter, you said earlier, you talked about it. Its hard to imagine this happening today. It was in a different context. This is also familiar. This is what they miss. That, that it does not take the government pressuring the churches. There was never a law passed during world war i es requiring the churches to do any of this. The church is itself mobilized, im dealing with that big abstraction, the churches. I will refine that in a moment. It is self mobilization. Anyway, lots of wartime religious books. In back 30 years ago, working on my dissertation on the topic, i looked through publications like booklist and book review digests and i looked at the best seller list for fiction and nonfiction during the war and it turned out that most of the nonfiction best sellers were books about theology and the war. Trying to interpret the religious meaning of the war. And even in the fictional category, hg wells, Science Fiction guru and philosopher of history and fabian socialist, he started writing novels during world war i that were much more directly religious. He wrote another book called god the invisible king. And the social gospel clergy were gushing about this because here is the secular atheist socialist hg wells, here he is. Embracing face in the time of war. So there is an outpouring of books like. If you understand the technical and theological language, books on the odyssey, how do you reconcile, how you justify the ways of god to man when the world is full of suffering and death and evil. How do you reconcile the presence of evil within the world, with gods goodness, powerful wisdom. The flood of books, articles, seminary journals, denominational journals on this very question. And it is especially challenging as a question, for the more liberal and social gospel energies who have for generations teaching that the world is improving steadily. The world is becoming more moral and enlightened and humane and malevolent. We are learning to put aside war and conflict, we are reconciling labor and capital. The world is becoming a more peaceful and orderly place. And then you have world war i. And, there are russians like what is god doing in this. What is he trying to teach us in this world. That is everywhere. And what i am driving towards, is, the more that you spend time just a student said to k me, you have to go back to the history and sit down. That is exactly what you have to do. And if you go back to world war i you sit down and listen and nobody cares, you realize that everybody is talking about the religious significance of the war and the war has significance to the religion and church. And if you expect of the kingdom of god to be around the corner, you had some explaining to do. Looking at the devastation of western fronts, eastern fronts. Also, very practical questions of Pastoral Care in the wartime. Think about what you would face as the minister of a nation. Think about the young man of your congregation, either in listing or being crafted for the war. You have to provide Pastoral Care for that young man and his family. A young woman who volunteers for the ymca Work Overseas and decides to go and help out with nursing care, or help out and what was called the ymca cuts, and serve the soldiers on the front line. Giving them books, writing utensils, envelopes, cigarettes, you name it. How would you counsel these young people and families going off to what could be their death . What about the dislocations of the workforce . What about women in the congregation going into the Industrial Work . Working for the cable car companies. Stripping the suites of downtown. The central dislocation. The sense of a challenge to the families. How do you do this . How do you reverse this, when the war is over. Try to go back to times. There are those demands, on pastors and other officers in the church clergy. We has its own unique story, the story of chaplaincy. Jewish rabbis, the parson clergy, all denominations, how will you divide that up . There is a bit of a vulgar turf battle that goes on. Every denomination says we need representation and we needed proportionate to the size of our denomination here in the u. S. And blah blah blah, making we get a certain number of clergy and the federal council of churches lobbying congress to increase the number of chaplains on the front. But, they went into very difficult circumstances. I know of one seminary professor, who volunteered to work with the ymca and he left is a seminary career for couple of years and there he was, making vats of hot chocolate. Not very glamorous. Making hot chocolate for french and american soldiers on the field. I wish i had good visual aids for you today. I will try to remember to bring is the class another time. But the way that religious symbolism are used by the government, using war posters, i have a great example. There is one of a oversized nurse. Not that she is obese, or anything. But, a largerthanlife nurse. And she is seated. And she is cradled in her arms a stricken american soldier on a stretcher. And, behind her, is the red cross of the red cross, the four colored poster. In the caption says, the greatest mother in the world. And you think this looks familiar, and you realize, that it is an imitation of the and that is an entire genre of statuary if you are familiar with the my going to go act. There is a large and in life cradling jesus after the dissent from the cross, and is exactly that. So, using that, is one of those things that you say, the dog tipping his head. You tip your head, and you think, am i seeing what i think im seeing . And did nobody notice at the time . And object . And ive seen it used, a