Religion: Peace on Earth

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. . . . And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.—St. Luke II, 8-14.

This week Christendom celebrates the anniversary of Christ's Nativity—a Christmas notable not for peace on earth, but for the most widespread and deadly war the world has ever known. American Christians could well feel with Christians in Britain, Germany, China, Japan, Russia, Italy and elsewhere that never had Christendom been so sorely beset. But they also knew that Christianity is giving more intelligent and practical thought to this crisis than to any that has gone before in many generations.

The chief religious difference between World War I and World War II lies in this fact: Last time the clergy on both sides tended strongly to preach an unthinking, Gott-mit-uns sort of holy war.

They forgot to emphasize that no war can be just or holy unless it is used to produce a just peace. Result: the war was won by the Allies, and both sides lost the peace. This time Christian leaders in Germany and occupied Europe are courageously opposing the worst Nazi abuses; in Britain and the U.S. they are taking the lead in planning a peace that can be durable because it is just. Two major developments in the U.S. last week and one in England highlighted this trend, gave Christendom some cheerful news for an otherwise cheerless Christmas: 1) With the slogan "In time of war prepare for peace," a big interdenominational conference on post-war problems was summoned to meet in Ohio next March. Its sponsor is the Federal Council's notable Commission to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable Peace, which promises it will "probably be the most important religious meeting of the year." And in the January FORTUNE (out last week) its chairman, John Foster Dulles, expounds the growing Christian conviction that merely to crush Hitler is not enough.

"No conception leads more surely to war than that which identifies peace with a perpetuation of the status quo," he declares. The proposal that all the world except Great Britain and the U.S. disarm "reflects the all too prevalent view that 'peace' consists in our ability to coerce and repress others. That is war, not peace." Prime Dulles example of the wrong turn American post-war action is likely to take if guided by politics instead of principles: use of our naval and air power to dominate the arteries of world trade.