Reinhold Niebuhr

In this article originally published by Christianity and Crisis on March 18, 1946, Charles W. Gilkey warns Americans not to worry that helping people abroad will make them “suckers.”

“A Christian knows, or ought to know, that an adequate Christian political ethic is not established merely by conceiving the most ideal possible solution for a political problem. He must, in all humility, deal with the realities of human nature, as well as the ideal possibilities.”

Christian Realism is our theme at Providence, and Christian Realism was the theme of George Washington’s life that America celebrates with today’s federal holiday.

Quoting Romans 12:20, the message to feed and help the enemy is simple, but oftentimes the simplest command can be the hardest to fulfill. So the reminder is always timely in every age.

America remains the world leader. This fact is naïve to reject and realistic to accept. It is the American Century still.

It’s been a sad day for American democracy. Our republic will survive but it has been uniquely wounded by the nation’s elected chief magistrate, as none of his predecessors across 230 years would have ever considered.

“Which Question Comes First for the Church?” by Reinhold NiebuhrNovember 12, 1945 In both the religious and the secular world…

Pure partisanship—or political sectarianism—consists of commitment to an uncontested view of reality and fidelity to one’s ideological compatriots over the whole of one’s polity. Christian realists should not be such partisans.

Reinhold Niebuhr in 1945: “For only a full understanding of the practically insuperable difficulties which confront us can arm us with the humility and the courage to seek for a solution of this problem radical enough to prevent the annihilation of civilization.”