reproduction used recently. It was in a post office, appealing for fundraising for the red cross. There it was again. You know what this is . What about this complicated question . We have this imaginary book, not only do we have to look at the practice of the faith in wartime, church by church by church, but we have to consider if he is right, and i think he is, that the story of american involvement in world war i is the story of Woodrow Wilson, we would have to Pay Attention to his own faith. Everybody mentions this, but very few go into much depth and look at the nuances, and you know, i get hung up on these questions. Historians say he was a presbyterian, thats all you need to know. So course he thinks this way. Youve read a bit, from Woodrow Wilson. You know how religious, explicitly christian or more vaguely spiritual being and language were woven through all of his speeches. I will give you some examples. But his own faith, yes, it is true that he was raised by a presbyterian minister and father. In the south. In virginia, north carolina, south carolina, georgia. That is true. It is true that he was an ordained elder in the big mainline presbyterian church, that is all true. Lets go a step further. He was part of the very liberal victorian sentimental liberal theology of the day. And, within our next class, we will look at the contrast with a much more orthodox presbyterian whom he knew. This is what wilson said in may of 1911. The occasion was, the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the bible, the 1611 authorized version. He was asked to speak, commemorations like this all over the country. He was asked to speak to, i believe it was in denver. These are selective quotations. I am at risk of being guilty, t picking the most portable quotations and piling them up. But they tell us something true and important about his theology. No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the ge warfare against wrong and get peaceea out of his acquiescence the most satisfying is that which comes from the constant spiritual warfare and there are times in the history of nations with a much take up the crude instruments of bloodshed in order to vindicate spiritual conception. For liberty, that is a spiritual conception. When men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare. I will not cry peace, as long as there is sin and wrong in the world. So much going on there. So much going on. He is not going to cry peace while there is still sin and wrong in the world. So, you might say he is not going to be crying peace. Ever. So, this is before the european war, before the expectation of a great european war. He is already connecting the nation and religion, the spiritual and the material. The holy war, a sacred and holy war , and he is speaking about literal National Wars of liberation on behalf of other peoples. This is where you have to be very careful. Because, you want to read this backwards. You want to say, okay, this is literary foreshadowing. He does not know that he is going to be leading the United States within the greatest war yet. All right, that is wanting to grapple with. Heres a short line. One sentence from his speech from 1914. A speech called militant christianity. This is october, the war has been underway for two months. He said, i am not thinking christianity as the means of saving individual soul. I am not fond of thinking of christianity. Even though that is out of context, its not typical. That marks him as part of the social gospel effort and you recognize this. This is the message of the social gospel clergy, that was his circle. These were his friends and associates. One more. In 1915, he was invited to speak before the newly created federal council of churches, which claimed to represent maybe 40 something million americans. An ecumenical effort for the social reform, cooperation for the sake of social reform and hi this is what wilson said, you would find this entire speech, or the report of this speech in the nytimes. In 1915, he says, there is a mighty task before us and it welds us together. It is to make the u. S. A mighty christian nation, and to christianize the world. My earlier claim, that there is nothing new about Christian Nationalism, and Christian Nationalism is not the monopoly of the political or social light , there is wilson, saying that this is the task facing the United States in 1915. And what it means to christianize the world, that would take a lot of care. A lot of thinking and research. This is what the social gospel t had been saying. It has a more earthly meaning. Remember, it is not about individual salvation. It has an earthly social structural meeting. For the economy and politics and society and education. So, to christianize the world, it would need to transform International Relations to get rid of balance of powers as weve been talking about. Now, back to the problem of right abrams, preachers present arms, and the obstacles we face as historians. If we wanted to do a careful job here. So much, so many of our world war i sources, when it comes to the churches in america, so much of that, choosing has already been done for us and i do not mean by right abrams in 1933. I mean, in the moment. You have to watch for this. You can apply what im going to say to any Research Project you have. If the choosing has already been done before you start looking, you have to be really careful. Best example that i know, the New York Times, in the spring of 1917, it is a primary source , and this has become more of a case because the entire run of the nytimes is available digitally, you have free access to that. And, so, it is