German Christians and the Christian Identity Movement:

One a Warning; One a Threat

[Author's note:  I wrote this paper in 2013.  Unfortunately, the election of the current U.S. president and zenophobic leaders in Europe and the increase in violence against "othered" groups and religions, have confirmed that the fears expressed in this paper were well-founded.]

Introduction

There are parallels between what happened in Nazi Germany with the German Christian movement and the current Christian Identity movement in North America.  Very similar worldviews are operative in both movements.  For example, anti-miscegenation laws came into effect in the 1930s in Germany.  Similar laws were already in effect in Virginia in 1691.  Since then, 30 other states passed laws that made marriage between whites and blacks illegal.  In some states, these laws prohibit marriage between whites and any non-white person, including Jews.  Many of these laws were not overturned until 1967 by a Supreme Court decision[1]. 

U.S States, by date of repeal of anti-miscegenation laws:

  No laws passed

  Repealed before 1887

  Repealed from 1948 to 1967

  Overturned on 12 June 1967

Another example is the Texas State Board of Education’s approval of inaccurate and revisionist changes to social studies textbooks that promote a mixture of far right ideology and a conservative Christianity.  Such revisionist views of history have consequences that reach far beyond the Texas state boarder.

"The books that are altered to fit the standards become the bestselling books, and therefore within the next two years they'll end up in other classrooms," said Fritz Fischer, chairman of the National Council for History Education, a group devoted to history teaching at the pre-college level. "It's not a partisan issue, it's a good history issue."[2]

Similarly each of these movements rewrites salvation history and distorts Scripture to such an extent that to call the either movement “Christian” is a blasphemous misnomer.

German Christians’ unChristianity

Through it's anti-Jewish, anti-doctrinal and so-called "manly church" teachings, the German Christians[3] are in fact, unChristian. These teachings, include, but are not limited to:

• deification of race; they placed race above everything, including biblical truths 
• denial of Jews as the descendants of the Israelites, God's chosen people
• Christology of hate and war in opposition to the Christology of love and peace in Christianity
• secularization, nationalization, and racialization of the sacraments
• persecution and murder of the "anawim", the poor, marginalized, disabled, mentally ill, etc. 

These misguided at best, diabolical at worst policies and beliefs, cried out for a vigorous theological, pastoral, ecclesial and social response.

Catholic Response

The hierarchical structure and flow of authority of the Roman Catholic Church inhibited an earlier and more concerted active response to the rise of Nazism and the German Christian movement.  Pope Pius XI entered into a “treaty” with Germany, called the Reichskonkordat, in the belief that Hitler would honour it.  It was not until 1937, that the Pope finally issued the encyclical, "Mit Brennender Sorge: On the Church and the German Reich," in which he condemned Hitler’s violation of the terms of the Concordat and the actions of the Nazi regime.  Article 8 of the encyclical states:

8. Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community - however necessary and honourable be their function in worldly things - whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.[4]

In spite of this lack of timely response from the “Top,” some on the lower echelons of the church hierarchy and some Catholic laypeople refused to remain silent.

Response of German Catholics

Krieg (2004) posits that there were various responses of the German Catholic bishops and theologians in Nazi Germany.  The responses were dependent on the model of church by which they were influenced.  He suggests there were three distinct models of church at play:  church as perfect society; church as moral voice; and, church as body of Christ.[5]  In the church as perfect society perspective, the Church viewed herself as a self-sufficient institution, established by Jesus Christ, in possession of an inherent authority that is independent of human societies and governments.  Therefore, the responses of the notion of Church as perfect society were rooted in concern for the Church’s interests, rather universal justice and freedom from oppression.  “Catholics and Nazis wanted an authoritarian government that would overcome individualism and build up the corporate character of society” (Krieg 2004:160).

In the notion of church as moral voice, there are two streams of thought.  One perspective is that Christians should work for social justice in order to build a Christian society.  The other is that the church should advocate for social justice so that society can become more human, that is, a society that embraces religious, ethnic, and racial diversity (Krieg 2004:163).

The third view, Church as the Body of Christ, also had two streams. Karl Eschweiler, Joseph Lortz, and Karl Adam, proposed that the ecclesiology of the mystical body supported accommodation with the Third Reich. 

