As early as December 18, 1918, the body now known as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted a declaration that declared in part: “Such a League is not a mere political expedient; it is rather the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth. . . . The Church can give a spirit of good-will, without which no League of Nations can endure. . . . The League of Nations is rooted in the Gospel. Like the Gospel, its objective is ‘peace on earth, good-will toward men.’”

18. How did Christendom’s clergy show their support for the League of Nations?

¹⁸ On January 2, 1919, the San Francisco Chronicle carried the front-page headline: “Pope Pleads for Adoption of Wilson’s League of Nations.” On October 16, 1919, a petition signed by 14,450 clergymen of leading denominations was presented to the U.S. Senate, urging that body “to ratify the Paris peace treaty embodying the league of nations covenant.” Though the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the treaty, Christendom’s clergy continued to campaign for the League. And how was the League inaugurated? A news dispatch from Switzerland, dated November 15, 1920, read: “Opening of the first assembly of the League of Nations was announced at eleven o’clock this morning by the ringing of all the church bells in Geneva.”

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“Blasphemous Names”

When the wild beast with two horns promoted the League of Nations after World War I, its many religious paramours immediately sought to give a religious sanction to this move. As a result, the new peace organization became “full of blasphemous names.”

“Christianity can furnish the good-will, the dynamic behind the league [of nations], and so change the treaty from a scrap of paper into an instrument of the kingdom of God.”​—The Christian Century, U.S.A., June 19, 1919, page 15.

“The League of Nations idea is the extension to international relationships of the idea of the Kingdom of God as a world order of good will. . . . It is the thing all Christians pray for when they say, ‘Thy Kingdom come.’”​—The Christian Century, U.S.A., September 25, 1919, page 7.

“The Cement of the League of Nations is the Blood of Christ.”​—Dr. Frank Crane, Protestant minister, U.S.A.

“The [National] Council [of Congregational Churches] supports the Covenant [of the League of Nations] as the only political instrument now available by which the Spirit of Jesus Christ may find wider scope in practical application to the affairs of nations.”​—The Congregationalist and Advance, U.S.A., November 6, 1919, page 642.

“The conference calls upon all Methodists to uphold and promote highly the ideals [of the League of Nations] as expressed by the idea of God the Father and God’s earthly children.”​—The Wesleyan Methodist Church, Britain.

“When we consider the aspirations, the possibilities and the resolutions of this agreement, we see that it contains the heart of the teachings of Jesus Christ: The Kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . It is nothing less than that.”​—Sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the opening of the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva, December 3, 1922.

“The League of Nations Association in this country has the same holy right as any humanitarian missionary society, because she is at present the most effective agency of the rule of Christ as the Prince of peace among the nations.”​—Dr. Garvie, Congregationalist minister, Britain.