Timothy D. Padgett. Swords and Plowshares: American Evangelicals on War, 1937-1973. Lexham, 2018. See here to purchase the book.
Timothy D. Padgett has a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
The back cover of the book sardonically asks, “Evangelicals are
warmongering nationalists—right?” The thesis of this book is “wrong!”
Add to that the myth that “Evangelicals have been uncritically
supportive of Israel.” Padgett attempts to respond to prevalent
scholarly narratives that regard evangelicals as supportive, pro-war
nationalists.
Padgett surveys evangelical stances towards war from 1937 to 1973.
That goes from World War II, through the Cold War, to the Vietnam War.
Padgett looks at a variety of evangelical sources. Carl F.H. Henry of Christianity Today gets a lot of attention. Francis Schaeffer has some cameos.
Some items from this book:
—-Padgett discusses prophetic expectations that evangelicals had
about world events, while also referring to voices that were cautious
about applying biblical prophecy to current events. Some of this was a
variant of the usual Hal Lindsey prophetic scenario: Russia invades
Israel, the Roman Empire gets revived. But there was also wrestling with
such questions as where the United States fits into prophecy. One
person suggested that, because Americans were of Roman descent, they
would be part of the Antichrist.
—-Padgett cautions readers not to judge the evangelicals of the past
in hindsight. There were evangelicals who thought that Communism in the
1930’s was a greater threat than Nazism. Some were ambivalent about
Mussolini, but so were a lot of people at that time. Yet, there were
prominent evangelicals who criticized Hitler and Mussolini: Hitler for
his anti-Semitism, and Mussolini for his cavalier disregard for human
life in Ethiopia.
—-Evangelicals were largely against Communism during the Cold War.
Padgett argues that this was not so much from a sense that the United
States was the best country in the world, but largely due to Communism’s
oppression of people, including Christians. Evangelicals were quite
critical of the United States, especially for its sexual openness and
materialism. And this was during the 1950’s, which many modern
evangelicals consider the “good old days”! Billy Graham was actually
impressed with the Soviet Union because it was more conservative on sex.
According to Padgett, some evangelicals could also recognize
differences among Communists, such as the differences among the
U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia, and China. They had a nuanced understanding of
Communism.
—-Regarding war, Padgett presents evangelicals as similarly nuanced.
Overall, they were not pacifists. Still, they discussed what they
considered to be positives and negatives of military actions. Some could
be extreme, such as recommending the usage of the A-bomb in the Korean
War. But plenty of evangelicals were apprehensive and cautious about
atomic warfare. On the Vietnam War, many evangelicals supported it as a
way to contain Communism, yet there were evangelicals who bemoaned the
innocent lives that were taken, not only by Communists but also by
Americans.
—-On Israel, there were the reactions that many associate with
evangelicals: the thought that Israel’s reestablishment was
prophetically significant, and the view that Israel replenished the land
after taking it over. But there was also prominent evangelical
criticism of Zionist terrorist tactics and the treatment of Palestinian
Arabs.
—-Padgett also discusses evangelical stances towards segregation and
the civil rights movement. Carl F.H. Henry was quite critical of
segregation.
There were evangelicals who met the stereotype that Padgett critiques. Some wrote letters to the editor of Christianity Today!
Padgett also speaks about the high opinion that many evangelicals had
of President Eisenhower, whom they deemed a man of prayer. Others, by
contrast, criticized American civil religion as hollow.
Overall, this book reads well, though there were places where it
could have used editing. The book does not have many stories, but it
conveys prominent evangelical thinkers’ thoughts and analyses. This is
an important book in that it rounds out the lopsided pictures of
evangelicalism in American history.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My review is honest.