HOUSTON (ABP) — Legendary Baptist pastor George W. Truett’s experience preaching to troops in Europe during World War I not only shaped his views about militarism, but also contributed to his growing conviction that only Christ’s church — not any government — offered hope for lasting peace, church historian Kelly Pigott said in a recent lecture.
Pigott, university chaplain and assistant professor of theology at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, presented a paper titled, “George W. Truett: Hawk or Dove?” at the annual meeting of the Texas Baptist Historical Society. The meeting was held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting Nov. 16-17 in Houston.
Truett, Baptist statesman and longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, voiced strong support for the war effort when the United States entered what President Woodrow Wilson touted as a struggle to make the world “safe for democracy,” Pigott noted.
“He praised the young men in his congregation who served in the military. He pitched Liberty Bonds. He led the church to provide special ministries to the servicemen and women in town. He even introduced a resolution at the Baptist General Convention of Texas meeting in 1917 that called for the convention to fully support the war,” he said.
“And finally, when President Wilson selected Truett along with about 20 other prominent pastors to preach to the troops through the offices of the YMCA, Truett accepted the call.”
Inner struggle over war
Initially, Truett characterized the war with Germany as a “battle between paganism and the highest civilization,” Pigott noted.
“But Truett’s public confidence and cheering for the war belied an inner angst he felt as he hoped for a quick end to the violence and a new world ruled by rational and moral men who would bring to fruition Wilson’s prophecy that this would be a 'war to end all wars,' inaugurating an age safe for democracy,” he said.
Truett’s support for the war rested less in belief about just-war theory and more in his faith “in the institution of governments to create a just world where warfare no longer existed,” Pigott observed.
Truett’s presidential appointment to preach six months to the Allied Forces in Europe gave him the opportunity to witness the destruction that war produces and visit wounded soldiers. He narrowly escaped death himself when he missed boarding a ship, and a U-boat torpedo subsequently sunk that vessel, killing all its passengers.
And the tour of duty changed him, Pigott noted. A close-up look at the horrors of war strengthened Truett’s commitment to doing everything possible to create non-military solutions to international disputes. And the failure of the United States to embrace Wilson’s vision of a League of Nations left him disillusioned with government — as reflected in his famed 1920 religious-liberty speech on the steps of the Capitol in Washington.
“Beyond just an opportunity to trump a long-cherished Baptist principle, perhaps Truett’s proclamation on the steps of the Capitol was the beginning of a journey of increased suspicion about government,” Pigott suggested.
“In this address, he still clearly saw autocracy and democracy at odds. But now he couched it in religious terms, contrasting Catholic and Baptist polity. And he described the church — not the United States — as a ‘pure democracy.’ He issued a stern warning about what might happen to that purity if the church ever got too cozy with the government.”
Truett apparently retained his postmillennial eschatology, Pigott noted, but without its optimistic assessment of human institutions. He grew increasingly committed to the position that the church and Christian educational institutions — not secular government — would be the only instruments capable of creating a golden age of lasting peace prior to Christ’s return. Christ’s church was “the best hope for humanity,” he concluded.
“At the twilight of his life, Truett was weary of the promises of politics but confident in an institution that he believed even the gates of hell could not prevail against,” Pigott said.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.