Archive: Confessing Christ in the Midst of Tyranny
In every age the church has had to resist accommodation to non-Christian policies and ideologies. The German church’s confrontation with Democratic Socialism during World War II described in the article below, provides vital, timely lessons for today’s church.
by Charles Colson with Ellen Santilli Vaughn
By now (July 14, 1933), Hitler had only one significant source of opposition. Not the journalists, political parties, universities, or labor unions; all these he had almost completely converted to Nazism in less than six months. Instead, opposition came from a most unexpected source: the church.
Two-thirds of the German population—45,000,000—were Protestants, primarily Lutherans. But Hitler would allow no independent source of authority in his resurrected Germany. Everyone must answer to the Fuhrer. Every institution must serve the aims of the Fatherland, including the church.
Publicly, in the beginning, Hitler gave the appearance of being a religious man. In private, however, he expressed his utter contempt for the church, particularly for the Protestants. He expected their pastors to knuckle under easily to his schemes for remolding the church, his main source of opposition. “They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes.”
Early on he had negotiated an agreement with Rome that removed Roman Catholic opposition to his regime. Eager to support the spirit of the times, the 28 main Protestant denominations voluntarily began work on a new constitution that would unite them under one leader according to the “Fuhrer principle.”
But Hitler was impatient; he did not want to wait for the church bureaucracy. He decided to push an obscure, obsequious naval chaplain, Ludwig Muller, into leadership of the newly united Protestant church. Despite the Fuhrer’s prestigious support, however, Muller was defeated in a May 27 election.
Hitler refused to meet the elected bishop. Instead, radio and press propaganda poured out favorable material about Muller. In late June, Nazi government officials invaded church offices, forcibly taking over administrative positions. Muller proclaimed himself national bishop-elect.
The new officials ordered services of praise and thanksgiving for this takeover. Every church in Germany was to be decorated with Nazi flags and a proclamation was to be read from the pulpit.
But while all Germany was being wooed to Hitler, a stubborn resistance was taking root within the church itself—the Young Reformation Movement. Martin Niemoller, Hans Jacobi, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were among its first members. They were apolitical, and their meetings often included a resolution of loyalty to the government, and sometimes to Adolf Hitler. But they also valued the church’s independence and rejected any attempt to blend a religion of Germany with the religion of Jesus Christ.
On July 14, 1933, Hitler surprised everyone by calling a special church election to be held nine days later on July 23. The German Christians were given complete access to the state-run radio and newspapers; the Young Reformation hastily organized a slate of candidates and began feverish campaigning. Over the weekend, leaflets were written and duplicated.
On Monday, July 17, the Gestapo invaded the Young Reformation offices and confiscated all 620,000 campaign leaflets.
[Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer agreed that someone must go directly to Hitler to protest what had been done. Jacobi and Bonhoeffer went to Gestapo headquarters and demanded to see Rudolf Diels, the Gestapo chief.]
When Diels heard their complaint, he did not budge an inch. “It seems clear to me, Pastors, that you are in the wrong. You have published scurrilous literature. You are fortunate not to have been arrested yourselves.” He stood up and held out his hand, as though that closed the matter.
Neither Bonhoeffer nor Jacobi moved. “The Fuhrer made the explicit promise that this election would be free and secret,” Bonhoeffer said. “He wanted to settle the political quarrels of our church through a fair election. Do you think confiscating all of one party’s literature can be considered fair treatment?
“Pastor, I have heard the Fuhrer’s words. He appointed me to safeguard them. He did not give you that responsibility. My officers have been very lenient with you. If it were up to me I would send you to the concentration camp now. In fact I am thinking of it. Why don’t you simply leave now and go prepare your next sermon?”
“You have not answered my question,” Bonhoeffer pressed him.
The Gestapo leader leaned back in his chair and forced a smile. “You do not really have much respect for the state, do you, Pastor?”
“I have enough respect for the state to protest when it does wrong,” Bonhoeffer snapped back.
Hitler Backs Christian Faction
That weekend Hitler was in Bayreuth for the annual Wagner Festival. During an interval in the program, he broadcast a message calling for the German people, in support of all he had done, to elect those forces that “as exemplified by the German Christians, have deliberately chosen to take their stand within the National Socialist State.”
For Martin Niemoller, that address was a lightning bolt. As a former U-boat captain from World War I and an ardent German patriot, he had supported Hitler. Now he had heard, in disbelief, a state official telling the church whom to elect as their spiritual representatives. Niemoller would never trust Hitler again.
