May America amid its sins seek virtue and justice. And may America never be at peace with a world led by tyrants.

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.”

Even as they engage in this ceremony for the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in Yerevan, there is a sense that this year is different because President Joe Biden formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, making him the first president to formally use the word “genocide” in connection to what happened to the Armenian community.

Much of the world is now awakened to the PRC’s ambitions and keenly aware of its claws. America and its partners are coming to the stark realization that a renewed commitment to deterrence is the only way to ensure the twenty-first century isn’t made in the PRC.

But it’s important for the souls of democracies that, even as they must make nasty accommodations in pursuit of a wider good, that they fully admit to themselves this reality, without self-delusion.

In 1946 when the prospects for what would become the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) appeared dim, President Harry Truman appointed Eleanor Roosevelt to a UN committee where she could promote universal human rights.

We comfort ourselves, saying, “This is not who we are.” But without deeper reflection, such pat answers are lies, strengthening the “vulgarized knowledge” that allow us to ignore the chasms that threaten to consume us.

There is no more dismal aspect of human history than the behavior of victors. However just their cause, they never fail to cast doubt upon its righteousness by the manner in which they exploit their victory.

Eight weeks after the falsified Belarusian presidential elections, country-wide protests remain steady, and fervent democratic activism has arisen among an unsuspecting source—the Catholic Church. American Christians should follow and take a vocal stance for the Belarusian future.