The image disgusts us. The swastika, a symbol of genocide and hate, superimposed over the cross, a symbol of God’s self-sacrificing love. Yet millions of Germans worshipped in the churches of the Deutsche Christen (the name of the organization means "German Christians"). How did this happen? And can we learn from their mistakes?
Background
Our story begins in the aftermath of World War I, when defeated Germany faced a choice. They could be humble and cooperate in the international community (like West Germany did after World War II), or they could keep their national pride and find others to blame for their problems. Many politicians chose the latter course, saying that Germany only lost because they were "stabbed in the back." Who stabbed the nation in the back? For some, including the Nazis, the answer to that question was the Communists and others on the political left, and of course the Jews. That left them receptive to a leader who took advantage of popular resentments, promising to make Germany great again by getting these scapegoats out of the way.
Another thread is the concept of the German Volk. That word means "people" (the Volkswagen, introduced under Hitler in 1937, was "the people's car"), but it also has connotations of race and nation. The Völkish movement that idolized German ethnicity was influential even before Hitler, but he promoted it and eventually used it in a slogan: Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer. One people, but it was clear that Volk didn’t include all the people; it was just the master race (much like some say "real Americans" and don't mean people of color). One nation or empire (the Third Reich). One leader, and we know who that was.
The "German Christians"
Many Christians were happy to follow the Führer. They feared the "Godless Communists," and they had a long history of anti-Semitism, going back at least to Martin Luther. Hitler was also seen as a defender of traditional morality (he opposed pornography and homosexuality). But just as important was their sense of nationalism; their dedication to the German Volk rivaled their devotion to Jesus.
The Deutsche Christen was a large faction in the Protestant church that believed in Nazi ideals and sought a racially purified German church. As Hitler gained power, that meant aligning the church with the state. Some of them even flew the swastika flag in their sanctuaries. Being a loyal Christian was equated with being loyal to Nazi Germany.
Given how thoroughly Jewish it is, the Bible was a problem for the Deutsche Christen, so they tried to get rid of the Old Testament and did their best to suppress Jewish themes in the New Testament. Of course this did not solve their biggest problem—the inconvenient fact that Jesus was Jewish—so they also tried to invent a pure Aryan Jesus instead of the real Middle Eastern Jewish Jesus.
Not all churches went along with the Deutsche Christen. Much has been written about the Confessing Church and its heroes like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. With the Swiss theologian Karl Barth, in 1934 the Confessing Church produced the Theological Declaration of Barmen, which (while avoiding defending Jews or directly criticizing the Nazis) declared that Jesus was the only leader (Führer) the church should be following. But the influence of this movement was limited; most German Protestants (and most Catholics) either actively or passively cooperated with the Nazis.
We might ask whether the church deserves some blame for the Holocaust, and I think you can make a good case that it does. People weren't hearing sermons telling them to go out and kill Jews, but many of them were hearing sermons demonizing Jews and thanking God for sending Hitler to restore Germany. As they eventually went from persecuting Jews to murdering them, it was natural for the average German to get the impression that their church was giving them permission.
What went Wrong?
If I had to choose one word to describe the failings of the German Christians, that word would be nationalism, the idea that their nation, their racially defined Volk, was superior and valued above all else. Being German was at least as important as being Christian.
I should make clear what I mean by "nationalism," and what I don’t mean. I am not talking about patriotism. Patriotism can become idolatry if taken to extremes, but up to a point there's nothing wrong with being loyal to your country (as long as that doesn't override your loyalty to Jesus). There's nothing wrong with wanting good things for your country – we should all desire good things for the places where we live (as long as we take our definition of what is good from Jesus). But when being for your country becomes more important than being for Jesus or loving your neighbors, when you care only about your own country and not about people outside, then it becomes anti-Christian.
To define nationalism, think of your definition of "racism" and substitute "nation" for "race." It is thinking that your nation is superior and others are inferior, that your nation should get ahead even if others suffer. It can mean thinking that, or acting as if, God cares about your nation and its people more than God loves the rest of the world. Just like racism, nationalism is "my people matter and others don't."
