Presbyterians, Prophetic Tradition, Slavery ... and Nazi Germany

As difficult as it is, the history of Nazi Germany reminds us of how easily German Christians were suborned by Hitler, either to openly support him, or retreat into pious quietism. Many a German Christian believed that Hitler was god-sent to cleanse the nation of immoral and unclean elements, and that the church might once again regain a status of influence and glory lost after the defeat of WW1.

Within my own Presbyterian History, these elements are present - as we have seen in the South, when slavers made sure that the "spirituality of the church" kept pulpits silent on the evils of slavery, and rather spent their time lamenting booze, card playing, theater attendance and cussing.

Thankfully, as with Barth and Bonhoeffer in Germany, the tradition of prophetic critique and protest also exists. They clearly saw the difference between loyalty to Christ and an idolatrous nationalism of Germany First.

While much of the Southern Church remained quiet in the antebellum period, and after the war, with the emergence of Jim Crow, Northern pulpits attacked the evils of slavery, and many a Christian leader decried the evils of voter suppression and school segregation.

During the Civil Rights era, when some preachers in the South touched the topic of segregation, they immediately lost their pulpits. While others were encouraged to "bide their time, give it more study and prayer."

So, what shall we choose?

Support for the powers-that-be, to "make American great again"?

Quiet piety?

An ill-begotten patience?

Or clear-headed critique of the rising tide of evil besieging our land? 

While many a German leader saw Hitler as a clear and present threat, others believed that the rising economy, the laws against Jews, and dreams of lebensraum, were all for the best.

Big Questions for Our Times

Reading a Kay Boyle essay from The New Yorker, 1950, pondering how in the world a nation like Germany could succumb to such a vast evil as Nazism.

And reading Tom Wright's new book on Paul, which begins with a fascinating, if not frightening, chapter on Saul's "zeal" - it's long history and how some believed that violence is justified, indeed, God-approved against any and all who oppose God's plan, with a special vehemence against fellow Jews who were considered compromisers with the tenor of the times.

Zeal ... of the four gospel accounts of Jesus cleansing the Temple, John references zeal ...

So here's where Wright's book gets good, if you will ... the young Saul's zeal was for the Temple, whereas Jesus overturned its tables.

The young Saul a nationalist ... Jesus a reformer ... Saul despised anyone who deviated from the rule of law, whereas Jesus himself was a law-breaker, seeking not to be exclusive, but welcoming.

Zeal ... there's not much life without it ... without passion and vision and purpose ... but some forms of zeal turn narrow, nationalistic, and murderous ... other forms of zeal protest war and racism and anything that excludes anyone because of race, creed, or color.

Given the moment of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s crossing of Pettus Bridge, the murderous zeal of those who stood at the foot of the bridge, mounted and armed, saying "This far and no further," and King and those with him full of zeal for freedom and equality.

How in the world did young Saul reject his studies under Gamaliel and then turn to a more violent view of faith?

Kay Boyle asks how in the world did a young German youth reject his heritage and education to sign on with the Nazis and become a killer?

Or, for that matter, those who stood at the foot of Pettus Bridge, many of them church members, singing gladly of Jesus, come to look upon people of color as objects to be hated?

And collectively, how did so many Germans reject culture and Christ and then turn to a vicious anti-Semitism, and to a vicious cleansing of German society?

All of it driven by zeal ... which may, perhaps be some kind of emotional element we all possess ... but without formation, until the right moment comes along, and, then, like Saul, or young Germans, we turn to the Dark Side, if you will ... or like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Karl Barth, or a Martin Luther King, Jr., we turn to the Light.

As the story unfolds, the young Saul (likely just a few years younger than Jesus) was given another chance, and in the midst of his darkness, a Light ... and in that moment, Saul's zeal was transformed into something life-giving and profoundly generous.

In times such as ours, dangerous times, I think, questions abound about young shooters, men with guns, and people, even evangelicals, who are just mean-spirited and hateful ...

And those who rise above the clamor and choose love and justice and welcome instead ... who go to bat for the voiceless, who raise a cry for mercy, who seek a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Big questions for our times ...

The America I've Known ...

The America I've known for most of my life,
And for which I've watched good and decent people strive:
Overcoming the Great Depression, Dust Bowls and disasters ...
Working through the horrors of McCarthyism,
Expanding civil rights and ending, mostly, segregation.

And a host of good things.
Sound diplomacy, mostly.
GOP Presidents, less than good, but mostly tolerable.
And too much given away to the rich.

But attention still paid to Working America.

Now, being trashed.
Tossed out on the rubbish heap behind a billionaire's home.
The American Worker savaged.
Mutuality destroyed by American individuality.

