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The
Pulpits of Persuasion
In the early days of the war, religion offered a balm for those trying to make
sense of the horrors of the war. Ironically, it was also a key motivator for
young men to step into its maw.
For many Canadians, the Great War began as a moral crusade and a test of manhood.
The brutal German invasion of Belgium, which was exaggerated in the popular press
of the time, convinced many Canadians that this was a battle of good and evil
with God on the side of the Allies. It was suggested that the Germans had turned
their backs on Christianity and adopted pagan faiths and that Kaiser Wilhelm
was, in fact, the Antichrist. "War is never wrong," read an article
in the Presbyterian Record of the day, "when it is a war against wrong." Even
denominations like Methodist, which were adamantly pacifist and anti-military
prior to the war, quickly took up the rallying cry of battle as patriotism swept
the nation. The
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war was being fought, literally,
for God and the King, according to many.
As Canadian historians J.L. Granatstein and Desmond Morton point out, the overarching
metaphor priests, preachers and ministers used for the Great War was the "fiery
furnace" – a cleansing crucible that would forge moral fibre and patriotic
intensity in the soldiers who stepped willingly into it.
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Wounded Canadian Soldier
Canadian religious leaders portrayed the Great War as
a "fiery furnace" that would purify society and test its moral character.
For many soliders it was more Hell than furnace. |
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