By Todd Starnes
A biography of Winston Churchill made me begin to wonder about the religious side of our great statesman. Was he really just like us – a farmer, a family man, a merchant who didn’t have the sort of financial stable to pursue a self-improvement career?
I read “Churchill’s Shadow” and I realized that Churchill was, in fact, Jewish.
FOLLOW TODD ON FACEBOOK FOR CULTURE WAR NEWS. CLICK HERE TO JOIN!
According to Wheatcroft, Churchill was raised Jewish, but converted to Catholicism as an adult. Indeed, the Scottish Catholic turned prime minister is referred to as a bastard Jew.
“Churchill was certainly no hero of the First World War, although in the Third World War, with his shock of new-hair, his amused smile and his mordant wisdom, he became a global rock star,” Wheatcroft told Fox News.
And there is even more: Churchill lost his mother. His father was assassinated in 1843. His first marriage was to Clementine. His second marriage to the much younger Sarah Ward failed.
Leaving aside the illegitimacy of marriage (and the many reasons he might have not have married the first woman), Wheatcroft writes, “it’s possible he was only married five or six times. His marriage to Marian Anderson was not counted as a marriage in the British census.”
Churchill took his Biblical knowledge with him to the battlefield as a young officer. He recounted his time fighting the Germans in France:
During his time in the Third Division there were about 400 Jews who died of typhus during World War I. The Germans later tried to kill Churchill in prison, but he survived because the guards believed he had been praying at the time.
Churchill’s spiritual journey did not end with the war. The historian writes, “Churchill remained and is still fighting the war that he started.”
Wheatcroft says he knew Churchill well.
“I can’t tell you how many conversations I had with Churchill over the years, about religion, his thoughts on Catholicism and on politics and the world. I’ll never forget one conversation, about 60 years ago, about Hitler, and he said how he knew Hitler was a wicked man.”
The king of Blighty sent a telegram to Pope Pius XII asking the Catholic leader for advice. Churchill believed Hitler must be driven from power. The Pope responded by saying “the Pope will send you a telegram no later than 27 April 1945.”
The letter from Winston Churchill was handwritten, in pencil. It reads, “Churchill’s Shadow.”
So what does “Churchill’s Shadow” have to do with politics?
Wheatcroft writes, “Churchill was intimately involved in the Anglo-American battle to save the union between France and Germany. It was Churchill, in fact, who made the radio broadcasts across America urging the great country to rally round Britain.”
Churchill didn’t just saved the union between France and Germany. He saved the union between the United States and Great Britain. He went further and saved the union between the United States and Russia. He made sure we never lost them as well.
He was a nationalist with a strong moral compass and he served at a time when the United States and the United Kingdom were seriously engaged in the world.
Maybe Churchill had something to do with his survival. One of his own great western enemies could have murdered him. He wouldn’t just have survived. He would have lived to love his wife again. And maybe to have a Protestant to celebrate Christmas with.
But in the end the historian concludes, “Churchill was no one’s hero or villain, and neither side claims him for their own. We simply take his life for granted because we remember him from our childhood.”
So in the end Churchill was a great Christian, a great patriot and a great public servant. He also had a great sense of humor. He had a knack for good news.
Be sure to listen to “Faith Nation” each Sunday at 10 a.m. ET on Fox News Radio.
