I have been fascinated by the German "Confessing Church" (1934-1948) for years. The Confessing Church was the movement within German Protestantism during Hitler's reign that withstood intense pressure by the Nazi government to take over the German church in order to create a united national church obedient and submissive to pro-Nazi authority.
The Confessing Church refused.
What gave them such courage?
What prompted them to take a stand at risk of losing their livelihoods and, for some, their lives?
What can we learn from their bravery?
Two books that have helped me in this quest for knowledge and understanding are:
- Dean Stroud's book, Preaching in Hitler's Shadow: Sermons of Resistance in the Third Reich.
- For the Soul of the People, by the great historian Victoria Barnett.
To be honest, these are chilling reads. Without effort, the comparisons to the current moment in our nation's history are shockingly easy to find.
In the opening pages of Stroud's book, he writes:
"We have read, for example, in The Holocaust and the Christian World the following explanation of the church's failure: 'Perhaps at the heart of those failures was the fact that the churches ... sought to act, as institutions tend to do, in their own narrowly defined, 'best' interests. There was little desire on the part of the churches for self-sacrifice or heroism, and much emphasis on 'pragmatic' and 'strategic' measures that would supposedly protect their institutional authority.'"
... the church was just one more institution whose main interest was survival. Institutional integrity rather than preaching the gospel set the tone. Basically, the Christian community failed to be any more of an opposition to Nazism than any other institution in German society, be it the university, the courts, or the military."
The German church wanted to protect its power and influence more than it wanted to stand up for those at risk.
The German church failed to speak truth to power for fear it would lose its own power.
The German church decided to "go along to get along."
It was out of this soil of a yielding, compliant, subservient German church that the bold, brave, gritty Confessing Church grew.
I am spellbound by this subversive movement and curious how it offers lessons for us today.
Stay tuned ... more to come.