The question of destiny is placed before us: in the breakthrough of the German people into a [new] nation─ the breakthrough willed by God and finally attained by Adolf Hitler─ will Christian faith remain the [nation’s] foundation, or will non-Christian and anti-Christian [forces] take over [national] leadership? (Karl Adam (1935) in Krieg 2004:66-7)

Other theologians, Bishop Preysing, Romano Guardini and Englebert Krebs, viewed the Church as the Body of Christ model of church as incompatible with the Nazi agenda.  Krieg writes that in 1933 Bishop Preysing warned the bishops that an agreement between Rome and Berlin would not be honoured.  In 1936, Preysing urged the bishops not to issue public statements endorsing the deployment of troops to the Saarland.  During the war, Preysing established a diocesan agency that assisted everyone, including Jews, who wanted to leave Germany, “who were in need of work, food, and shelter (2004:112-4)

At first, silent─ but after witnessing the idolizing and virtual deification of Hitler, Romano Gudardini could remain silent no longer.  In 1935, he wrote Der Heiland (The Saviour).  In German, Der Heiland and der Heilbringer signify “the bringer of health and blessings”, “the saviour,” and “the redeemer”… Romano Gudardino wrote “Der Heiland” in order to explain that, while Hitler may be a bearer of blessings, he is not the saviour; there is only one true saviour─ Jesus Christ (2004:115).

The new myth of the earthly saviour was intended to eliminate Christ and his salvation and to bind human beings to this world. Whoever believed in this earthly saviour [Hitler] no longer had the possibility of resisting the grip which seized them. They were given over─ with body and soul, with spirit and will, with everything which they were and did─ to the power which controlled Germany (Guardini in Krieg 1998:467)[6].

Engelbert Krebs held a Christocentric yet holistic perspective holding that God loves all people not just Christians; and that God’s grace is extended to all people.  Therefore, love of neighbour includes respect and care for all people, including Jews.  Krebs states

Love of God and Christian love of neighbour are in essence identical.  Whoever loves God loves therefore everything that bears God’s influences, loves the divine resemblances in other men and women.  Deficient love of neighbour is a sign of deficient love of God (Krebs in Krieg 2004:137)[7].

As early as 1926, Krebs addressed the racism of some Catholics in an article entitled, “Katholische Studenten und Judentum” [Catholics Students and Judaism].  In the article, he stated, “Catholics are called to follow the example of Jesus; that is, a Catholic should relate in love to a Jew” (p. 137).  Further, according to Krieg, Krebs posited that Christians should regard Judaism “as the home in which they were born and which they must continue to respect” (p. 138).

 Hans Scholl, a Lutheran, read a copy of a sermon by an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime, Bishop August von Galen, in 1941.  In it, von Galen decried the euthanasia policies, which the Nazis maintained would protect the German gene pool.  His sister Sophie was horrified by the Nazi policies and obtained permission to reprint the sermon and distribute it at the University of Munich.  This was the inaugural act of a group of students that were to form the White Rose.  The White Rose was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group of mostly students from the University of Munich.  They became known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for opposition to Adolf Hitler's totalitarian regime.  The movement lasted from June 1942 until February 1943.  Hans and Sophie Scholl, along with three Roman Catholics, Willi Graf, Katharina Schueddekopf, Christoph Probst were among the members of the White Rose that were arrested by the Gestapo and beheaded in 1943[8]. 

The situation in Germany did not go unnoticed in North America.  Although constrained by church hierarchy, some Roman Catholic voices dared to speak out, even before official sanction to do so was given.

Response of North American Catholics

F. K. Wentz (1962) examined three Catholic periodicals published from 1933 to 1937 to probe the North American Catholic Response to Nazism:  The Brooklyn Tablet (the official newspaper of the Brooklyn diocese), America (a Jesuit publication) and The Commonweal (an independent lay publication). 

Wentz found that the Brooklyn Tablet had the largest circulation of fifty thousand.  However, that is misleading because parishes buy large numbers of diocesan papers for distribution to their parishioners, some of whom take them but rarely read them.  America, he reports has a circulation of thirty-thousand, I suspect, the majority of those receiving it are Jesuits.  Commonweal’s circulation of twenty thousand is probably the most accurate of the circulation figures, as people have to actually subscribe to the publication.

“Commonweal was much more outspoken [than the Brooklyn Tablet or America] in its defence of democracy as viable for Europeans and was rather apologetic about the seeming ease with which the Vatican and German Catholics deserted their political commitments and the cause of democracy in that land to preserve the more fundamental expressions of their church”[9].

