Neville Chamberlain looked ominously down on us from his larger-than-life portrait above the mantelpiece in a posh London gentlemen’s club last Saturday. Chamberlain. Of all people.
Frankly I was already out of my comfort zone in the elite neighborhood of Buckingham Palace. But I had agreed to attend a gathering of invited leaders from all continents discussing strategy for discipling nations.
Since World War Two the free world had always looked to America for leadership.
My discomfort was aggravated by political developments in both Munich and Washington over recent days. The American-led international order based on international rule of law, respect for sovereign borders, and institutions holding nations accountable was being demolished by the reckless Washington administration. Whereas since World War Two the free world had always looked to America for leadership, the stark reality now was that that role had sadly been abdicated.
The US posture at the 2025 Munich Security Conference echoed Chamberlain’s signing of the Munich Agreement in the autumn of 1938 as an act of appeasement—a British prime minister, who was now staring at us from his portrait on the wall, gave in to a dictator with plans for European domination. The result was tragic war.
Munich in our day will be remembered for an American president’s capitulation to a dictator with plans for reclaiming mastery of Central and Eastern Europe. Where will this betrayal of Western values lead?
The jubilant mood in Moscow contrasts sharply with the stunned unbelief in Kyiv and among Europe’s leaders.
The jubilant mood in Moscow contrasts sharply with the stunned unbelief in Kyiv and among Europe’s leaders. Pro-Kremlin bloggers can’t believe the turn of events in which their war-criminal president is being rewarded for his genocidal invasion and callous destruction of over a million Russian and Ukrainian lives.
Brave and war-weary Ukrainians, all of whom have personally suffered and many of whom have lost loved ones, have had insult added to injury by an American president (no less) blaming their country for starting the war (astounding), and accusing their courageous leader of being a dictator (unbelievable).
Responsible perspectives?
Two days later (17-19 February), with a heavy heart, I left the disciple making event and headed eastwards across London to my next event. A politician friend had urged me to attend the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), with Jordan Peterson, countless other speakers, and 4,000 international attendees.
Promising ‘A better story’, the congress was an impressively organized, highly resourced, and high-tech event with many TED-talk type presentations, panels, exhibitions and subsidiary events.
The list of speakers had forewarned me that my comfort zone would be further intruded upon. But I did want to hear the likes of Os Guinness, Ayaan Hirshi Ali, and Niall Ferguson. It was my first exposure to Peterson, a Canadian psychologist with a global following who describes himself as a classical liberal and traditionalist.
I warmed to his exposure of post-modern liberalism as the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure and self-fulfillment, rejecting self-sacrifice on behalf of others such as family, community and nation. Furthermore, his insistence that history did have a narrative, that Western society was shaped by the biblical narrative, with sacrifice for the common good at its heart, resonated strongly with me.
Os Guinness’ crystal clear comments during a panel set the tone for much of the conference that we face ‘a civilizational moment’ when Western society will either be renewed, lost, or replaced. In a later talk, Os challenged a spell-bound audience to go beyond lip-service to a Judean-Christian legacy to personal commitment to God. Renewal of faith was indispensable, he argued, for meaning, belonging, and purpose in life.
I was unprepared for the onslaught of speakers praising the Conservative American way.
I should have realized that the program content would reflect the Anglo-American majority of attendees. Yet I was unprepared for the onslaught of speakers praising the Conservative American way, the new president, and raw capitalism versus what was called "socialism" (which was clumsily confused with communism).
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, linked by live video, spoke of "the pendulum swinging back from the left to the center" (thereby redefining the center) in a speech which sounded great but was rendered vacuous by the behavior of his boss.
Alternate realities
As it was in Munich the week before, America was again on center-stage. Ukraine wasn’t even mentioned. While we were meeting in London’s gigantic ExCel center, we were cocooned from the tragic realities unfolding on the world stage. With the notable exception of New York Times writer David Brooks. His warning that the current presidential wrecking spree could cause irrepairable damage trod on a few toes.
I had hoped Ayaan Hirshi Ali, who recently converted to Christianity, would bring a sane perspective to the crisis unfolding as well. But my heart sank when she began championing nationalism as opposed to transnational institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union. She argued that nationalism did not start wars, sadly echoing the same claims as far-right politicians.
"Dear Ayaan", I wanted to say, "can’t you see that nationalism results in the big guys dominating the little guys, exactly as is happening right now in the Saudi Arabia talks? That its philosophy is ‘might is right’? Have you already forgotten the big lesson of World War Two when American-led initiatives set up an international order of institutions based on values of justice, peace, rule of law, and solidarity, to hold rogue nations accountable? And to prevent such war from ever happening again? Don’t you see that nationalism is self-seeking and isolationist, ignoring the common good, the very fault this conference found in post-modern liberalism?"
There’s a more mature way than competition, independence, and self-assertion.
There’s a more mature way than competition, independence, and self-assertion. And that’s collaboration, interdependence, and mutuality—the original vision for European integration.
And, yes, there is a better story to tell. Snippets could be heard this week despite the static. But it’s not a white, Anglo-American, conservative, capitalist, Christian nationalist story attempting to turn the clock back to a totalitarian Christendom.
Jesus also trod on the toes of the nationalists of his day when he told that better story, the one about the Good Samaritan. Today he’d probably shock us by talking about the Good Palestinian Muslim. Jesus himself summed up the law in the twin command to love God and neighbor. Whether Mexican or Canadian, Ukrainian or Russian, Israeli or Palestinian.
That’s a better story.
Jeff Fountain and his wife Romkje are the initiators of the Schuman Centre for European Studies. They moved to Amsterdam in December 2017 after living in the Dutch countryside for over 40 years engaged with the YWAM Heidebeek training centre. Romkje was founder of YWAM The Netherlands and chaired the national board until 2013. Jeff was YWAM Europe director for 20 years, until 2009. Jeff chaired the annual Hope for Europe Round Table until 2015, while Romkje chaired the Women in Leadership network until recently. Jeff is author of Living as People of Hope, Deeply Rooted and other titles, and also writes weekly word, a weekly column on issues relating to Europe.
Originally published by Weekly Word. Republished with permission.
