Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "269702922",
    "label": "Pamphlet, Christianity's Answer to Communism, A Sermon Delivered by Reverend Charles Lowry",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/269702922"
}

{
    "id": "269702922",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/269702922",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Pamphlet, Christianity's Answer to Communism, A Sermon Delivered by Reverend Charles Lowry",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/269702922",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750313/750313-19-001.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750313/750313-19-001.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750313/750313-19-001.jpg",
    "imageCount": 6,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/269702922",
    "naId": 269702922,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1952-05-01",
            "month": 5,
            "year": 1952
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 4,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750313/750313-19-004.jpg",
    "mediaId": "65e72a07e3469e10",
    "ocrText": "Then, Communism is a Social Gospel. It proclaims a good time coming\nSundays in Lent-I find myself returning to them again and again to\n-a perfectly Communist or classless society as the climax of history and\nget the feel of their tremendous realism:\nthe end of evolution. It is to achieve this that the present order of things\n\"And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons\nmust be utterly smashed. Actually this part of Communism is pure\ncast them out?\nBut if I with the finger of God cast out devils,\nillusion if not fraud. There is no reason to expect under Communism any\nno doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man\nwithering away of the state or any diminution of dictatorship whatever.\narmed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when a stronger\nRather tyranny begets tyranny, violence violence, repression repression.\nthan he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him\nall his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.\"\nBut faith in this dream of a perfect world, appropriated by Karl Marx\nfrom the Kingdom of God in the New Testament, is what has given Com-\nWe face in Soviet Communism the toughest and most systematically\nmunism much of its appeal and power.\ncalculated realism of which history has any record. Beginning with the\nCommunism today is revealed beyond any manner of doubt not as\nrejection of all idealism, all spirituality, all that is not hard, cold fact, Com-\nprogress but as a movement of brutal and black reaction. It threatens\nmunism has developed realism in thought and action into a science and\nto reverse the main current of world history and to carry mankind back\nan art. This extends even to the idea of perfect control on the part of\nbehind the Christian Era and behind even the Caesarism of the late\nparty members of such feelings as resentment and the desire to have\nRoman Empire. It represents a throwback under modern industrial con-\nrevenge for injury or insult. Here we have a strange parallelism with\nditions, and with the use of the most advanced and devilish psychological\nthe Sermon on the Mount and the Christian idea of forgiveness-only the\ntechniques, 'to the slave empires of the Egyptian Pharaohs and the Baby-\nRussians advocate and demand this not from the motive of love but from\nlonians. It is revealed as a false religion-the religion prophesied by the\nthe sense of the necessity of being objective, and therefore accurate, in all\ngreat Russians, Dostoievsky and Tolstoy, who with humanism and social-\npractical judgments.\nism both in mind predicted that Christianity, the religion of the God-man,\nTo me this realism of the Communists is extremely interesting and is\nwould be supplanted by a new demonic religion of the man-god. The\na tremendous challenge. We must match it with a realism just as strong\nChristian symbol for this kind of religion, which in the New Testament\non the side of the physical and material, but our realism must be less one-\nis presented as a kind of prophecy, is Antichrist. In the performance of\nsided, more inclusive, and therefore, finally, more powerful. From\nthis\nCommunism up to this time and in its even more menacing threat for\nit follows that there is one absolute, immediate necessity-the containment\nthe future, we have the most terrible manifestation to date of the spirit\nof\nCommunism. This containment can be achieved not by military meas-\nof Antichrist.\nures alone, but by a proper coordination of military, political, diplomatic,\nSecond, Realism. We must match the impressive realism of the Com-\neconomic, and psychological factors and considerations. I put great\nmunist Society with an equally powerful and better balanced realism of\nweight on realism and resolution in applying the doctrine of containment,\nour own. This is a matter of urgent importance. Many Americans are\nfor this part of the answer we must give is like the situation in a forest\nconfused on the relation between realism and idealism. Many Christians\nfire. The fire must be halted and turned back or the whole woods will\nsuffer from confusion and inner uncertainty in relation to this problem.\nbe destroyed.\nA few weeks ago I got into conversation with a merchant who turned\nThird, the revitalization of democracy. We all agree that this is a\nout to be also an active member of one of the largest Protestant churches\ncrying and fundamental need. We are in a war for freedom against\nin America. Our conversation turned to politics and to the issue of\ntyranny and we are not enthusiastic about our cause! We are in a reli-\nforeign policy. He expressed disagreement with my thought that the\ngious war and we do not believe strongly in our religion! Wars are won\nquestion of our foreign policy is momentous in the extreme. He said\nby a successful offensive and we continue to be very much on the defensive!\nthat he felt all we needed was the Sermon on the Mount-tha he believed\nWhy is this? And what can Christianity and Christians do about it?\nthat would take care of all our problems.\nThe key to this problem lies in the origin and nature of democracy.\nThis kind of confusion is not only ludicrous; it is dangerous. We must\nDemocracy in its modern form is not, first, a political method or form\nbe very clear that Christianity, though it does put before us as the ideal\nof\ngovernment. It is a faith and a spirit. It arose as the child of\na\nlove in all our relations, is not what is known as Pacifism. I defy anybody\nChristian mother. It was animated by faith in God and in man as the\nto extract from the total teachings of Jesus Christ a doctrine of absolute\nchild of God. It expected great things of the future because of this\nPacifism. Consider these words written in the Gospel for one of the\nfaith. It called forth willing sacrifice because men believed so in God\n[ 6 ]\n[7]"
}