Christianity Ended The Cold War

[Shwa]

Very interesting article - that Christianity ended the Cold War peacefully.

I agree with M. Dancer about the role of Poland.

"Without Christianity the cold war would not have ended peacefully. Across the East, churches and religious organisations brought together workers, students and intellectuals. Under totalitarian rule, church services and religious festivals often provided the last bastion of freedom and resistance." - Adrian Pabst

To have a Church you need to be able to associate freely - to congregrate if you will. I can see freedom of association as being a very powerful force against totalitarianism. Lech Walesa was a devout Roman Catholic according to Wiki.

However, Lech also organized - or was a ring leader - in the Gdansk shipyard strikes in 1980 that led to a trade union - another form of freedom association. I think the trade unions - principly Solidarnosc - as heralding the end of the Cold War and hastening the end of Soviet communism. The trade unions could (and likely did) bring together workers, students and intellectuals. Probably moreso than the Church.

So Pabst's second paragraph could also read:

Without the trade unions the cold war would not have ended peacefully. Across the East, unions and labour organisations brought together workers, students and intellectuals. Under totalitarian rule, labour union gahterings and labour protests often provided the last bastion of freedom and resistance.

This would be a better fit with what I remember of those times.

ps - I think the Cold War started at the Yalta Conference in 1945 when Stalin agreed to have free elections in Poland after the war. Churchill was not amused...

Edited November 12, 2009 by Shwa