Not long after after the U.S. Congress declared war against Germany, a New York City minister named Dr. John Haynes Holmes (1879 – 1964) took to his pulpit and made a series of sound remarks as to why the United States had no business participating in the European war:
“Other clergymen may pray to God for victory for our arms — I will not. In this church, if no where else in all America, the Germans will still be included in the family of God’s children. No word of hatred will be spoken against them, no evil fate will be desired upon them. I will remember the starving millions of Belgium, Servia, Poland, and Armenia, whom my countrymen may neglect for the more important business of killing Germans…”
Following the end of the war many clergymen would find themselves writing articles condemning their complicity during the war; Reverend Holmes would not be counted among them. An early admirer of Gandhi, Holmes was also numbered among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.).
