Britain

Throughout the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, words such as faithful, dutiful, and loving have been used to describe the now 70-year reign of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. These have been accompanied by both explicit and implicit calls to emulate her.

With those words—“Her Majesty’s Government will…”—the speech from the throne was not read by the monarch. For the first time since the beginning of the present reign, this important address to Parliament was read for her by her 74-year-old son, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

In late winter and early spring 1947, Reinhold Niebuhr visited Europe and wrote short editorials for Christianity and Crisis as he traveled. In the following correspondences, the first coming from Scotland and the second coming from somewhere in the United Kingdom, he offers brief reflections on different current events.

This new edition of Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World by Lela Gilbert shows that the international religious freedom advocate is not slowing down, and her recent ventures take several additional chapters to describe.

In May 1940, Lord Halifax urged Winston Churchill to call for a national day of prayer to aid in the evacuation of the troops in Dunkirk.

The warnings of the US State Department, the Netherlands, and others show quite plainly that times are changing. British foolishness may delay Islamic Relief’s reckoning, but it will not prevent it.

Christians around the world should hold in mind and in prayer their brothers and sisters in Algeria who were barred from meeting together to celebrate Easter.

On March 5, 1946—75 years ago—Winston Churchill delivered the “Sinews of Peace” at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. “Special relationship” to describe US-UK relations and “Iron Curtain” both become household terms after the speech, and some point to this moment as the official start to the Cold War.

In this week’s episode, the editors discuss Mark Tooley’s conversation with Nigel Biggar, a Presbyterian’s look at nationalism, Mark Melton’s review of a book on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Reinhold Niebuhr’s call for Christians to feed and clothe the defeated Germans in 1946.