Left-Leaning Church Elites Ambivalent about Berlin Wall Anniversary

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Twenty years ago, when the Berlin Wall fell, I remember wondering how left-wing church officials would react after having spent decades apologizing for communism in the Eastearn Bloc. There was even an affiliate of the Soviet-front group, the World Peace Council, co-located with the National Council of Churches and other denominational agencies at the “God Box” in New York City. Would these church officials learn any lessons from their embarrassing silence about communist repression in East Europe and the old Soviet Union?

Apparently not! Groups like the World Council of Churches (WCC) and, to a lesser extent, the National Council of Churches, continue to be cozy with and make excuses for the few remaining communist dictatorships. During the recent 20th commemoration of the Berlin Wall’s collapse, the WCC’s chief rhapsodized about it as though the WCC could somehow claim credit for ending the Cold War. Here’s my article. Note that I also describe how the United Methodist Council of Bishops reacted as they literally were in session at Lake Junaluska while the wall fell. They seemed more concerned about the U.S. exploiting the situation, or about capitalism replacing communism, rather than celebrating!

The truth is, groups like the WCC and the elites of their member denominations (like many United Methodist bishops) were and remain blind to repression by utopian and anti-Christian ideologies, no matter how repressive. They will only criticize the U.S. and Israel. They will NEVER criticize Marxist or Islamist regimes. It’s a gross double standard that has been stunningly consistent for the Religious Left over 40 years.

Ironically, secular politicians are often more attuned to reality, and to concerns about genuine human rights, than many church agencies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently addressed the U.S. Congress and gave thanks for American help in sustaining German, freedom and particularly a free Berlin, during 45 years of Cold War.  Read Faith McDonnell’s article, The Berlin Wall and the Hunger for Freedom, on this momentous event.

Meanwhile, the WCC continues to advocate on behalf of North Korea’s communist tyranny. Surprisingly, the WCC’s official news agency actually quoted my critique of the WCC’s uncritical stance towards North Korea and its nuclear weapon aspirations. Please also read Faith McDonnell’s wonderful story of a courageous Chinese dissident who lost his legs to a communist tank at Tiananmen Square and recently, with the help of some wonderful American doctors, has procured artificial legs that allow him to dance with his wife. We also rejoice in his recent acknowledgment of faith and placed hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. He and many other Chinese dissidents have become Christians in the years following the events of Tiananmen.

IRD volunteer Eric LeMasters recently attended a speech by the Easter Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, who was in Washington, D.C. trumpeting government health care and environmentalism. He is known as the “Green Patriarch,” and he was speaking at the behest of the liberal Center for American Progress. Read here.

Finally, you should know that the official Washington, D.C. lobby offices for the United Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian (USA ) Churches directly endorsed the Nancy Pelosi-supported government health care legislation that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last week. Decades ago Episcopalians were jokingly called the “Republican Party at prayer.” Perhaps these liberal lobby offices are now the Democratic Party at prayer. But, in truth, they are further left than most Democrats (most of the church lobbies preferred a Canadian-style single-payer system and view Obamacare only as a hoped for incremental step to fully socialized medicine). And I’m not sure how prayerful these intensely political church lobbies really are!

We should certainly pray for these liberal church lobbies, that they will rediscover the church’s true mission and strive to represent the whole church, and not just an elite few.  If God can bring down the Berlin Wall and over 70 years of communism, can’t He reclaim our churches? Of course He can! We pray and strive for that day when He will.

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