Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

pected to at- tend the Seventh World Baptist Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, in early August 1947, but, upon receiving copies of the congress program, refused to attend. In a letter stating their reasons, they argued that it was apparent that the congress would not have a merely spiritual and edifying character but also a political one. Many of the topics, such as “Church and State,” “The Social and Cultural Responsibilities of Baptists,’ and “The United Nations,” would likely produce contradictory viewpoints resulting in a purely political discussion and “contribute to unnecessary friction in our whole brotherhood.”° The congress had included a statement concern- ing relationships with the USSR in which it spoke about “communism as an obstacle to world evangelization,””! To this the AUCECB letter replied that “Russian Baptists not only do not consider communism an obstacle to evan- gelization, but they also share its social-economic principles as not contradicting the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.““72 In another issue of Bratskii Vestnik for 1947, Zhidkov claimed that “the government of our country adequately and energetically struggles against all war hawks and is conducting a policy of peace.””3 An even more emphatic declaration was the claim that “the Soviet land became the chief of all freedom-loving peo- ples in its unceasing struggle for peace, for social and political justice.”’”4 As noted earlier, the situation of the Russian Baptists was closely re- lated to the vicissitudes of foreign policy, and by 1949 Bratskii Vestnik had to cease publication. Only after the death of Stalin did the journal reappear, and its opening salvos revealed that it was to play its role along with the Or- 122 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il thodox and other religions in fostering Soviet peace propaganda. With suitable bombast the opening issue began with a declaration that nonparticipation in certain movements in history was equivalent to a crime. Examples cited were the struggle for the liberation of Negroes in the United States or the struggle against the opium trade in China. In the present day, “such a movement is the great movement on behalf of peace. Nonparticipa- tion in it is also equivalent to a crime.””5 The opening article then went on to assert that: When an armaments race began in the U.S.A. and several other coun- tries, and the danger of a new world war fell on humanity, and when the Soviet Union adopted the holy banner of the struggle for peace, calling on all countries ‘and peoples to stand under this banner, Evangelical Christian-Baptists of the USSR stood as one man under the banner of peace. In th great advance for peace they recognized a truly Christian task; not £6 participate in it would be a disgrace for a Christian.76 Nearly the entire issue was devoted to the peace offensive. JUCECB involvement in the peace movement began with the crea-