Harry Truman as Baptist president

Baptist History and Heritage, Summer-Fall, 1999 by Glen Harold Stassen

Doing what is right on civil rights.--"During the Civil War, the Trumans and the Youngs [his grandparents] sympathized with the South." (10) But in the Senate, he voted to abolish the poll tax that was designed to discourage blacks from voting, which earned him the wrath of most of his fellow southern Senators. His record of seeking to do right for African-Americans as well as working people was the biggest key to his surprise selection as vice presidential candidate when President Franklin Roosevelt was not expected to live through the next term.

Truman integrated the Armed Services, and his annual messages to Congress "called for a federal law against `the crime of lynching, against which I cannot speak too strongly'; protection of the right to vote everywhere in the country, the establishment of a Fair Employment Practices Commission with authority to stop discrimination by employers and labor unions alike, an end to discrimination in interstate travel .... " (11)

Army Values.--Focusing only on Truman's Baptist values presents an incomplete picture. In the army in World War I, he was made a Captain. He led his troops remarkably well, performing with courage and efficiency, bringing them back safely, earning high morale and lifelong loyalty from them. "He discovered he could lead men and that he liked that better than anything he had ever done before. He found he had courage--that he was no longer the boy with thick glasses who ran from fights--and, furthermore, that he could inspire courage in others." (12) His army experience shaped the rest of his life, including his unbaptistic practice of occasionally taking a drink, playing poker, and cussing--always in the company of the kind of comradeship that had meant so much to him in the Army. I remember the 1963 Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Kansas City at the time of Truman's birthday. We knew Truman was coming to meet with us briefly. Someone introduced a resolution that presidents should not use profanity in the White House. All in favor: the ayes echoed around the convention hall. (How could you vote against that?) All opposed: Someone just behind me stood up and yelled so loud that the whole hall could hear, "Hell no!" (I scrunched down in my seat so they would not think it was me.)

But Truman did not dance; (13) on this point his experience in the Army during the war did not contradict his Baptist loyalties.

Today's Shift to a Postmodern International System and Practices of Peacemaking

We are now witnessing a shift to a postmodern international system in which nations are not the only actors--and sometimes not even the primary actors. International economic forces respect no boundaries. Traders in capital suddenly punched their computer keys and vacuumed the money out of the economies of Indonesia, South Korea, and most of Asia. International economic forces are more powerful, and much more often used, than military forces. And war no longer pays; the weapons are far too destructive. International forces under the UN or NATO intervene in nations that are severely violating the human rights of their own people, as in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, Liberia, Somalia, Uganda, and East Pakistan. Human rights spread and with them peace. International influences nudge all the nations of Latin America to switch from dictatorships to democracies, as also in India, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Eastern Europe, and maybe even Russia. And historically no democracy with human rights has ever fought a war against another democracy with human rights, so peace is spreading. (14)