Reinhold Niebuhr: The Cold War and Religion
Reinhold Niebuhr: The Cold War and Religion
On June 21, 1892 Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Missouri. He was the son of Gustav and Lydia Niebuhr, both of which had emigrated from Germany. Gustav was a minister and at an early age Niebhur decided that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. However, Niebuhr’s ideas on religion eventually took him out of the realm of the church. By the end of his career he had implemented religion into both cultural and political spheres. After his death in 1971, the journalChristianity and Crisis published an article on Niebuhr’s career writing, “He put theology in the middle of the cultural and political world as it had not been for generations.”[1]
One of his first ventures into politics was after World War I. Before the war he had been a pacifist, like many other Christians, but in the 1930’s he left the Socialist Party because of its pacifist or noninterventionist attitude in foreign policy. By the 1940’s he had become a staunch left wing, anti-Communist Democrat. In 1947 we founded the Americans for Democratic Action, a political organization that was liberal on national affairs, internationalists in world outlook and anti-communist in conviction. He urged Christians who believed in pacifism alter their ideology and support the efforts being made in World War II.[2]
Niebuhr’s political efforts did not end with World War II. During the postwar period, from 1945 to 1952, Niebuhr helped promote European recovery and engaged in issues of the developing Cold War between Russia and the West. After Hitler surrendered, Niebuhr took great interest in the problems of war-torn Europe. He believed that the United States needed to be patient but firm when dealing with Stalinist Russia. In the summer of 1945 he noted that America’s relationship with Russia was being made difficult by Stalin’s refusal to abide by the Yalta agreement in constituting the Polish government. Niebuhr knew that America would have to be prepared for the action Russia might take in Eastern Europe and within six months Russia began to support Communists regimes that were taking over Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia.
Niebuhr wrote, “Sin is always trying to be strong at the expense of something else. The Russians want to make themselves strong by dominating Eastern Europe, and as much more beside as they can. They would probably swallow both Turkey and Iran if they thought they could get away with it.”[3]
As the Cold War developed, Niebuhr continually affirmed the justice of the Western cause. Niebuhr believed that Americans had been living in “…a culture which drew the meaning of their [our] moral responsibilities from the hope of their actual fulfillment in history,”[4] and as a result Americans were poorly prepared for what was to lie ahead. In his book “Moral Man and Immoral Society”, Niebuhr explains that relations between human collectives are determined as much by power as by ethical or rational considerations. This requires the countering of power by power for the sake of justice. He believed that those who thought “the egoism of an individuals is being progressively checked by the development of rationality or the growth of a religious inspired goodwill” were foolish to think “nothing but the continuation of this process is necessary to establish social harmony between societies and collectives.”[5] Niebuhr wanted Christians, as well as all Americans, to realize that in order for there to be social justice and peace, they cannot remain passive and that actions needed to be taken for social changes to be made. In a 1954 sermon, Niebuhr discusses the United State’s role in international affairs. His sermon is featured on the “Speaking of Faith” website.
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/niebuhr/sermons.shtml
In the summer of 1946 Niebuhr traveled to the American zone in Germany with a State Department educational mission. He witnessed first hand “decent Germans” who did not follow Nazism and who were cut off from the outside world and were eager to be reconnected. While traveling, Niebuhr heard Secretary of State James Byrnes deliver a speech in which he assured the Germans that America’s presence would remain as long as necessary. Henry Wallace, a member of President Truman’s cabinet, openly criticized Byrnes for his comments and in a speech at Madison Square Garden he minimized the threat of the Soviet. His comments lost him his job.
Niebuhr quickly reacted to the controversy in his article “The Fight got Germany” in Life magazine.
