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Repealed before 1887
Repealed from 1948 to 1967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.
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 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.
Works Cited
Anderson,
David E. "Religious Leaders Condemn Christian Identity Movement." Seneinel Sun, sec. Features,
December 19, 1986. http://goo.gl/Co22U (accessed March 12, 2013).
Barkun,
Michael. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian
Identity Movement. (Revised edition) Chapel Hill: Univ of North Carolina
Pr, 1997.
Bergen,
Doris, Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement and the Third Reich Chapel
Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1996.
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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.
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[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).
Comments
As followers of Christ we have to be extremely vigilant these days and stand together against all forms of racial and religious hatred.
It is very disturbing to see how many good, but uninformed people fall prey to the slogans and false statements of self proclaimed "true Christians", such as the Christian Identity Movement.