talking easier, as researchers, about doing the easy things, the convenient thingg is of the best source . Let me be more specific. I have students work on this. I have one class take different aspects of the problem one year, a number of years ago. Lets say, i want to be smart about my research. I cannot read every newspaper in america for every sunday during the war. I cant do that. So, what am i going to do. Lets be smart. Many predicted of time when newspapers were most likely to report on the churches. Well, guess what. Lets think back to april 1917, when Woodrow Wilson delivered his war message to congress on april 2nd, 1917, that was on monday. Monday of what, monday of holy week. The day before was on sunday. When congress finally, when they finally passed the war resolution, the declaration of war on germany, it was 3 00 a. M. On good friday. And, if you want real print worthy statements made, look at the congressional record, as you can see with the clock on the wall, which is now early friday morning, the day our lord sacrificed himself for humidity and what a privilege it is for america to sacrifice herself on this day. And that can be multiplied many times over. All right. So then, imagine, if you are the kind of pastor who really wants to preach on the war, you to think about what you are going to do. You see the newspaper headlines on friday morning, good friday. America declares war. America at war with germany. Do you think, okay. It is easter sunday. It is easter sunday, now. What am i going to preach . So, lets imagine that you are the editor at the New York Times. And, you are working on assignment for that weekend, for your reporters. Lets say another good place to look is the brooklyn daily eagle. You are the editor, you send your reporters out. Where do you send them . I caught you by surprise. Ive been talking nonstop you can get me to shut up you send them to the churches. I have to send them out sunday morning i sent one to the cathedral okay, st. Patricks . Okay. Exactly right. So you might send reporters to the most prominent church. A big, influential high Status Church in the archdiocese. What else might you do . T catherine . The ones that have the most controversial. Yes. A newspaper wants a quotable sunday morning sermon. There is a newspaper that wants a traditional sermon on the resurrection. That is not news, right . Thank you, for catching that, noah. Its called the good news, but is not news, if you work for the New York Times. So, you want a reporter there and reported is going to jot down the most quotable stuff and to be part of history and they will compile these things together and guess what you got . You have a story on monday morning that says look at how the churches respond to the war. And then historians keep going to that and going to that and going to that and never think. They dont not go back. They never think that it is distorted. Im not saying intentionally misleading deceptive. Its not some conspiracy against the future to mislead us. It is what it was trying to achieve. So what you have no record of in the newspaper of record, would you have no record of is what perhaps just ordinary churches did on easter sunday. Catherine . So how do you go about r finding these . Right. And, assuming that you do not have thousands of historians at your disposal, what would you do . Where you could take what could be a problem. The convenience of the New York Times database and we can expand that, Something Like newspapers. Com. Something like the library of congress, chronicling america and all of those newspapers. All searchable databases. And, you could go. I think what you would have to do to design this well, you pick a series of cities, distribution across the country. Maybe cities that have a lot of different ethnic groups and religious denomination. But maybe not, because maybe, if i have time, i will come to the question of the lutherans in the midwest and the experience of the war. So you would want to go to a number of different cities, geographically distributed, from a variety of denominations, and not the big sundays, easter sunday, et cetera. Not the most dramatic sundays. And heres the problem. Ive had students work a little bit on this and the results, they show that there is another story there. That here is pastor so and so at the local church doing the ordinary thing. Ordinary christian worship, not selling liberty bonds from the pulpit, not sitting up recruitment tables out front for enlistment. Just doing church. Heres a big challenge. I do not have an answer. How do you write a story. You write it as part of a contrast. Had you write a story about the ordinary. I joked that i want to write a childrens book. The name is the day nothing happened. Really exciting. The childrens book. This would be a hard sell. Hardsell to a press, and editor. 