“ I should like to challenge Wallace’s foreign politics, as expressed in his recent attack of Secretary Byrnes’s policy…I had the advantage of recognizing its errors with particular vividness because I was in Berlin when it was made. I saw the uses, which Soviet propaganda made of it and the disappointment and dismay it spread among democratic forces in Europe and Germany. They had just been tremendously heartened by Secretary Byrnes’s address in Stuttgart, which I had the pleasure of hearing.”[6]
Niebuhr believed the Cold War required the United States to sustain a middle ground. He thought the situation “…would be improved if the fear of Communism did not drive some people into the arms of reaction, and the fear of reaction did not drive others into the arms of Communism. Both fears must be overcome by the development of a healthy democratic program, embracing both foreign and domestic policy and both economic and political problems.”[7]
From August 22 to September 4, 1948 Niebuhr attended the founding assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam. Several hundred delegates and visitors from 147 denominations gathered. Karl Barth gave the first address. He stated that, “We ought to give up,… every thought that the care of the church, the care of the world is our care.”[8] Barth believed it was not the churches role to take on every issue of the time, especially the Cold War. While many delegates followed Barth’s ideology, Niebuhr did not. As he spoke to the audience he told them that it was “…the church’s task to mediate divine judgment and grace to nations, classes and cultures as well as to individuals. It was wrong to preach the gospel sub specie aeternitatis, as if there were no history with its time and season,”[9] He went on to explain that the final victory over man is God, but that man still has the responsibility for proximate victories. “Christian life without a high sense of responsibility for the health of our communities, our nations, and our cultures degenerates into an intolerable other worldliness. We can neither resource this earthly home of ours nor yet claim that its victories and defeats give the final meaning to our existence.”[10] While Niebuhr believed that God did have ultimate power, he also believed that people had the ability to have an affect on the outcome. He believed Christians should not just accept the idea that what ever will happen, will happen because of God; instead, they should take responsibility and try to make a change. Audio of Niebuhr’s World Council Address can be found at “Speaking of Faith.”http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/niebuhr/sermons.shtml
Niebuhr used biblical references to back his ideas. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”[11]Niebuhr saw the church as a community of believers persuaded to believe “the whole of life and all historical vicissitudes stand under the sovereignty of a holy, yet merciful God.”[12] Niebuhr wanted people to recognize that they had the ability to think and that it was their responsibility to use their minds to bring social justice. The Christian faith provides the ultimate security, but Niebuhr encouraged Christians to “…be involved constantly in the world of culture, practically and theoretically,” and “…finally, of course, understand how inadequate the wisdom of the world is from the standpoint of the foolishness of the Gospel,”[13] Using the ideas of St. Augustine, Niebuhr expanded his ideas of self in his lecture “Augustine’s Conception of Selfhood.” Augustine, like Niebuhr, understood that Christianity and the Bible were unique. Augustine knew that the individual was capable of controlling his or her own mind, memory and will.
On April 17, 1958, Niebuhr was interviewed by Mile Wallace on “The Mike Wallace Interview”. In this interview Niebuhr spoke about communism and nuclear war and addresses the idea that because America is a Christian country it will undoubtedly defeat atheist, communist countries. Once again Niebuhr informs the American people that their religion alone will not lead to justice. This video is featured on The University of Texas at Austin Harry Ransom Center’s website.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/niebuhr_reinhold.html
In January of 1961, President Kennedy, who Niebuhr supported, took office after narrowly winning the election against Richard Nixon. At the time Khrushchev still remained in power and Latin America was beginning to feel the pressures of Communism. Under Castro, Cuba submitted to Communism and Communism threatened to spread wherever poverty bred discontent. Kennedy started such initiatives as the Peace Corps, which sent American volunteers to help in Third World countries and the Alliance for Progress, which offered funds for economic development and social reform in Latin America to try to combat the spread of Communism. Niebuhr supported the Kennedy administration’s new programs writing that the “ ‘Alliance for Progress’ program was the first genuine effort to use our nations economic power to help our hemispheric neighbors to change their social patterns.”[14]
It seemed like things were heading in a positive direction that is until April of 1961, when a planned invasion of Cuba known as the Bay of Pigs was unsuccessful. Furthering the problem in Cuba was the installation of Russian nuclear missile-launching sites in October of 1962. President Kennedy rejected the option of bombing the sites and invading Cuba because that could have easily led to World War III. Instead he announced a blockade of further Soviet shipments, the dismantling of the sites and warned that the United States would respond to any missile attack from Cuba by attacking the Soviet Union. Khrushchev eventually agreed as long as Cuba would not be invaded by the U.S. Niebuhr supported Kennedy’s decision. He believed the outcome was the beginning of a bridge that was supported by common sense. Although Kennedy threatened the Soviet with violence, it was necessary to keep the peace. Niebuhr agreed with Kennedy’s plan because he understood that at times it is mandatory to meet power with power.