In September the new governing body of the German Evangelical Church met. They elected Hitler’s man, Muller, their bishop and passed the much-debated Aryan Paragraph, outlawing all Jews or persons married to Jews from church office. They also passed a ruling that all pastors take an oath of loyalty to Hitler and his government.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer urged vehemently that all dissenting pastors resign from the church. Instead, protest formed under a new organization, the Pastors’ Emergency League, led by the tireless Martin Niemoller. Within a week 2,300 pastors had signed its pledge to be bound in their preaching “only by Holy Scripture and the Confessions of the Reformation.” By the end of the year members would total 6,000.
Christian Faction Rallies
In November, 1933, 20,000 German Christians, including bishops and church officials in full regalia, gathered in the Berlin Sports Palace. Joachim Hossenfelder, a Berlin pastor and head of the German Christians, presided in his Nazi uniform. After the usual parade of swastika-bedecked flags, Hossenfelder announced that in his diocese, the Aryan paragraph—dismissing all Jews from church office—was being put into effect immediately. He also announced that Niemoller and other leaders of the Pastors’ Emergency League would be suspended, since their activities were entirely foreign to the true spirit of Germany. At each announcement the crowd erupted into a resounding cheer.
The main speaker of the evening was a senior Nazi official who demanded that everything un-German be purged from the church. His final admonition was that the Bible be re-examined for non-German elements: “liberation from the Old Testament, with its Jewish money morality and these stories of cattle-dealers and pimps.” It also meant purging the New Testament of its Jewish elements, especially the unheroic theology of the apostle Paul with his “inferiority complex.” A proud, heroic Jesus must replace the model of a “suffering servant.”
His speech was interrupted again and again by applause. Not one of the bishops or church leaders stood to disagree. Instead, when the speaker had finished, resolutions were enthusiastically passed supporting his words and calling for Jewish Christians to be forced into “Ghetto churches.”
Resistance Leaders Meet Hitler
Martin Niemoller and a group of his fellow bishops waited quietly in the Reich Chancellery. Finally they were ushered into the Fuhrer’s office. Hitler, his face flushed, rose from behind his desk and came forward and began angrily to lecture the pastors. His entire manner made them feel like criminals.
“Do you think you can pull such outrageous, backstairs politics with me? You underestimate me if you do. I am sick of being treated this way, by the church leaders of all people. What have I done to you? Only tried to make peace between all your warring factions.”
Hitler raved on. The bishops were dumbfounded and Niemoller was horrified. The thought of a treason trial crossed his mind. When Hitler finally did stop, Niemoller stepped to the front and went on to explain that the struggle for the church was by no means aimed against the Third Reich; it was for the sake of the nation.
“I will protect the German people,” Hitler shouted. “You take care of the church. You pastors should worry about getting people to heaven and leave this world to me.”
The shaken clergymen timidly tried to soothe Hitler’s temper. They suggested that Bishop Muller simply lacked the mature qualities that a national bishop needed. The reason for their concern was the possibility of mixing false doctrines with the true gospel.
Hitler did shake hands with the churchmen when they left. As he came to Niemoller, the pastor looked into the Fuhrer’s face and spoke directly and carefully. “A moment ago, Herr Hitler, you told us that you would take care of the German people. But as Christians and men of the church we too have a responsibility for the German people, laid upon us by God. Neither you nor anyone else can take that away from us.”
For a moment Hitler stared at him. Then he touched Niemoller’s hand and moved on without a word. Outside, several of the clergymen accosted Niemoller, “How could you speak that way to the Fuhrer? Don’t you see that you have ruined it all?”
Protestant Bishops Capitulate
On the Monday after their meeting with Hitler, the Protestant bishops of Germany gathered for a meeting with National Bishop Muller. Shocked and frightened by Niemoller’s behavior [courage], they completely capitulated. They issued a statement of unconditional support for Hitler, the Third Reich, and Bishop Muller, and vowed to carry out any measures and directives he ordered.
Alarmed by Niemoller’s radical leadership, 2,000 members of the Pastor’s Emergency League—almost a third of the group—resigned. Encouraged by this victory, Bishop Muller became more aggressive and dictatorial. He published a series of disciplinary measures, suspensions, dismissals, and retirements. He declared that from then on, the church would not be governed by useless synods but by a centralized bureaucracy.
