Divine intervention

While Churchill was not an orthodox churchman, he spoke of religion often. The word “religion” stems from a Latin word meaning “respect or duty to what is sacred.” Churchill certainly adhered to that.

When he referred in speeches to “Christian civilization,” he did not mean to exclude Jews or Buddhists or Muslims. He meant those words stood for principles he considered universal. He cited the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, charity, forgiveness and courage. Dr. Larry Arnn writes:

He thought Christianity both good and vital. Several times he indicated some distance between himself and its orthodox doctrines. Consistently he had great respect for the Divine. Placed in a wider context, none of this is remarkable. Classic philosophy, hundreds of years before Christianity and not in contact with Judaism, is almost all theistic on rational grounds. The argument goes this way: To say one thing is better than another is also to say that it is more perfect. What would be the simply perfect? God.

In his youth, Churchill’s religion included the belief that God was preserving him for some higher purpose. The historian Andrew Roberts notes that Churchill had many narrow escapes: several childhood illnesses, near-death from ruptured kidney, near-drowning in Lake Geneva. He survived close brushes fighting in five wars on five continents from 1897 to 1916. He was nearly killed by a car in New York, survived assassination plots and enemy aircraft. Lord Roberts adds: “Not without reason he believed that an important obligation of the Almighty was to watch over the life of Winston Churchill.”

1897: “Who’s that damn fool on the grey?”

—22 December, Bangalore, India, WSC to his mother….

I am very gratified to hear that my follies have not been altogether unnoticed. To ride a grey pony along a skirmish line is not a common experience. But I had to play for high stakes and have been lucky to win. I did this three times, on the 18th, 23rd and 30th, but no one officially above me noticed it until the third time when poor Jeffreys, a nice man but a bad general, happened to see the white pony. Hence my good fortune.

Bullets to a philosopher my dear Mamma are not worth considering. Besides I am so conceited I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending. Any way it does not matter.

His faith in Divine providence was already evident. WSC was describing his selection of a light grey horse during a skirmish, when Jeffreys shouted, “Who’s that damn fool on the grey?” Patrick Douglas Jeffreys (1848-1922), commander, Second Brigade, Malakand Field Force, 1897.

1915: “A hand had been stretched out to move me…” 

—24 November, Ploegsteert, Belgium…

With the Army in Flanders, Churchill was summoned from the trenches for a social visit with the Corps Commander. Grumbling, he trudged the rainy, muddy fields to a rendezvous, where the general’s car failed to appear. It had become lost, and the general had returned to his headquarters. Now indignant, Churchill began his “trudge back”….

Tired out and very thirsty, I put my head into the nearest Company Mess for a drink. “Hello,” they said, “you’re in luck today”…. I did not understand their allusions at all….

I had got within twenty yards of my shelter when a Sergeant, saluting, said: “We have shifted your kit to Mr. —‘s dug-out, Sir.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Yours has been blown up, Sir.”

“Any harm done?” “Your kit’s all right, Sir, but — was killed. Better not go in there, Sir, it’s in an awful mess”….

“When did it happen?” I asked.

“About five minutes after you left, Sir. A whizzbang came in through the roof and blew his head off.”

*

WSC. writing the next day to Clementine Churchill …

Suddenly I felt my irritation against General —* pass completely from my mind. All sense of grievance departed in a flash. As I walked to my new abode, I reflected how thoughtful it had been of him to wish to see me again, and to show courtesy to a subordinate, when he had so much responsibility on his shoulders. And then upon these quaint reflections there came the strong sensation that a hand had been stretched out to move me in the nick of time from a fatal spot. But whether it was the General’s hand or not, I cannot tell.

Now see from this how vain it is to worry about things. It is all chance or destiny and our wayward footsteps are best planted without too much calculation. One must yield oneself simply & naturally to the mood of the game: and trust in God wh[ich] is another way of saying the same thing.

 Clementine replied: “It is horrible to sit here in warmth & luxury while danger & suffering are so close to you— That dreadful walk across the fields there & back among falling shells was on Nov 24th & now it is 10 days later & Heaven knows what narrow escapes you may have had since.”