What follows is a sampling of twelve articles from The Commonweal between the years 1933 and 1936.  It is by no means an exhaustive exploration of the articles written in this periodical for the period; however, as the Commonweal website did not provide abstracts, the articles examined here were chosen by their titles. 

In a May 1933 article in The Commonweal, Miller (1933) warns of the danger of Hitler’s regime to religion and provides some suggested reading on Hitler and the National Socialist Party[10].  At this point, the Bishops in Germany have opposed Catholics joining the Nazi party.  His writing, of course, is before the signing of the Concordat.

An article appeared in the February 2, 1934 edition of Commonweal, in which author James Walsh, disputes the science of, and condemns, the sterilization laws that were put into effect in Germany, the previous month.

The law is of special interest because it is a striking exemplification of utter neglect of personal rights and the exaggeration of the rights of the State…. As belief in God has diminished in recent years there has been a definite tendency for men to substitute the State for God and to believe that whatever the State ordains must surely be right…. [T]here was a divine law and a natural law that had to be obeyed and the State must not infringe these laws.[11]

George Shuster (1934) authored the first of a series of articles in Commonweal on the conditions for Catholics in Germany.  He describes that the majority of Catholics don’t really know what is going on because any criticism of the regime is reported as the work of a few “recalcitrant priests.”  Shuster also criticizes “the unwillingness of the hierarchy to appeal for foreign sympathy or aid”[12].  Shuster speaks against:

*  The plight of Catholics with Jewish blood

* mental or spiritual vigour and enthusiasm

*  Nazi subversion of Catholic education

Finally, Shuster calls for interfaith and interdenominational cooperation in opposing the Nazis.  He states, “Against what it teaches, Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism must stand allied, cost what it may. So far, the spoils of battle have gone to the Nazis, but it is ultimate victory which alone counts.”

Shuster's (1934) second article in the series on Catholics in Germany discusses how the boycott of Jewish businesses is going to impoverish the Jewish people and then blame them for their own impoverishment.  He speaks also of the loss of the input of Catholic intellectuals and theologians, the loss of economic and general freedoms, and the ability to be educated in the Catholic faith.  Shuster laments that nothing written about the situation in Germany has─

sufficed to awaken the conscience of the Church in the United States. ... Noting this strange indifference, one can no more be silent concerning it than one could be wordless on the subject of Christianity itself. For the whole verity of the union of men in the Church is at stake. If conscience does not leap into action under such circumstances, then conscience is either unawakened or dead amongst us.[13]

Reinhardt (1934) criticizes the theology of Barth stating, “Grace does not efface nature but supports it and leads it to perfection[14].   Likewise, he criticizes the atheology of the German Christians, stating:

What we have here before us is a type or rather a remnant of Christianity so broken that it is inoffensive, inefficient and harmless, a safe playground for the animal nature of man. This brand of Christianity is so deeply steeped in nature and the realm of instincts that it has become void of supernatural or theological motivations and virtues[15].

Reinhardt (1934) finds in Barth and the German Christians two extremes but finds in Writing of the Pfarrernotbund (Pastors' Emergency League) "sentences of great weight and import:"

The assertion that the voice of the nation is the Word of God is blasphemy and a falsification of history . ... It is the mission of the Church to educate men for the Kingdom of Christ, not for the German Reich. National and political formations must not be confounded with the contents of revelation . ... A Church that serves two masters is untrustworthy in every word it preaches . ... The Gospel is not a religiously embroidered program of a political party. Earthly values cannot be placed above eternal values, and the true meaning of the Gospel cannot be interpreted in such a way as to make it pleasing and acceptable to the desires of men.  We call it heresy when it is maintained that Christ appeared as a prototype of Nordic man, in an age of disintegration and decadence.  The Germanization of Christianity is heresy. The Christian Church does not distinguish between baptized Jews and baptized Gentiles. ... We solemnly deny the right of the State to govern the Church, to appoint or depose ministers or to meddle with questions of church doctrine . ... What shakes today the very foundations of the Church is neither God nor the Holy Spirit but the spirit of error and confusion . ... This is not springtime but it is the time of temptation.[16]

In my opinion, Reinhardt’s critique of Barth for over-emphasizing the Transcendent God is slightly hypocritical because before Vatican II, this interpretation of God was being preached at the average North American Catholic in the pews.  I use the term “at” intentionally.