Often, nationalism comes with adjectives. Some of it in Nazi Germany was simple nationalism, putting devotion to Germany above all else (Deutschland über Alles), but much of it was a racist nationalism, where the devotion was not just to Germany but to the German Volk, the "real Germans," which didn't include people like Jews. There's something similar in the U.S.; we call it "white nationalism." It is no coincidence that some of our white nationalists use Nazi symbols, because it's the same idea – devotion not just to the nation but to a particular vision of the nation, where it belongs to white people and to make America great we need to get those other people out of the way (white nationalists went nuts when the U.S. elected a black president). Sadly, there is even "Christian nationalism," which is similar to white nationalism except that instead of non-white people it is non-Christians who don't belong. Of course this is not unique to the U.S.; for example, similar to our Christian nationalism, Hindu nationalism is a major problem in India.
What's Wrong with Nationalism?
From a Christian perspective, what's wrong with nationalism? What's wrong with the idea that your country (whether Germany or the U.S.) is special and superior? The problems are numerous, but I'll list five points.
The first is simply that God doesn’t have favorite nations. The prophet Isaiah said All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. Many places in the New Testament carry the message that nation and ethnicity don't matter to God. Since we are called to follow God's example, we shouldn't show favoritism either.
The second is the issue of where we find our ultimate identity. I'm an American, a Coloradan, a husband, a scientist, and several other things. As a Christian, every one of those things has to take a back seat to my identity as a follower of Jesus. My most important citizenship by far is in the Kingdom of God, and that Kingdom transcends all the national boundaries and other divisions we humans construct.
Third is the example of Jesus, who rejected the nationalism of his time. Jesus lived under Roman rule, and his contemporaries expected the Messiah to come as a warrior for the nation, destroying the Romans and restoring Israel – it was basically Make Israel Great Again (I don't think they had hats for it). Jesus rejected all that. He spoke against violence, and said his kingdom was not of this world. He came not just for the insiders, but he reached out, for example to Samaritans, who were a despised group of outsiders. Jesus even made a Samaritan the hero in one of his most famous parables.
Jesus' judgment of the temple provides an example. He says (quoting Isaiah 56) Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers. Note that he says it's supposed to be a house of prayer for all the nations. The problem with the religious leaders (one of several problems) was that they only cared about their nation – they were turned inward and didn't want to share God's blessings with anybody else. Jesus was constantly expanding boundaries of neighbors we are called to love and bless.
Fourth, we see in the world around us that nationalism bears bad fruit. Its fruit is war (Germany and Japan in World War II are among the many examples). Its fruit is oppression and hatred of outsiders, like the mistreatment of immigrants and refugees and minority groups in many countries today.
Finally, nationalism breeds idolatry. Idolatry is when anything, even something good, receives the sort of allegiance that belongs to God alone. If my devotion to my country is at the same level as my devotion to Jesus, I'm guilty of the sin of idolatry. I've heard of churches doing a pledge of allegiance or singing nationalistic songs as part of a worship service, and that should set off our idolatry alarm. Can you imagine the early church pledging allegiance to Caesar?
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, the sin at the root of nationalism is adopting the world's "us versus them" mentality. Where the "them," people from another country or another race or another religion, are enemies to be hated rather than neighbors to be loved. Opposing this thinking was one of the main things Jesus did. In many of his parables, it is the insiders, those who would have been "us" to his audience, who are bad examples, and it's the outsiders, like a Samaritan, who get things right.
The tragedy in Nazi Germany was that most Christians didn't see Jews as neighbors that Jesus called them to love. How many of us have similar attitudes toward certain neighbors, whether it is immigrants, or Muslims, or people of a different race or with different political views? The bottom line is that we don't get to love just the neighbors who look like us or worship like us or speak our language or vote like us. There was a campaign by a Christian group a few years ago with the slogan Love thy Neighbor (No Exceptions), and I think that's exactly right.
I have written mostly about the past here, but the present is much on my mind.
Nationalism (white, Christian, and otherwise) has been resurgent in the U.S., infecting the highest levels of government.
And, just like the Deutsche Christen, much of the American evangelical church has embraced a nationalism intertwined with racial and cultural resentment against those who have traditionally been marginalized.
The church may have gained some political influence, but at the price of its integrity and witness.
I pray that we can halt this corruption and resist those who tempt us toward "us versus them" nationalism, returning to the way of Jesus who insists we love all of our neighbors.
Instead of making America great again, let's try to make the church Christian again.
| 2023 Addendum: Some of the material in this essay is now contained in my book, co-authored with Carl S. Hofmann, Christ or Caesar: Church and Nation in Christian Perspective. |
| Disclaimer: The views expressed in this essay are the opinion of the author of this essay alone and should not be taken to represent the views of any other person or organization. |
Originally written July 2020. Page last modified May 4, 2023.
