Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

, without the courage to move beyond clear-cut answers, we will remain angry captives of the past. It is my hope that the historical facts presented in this paper enable us to start thinking beyond our political and psychological dualisms. The Political Left and Christianity: the European and American Scenes It is not the purpose of this paper to present an overview of the long and complex interaction between Christianity and various groups within the political left (many of which could not be described as socialist). Rather, I would like to explore certain aspects of this interaction, in particular, those with links to Latvia and/or free-church or Nonconformist involvement. In Great Britain, some early socialists had Nonconformist backgrounds, which influenced the types of activities they conducted.° Socialists had their Levindanto of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and Plenipotenti- ary of the Council for Religious Affairs in Latvia.” Janis Tervits, Latvijas baptistu vésture: faktu mozaika (Riga: LBDS, 1999), p. 157. It is likely that by “positive compromise’, Tervits meant the ability to find ways to relate to both local churches and the Senior Presbyter appointed by Moscow, in situations when many believers looked upon Levindanto with disapproval. * Latvijas Valsts arhivs [State Archive of Latvia] (LVA) - 1419.f. - 2.a. - 12.1. - p. 123 (reverse side). *LVA - 1419.f. - 2.a. - 12.1. - p. 122. > L.N. Mitrokhin, Baptizm: istoriia i sovremennost (filosofsko-sotsiologicheskie ocherki) (St Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Russkogo Khristianskogo gumanitarnogo instituta, 1997), p. 392. ° To be fair to other traditions, we should also mention such facts as high church involve- ment in establishing the Guild of St Mathew in 1877 and Catholic Cardinal Manning’s soli- 103 Sunday schools and cultivated conversion experiences. Christian Socialist Philip Snowden invited people to come forward to join the Independent Labour party. Labour Churches established in the late nineteenth century by Unitarian minister John Trevor combined Nonconformist religion with radical politics.” Nonconformists transferred their Christian ethos from chapels to workers’ unions, the meetings of which often started with a prayer and a hymn. Unitarian minister George Dawson, in his inaugural address at the opening of the Birmingham Free Library in 1866, expressed hope that private ownership of book collections was coming to an end through “a holy Communism, a wise Socialism’.’ In the United States, in the late nineteenth century, following the Civil War, there emerged a “Social Gospel” move- ment hostile to laissez faire capitalism, rejecting unrestricted competition as contradicting the biblical Golden Rule, and advocating mutual steward- ship by employers and employees.’ Baptist theologian Walter Rauschen- busch, a leading figure in that movement (and who, as shown below, was influential among certain Latvi