Swords & Plowshares: American Protestants and the Vietnam War

Abstract

Theological commitments and contemporary pressures shaped the response of American Protestants to the Vietnam War. Mainline denominations experienced extreme dissension. Opponents of the war, centered on clergy and leadership, challenged the war based upon its consequences. Supporters of the war, overwhelmingly laity, supported it as a just cause. The extreme levels of discord and disconnect between leadership and laity found expression in the debates over the attendant issues of the war. Frustrated, conservatives within mainline denominations provided an alternative vision for the church that rejected a focus on social issues. The world view and eschatology of conservative evangelicals made war and the Vietnam War less troublesome. Conservative evangelical denominations saw in Vietnam an evangelistic opportunity and generally portrayed soldiers as frontline missionaries. African-American denominations had connections to both mainline and conservative evangelical approaches. Martin Luther King, Jr., the foremost African-American of the time, religious or otherwise, strongly opposed the war and sought to lead fellow blacks on the issue. However, church members were very resistant to joining King in this particular struggle. African-American denominations did not so much support the Vietnam War as were unwilling to criticize Lyndon Johnson publically out of recognition of his great efforts on their behalf. With the election of Richard Nixon, a Republican with a very different political agenda, African-American denominations became more outspoken against the war as it began to draw attention and resources away from the economic and civic concerns of blacks.