Today was a pretty emotional day in lecture for my History of Christianity II course. I really appreciate the fact that my professor, Dr. Sarah Williams, is so willing to bring our study of history into our lives and to challenge the hypocrisy of judging the people of the past for their decisions and to rather see how we are guilty of the same.

 

The focus of our lecture was Italian Fascism and Nazism as it rose previous to WWII and specifically how Christianity was related to it or more specifically, wielded by the Nazi Party and used to further their ideology. As far as studies in history are concerned, this is not a new thought. However, I personally had never studied it myself. To read these documents from that time period was not only upsetting because of the results, but scary because the question must be asked: What are the destructive ideologies of our day that will lead us to cause such great human suffering.

 

Last night, before I went to bed, I read a sermon written by a German pastor in Solingen from 1936. It was a Christmas message speaking from a familiar theme of a light breaking into the darkness, except something different emerges from the light. Rather than Christ emerging the pastor proclaims,

 

“Germany awoke and followed the sign of light, the Swastika.

   The darkness is now conquered, now suffering is over, which so long gripped our people. The Sun is rising ever higher, with our ancient German symbol, the Swastika, and its warmth surrounds the whole German people, melts our hearts together into one great German community. No one is left out, no one needs to hunger or freeze...”[1]

 

How can this be? What church would proclaim a Nazi gospel, as it were? The organization that this church fell under is known as the ‘German Christians’ or the Evangelical Reich Church, which composed the vast majority of churches in Germany, under a psuedo-ecumenical umbrella that attempted to unify Germany’s churches. Some of their founding premises included

 

The change of the German church during this was obviously slow. So slow, that so many had no idea what was happening. Bolshevism was seen as an enormous threat that rang in the hearts of Germans. Equally present was the guilt of the Great War (WWI) as Germany continued to attempt to rebuild itself. Germany, as well as most of the world, was falling into horrible economic recession that rendered the German Mark nearly worthless. A savior appeared, Adolf Hitler, and as he began to rebuild the German war machine, his efforts lifted Germany out of its economic peril.

 

The deep Nationalism that Hitler brought along with his miraculous salvation of the country’s economy was welcomed and celebrated. In fact, many German’s really appreciated the high morality of the Nazi Party which emphasized strong family values, discouraged licentious behavior, and opposed the practice of homosexuality (and probably homosexuals themselves).

 

 

All that to say as a refresher as to how in the world could this happen within a “Christian” church, though very arguably as far from Christian as you could get. The Church basically just became a manipulated vehicle for these ideas until 1934 when the Confessing Church emerged under the founding of Martin Niemöller. This is the organization that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was apart. They were small and largely ineffectual in causing change, but were a major symbolic showing of resistance. In fact, stories of the courage to resist were one of the few reasons that financial aid flowed into Germany after the war ended. As people were inspired by the stories of Bonhoeffer and Niemöller, monies came from the world and were literally distributed by the families of these men themselves.

 

Coming to near the end of the lecture, we began to discuss the involvement (or lack) of the Catholic Church as all the events of the Holocaust were occurring. How the Pope literally did nothing in response. We discussed various reasons why that occurred, but it was at about this point in our lecture today that Sarah stopped. Almost as if she knew what was in our minds or perhaps it was more spiritual. Our hearts heavy as we gazed at the images of suffering, which admittedly we’ve seen before, but they still illicit deep emotion (God may they never not illicit that response.) Then she said something to the affect of (though I’m paraphrasing and putting my own words into this): Don’t think that you are above this. Don’t be fooled into believing that if you had been there, that you would have known better. Do not judge him.

 

I was struck because that was what I was doing! I felt indignant... Angry... furious in my heart that a man who was in the most powerful ecclesiastical position (though in that time wasn’t very powerful) did absolutely nothing. And as her words hit my heart, she proclaimed “Hypocrisy!” HYPOCRISY!

 

Dave McCue talked to me about his visit to the city of Dachau and he described to me the smell. I... I couldn’t believe it as he told me. We had just emerged from the class and I was still wiping tears from my eyes as he told me this. He said, when they cleaned the town after the massacres, they deposited the piles of ashes outside the city in the fields. Where else are you going to put them? And as he walked the town with his tour group... it began to rain. And as the rains came down, the wet soil still full of these ashes began to release its memory. The smell... not just the smell of ashes or burning... but the distinct smell, as Dave put it, of slightly burnt human flesh. I don’t know if you have ever smelled that, but it is a horrendous smell. At that moment, a loud bell rang in the town and a few women in the tour group collapsed in grief. Collapsed. Can you imagine living in a town with that legacy? Can you imagine hearing the bells toll as they ring out mournfully in the misty remains of the evil that descended upon them? That city, I can only imagine must be like living in a funeral home. As the tears streamed down my face again, I told Dave, “I’m undone. What do I do or say?” and my thoughts swarmed.

 

At the end of the lecture, the comment that Sarah made that broke me was akin to this and again, I’m taking artistic license here and putting my words in: What is your holocaust?

 

Thirty years from now, will they look at Regent College and say “How could they stand by and study and do there thing while people 4 miles from them were suffering on the First Nations reservations or in the downtown eastside?” Atrocities still occur daily and we live our lives. In my lifetime alone, so many have occurred: Somalia, Darfur, Serbia, Iraq, South Africa, DRC... and that’s just the beginning.

 

All I could do as I meditated on that was weep. Weep for them, for their suffering... weep for myself and my brokenness, realizing that I do not have the heart that I wish to have. Being utterly undone because of the hypocritical judgment I placed upon people of the past while I myself and in the same trap.

 

One member of the class pointed out that even Bonhoeffer was criticized for having done nothing, since he spent much of his time writing and discipling leaders. Granted, he was involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler, but marginally. The point in observing that is that what is here for us to do now, is to listen to the voice of the Spirit. Raising up leaders is a major part of overcoming darkness and seeing the Kingdom of Light expand. Currently, I am called to study, to work to raise up leaders, but I keep this vision in my mind. The suffering of humanity is not ultimately the thing that I’m seeking to eradicate, but rather the glorification of Christ is my goal. So, this is my drive, but I do not say that as an excuse for inaction towards social justice. I’m just trying to illuminate the reality of the Kingdom growing out of various facets. I pray that it will never be said of me that I did nothing in the face of atrocities, but I fear that.

 

Lord, change me if I am diluting myself. Let my heart be reminded constantly of the realities of this world. I want the aroma of your Cross as the ashes of Dachau to touch my soul daily. For you were not distant and removed when the ovens of Auschwitz were burning hot, but you were yourself inside those chambers. Your presence was there and you suffered.

 

----