How Silent Were the Churches?

by Davies, Alan T.; Nefsky, Marilyn F.

• ISBN13: 9780889203099
• ISBN10: 0889203091
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ Pr

Summary

Winner of the 1997 Jewish Book Committee award for scholarship on a Canadian Jewish subject.Ever since Abella and Troper (None Is too Many, 1982) exposed the anti-Semitism behind Canada's refusal to allow Jewish escapees from the Third Reich to immigrate, the Canadian churches have been under a shadow. Were the churches silent or largely silent, as alleged, or did they speak?In How Silent Were the Churches?a Jew and a Christian examine the Protestant record. Old letters, sermons and other church documents yield a profile of contemporary Protestant attitudes. Countless questions are raised - How much anti-Semitism lurked in Canadian Protestantism? How much pro-German feeling? How accurately did the churches of Canada read the signs of the times? Or did they bury their heads in the sand? Davies and Nefsky discover some surprising answers.The theologies and the historical and ethnic configurations of Protestant Canada, encompassing religious communities from the United Church to the Quakers, are brought into relief against the background of the Great Depression, the rise of fascism in Europe and the resurgence of nativism in Canadian society.The authors conclude their study with an evaluation of the limits to Protestant influence in Canada and the dilemmas faced by religious communities and persons of conscience when confronted by the realities of power.

Author Biography

Alan Davies is a professor of religion at the University of Toronto and an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada Marilyn F. Nefsky is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology/Religion and coordinator of Liberal Education for the University of Lethbridge

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Chapter I: The Setting	1	(16)
Antisemitism in Canada	5	(6)
Antisemitism in Europe	11	(6)
Chapter II: The Churches	17	(13)
The United Church	19	(2)
The Church of England in Canada	21	(1)
The Presbyterian Church	22	(2)
Baptists and Evangelicals	24	(1)
Lutherans, Mennonites and Quakers	25	(5)
Chapter III: The United Church	30	(17)
The fascist temptation	31	(2)
Persecution in Germany	33	(4)
The refugee crisis	37	(4)
Claris E. Silcox	41	(4)
The Holocaust	45	(2)
Chapter IV: The Church of England in Canada	47	(18)
Headlam and Inge	48	(2)
"Liberty-loving Anglo Saxons"	50	(2)
"That ancient race"	52	(3)
Every last refugee?	55	(4)
W.W. Judd	59	(2)
The Holocaust	61	(4)
Chapter V: The Presbyterian Church	65	(15)
Morris Zeidman	67	(2)
Persecuted Christians	69	(3)
The rabbit and the snake	72	(3)
W.L. Mackenzie King	75	(2)
The Holocaust	77	(3)
Chapter VI: Baptists and Evangelicals	80	(19)
T.T. Shields	82	(2)
Watson Kirkconnell	84	(4)
A new Gethsemane	88	(3)
"Gardens of the damned"	91	(4)
The Holocaust	95	(4)
Chapter VII: Lutherans, Mennonites and Quakers	99	(24)
Lutherans	99	(7)
Luther's land	101	(3)
And the Jews?	104	(2)
Mennonites	106	(10)
The German connection	106	(2)
The "Jewish question"	108	(3)
Jews or Germans?	111	(3)
The refugee crisis	114	(2)
Quakers	116	(7)
The Jewish plight	117	(2)
Raymond Booth	119	(2)
Starving children, dying Jews	121	(2)
Chapter VIII: Conclusion	123	(9)
Appendix A	132	(4)
Appendix B	136	(1)
Notes	137	(37)
Index	174