May 29, 1934, Barmen, Germany. They met in a large church in a modern industrial town: 139 delegates in all—half pastors, half laymen—representing 18 different German denominations. Some were frightened, others elated about the statement of faith they were about to draw up as the charter of the church’s resistance.
The Barmen Declaration was not a political document, and it said not a word about Hitler or [Bishop] Muller. Rather, it set forth the theological foundations of the church for which they were prepared to suffer, and it spoke strongly and directly against the false teachings of the German Christians. The clear implication was that Hitler’s elevation of the German race was anti-Christian. God had not specially revealed himself through the German nation, blood, race, or even Hitler.
Barmen also spelled out their understanding of church and state. It said in part: “The Bible tells us that according to divine arrangements the state has the responsibility to provide for justice and peace in the yet unredeemed world, in which the church also stands. … We repudiate the false teaching that the state can and should expand beyond its special responsibility to become the single and total order of human life … ”
For their expression of faith [the Barmen Declaration], some of those present would lose their livelihood, be imprisoned, or exiled. Others would lose their lives. A great many others, however, would fail the test.
One of the results of the Barmen meeting was the organization of a group that called themselves the Confessing Church. They represented the large number of Christians within the badly divided German Evangelical Church who most opposed the policies of Hitler. Among their numbers were Niemoller and Bonhoeffer.
March 10, 1935, Berlin. In the midst of this sleepy Sunday afternoon, a knock came at the door. Pastor Schollen seemed frightened. He declined a cup of tea and sat fidgeting and glancing around nervously until Niemoller said impatiently, “Get on with it, man! What did you come about?”
Schollen fished in his wallet and brought out a small red card, which he tried to hand to Niemoller. Niemoller waved it away, smiling. He recognized it as the membership card for the Confessing Church. “Yes, I knew you had joined, Pastor Schollen. I recognize your name.”
“I came for counsel, Brother Niemoller. Did you read the statement aloud today?”
“Yes, of course. We had a meeting with the entire congregation in the parish hall. I not only read it, I demanded that everyone make clear where they stand. We took a vote and it was passed overwhelmingly.”
Schollen fidgeted, looked down at his feet, then said, “I didn’t read the statement this morning because the chief of police is in my congregation. He warned me against it, told me I could lose my position. And I did not feel certain that the tactics were correct.”
Niemoller’s sleepiness was gone. “Pastor Schollen, you are not the only one lacking courage. But many pastors were not afraid this morning. They read the statement and hundreds more will read it next week.”
“You don’t think it is too severe?” Schollen asked. “Some of the pastors thought a more reasonable tone would be more honoring to those with different views. I mean, calling it ‘a new religion making idols of blood, race, nation, honor, eternal Germany.’ That’s quite strong.”
“It is nothing less than a new religion,” Niemoller said. “A new religion with a different God. Do you know what they are teaching the Hitler Youth now? They are saying that just as Jesus went through three days in the grave, Hitler spent a year in prison. But Hitler’s resurrection did not take him away from earth; he stayed here to save the German people. They are teaching that to our children now! Don’t you know that?”
“One hears all kinds of things. But how do you know that it is the whole picture?”
“By the time you know the whole picture they will have taken down our crosses and put up swastikas. And you and I will be in the KZ [concentration camps].”
“But even Bodelschwingh, your old mentor, says we should wait,” Schollen said. “They are talking to Hitler, and soon they will reach a reasonable solution. Is it proper to be making proclamations against the government when discussions are continuing on a daily basis? I ask myself, how could I justify this to the Fuhrer?”
“Justify yourself to the Lord Jesus!” Niemoller shouted.
“I will tell you something,” Niemoller added in a lower tone. “Hitler is a coward, a coward and a bully. He will terrify you so long as you are willing to be terrified. We must stand up to him for the church of Jesus Christ.”
“I really must go, Pastor Niemoller,” Schollen said stiffly. He had heard what he needed to hear to make up his mind. He left quickly, not looking back.
That week 700 pastors were arrested before they went to their churches to read the statement of the Confessing Church.
[Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were sent to concentration camps because of their resistance to Hitler. Niemoller survived, Bonhoeffer was hanged just weeks before the Allied forces liberated Germany.]
Adapted from Kingdoms in Conflict by Charles Colson with Ellen Santilli Vaughn, co-published by William Morrow and Zondervan Publishing House, 1987. Reprinted with permission of Prison Fellowship, P. 0. Box 17500, Washington, D.C. 20041-0500.
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