Reclining in the Shadow of the Reich

“The foundation of totalitarianism is an ideology made of lies.” (Solzhenitsyn)

“The problem with people is that they will do anything which serves their own best interests, whether out of fear or greed.” For example, in the years preceding the rise of Nazism in Germany one thing was certain, the Church of Luther had become but a shadow of its former self, with the true message of the gospel replaced by a tepid acquiescence–the salt having lost is Savior if you will! In the process, the cost of discipleship had been replaced by what Diedrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. As he described it, placing an emphasis on God’s abounding love and forgiveness for believers at the expense of a clear conscience and certainty which inspired them to hold the line when confronting evil. Interestingly, this was something that the vast majority of German congregants at that time had altogether but forgotten. Promoting instead the absolutism of God’s direct and perfect will in human affairs not only gave believers a false sense of security, but a relevant disposition that no longer continenced what it meant to be personally responsible for the very thing in which they believed – an active faith in a living God and consequently, a risen Christ. Tragically, the river of faith which had once flowed so abundantly throughout Germany society had slowed to only a trickle, easily diverted and then dammed to become little more than a backwater of religious pollution.

“First they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out–Because I was not a socialist.”

“Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak out–Because I didn’t belong.”

“Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out–Because I wasn’t a Jew.”

“Then they came for the Christians, and I didn’t speak out–Because I wasn’t a Christian.”

“Finally they came for me, and I was silent–Because there was no one left to speak for me.”

(Martin Niemoller)

Protestant conservative and Lutheran pastor, who at the beginning of the Reich was a supporter of Adolf Hitler, Niemoller eventually came to a conviction of conscience, in turn becoming, along with Diedrich Bonehoeffer one of the founding members of the Confessing Church. Yet Bonhoeffer, unlike Niemoller, was convinced from the beginning that both would ultimately be left with little choice but to join the resistance. And they did, with Bonhoeffer eventually paying the ultimate price. A lesson from history that can be applied today, as we find ourselves being drawn into a similar set of circumstances, where the Christian faith is politicized to the point that freedom is found wanting. Ironically, faith itself will become the gold-standard in not only determining how things will play out, but the currency of a life well-lived. Yet, as we still have time to mount an appropriate offensive, we need to stretch a bit before exercising our ethical muscle. As we’ll not only need strength, but the endurance to see it through and so reap the benefits of our compound interest and mutual conviction – Christ died that we might become the servants of freedom. As professing Christians, we must needs rediscover that fact, rising as those of Bonhoeffer’s generation, becoming once again the “salt and light” of the Rhema Word, which has the power to transform turtle-doves into shrikes.