19 1917 through 1919, the years that pastors went about their business. So, you would have to conceptualize it as a counterbalance. But we have not even taken the first step as researchers to understand what was typical. Was a typical, we have no answer to this. Was it typical for an american to work and walking to church on sunday and here it war cinnamon . Or was it typical to hear and ordinary sermon in, something from the lectionary. We have no idea. No earthly clue. And it would be a lot of work. But its important to raise the question. Where can we go . Ive mentioned this before. We go to denominational journals. You have one in front of you. This is from the presbyterian of the self. I want to show you, this is a story. I said this too many times already. This story was told right here in the guest editorial in july of 19 17, this story is invisible within the histories of American Society and world war i. This is invisible. One really exciting exception to that, a brandnew book. And, after a few introductory paragraphs, im on the bottom, which is contributed the church and the government. Reverend wayne. He talks about what a serious time this is, what we are concerned about, the welfare of the church in the country. Now, on the second column on the first page, people in the United States as a whole believe that our cause is absolutely just, that right and duty tell us to put forward our power to the most to restore and preserve liberties of mankind. You can stop there and you think that sounds like wilson. A deep heart interest, thus engendered, leaving the church aside from her proper mission, to handle matters which should be dealt with by the people as citizens and not as members of the clergy. If you are a missouri lutheran, this sounds very familiar to you. This is a southern presbyterian who was arguing for a kind of two kingdom theology or what is called the doctrine of spirituality of church. There is a certain things which the government or its people should give attention to and there are certain things which are to be cared for by the church, and the church in the state are both the strongest when they continue strictly within their respective provinces. I will not go off on this tangent. I have some good friends that argue that separation of church and state is a much more modern developments, second half of the 22nd century. But there are plenty of people talking about the importance of the institutional separation of church and state and it is coming from the clergy. It is not coming from settlers coming s. Is the clergy themselves. Theologically conservative clergy, who are saying these are different things. Even in wartime, we better not forget, the difference. But what do we now find, appeals are made by the government directly to the churches and sunday schools to observe certain days to help the government. For example, june 3rd was appointed for liberty bond sunday. Pastors urged to preach patriotic sermons to show the people how they would help by purchasing bonds and encourage them to buy. Material furnished on which to prepare those sermons. Literature provided for sunday schools on a Radio Program made out. Nobody has written about this. Nobody is on the Archival Research to find the sermon outline and i dont know if they survived. The schools were told about the war and what we are fighting for and i have to say, whether they would stand by their sunday school and president war measures. This would be looking as if they camel has gone his nose under the tent, but the whole body was in the tent. The government is actually giving our ministers the subjects for the sermons, the material out of which the sermons are to be built and appointed, the day. Of course, all of this comes in the former request. But, with popular feelings stirred as it is, and amounts to a command and i need a life. What shows a request today, becomes an order tomorrow. Moreover, the editors of some of our great religious weeklies are calling upon the pastors to become recruiting agents for the government. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Do you see the small paragraph right after he begins with one branch . I have to stop reading this. That last sentence, isnt it time to call a halt, retrace steps, and give ourselves appointed to the master. There it is. There it is. And this entire guest editorial was reprinted in one of the leading lutheran magazine. Thankful for somebody else other than the grumpy german lutherans saying that this is a problem, this is a problem. Do you think that there would have been more radical groups, especially in the government, g who will look dow upon this, and possibly call that sedition . Yes. In the article that i sent out yesterday, if you looked at it, i detail there with the treatment of the so called peace churches, the treatment of the metanights in particular. You can go to the mennonite exam in indiana and you can learn more about objectors. I will come to your question. The governments treatment of the jehovahs witnesses is just shocking. They were sent to federal prison. They were rounded up in brooklyn, new york and convicted and sent to federal prison down in atlanta. This its really shocking and, it was very easy, let me stop there. Retrace my steps. And, let you know about something called every state, ep except one, they had what was called a committee of the fence , or a council of the fence. There was a national, and a state council of defense and there was a local counsel of defense. If you were a member of a council of defense you are expected to watch and listen. And report on subversive activity. One case that i know of, i read the accounts of in south carolina, the red cross came to his front door to ask for a donation and he was a grumpy old fort, he refused to contribute. He was reported to his councilmembers. Defense the std the man investigated for progerman subversive activities. So could a pastor like this be investigated . Absolutely absolute. And that would have to be part of the larger story as what kind of pressure and what pastor here says about the of public opinion. The pressure. Thats the kind of thing hes talking about. I mean, pastors are under enough pressure when theyre everybodys hand as. They go out the door on sunday. You never mentioned this in your never mentioned this in your sermon. I remember their interpretation. Imagine this. You never mentioned a war. Widening mention of what . I read