Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

gering rearmament program,®! that they sincerely believed the So- viet peace movement was seeking peace. It is also fair to assume that the So- viet government deliberately used Soviet churchmen to help give the Soviet Union a better image abroad and to influence their fellow religionists abroad to oppose such activities as the American involvement in Korea. But the initial propaganda campaign under the auspices of the World Peace Council was so transparently pro-Soviet that Western churches and Western public opinion rejected the statements with incredulity, 82 An incident occurring in 1955 illustrates the degree to which Baptist activities and success in the peace propaganda campaign determined their 124 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il freedom to act elsewhere. Western Baptists had sought to demonstrate that they too were speaking out on behalf of peace. The first meeting between Townley Lord, president of the Baptist World Alliance, and the Russian Baptists took place in Sweden when Lord and several others attended a small peace conference sponsored by the Quakers. Lord and two British Baptist leaders were then invited to visit the Soviet Union in 1954, One major purpose of the trip was to invite the AUCECB to send delegates to the next world congress to be held in London in 1955. The AUCECB emit- ted positive signals, but as the time drew near, the BWA leaders were in- formed that, unless they participated in the World Peace Council meeting in Helsinki, they could expect no Russian Baptists at the London congress. World Baptist leaders found themselves in a dilemma, not simply because of the obvious extortion attempt, but also because attendance at such a peace conference or even a visit to the Soviet Union might mean loss of sup- port from the American constituency. The McCarthy era was not yet his- tory. General Secretary Arnold Ohrn stalled by requesting information about the conference, about which he had heard nothing. It was finally sug- gested that Dr. Williamson, retired missionary to China, whose reputation was unimpeachable, might attend as an observer.®* At this World Peace Assembly Alexander Karev was elected a member of the World Peace Council. He had also been elected a member of the All-Union Congress of Peace Supporters which met in Moscow in May 1955.84 With the collapse of the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Council in the later fifties, Baptist involvement in the peace movement remained active but more moderate. They were involved from the start with the Christian Peace Movement headquartered in Prague. Because of the reputation and personality of its president, Czech theologian Jozef Hromadka, the Chris- tian Peace Conference (CPC) appeared to have greater integrity, and ~ peace-minded Western churchmen and theologians became actively in- volved. Throughout its existence, the CPC’s theological commission has served as the point where