On a more promising note, the Editors of The Commonweal model the religious collaboration that they suggest in previous issues.  After a priest gave an anti-Jewish speech at a Jesuit Convention, The Commonweal published an article by Jewish author, Louis Minsky.  In the article Minski (1934) defines religion as not only freedom of worship and conviction, but also as, “the spiritualizing of human efforts as opposed to the materialistic philosophy which characterizes both Communism and Fascism”[17].  He presents the areas where extreme factions of both Catholicism and Judaism have through fear of liberalism and communism, have lost sight of their central mission, the promotion of the love of God, neighbour and justice.  After expressing the pain the priest’s anti-Semitic speech caused the Jewish community in the United States, Minski states,

We have reached the stage where anti-Semitism is a matter which must vitally concern Protestants and Catholics, where the persecution of Catholics must be of vital interest to Protestants and Jews. The old barriers are down. The struggle is on a much wider basis. It is a struggle of the forces of light against the forces of darkness.[18]

In the first of two articles entitled, “Vatican and the State” in The Commonweal, the author quotes the Catholic Bishop, Nicholas Bares, who on Good Friday, 1934, stated in part, “The world cannot live without truth and justice; there is no middle course between Christ and anti-Christ”.  Seldes (1935) does not clarify whether or not the Bishop referring to the Concordat but what he writes next strongly implies that he is:

So it has come about that revolver shots have been fired into the Munich home of Cardinal Faulhaber and that the Pope, in order to save the Primate in Germany from vulgar arrest, has made him a diplomatic envoy of the Vatican.  Meanwhile 200 priests have been arrested and thousands of Catholic political officials and leaders ousted from their positions or jailed or maltreated physically.  The concordat, which the Church accepted in fear of the nationalization of the Church or perhaps a gleichschaltung which would have incorporated it with the new Nazi church, has now resulted in a climax[19] (emphasis added).

In May 1935, The Commonweal, published an article by Reichbishop Mueller and a reply by the editors of the weekly.  Mueller argues that he is writing to clarify what has been written about the state of the German Church by “propagandists”.  He assures the reader that,

 “The religious idea of this Imperial Church is the will to Christianity through Our Lord Jesus Christ.”  He further assures the reader, “We want to preach Christ. We want to translate the commandment of neighbourly love into Christian action. That is the important thing. The forms lie on the path of future development”[20].  

The Commonweal Editors’ reply cautions the readers not to be fooled by Mueller’s assurance that the German Christians are following the will of Jesus or that they wish to turn “neighbourly love into Christian action.”

The record of terrorization and imprisonment, of browbeating and standardization, of injustice and perfidy, is clear to all the world.  It needed scarcely to be informed that, by order of a Bishop, Easter was turned during I935 into a festival of celebrating the birthday of Adolf Hitler. There are many instances in history of religious intolerance and tyranny. But there is hardly any of greater indifference to theological principles and scarce one of a more deplorable confusion of tongues.
…
In essence National-Socialism is a religious movement. It is the offspring of the bottomless secularization and apostatizing of modern man, who is no longer capable of reverencing─ despite his errors ─the purity of Christianity, and must now try to subordinate even this to issues involving power and gain.[21]

In the 1936 articles, The Commonweal editorials seem to be preparing their readers for the coming war.  They report of a spiritual vacuum that has influenced treaty violations.  The Rhineland Pact was the principal treaty of the international agreements known as the Locarno Treaties.  Germany was forced to sign the treaty of Versailles in 1919; but in 1925, Germany freely signed the Rhineland Pact with France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Italy. The signatories Germany, France and Belgium agreed not to attack each other.  The United Kingdom and Italy signed as guarantors.  In the event that aggression between Germany, France or Belgium did occur, the remaining parties were to come to the aid of the country under attack[22].  By 1936 Germany had violated the terms of the treaty of Versailles and the Rhineland Pact.  In an editorial in March of 1936, the author presents excerpts from a speech made by Hitler in which he extols honour as one of the highest virtues.  Obviously, not impressed by Hitler, the author states,