*The Corps Commander whose casual invitation saved Churchill’s life was Brigadier Sir Richard Haking GBE, KCB, KCMG (1862-1945). In October 1919 Churchill and Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson named Haking to head the British Military Mission to Russia. For an account by H. Ashley Redburn, who met Haking in later life, click here.

1935: “Over me beat the invisible wings”

—November 1935 (written 1948)…

It had been widely bruited that I should join the [1935] Government as First Lord of the Admiralty. But after the figures of his victory had been proclaimed, Mr. Baldwin lost no time in announcing through the Central Office that there was no intention to include me in the Government. In this way he paid some of his debt to the pacifist deputation which he had received in the last days of the election. There was much mocking in the Press about my exclusion. But now one can see how lucky I was. Over me beat the invisible wings.

—Here is one case where Divine Providence preserved him not from death but for politics. In the 14 November 1935 general election, Stanley Baldwin’s Conservatives triumphed to dominate the National Government. Had Churchill been part of that government, he would have been bound by “collective responsibility,” unable to continue the warnings that proved so prophetic by 1939, and propelled him into office in 1940.

Churchill often invoked the words “Christian civilization.” An earlier post of mine on Churchill and Religion was picked up (context albeit somewhat abbreviated) by Wallace Henley. In “The Global Tsunami on ‘Good'” Mr. Henley wrote:

I am not arguing for a Christian theocracy, but for adherence to the basic doctrines of life, love and care described in Scripture. Winston Churchill argued that the great goal of the Second World War was the survival of what he called repeatedly “Christian civilization.” Richard Langworth, a Churchill scholar, says that by “Christian civilization” Churchill thought that Christianity’s “principles applied broadly to all of mankind regardless of religion.” Just as, to Churchill, the word “man” meant humankind, his allusions to Christianity embodied principles he considered universal.

Optimistic agnostic

This is fine as far as it goes, but it leaves out some of the essence. Churchill was, I wrote, an “optimistic agnostic.” Without being on conversational terms with the Almighty, he was quite willing to invoke the Deity when appropriate. As he wrote in his autobiography, My Early Life, “I did not hesitate to ask for special protection.” Andrew Roberts, author of the best single-volume Churchill biography, put this very neatly:

One of the primary duties of the Providential Being in whom Churchill did believe, but to whom he paid little overt obeisance, seems to have been to watch over the physical safety of Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. Few people in history could have brushed against the cloak of the Angel of Death as often as Churchill, yet he survived until his 91st year.

“Black velvet”

Churchill wasn’t sure about what existed after death. He once referred to it as “endless sleep…black velvet.”  Yet at another time he predicted that he would get to heaven and spend his first million years in heaven painting. Thus, he explained, would

“get to the bottom of the subject.”

He often quoted the King James Bible (more than any other book). He was impressed both by its beautiful words and its ethics—which he applied universally. You can be a Sikh, a Hindu, whatever, and still accept Churchill’s precepts of Christian civilization.

Churchill did not take the Bible literally, seeing no need. He said that if its message “cheers your heart and fortifies your soul…what need is there to ask whether the imagery of the ancients is exactly, scientifically feasible?”

What Churchill meant

It would be well to reprint here exactly what I wrote in that earlier post:

When Churchill referred to Chris­t­ian civil­i­za­tion (a phrase I have actu­ally seen edited out of cer­tain mod­ern ren­di­tions) he did not mean to exclude Jews or Bud­dhists or Mus­lims. He meant those words in a much broader sense. Just as, to Churchill, the word “man” meant human­ity, his allu­sions to Chris­tian­ity embod­ied prin­ci­ples he con­sid­ered uni­ver­sal. He meant the Ten Com­mand­ments (a “judg­men­tal” set of moral imper­a­tives now expunged from cer­tain pub­lic places). He meant the Ser­mon on the Mount and the Golden Rule. He meant char­ity, for­give­ness, courage.

It is important to understand this. Churchill’s words taken literally can be interpreted to mean he was a Christian evangelist. Not so. Nor did he mean to exclude other religions from the Commonwealth of Man. Quite the contrary. Churchill’s quarrel was with tyranny.