Although crisis was averted for the time being, there was still great concern throughout America about the Cold War, which by now was spreading all over the world. By 1965 the situation in Vietnam had escalated and President Johnson had transformed the U.S. role, which was once limited, into an open-ended military commitment. At first much of America supported the war efforts and wanted nothing more than to put to a stop to communism. However, by the late 1960’s Americans witnessed the horrors of war through their televisions and came to understand the reality of the situation, rather than what their government had been telling them. Niebuhr, who didn’t support the war from the beginning, believed “One of the standards of a just war is that is must have a good prospect of success.” and the Vietnam War did not. Also a just war “ must be proportionate to the ends” and “the means were not proportionate to the ends, wither in blood or in money.”[15] In 1966 Vice President, Hubert Humphrey sent Niebuhr a letter thanking him for inviting him to speak at the 25th anniversary banquet of the journal “Christianity and Crisis.” In his speech he described the reason for the U.S.’s current policy regarding Southeast Asia.
This image was provided by "Speaking of Faith" website. speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/.../ d73.jpg
Niebuhr died on June 1, 1971, four years before the war in Vietnam ended. Although he was not there to witness the war in its entirety, Niebuhr would not have been surprised by Americans role and the outcome of the conflict. When Niebuhr became a left-wing Democrat for social action he encouraged other pacifists to do the same. He encouraged not just Christians, but all Americans to not stand ideally by and hope that those who believe in God would come out victorious. He urged Americans to take a stand and push for social change and justice, even if that meant going to war. Yet, Niebuhr also knew that there was such a thing as a just war and that the Vietnam War was not one of them. Niebuhr did not live till the end of the war, but those who continued to oppose the war carried on his ideas. Niebuhr’s ideas are still felt in the political and social spheres in American today and even here on the Boston University campus. In 2007 the Boston University professor, Andrew J. Bacevich, delivered the University Lecture, “Illusions of Managing History: The Enduring Relevance of Reinhold Niebuhr, in which he speaks about Niebuhr’s theories and their relevance in today’s world.
http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=127
[1] “The Greatness of Reinhold Niebuhr.” Union Seminary Quarterly Review (1968) 3-8.
[2] "Reinhold Niebuhr." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414557/Reinhold-Niebuhr>.
[3] Reinhold Niebuhr. Love and Justice: selections from the shorter writings of Reinhold Niebuhr(Westminster: 1992) 192.
[4] Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral man and Immoral Society (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932).
[5]Ibid.
[6] Reinhold Niebuhr, Life , “The Fight for Germany” (1946).
[7] Charles Brown, Niebuhr and his Age (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992) 128.
[8] Ibid, 143.
[9][9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid. 144.
[11] Bible, Isaiah, 55:8
[12] Ibid, 155.
[13] Ibid, 158.
[14] Reinhold Niebuhr, , “President Kennedy’s Cuban Venture,” Christianity and Crisis, 21 (May 15, 1961) 69-70.
[15] Ronald Stone, “An Interview with Reinhold Niebuhr”, Christianity and Crisis. 29, (March 19, 1969) 50.
No comments:
Post a Comment