If it’s not Christianity, then it’s Judaism. Stalinism had no interest in defending the free world, only defending itself, and had to lean on the Christians, to its chagrin.
Undoubtedly there were lots of churchgoers in the political/ideologocial sphere that opposed Churchill, I daresay, and Churchill’s struggles with many personal problems (including depression) have no shortage of documentation; but it was Churchill that showed faith ultimately.
I don’t believe Churchill would have gone against Tolkien on such grounds either. But it’s most likely that Tolkien did see Britain in terms of “Mary’s Dowry” either way.
I think we’re in agreement that religion turned up a variety of positions in World War II. Non Judeo-Christian religions had national or religious/cultural positions in the conflict. Buddhists, for instance, were all over the place: Japan, China, India, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam ...
I guess my point is that Churchill’s wasn’t based on (Protestant) Christianity, the way that Tolkien’s was based on (Catholic) Christianity. Churchill was a nationalist at his roots, and the details of religion weren’t that big a deal to him. “The English-Speaking Peoples,” “The Anglo-Saxon Race” was his frame of reference.
There’s an interesting compare/contrast here with Francisco Franco, who was a Spanish nationalist-militarist as his key features, and a Catholic as his emotional identity, but not necessarily his reference point as a head of government.
by persecuting the Christians and enforcing atheism as the state religion