Thank God for Winston Churchill

Head of Gold; Feet of Clay

There is plenty of discussion these days about Winston Churchill and World War II.  Three movies have appeared in recent months.  One deals with Dunkirk (where Churchill had assumed the Prime Ministership) and the victory-from-the-jaws-of defeat at Dunkirk.  A second (the most recent to be released) deals with the "Battle for Britain", entitled Darkest Hour.  The third, Churchill, deals with the run up to the Normandy invasion.  All are great flicks, historically faithful, and worth watching. 

Churchill was an unusual person, to put it mildly.  He saw some things more clearly than the average man--especially, the average politician.  But he remains deeply flawed.  That, in and of itself, makes him a singular figure in twentieth century history.

In the account of historian Robert Tombs, we read the following:

The importance of Churchill's leadership, despite criticisms then and since, remains undeniable.  Attlee once said tartly that Churchill's main contribution to the war was talking about it.  Churchill himself said modestly that it was "the nation and race dwelling round the globe that had the lion heart," and he only "had the luck to be called upon to give the roar."  There was truth in both remarks.

Churchill was above all a master of words, prepared and memorized, inspired by Shakespeare, Gibbon, Macaulay--over 2,000 speeches, over 4 million words during his career.  He said that "words are the only things which live for ever," and many of his phrases became part of the language--the only statesman of whom this can be said.  [Robert Tombs, The English and their History (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2015),  p.706f.] 

Churchill's fascination with, focus upon, and utterance of  words--his core belief in the power of words--has a connection with Jesus Christ Himself, for He is the one who bears the divine title, "The Word".  Christians are those who believe and understand that everything that that is, apart from the self-existent God, came into existence by God speaking it into being.  It is why the Kingdom of God, for its part, comes into existence by preaching and proclamation.  Preaching the Gospel to all the nations of the earth is how the Kingdom of God is reified throughout the earth.

Churchill's fascination with the power and significance of words is a reflection of this fundamental Christian truth.  But Churchill was, to say the least, an idiosyncratic man, which for many was part of his charm; for others it was a profound vexation.

Enemy propaganda attacked his idiosyncrasies, but most people accepted them, even liked them, as a sign of common humanity.  He, grandson of a duke, was the first of that small group of prime ministers to be generally referred to by their Christian names.  But his idiosyncrasies were real, including meddling, stubbornness, sometimes bullying and chaotic methods of working, aggravated by advancing age, years of stress, alcohol, and failing health.  General Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff and his closest military adviser, sometimes found working with him almost unbearable:

He knows no details, has only got half the picture in his mind, talking absurdities and . . . the wonderful thing is that 3/4 of the population of the world imagine that Winston Church is one of the greatest strategists of history, . . . and the other 1/4 have no conception what a public menace he is and has been throughout this war!  It is far better that the world should never know, and never suspect the feet of clay of that otherwise superhuman being.  Without him England was lost for a certainty, with him England has been on the verge of disaster time and again.  [Ibid., p. 707.]

It seems a pattern of human history that the more indomitable and  potent a person is, the more weaknesses, foibles, and failings abound.