A poisonous me-first cluster-bomb.
Exploding across the land.
Racism rampant born again.
Misogyny revamped.

Here I am, 72, soon to be 73.
And my America is being thrashed and trashed.
By the greedy and the cruel
By religion run amok.

Evangelicals who are nothing more than Baalists.
Osteen lovers of wealth and dreamers of dominance.
Robbing the treasury of my nation.
Giving it away to the Philanthrobbers.

All is lost, it really is.
In a cesspool of GOP Chamber of Commerce.
Reliance upon the Almighty Dollar.
The Capitalist Way, the Truth and the Life.

I'll not look the other way.
Though a forthright view of things is hideous.
I'll not put on an alternative-fact smile.
Though tears are more than likely.

Now is the time to tell the truth.
The King has no clothes.
The promise of greatness is a chimera.
Birthed to win votes.

Tell the truth.
I think that's what my heroes did.
Jeremiah in the muddy well.
Isaiah in the temple.

Paul to the Romans when he spoke of grace.
And James to those who gutted the faith of life.
And John to those who cheapened love.
And Jesus to the bankers.

And Wycliffe and Huss.
And Luther and Calvin.
And Bonhoeffer and Barth and Bultmann.
And Martin Luther King, Jr.

All's well that ends well, is for sure.
I believe in the good ending.
But not always a good path in the meantime.
But the path upon which God walks with us.

I'll trod that path in the years that remain.
It'll surely be for others to clean up the present mess.
Cleanse the air and the water again.
And set the people free.

A Failed Christianity.

Christianity is very large tent of ideas, but it's not unlimited.

There are boundaries, foundations, core ideas, values, that define the faith and keep it centered in Christ, his life and his teachings, and the central ideas of going to Jerusalem, and there confronting both religious and secular powers, dying there at their hands, and then the resurrection, the ascension and the promise of a return when time has run its course, as determined by God, the LORD of history.

With that, I have spent a good deal of my life trying to be a Christian, and I think it means basing my life on the essentials, noted in the preceding paragraph.

Having gone to a Calvinist based Christian High School, then to Calvin College, and then to Western Theological Seminary, all in Western Michigan, before much of the Reformed Church in that area was deformed by evangelicalism, Moody Bible Institute, Jerry Falwell and "inspirational TV" and its shallow praise music, which slowly but inexorably turned covenant-oriented churches into conversion-oriented churches, and shifted the focus from God to self, from humility to pride, now with a curious fixation on wealth and power and the condemnation of the poor for their moral failures and defective judgment. A Christianity that loves its walls and fears the bridges.

With that, I simply say: this is a failed Christianity.

Now, immediately, some will jump in and say, "You're judging."

My response: "Damn right I am."

And I stand with the likes of Jeremiah, Jesus himself, the Apostle Paul, Augustine, Luther and Calvin, Bonhoeffer and Barth, Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr., to name just a few luminaries who have consistently inspired me to think biblically, critically, carefully and to make judgments.

And I'm not without some credentials ... yes, yes, yes, I know that's the first refuge of the arrogant (look at all the medals on my chest) and all of that, but Jesus made it clear that he had his credentials, Paul had his, and so did Luther and Calvin (both well-credentialed).

Anyway, the point is this: large segments of American Christianity is a failed Christianity, with
1) it's baptism of wealth and power,
2) it's readiness to identify with Trump's condemnation of others,
3) his bluster and buffoonery,
4) his windbaggery and wantonness,
5) his wall-fixation and wild lies.

It's the "other gospel" that Paul addresses ... it's the anabaptist movement of self which Calvin condemns, it's the lack of justice so clearly identified by King ... they all looked at various versions of the faith, and while making room for variants, they also said "No!" to other versions.

Part of this was prompted by someone talking about the "legal" and "the illegal" immigrant, to which I replied: these kinds of distinctions have no legitimacy in Christianity, smacking more of the Jew/Samaritan distinction which Jesus patently ignored. Jesus was clearly someone who paid no attention to boundaries and social rules about children and women, gentiles and Samaritans.

To deal with people by legal or illegal distinctions, and yet claim to be Christian, reveals what I determine to be, "a failed Christianity."

So, for me, I'd rather stand with Jeremiah rather than with the false prophets of king and cult who preached peace when there was none. I'd rather stand with Paul and not those who preached the gospel and grew rich because of it. I'll stand with Calvin and his covenant theology rather than the Anabaptists and their focus on conversion and its clever back-patting. I'll walk with King along the road of Justice worked out on the Edmund Pettus Bridge rather than those who wanted the church to only preach "spiritual values" even as the church ignored the sins of racism, promoted school segregation, with private schools, and maintained voter suppression, "through law."

That's how I see it.

And I have a lot of weight behind that judgment, and for that, I'm grateful.