Relations within and between American and European churches are becoming frayed due to the growth of populism and challenges to the post-Cold War international order, according to two reports. The newsletter Evangelical Focus (February 18–19) reports on growing tensions both within European churches but especially between evangelicals in Europe and religious conservatives in the U.S. Two weeks before elections in Germany, more than 20 mainline Christian bodies in the Association of Christian Churches signed a call for churches to stand up for democracy in the face of growing support for a far-right party (the Alternative for Germany or AfD). The group, which includes Baptists and Mennonites, made a clear reference to the AfD in stating, “We continue to believe that extremism and above all ethnic nationalism are incompatible with Christianity.” The signatories emphasized the need for a fair refugee policy, a stronger Europe, and a sustainable policy for the protection of the environment. “This kind of positioning, which is not new, has been criticized during the election campaign by a conservative party heavyweight, the Bavarian Markus Söder, who, identifying himself as a Christian, has said that the churches should ‘go back to talking more about the fundamentals of the Christian faith’ and less about their political views,” the newsletter adds.
Ukrainian megachurch service.
The more conservative German Evangelical Alliance, uniting mostly Christians from independent evangelical churches, called for evangelicals to avoid polarizing discourses and to be “bridge-builders and peace builders who believe that it is possible to bring opponents together in church, politics and society.” Acknowledging that some Christians would vote for the extreme right because of its supposed support for Christian values, co-chairman of the council Frank Heinrich urged that honest conversations should not be silenced, while encouraging Christians to “denounce situations in which minorities and fragile groups are attacked in an unjust and widespread manner.” But the main concern among European evangelicals is the “paradigm shift” in the way “Europe and the United States are rethinking their relationship at a forced pace…[E]vangelicals in the old continent are observing the changes with concern.” It is especially Ukrainian evangelicals who have expressed doubt that an agreement with Russia will bring peace. With President Trump’s shift in focus away from Ukraine, European evangelicals are concerned that American religious and political conservatives are cutting ties with their Ukrainian fellow believers.
In another article, the newsletter cites Ruslan Kukharchuk, a journalist and leader of the movement United Together for the Family, who says that there are reasons for the new U.S. administration to seek the good of Ukraine. Kukharchuk adds that “Ukraine is the Bible Belt of Europe,” because it is “home to the largest church communities in Europe (for example, Baptists and Greek Catholics). And there are even more Orthodox Christians in Ukraine than in Russia.” With this reality in mind, he urges that “the United States and the conservative White House administration should truly stand up for Ukraine…Instead of seeking friendship with Russia, which is killing Christians in Ukraine, or China, which is banning its citizens from attending churches.” More generally, the “growing coldness” between the U.S. and Europe “could also affect relations between Christians on either side of the Atlantic. It may be the case that European evangelicals, who have for so long depended on support from U.S. evangelical ministries and resources, must also face up to this new world.” The article adds that European evangelicals “may need to increase their funding locally or see their ministries collapse if U.S. churches and ministries turn away from Europe.”
In a lengthy article in Commonweal magazine (February 7), Massimo Faggioli looks at the divisions between Catholics in both Europe and the U.S. regarding the shift away from the post-Cold War order and the wave of populism and nationalism that have emerged in both places. European Catholics are visibly divided over these developments. Leading up to the elections in Germany last month, the German bishops issued a statement flatly declaring that “Ethno-nationalism and Christianity are Incompatible.” Yet Communio, a key journal in post-Vatican II Catholic theology, featured on its website an editorial on immigration that argued that “A party [AfD] that still explicitly refers to the Christian view of humanity should not allow itself to be intimidated by some bishops and theologians and defamed as unchristian if, after careful consideration, it comes to the conclusion that migration policy needs a radical correction.” Faggioli argues that “in many European countries, Catholics are far from being—or even trying to be—a firewall against the far right.” He adds that “Catholic cardinals are divided too, with some happier than others since last November’s U.S. election.” The German cardinal Gerhard Müller (prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017) said he preferred Trump to Biden—“better a good Protestant than a bad Catholic”—and that “Trump will help the Church because it represents the values of natural law: inviolability of life, importance of marriage, religious freedom.”
As for Pope Francis, he has chosen bishops that are sure to rile up the Trump administration, particularly his appointment of the liberal Cardinal Robert McElroy as the archbishop of Washington D.C. Faggioli adds that “Trump himself seems more proactive regarding the Vatican this time around, but Francis appears to be more cautious on the general topic of Western democracy.” In contrast to many European and American liberals, Francis has not issued broadsides about the declining state of democracy, but he has often criticized populism and nationalism. Faggioli notes that American Catholics are as likely to be divided about the rapid shifts in world politics as their European counterparts, especially as most listen more to Catholic “influencers” than to their own bishops. He adds that the “Trump-Vance administration looks almost like a third Catholic presidency, but one in which the vice president (who converted to Catholicism in 2019) has far fewer qualms than John F. Kennedy or Joe Biden in stating the theological reasoning behind major policy changes. It’s a form of ‘theology of the laity’—but shorn of a connection to Vatican II and Catholic social thought, if not outright contradicting it.”
(Evangelical Focus, https://evangelicalfocus.com/; Commonweal, https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/vance-trump-vatican-ii-francis-biden-faggioli)