How tragically true, and how truly tragic, is all this, when we remember, as we needs must, that to Hitler the needed "spiritual outlook" is expressed by the Nazi revolution, and "honour," apparently, is that only which the Nazi regime declares it to be. Not the "spiritual outlook" which is based upon the eternal revelation of God, but that which is based upon a racial or national selfishness. "Honour" is merely relative, not absolute.  It is degenerated into self-interest, or national interest, or racial interest. And the other nations are like unto Hitlerism, even if not yet so absolutely. Led by his troopers goose-stepping toward chaos and night, flock the other nations.  Unless they withdraw from the edge of the abyss and recognize and live up to the honour which is based on the laws of God, no more man-made treaties will save our civilization.[23]

One can see from the quote above that the author sees the European nations being drawn into another war.  In an April 1936 editorial, the author laments,

In Germany, and Italy, and Russia, dictatorial governments bluntly and brutally suppress and forbid the teaching by the Church of peace and justice and good-will. The sword--or, rather, poison gas, high explosives, and bombing air craft--is frankly substituted for the cross.[24]

It is apparent from even this small sampling that The Commonweal was trying to inform Catholics of what was going on in Germany.  It is also apparent that there were anti-Jewish feelings among some Catholics in the United States.  But the articles that I read clearly demonstrate a Christ-centered, pro-democracy, anti-racist stance.  Further, it was apparent that most criticisms of the happenings in Germany had to be couched in the language of protecting the Catholic faith.  For example, the critique of the boycott of Jewish businesses was embroidered by the language of the loss of jobs for Catholic people when Jewish businesses were forced to close. 

While The Commonweal had less ecclesiastical oversight on what they published than The Brooklyn Tablet or America, it is hard to ascertain from this small sampling and from this distance in time is how much freedom a laymen-published and edited periodical of the 1930s really had to critique the hierarchy of the Church with regard to their actions or inaction in Germany.  However, through their book reviews and book recommendations, it is feasible they were able to enhance their ability to circumvent (some) hierarchically imposed restrictions.

Christian Identity Movement

The Christian Identity movement has its origins in British or Anglo-Israelism of the nineteenth century.  British-Israelism posits that the British were the descendants of the ten “lost tribes” of Israel.  However, unlike the Christian Identity movement adherents, British-Israelism regarded Jews as brother Israelites, “descendants of different but related tribes” (Barkun 1997:ix)[25]  The British-Israel Association of Greater Vancouver published a stream of literature that was to nurture the belief in what was to become one of the first tenets of the Christian Identity Movement, the belief that the Jews are the offspring of the devil (p. 51).

There are three key beliefs that all the various groups comprising the Christian Identity hold:

1.    white “Aryans” are descendants of the biblical tribes of Israel .    they are put on earth to do God’s work

2.    Jews are unconnected to the Israelites

a.    Satan and Eve are the parents of Cain

b.    The Jews are the descendants of Cain

c.    Non-whites or “mud people” were created before Adam and Eve and have no souls (not created in the image of God)

3.    the world is on the verge of the final apocalyptic struggle between good and evil white “Aryans” must go to war with the Jewish conspiracy and its allies so that the world can be redeemed.

Many followers of [Christian] Identity believe, therefore, that they are among those chosen by God to fight the forces of evil during Armageddon. These people contend that they will be the last line of defence to save the white race and/or Christian America from either -the soon-to occur race war or communist takeover.  To prepare for these events these individuals engage in survivalist, paramilitary, and self-defence training; they practice weapons use and they store foodstuffs, ammunition, and other necessities of survival. They often reside in remote areas on isolated and enclosed compounds.[26]

An example of the violence of some of these groups is, The Order, the group has been responsible for counterfeiting, armed robberies, the murders of a Missouri State policeman, and a Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg (FBI 1989:7).  Now, many members of The Order have been imprisoned or have gone underground.  The Order is an offshoot of the Aryan Nation, also known as, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the number of active hate groups in the U.S. has risen 50% since 2000 when there were 602 groups; and has risen 4% from 888 active groups in 2007, to 926 in 2008.   The Report suggests that the following factors influenced the increase: the national immigration debate; the worsening recession; and the election of Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president. In fact, “Officials reported that Obama had received more threats than any other presidential candidate in memory.[27]  In 2012, the number increased to 1,007 active hate groups in the U.S. 

It should be noted that many of the Tea Party members are also members of Christian Identity[28].  Although, the Tea Party may not seem like a serious political threat, the Tea Party and the Christian Identity movement should not be ignored.  The increase in the number of people who are willing to embrace the Christian Identity movement is a serious warning that mainline Christians need to acknowledge in order to develop a vigorous and genuinely Christian response. 

