Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

capitu- Preaching and Peace 117 lated, and a declaration of loyalty was composed and signed by four Evan- gelical Christian leaders. Before the union had a chance to approve the statement, the letter was published in Izvestiia, thereby producing widespread opposition within Evangelical Christian ranks, The resolution passed by the congress meeting in October 1923 accepted military service but did leave the manner of service (with weapons, in the medical, or in working battalions) up to the personal conscience of each Christian,46 ; The Baptist union under the pacifist leadership of Pavel V. Pavlov and Michael D. Timoshenko also came under strong pressure. Both unions ap- pealed to the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Stockholm in 1923 requesting Alliance support through a resolution which would declare the refusal by Baptists of all the world to participate in military service in any way.” “7 The Baptist World Alliance rejected the proposal, leaving the ques- tion of military service to the individual conscience. Upon returning home the Russian Baptists sought in vain to gain permission to hold a congress, Finally, in December, they were able to assure the authorities that the congress would produce the desired result on the military service question. The resolution adopted acknowledged that unanimity had not been ob- tained but stated: _ Recognizing war as the greatest evil and greeting the peaceful policy of the Soviet state in its call to the peoples of the world for universal disarmament, the congress leaves the determination of its own attitude toward the means of fulfilling his military obligation to the indi- vidual conscience of each Baptist.48 Even with this compromise, final acceptance was obtained only after 12 delegates had been removed from the congress by the secret police. During the next three years the military service question was the major issue of conflict in both unions, especially among the Baptists. At congresses in 1926, both unions were forced to condemn pacifism forthrightly. The Baptists split into equal parts and were only able to agree on a resolution following a compromise suggestion which involved reaffirmation of the old Baptist confession of faith which spoke only vaguely to the military service question. At the Evangelical Christian congress the anti-pacifist resolution was approved by a majority of those who registered for this vote but the 224 yes votes were less than half of the 507 delegates registered for the congress.5° Both unions lost some members, and there were attempts in local regions such as Moscow to form separate evangelical unions.®! 118 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il A number of unreconstructed pacifists left the Evangelical Christian and Baptist churches and joined the Pentecostal churches. But Pentecostals were also subjected to heavy pressure and were forced to issue a loyalty statement in 192