In an oral interview housed in the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College, Jesse W. Hoover — a Brethren in Christ minister, evangelist, and writer, and the peace secretary for Mennonite Central Committee during World War II — comments on the response of evangelicals to the efforts at peacemaking undertaken by the Brethren in Christ during World War II and following.
Here’s a taste:
I found that a frank simple open discussion of the issues involved always brought a sympathetic response. I don’t mean to suggest that they agreed with me but I had learned, I think, by that time pretty largely that argumentation just for the sake of argumentation usually get us nowhere. And I think I learned a little about a very humble, frank, straight-forward presentation without argumentation. And I’ve appreciated the . . . the reception . . . I don’t think that I can honestly say I’ve ever encountered what I sensed as direct opposition or at least not antagonism.
The entire four-part interview deals with many issues beyond Brethren in Christ nonresistant belief, and would be a great resource for an historian researching the church’s peace activities during and after the Great War.
To read the entire interview and a brief biography of Hoover, click here. (Hoover’s comments on peacemaking during World War II are in Transcript 3.)
Fascinating! How did you happen to find these transcripts?
Beth: I believe I ran into Hoover’s little corner of the Billy Graham Archives some time ago, when I was researching the connection between twentieth-century evangelicals and the Brethren in Christ. I re-visited it recently, and was profoundly intrigued by this piece.
I believe there might be other BIC connections in the BGA — I’ll have to look into it!