Climate Warming

The current economic climate caused by the banks and investment firms, which gambled with people’s money and livelihoods have many normally ordinary people very angry.  People have lost their homes and farms due to foreclosures.  Companies have shipped manufacturing jobs overseas and reduced other positions through downsizing.  Some people are looking for someone to blame.  Some people are looking for solace and comfort through these trying times.

The response of the Catholic Church hierarchy in the United States to these economic conditions has been for the most part, to close parishes in depressed areas.  In inner-cities, this began decades ago and often Catholic religious orders, especially religious orders of women, have taken up responsibility for the spiritual─ and often health and physical needs of the people.  However, in rural and middle-class areas this is a new phenomenon that leaves people feeling abandoned by the Church.  One would think the church would be encouraging women religious orders in their work with the poor.  No, the RC church would rather they preached against abortion and gay marriage than work too much with the poor.

I originally planned to have a section on the response of the Catholic Church in the U.S. or Canada to the Christian Identity movement but found only one reference to any action of the RC church concerning Christian Identity.  This was an article, “Religious Leaders Condemn Christian Identity Movement,” that appeared in the December 19, 1986 issue of Fort Lauderdale’s Sentinel Sun.  The article stated, in part: 

In their statement, the religious leaders scorned the movement’s ``malevolent attacks upon genuine Christian leaders, its venomous description of blacks and its virulent anti-Semitism,`` saying the movement has sought to make ``what they call a theological justification for acts of physical violence and domestic terrorism.``

``We believe that Christian Identity is a virus that has already infected a segment of the general American public,`` the statement said. ``As an expression of social pathology, it especially festers and grows among the financially distressed sectors of our society.``[29]

The article names the following The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, U.S. Catholic Conference [of Bishops] among the signers of the statement.

There appears to be a paucity of theological articles relating to Christian Identity.  Those that exist were written just after or in response to particular events such as Waco or the Oklahoma City bombing.  Susan DeCamp (1996), Program Coordinator of The Christian Witness for Humanity, a special project of the Montana Association of Churches, wrote:

It was hoped that the Oklahoma City bombing would result in declining membership in militant organizations. Instead, extremist groups have been successful at pointing the finger back at the federal government, with the help of the Waco and Ruby Ridge investigations. The added media attention has been a real boon to militia recruiting and the successful exploitation of bridge issues such as taxation, land use/private property rights, and gun control, has kept membership in extremist organizations steady and/or growing.[30]

In view of the Southern Poverty Law Center figures noted above and DeCamp’s analysis on the increase of membership in Christian Identity groups, I found it disturbing that mainline churches in general, and the Roman Catholic church, in particular, have not spoken out and taken action to assist people in spiritual as well as practical ways to deal with the problems they are encountering.  This means educating people, especially by example, in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, which entails love for everyone, working for justice, and caring and sharing.

Conclusion

In this paper, I tried to show the parallels between what happened in Nazi Germany with the German Christian movement and what is happening today with the Christian Identity in North America.  In Germany, most ─but not all─ of the Roman Catholic leaders did not act soon enough, hoping the danger would just go away.  To ignore the current threat of the Christian Identity movement, especially now that it has a political platform with the Tea Party movement, is just as short-sighted as the denial of global warming.  However, all is not lost if we take advantage of the challenge of the Christian Identity movement as an opportunity, as DeCamp writes:

—the opportunity to learn more about ourselves, the church, our community, and what responsibilities are not being met.  Are we in responsible relationship with our community?  Can we articulate, positively and effectively the unifying principles of all faiths-love, compassion, tolerance and justice?  The fear and paranoia manifested in extremist organizations can be a cry for justice.  The more we learn about groups like Christian Identity, the more effective we can be as community leaders in responding to extremism, and in creating positive, pro-active and inclusive alternatives.

I would add that any of the “positive, pro-active and inclusive alternatives” need to be based on the scriptural traditions as found in the Hebrew and New Testament.  The recurring themes in scripture are: we are to love God; that God loves justice; and, we are to love what belongs to God─ all humanity, all creation belongs to God.  The Church needs to preach and teach the Word of God so that we can avoid deifying our own heresies.  The Church needs to ensure that her members interpret culture through a lens based in scripture instead of trying to interpret scripture through a lens based in culture.  Then we may not only avoid but even be a curative to movements like the German Christians and the Christian Identity movement.

