麻豆视频

Reformed Church Center Looks at Authoritarianism, War, and Pacifism . . . Ninety Years Ago

The rise of Hitler and the Nazis forced people around the world to respond to fascism, unchecked power, conquest, genocide, anti-Semitism, and a worldview that appeared to follow very different rules.  How did RCA clergy and members respond to these threats? Like many American Protestants in the 1930s, many RCA people criticized war as sinful opposition to the way of Jesus. They encouraged repentance, conversion, prayer, church attendance, sacrifice, and suffering. Despite being part of a tradition that considered total depravity one of its five essential doctrines, they were slow to realize the evil of Hitler and the Nazi system.

Many of these themes from almost a century ago find echoes in our modern era. The 2025-2026 Albert A Smith Lecturewill be presented on Thursday, April 30, 2026, 12:00 noon to 1:30 om via Zoom. Lynn Japinga will present 鈥溾�榃e Live in a Grim Time:鈥� The RCA Confronts Evil During World War II,鈥� exploring some of the thought and action in the RCA about the war: sending chaplains, supporting Conscientious Objectors, caring for soldiers, and reflecting theologically about what God was doing in the midst of radical evil. 

Lynn Japinga is a graduate of Hope College in Holland, Michigan; Princeton Theological Seminary; and Union Theological Seminary in New York. Recently retired after thirty-three years teaching at Hope, she is now a research fellow at the A.C. Van Raalte Institute and is the Albert A Smith fellow in Reformed Church History at 麻豆视频 for 2025-2026.A student of American Church History and Women and Religion, she is the author of numerous articles, essays, and books, including From Daughters to Disciples: Women’s Stories from the New Testament (Westminster/John Knox, 2021), From Widows to Warriors: Women’s Stories from the Old Testament ((Westminster/John Knox, 2020), and Loyalty and Loss: The Reformed Church in America, 1945鈥�1994 (Reformed Church Press, 2020).

This webinar, like all Reformed Church Center programs, is free and open to everyone, but all participants must register. Go to .