Ecumenism

===Political parties===
{{Christian Democracy sidebar}}
The [[state atheism]] of the former Eastern Bloc, which brought about a [[Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc|persecution of Christians]], caused a rise in [[Christian nationalism]] in the West, as well as ecumenical cooperation among Christians across [[Christian denomination|denominational lines]].<ref name="Edwards2019">{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Mark Thomas |title=Faith and Foreign Affairs in the American Century |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-7012-1 |page=109 |language=en}}</ref> For example, the United States, in 1956, adopted "[[In God We Trust]]" as its official motto "to differentiate itself from the Soviet Union, its Cold War enemy that was widely seen as promoting atheism."<ref name="Merriman2007">{{cite book |last1=Merriman |first1=Scott A. |title=Religion and the Law in America: An Encyclopedia of Personal Belief and Public Policy |date=2007 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-863-7 |language=en|quote=In 1956, the United States, changed its motto to 'In God We Trust', in large part to differentiate itself from the Soviet Union, its Cold War enemy that was widely seen as promoting atheism.}}</ref> During this time, [[List of Christian human rights non-governmental organisations|Christian human rights non-governmental organisations]], such as [[Voice of the Martyrs]], were founded in order to provide support to Christians persecuted in the Communist Bloc, also engaging in activities such as [[Censorship of the Bible#Bible smugglers|Bible smuggling]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The St. Croix Review, Volume 34 |date=2001 |publisher=Religion and Society, Incorporated |page=22 |language=en |quote=In 1967, Wurmbrand established Jesus to the Communist World (later Voice of the Martyrs), a bible- smuggling mission and anti-Communist organization based in California ...}}</ref> In the 1990s, the period surrounding the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]] led "a surge in the activity of religious groups and interests among broad segments of the population".<ref name="LokshinaKendall2002">{{cite book |last1=Lokshina |first1=T. |last2=Kendall |first2=A. |title=Nationalism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Contemporary Russia |date=2002 |publisher=Moscow Helsinki Group |page=26 |language=en |quote=The late 1980s — early 1990s, with the Soviet government shedding the policy of state atheism, marked a surge in the activity of religious groups and interests among broad segments of the population.}}</ref> The revival of the Church occurred in these formerly Communist areas; [[Christian missionaries]] also entered the former Eastern Bloc in order to engage in [[evangelism]] there, winning people back to Christianity.<ref name="Schmidt1991">{{cite web |last1=Schmidt |first1=William E. |title=U.S. Evangelicals Winning Soviet Converts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/07/world/us-evangelicals-winning-soviet-converts.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=26 June 2020 |language=en |date=7 October 1991}}</ref><ref name="Weir2011">{{cite web |last1=Weir |first1=Fred |title=Russia emerges as Europe's most God-believing nation |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0506/Russia-emerges-as-Europe-s-most-God-believing-nation |publisher=[[CS Monitor]] |access-date=26 June 2020 |language=en |date=6 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pieterse |first1=Jan Nederveen |title=Christianity and Hegemony: Religion and Politics on the Frontiers of Social Change |date=1992 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-85496-749-0 |page=298 |language=en |quote=A network of American evangelical organizations, including Youth with a Mission, have targeted Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for an aggressive evangelization campaign in the 1990s.}}</ref>

[[Christian democracy]] is a centrist political ideology inspired by [[Catholic social teaching]] and [[Neo-Calvinist]] theology.<ref name="Monsma2012">{{cite book|last=Monsma|first=Stephen V.|title=Pluralism and Freedom: Faith-based Organizations in a Democratic Society|year=2012|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|language=en|isbn=9781442214309|page=13|quote=This is the Christian Democratic tradition and the structural pluralist concepts that underlie it. The Roman Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity and its related concepts, as well as the parallel neo-Calvinist concept of sphere sovereignty, play major roles in structural pluralist thought.}}</ref> Christian democratic political parties came to prominence after [[World War II]] after Roman Catholics and Protestants worked together to help rebuild war-torn Europe.<ref name="Witte1993">{{cite book|last=Witte|first=John|title=Christianity and Democracy in Global Context|year=1993|publisher=Westview Press|language=en |isbn=9780813318431|page=9|quote=Concurrent with this missionary movement in Africa, both Protestant and Catholic political activists helped to restore democracy to war-torn Europe and extend it overseas. Protestant political activism emerged principally in England, the Lowlands, and Scandinavia under the inspiration of both social gospel movements and neo-Calvinism. Catholic political activism emerged principally in Italy, France, and Spain under the inspiration of both Rerum Novarum and its early progeny and of neo-Thomism. Both formed political parties, which now fall under the general aegis of the Christian Democratic Party movement. Both Protestant and Catholic parties inveighed against the reductionist extremes and social failures of liberal democracies and social democracies. Liberal democracies, they believed, had sacrificed the community for the individual; social democracies had sacrificed the individual for the community. Both parties returned to a traditional Christian teaching of "social pluralism" or "subsidiarity," which stressed the dependence and participation of the individual in family, church, school, business, and other associations. Both parties stressed the responsibility of the state to respect and protect the "individual in community."}}</ref> From its inception, Christian Democracy fosters an "ecumenical unity achieved on the religious level against the [[state atheism|atheism]] of the government in the Communist countries".<ref name="Dussel1981">{{cite book|last=Dussel|first=Enrique|title=A History of the Church in Latin America|year=1981|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|language=en|isbn=978-0-8028-2131-7|page=217|quote=European Christian Democracy after the Second World War really represented a common political front against the People's Democracies, that is, Christian Democracy was a kind of ecumenical unity achieved on the religious level against the atheism of the government in the Communist countries.}}</ref>
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