an ardent nominal journal that today was victory sunday. You never mentioned the war. It could be tremendous pressure. Not going to turn the page in the handout because i want to say other things before we finish today. How would you do this . How would you find all this. This is what i find so exciting about these denominational journals being digitally available. Youve got the english language lutheran. Those who studied german you can tackle the german language lutheran papers during the war. I mentioned in class already. I know it sounds totally uninteresting but there is a massive circulation religious publication called the sunday school times. It was founded in the 1860s and i think the magazine survived 100 years. I might be wrong, but its a long time. Its evangelical. Its right against the social gospel. In the pages of that magazine which was a weekly magazine meant to equip sunday School Teachers to do a good job in their local churches which is really nice because it gets you into the sunday school. It gets you so hard. You talk about the man in the pew. The man in the pulpit is easier than the man in the pew to understand. You can get hereto what the sunday School Teachers were reading. Its fairly traditional evangelical. Condemns theological liberalism and the higher criticism and social gospel but then what do you find . You find it is printing advertisements coming from the federal Council Churches promoting these special sundaes. Praising Woodrow Wilson to the sky for being such a fine christian statesman and aspiring to the nation. Thats a really great resource. I think its available through archive. Org. That was one benefit of covid. How much more became digitally available. Whole publishers opened up their entire resources because of covid. Well, if we were to go further theres much more i could say. If we were to go further eight complete, fair, proportionate survey of the churches in america would have to consider, as i mentioned, peace churches. It would have to look at jehovahs witnesses. The roman Catholic Church and all of its variety. What were the differences being a priest in an Ethnic Community in chicago and if it is a polish community they will have one view of the war. If its german, they have another view. There are wonderful archives available at Catholic University in d. C. Hardly touched i always get the name mixed up. They are all there. Thats just waiting to be tapped. The Episcopal Church where it is cultural and theological tide to the church of england. The Lutheran Church such as the very large missouri senate. The mainline protestant churches. As we wrap up this class here is a really encouraging sign. This is a brandnew book. Then wetzel published from Cornell University press. It looks a little bit like its going to be one more book. One more hand wringing book about the toxicity of this is now this book is. Christianity warfare national identity. Chapters on civil war, spanish american war, world war i. Two major chapters on world war i. One looking at the social gospel clergy kind of like how i did in my own book 20 years ago. Looking at the more liberal mainline social gospel promises of national redemption, international redemption, social transformation. One of those chapters looking at leading social gospel clergy. The next chapter is a standalone chapter on the Lutheran Church missouri senate. Thats how i found this article from the presbyterian journal. He is calling for exactly what needs to be done. We talk a lot about those who are like the silenced voices of history and so on. There are other silenced voices. In the case of the study of the First World War it was almost totally ignored by the german Lutheran Church. Thats just one example. That could be multiplied again and again. Im going to read you one more not my beautiful prose but equal station that reinforces all these points. This is from a canadian. From a canadian who was a methodist chaplain. It would help if i turned to the right page here. There it is. A methodist chaplain writing in 1918 when he confronted the claims about holy war. He says most of us here know ourselves and the fight too well to presume to identify with the cause of jesus. It is true we have our orders pointing to the union jack. And shouting jehovah my banner. For most of us, for one reason or another, would prefer the union jack for all its crosses should be mingled less freely with the emblems of our religion. By reason it lowers the standard of jesus yet i believe it is every christians duty and privilege to contribute to the winning of this war. Not as a christian but as a citizen of our war and country. Not presuming to identify, in our case, that which is caesars with that which is christ. With that, we will and. See you on thursday. If youre enjoying American History tv signup for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive the weekly schedule of upcoming programs like teachers and history, the presidency and more. Signup for the tv newsletter today and be sure to watch American History tv every saturday or anytime online at c span. Org history. Listening to programs on cspan through cspan radio just got easier. Tell your Smart Speaker plate c span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7 00 a. M. Eastern and congressional hearings and other Public Affairs events throughout the day and weekdays at 5 00 p. M. And 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Check washington today for a fastpaced report on the stories of today. Listen to cspan anytime. Tell your Smart Speaker play c span radio. Powered by cable. 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