Voice of Protestantism badly needed in world forums

Over the years, as a journalist working in many societies, I have often found hints about where people are going - or not going - in the most unusual places.

So it was that when Ukraine's promising President Petro Poroshenko, the besieged country's impressive former chocolate king, came to the U.S. in September, his visit quietly revealed trends that could change the future.

It was not only his thoughts about Ukraine's younger generations - he told journalists here that only 47 percent of the older generations support NATO, but 84 percent of the younger ones do - that was so hopeful and interesting.

What gripped my attention were his amazing words expressed earlier at home. The president actually issued a decree in late summer calling for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in order to reaffirm "the enormous contribution of Protestant churches and religious organizations ... and to express respect for their role in Ukrainian history."

PROTESTANTS? Yes, of course, now that someone mentions it, 2017 will indeed be the 500th anniversary of that fateful day, Oct. 31, 1517, when the angry German monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church of Wittenberg in Germany, thus challenging an increasingly corrupt Roman Catholic Church.

But, today? Frankly, if I were not a Protestant, I might say in sad jest that I was wondering where the Protestants were anymore. I read five newspapers a day, plus dozens of magazines and journals from all over. Yet, the word "Protestant" is barely to be found in that public arena.

Where ARE they? Where, the weathered old wisdom of the Reinhold Niebuhrs? Where, the unique ability of Presbyterians, Congregationalists or Methodists to help form humane economic organizations that are exactly what the world is calling for today? Where, when the world began to collapse in unending wars in the Middle East, was their voice? I know there are brilliant men and women in the Protestant seminaries and pulpits, but there is no Protestant sensibility evident in the public square.

While Christians are being persecuted, burned to death and murdered all over the Middle East, Christians here seem to be consumed by a hopeless debate over the unanswerable question of whether Islam is a religion of peace.

But back to Ukraine: President Poroshenko described as "one of the huge achievements of Ukrainians the creation of the Ukrainian Council of Churches," which allows the government to ensure cooperation in promoting peace and harmony between different faiths.

Before an international group of Protestant leaders in Ukraine, many of them foreign Baptists, the president stressed the importance of introducing chaplains into the Ukrainian armed forces and called Protestant work in caring for the wounded in the on-and-off war with Russia in Eastern Ukraine "a very important function, which Ukraine needs today."

It was at this point that I became aware of yet another piece of religious/political/historical news that had somehow eluded me: Pope Francis will travel this month to Lund, Sweden, seat of the bishop of Lund of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and meet with Lutherans to kick off a year of events to mark that 500th anniversary. Germany itself, meanwhile, is planning a decade of commemorations honoring the events of 1517.

This news should suitably embarrass American Christians, and especially Protestants, that their once-strong voice in the public square has been so tragically stilled at this new "time of troubles."

But also, it shows that there are at least ideas brewing and historic memories being held close somewhere.

What Ukraine needs - and what most of the world needs - is the kind of "Protestant ethic" that the great German sociologist Max Weber wrote about in the 19th century. As he studied the formation of a morally based capitalism that was rescuing northern Europeans from poverty and indignity, he kept finding ties with Protestant religions - Calvinists, but also others. Why?

The Reformation, he found, had greatly changed the view of work; it dignified the day's work of even the farmer and the mason. Protestants were also looking for signs of God's grace, and what better sign than worldly goods? These were the fathers of the English and Dutch Protestants who founded the United States and wrote that "all men are created equal."

After the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches split in 1054 in the Great Schism that continues to this day, both East and West were left without access to the Protestant ethic later created, which helped to build up resourceful and productive capitalism in its age. Russia today still suffers from this lack and goes ever down, glorying in its hopelessness.

It is that Protestant attitude toward the world, toward work and toward creation, that Poroshenko is wisely seeking for his country and his people. In Ukraine, with its longing for the West and its hatred of Russia, this may be the path to a prosperous future. God bless them.

Email Georgie Anne Geyer at gigi_geyer@juno.com.

© 2016, Universal