Cold War

Early on, President Joe Biden’s rhetoric promised a rejection of isolationism and a return to engagement. But his actions in Afghanistan speak volumes.

As part of a series of reports from different countries in the fall of 1946, Christianity and Crisis published articles by M. Searle Bates and Henry P. Van Dusen on China. These reveal the situation of Christianity in the country and America’s foreign policy challenge in East Asia.

In a series of articles in the fall of 1946, Christianity and Crisis contributors offered reports based upon their travels, including from Reinhold Niebuhr and John Baillie in Germany.

“The revolution is more than political, or economic. It is a revolution in thinking about the relation of religion to life, for we are growing in understanding of God by every move that we make in realizing the interdependence of the human family.”

Presumably the consequences in Afghanistan will be tragic as in Indochina.

Robert Morrison offers a testimony of serving as a Russian interpreter for the US Coast Guard in the Bering Sea during the Cold War and meeting the Soviet KGB.

“It is time to take the full measure of certain arguments widely cherished by churchmen to excuse Soviet practice and minimize the Soviet threat” – Henry P. Van Dusen in 1946, responding to Christians who thought the West’s actions caused tensions with the USSR.

Browsing among the books, articles, and editorials of the past is instructive and exceedingly disturbing. One discovers the same concerns and anxieties as is everywhere apparent among thoughtful people now. Many paragraphs or sentences are as applicable today as they were then.

If we are to take a constructive part in world politics our leaders cannot assume that religious questions are unimportant.