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Wikipedia. “White Rose”. Accessed on 26 March 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

Williams, Michael, editor. "Goose Stepping Towards Chaos" in The Commonweal, Vol XXIII (21), pp. 561-562, 1936

Williams, Michael, editor. "The Deepening Shadow" in The Commonweal, Vol xxIII (22), pp. 617-618, 1936

Williams, Michael. “Hitlerism and Religion” in The Commonweal, May 19, 1933, pp. 69-71

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[1]              Wikipedia. "Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States" Accessed on 30 January 2013 fromm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States

[2]              Birnbaum, Michael . "Historians speak out against proposed Texas textbook changes." The Washington Post, Online Edition edition, sec. Top Story, March 18, 2010. http://goo.gl/ILsWX (accessed April 2, 2013).

[3]              Bergen, Doris, Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement and the Third Reich Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1996.

[4]              PIUS XI, Pope. The Holy See (English), "Mit Brennender Sorge: On the Church and the German Reich." Accessed January 27, 2013. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge_en.html.

[5]                  Krieg, Robert A. Catholic Theologians in Nazi Germany. New York: Continuum, 2004.

[6]           Krieg, Robert A. Romano Guardini's Theology of the Human Person in Theological Studies 59, pp. 457-473, 1998

[7]              Krieg, Robert A. Catholic Theologians in Nazi Germany. New York: Continuum, 2004.

[8]                Wikipedia. “White Rose”. Accessed on 26 March 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

[9]                Wentz, F.K. "American Catholic Periodicals React to Nazism." Church History. 31. no. 4 (1962): 400-420.

[10]               Williams, Michael. “Hitlerism and Religion” in The Commonweal, May 19, 1933, pp. 69-71

[11]              Walsh, James J. "Race Betterment" in The Commonweal, February 2, 1934, pp. 371

[12]                Shuster, George N. "Catholics in Nazi Germany" in The Commonweal, January 26, 1934, pp. 343-344

[13]            Shuster, George N. "Catholics in Nazi Germany" in The Commonweal, June 29, 1934, pp. 234-236

[14]               Reinhardt, Kurt. “The German Lutheran Struggle” in The Commonweal, October 12, 1934, pp. 550-552

[15]                 Ibid.

[16]                ibid

[17]               Minsky, Louis "Catholics and Jews" in The Commonweal, December 28, 1934, pp. 247-248

[18]                ibid

[19]                Seldes, George. “The Vatican and Nationalism” in The Commonweal, February 22, 1935, pp. 471-473

[20]             Mueller, Ludwig, Reichbishof. “The Church and State in Germany” in The Commonweal, May 24, 1935, pp. 93-94

[21]                Editors. “Reply” in The Commonweal, May 24, 1935, pp. 94

[22]              Wikipedia. "Locarno Treaties" accessed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locarno_Treaties on 6 March 2013

[23]               Williams, Michael, editor. "Goose Stepping Towards Chaos" in The Commonweal, Vol XXIII (21), pp. 561-562, 1936

[24]           Williams, Michael, editor. "The Deepening Shadow" in The Commonweal, Vol xxIII (22), pp. 617-618, 1936

[25]         Barkun, Michael. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. (Revised edition) Chapel Hill: Univ of North Carolina Pr, 1997.

[26]         Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Christian Identity Movement: Right-Wing Terrorism Matters." Last modified 1989. Accessed February 5, 2013. http://alturl.com/j2qbk., p.6

[27]            Hothouse, David. “926 Hate Groups Active in 2008”in Intelligence Report, Spring 2009, Issue Number:  133. Access 27 March 2013 from http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2009/spring/the-year-in-hate

[28]             Neiwert, David. AlterNet/The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, ""We Are at War": How Militias, Racists and Anti-Semites Found a Home in the Tea Party." Last modified 2010. Accessed March 12, 2013. http://goo.gl/OZ6wt

[29]            Anderson, David E. "Religious Leaders Condemn Christian Identity Movement." Seneinel Sun, sec. Features, December 19, 1986. http://goo.gl/Co22U (accessed March 12, 2013).

[30]             DeCamp, Susan. "Churches Respond to Christian Identity." Impact no. 36 (January 1, 1996): 7-10. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 13, 2013).