Lonely Birds Under a Wide, Open Sky
Establishing a Center of Spiritual Resistance, Part Two
“We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.” – Teilhard de Chardin
German Christians, in alignment with Nazi ideology, chose to believe that they could create a pure, independent, and isolated Germany. Though they conveniently dropped the isolationist goal when they wanted to expand into other countries and territories, they built an entire theological and political system around the idea that they were divinely ordained to be a separate and superior nation (volk). Perhaps blood and soil are normal categories of importance for tribal people and governments, but Christians are called to live transcendentally within those kinds of classifications. Tragically, the German Christians lost sight of this fact.
“And even if, in the coming Kingdom of Christ, this saying applies – “Here is neither Jew nor Greek, here is neither man nor woman” – we must say that these words of the apostle emphasize the spiritual and at the same time the otherworldly character of the community of Christ. For according to creation it is a fact that there are men, there are women, there are Jews, there are Greeks. We are grateful that the Berlin Mission Society has shown the church the way in relation to the question of race by explaining that the gospel brings life for the soul, and it brings salvation through forgiveness and regeneration. But this is salvation from the powers of sin and death, not from God’s ordering of things. To this divine order belong the divisions of humankind into peoples and races.” – Arnold Dannenmann, The History of the ‘German Christian Faith Movement’
Do you see what German theologian and pastor, Arnold Dannemann did there? He reinterpreted scripture to fit his rhetorical goal of preaching a gospel that was only about spirituality, an “otherworldly” salvation (instead of the true, holistic gospel that is about the total human and the entire physical world). He separated God’s “natural, divine order” from the gospel of Christ in this world. In his efforts, he completely changed the powerful, subversive meaning of the passage he was quoting from the book of Galatians. The Apostle Paul intended for his words to hit at the heart of our human categories of power and identity, striking a death blow to the myopia of human systems. Paul wanted, instead, to point to the radical New Order being established by Jesus Christ, and by the power of the unleased Holy Spirit, that had the potential to set us free from our man-made cages of dominance and identity politics. Paul was underscoring the truth that Jesus left us with in John 14-17, in which He prayed for our oneness, painting a picture of the intricate web of relatedness between God, ourselves, and one another, which they were meant to embody for the sake of the world (John 17).
It was a picture as big, diverse, and beautiful as the universe itself.
Dannemann wanted to reinterpret Paul because true Christianity presented a unique challenge to the German Christians in two distinct ways.
1.) Since the faith is about establishing a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of all humankind through which the fullness of God’s kingdom will be worked into the earth, that means that the earth matters, human bodies matter, and what we do with both matters to God a great deal. Christian oppressors have long known that, to prop up their systems of dominance, they must separate bodies from souls so that they can justify misusing (and even killing) human bodies while maintaining faux Christian concern for human souls. The American brand of chattel slavery and the pastors and theologians who propped it up are good examples of this theological insanity.
2.) Further frustrating for the German Christians was that the Kingdom economy as taught by Christ is “upside down” when compared to earthly kingdoms – the poor and marginalized are to be exalted, while the powerful and rich are to use their resources to serve others. God is no respecter of persons but is heavily invested in dismantling systems of dominance and injustice, as is evidenced by the large portion of Scripture dedicated to explaining the distributive justice of God’s character.
One of the early Church Fathers and advisors to Constantine, Lactantius, described orthodox Christian teaching on the relationship of all humankind this way:
“If we all derive our origin from one man who God created, we are all clearly of one blood…Therefore, they are to be considered as savage beasts who injure man, who – in opposition to every law and right of human nature – plunder, torture, slay, and banish.”
Another early Church Father, St. Ignatius of Antioch commanded this, in alignment with Christ’s teachings about our relationship to our human siblings:
“Let us all therefore love one another in harmony, and let no one look upon his neighbor according to the flesh, but in Christ Jesus.”
These were the accepted teachings of the early church because they were the clear teachings of Christ Himself. Christians were, and are, called to live within the normal categories of human existence by transcending them through radical love and inclusion. Christians are, literally, meant to be disruptors to the business-as-usual of exclusion, domination, greed, and power-hunger that characterizes human existence. Karl Barth, pleading with Nazi Christians to return to the true Christ, said this:
“If God in Jesus Christ is wholly and completely for us human beings, so then the church, where his glory dwells, must also be the place that is wholly and completely for humankind.” -Karl Barth, Theological Existence Today!
God gives preference to the poor, the immigrant, and the vulnerable among us. This isn’t because God loves or values these people more, and it’s not because they are angels among us who “deserve” more than the rich or powerful. The reason God wants to balance scales – and will balance all scales in the new world God is building, whether we believe others are getting more than their fair share or not – is because God knows something the German Christians (and we as modern Christians) forgot -- we are, whether we like it or not, interrelated in a vast web of existence that cannot be unraveled.
The German Christians felt righteous in their desire to rid their country of Jews, homosexuals, intellectuals, and those who they deemed inferior or non-Germanic. They denied wanting physical harm to come to these “problem people,” but also supported the Nazi regime in its efforts to eradicate them from the country at any cost. They either deceived themselves into believing the delusion that Hitler was a good, Christian man who only wanted reasonable and good things for Germany, or they willfully looked away so as not to see the horrors happening among them. Likely, they did both. And they did it in the name of Christ.
If there is heresy on God’s good earth, it occurs when Christians condone, ignore, or contribute to violent horrors in the name of Jesus Christ.
It’s pure insanity to squabble over nuances in doctrine and exegesis of ancient texts while simultaneously ignoring the meta-narrative of scripture which teaches us that God is opposed to the proud, the liar, the violent, the greedy, and the oppressor. In “straining the gnat” of petty doctrinal preferences, we end up “swallowing the camel” of defaming the name and marring the image of the very good God we claim to serve.
This is the heart of God as outlined in Psalm 82: “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and those in need; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Yet, because the German Christians lacked a spiritual center of resistance grounded in faith, hope, and love of all, they easily caved to fear and hate which manifested as toxic nationalism that helped Hitler rise to power and kill millions of human beings. And this is the point I hope I’m driving home: they did all of this using the Bible! Their entire doctrine on the “orders of creation” which they used to isolate, persecute, and eventually turn over to their deaths Jews (and even Christian Jews!) was based upon biblical exegesis!
What was the missing component in their spiritual core? I contend that what was lacking was the wisdom that every single thought in our minds, intention in our hearts, and action of our lives carry significant weight because they impact the world around us. Indeed, part of our power as image bearers of God Almighty is that what we do shapes reality itself.
When we scapegoat others because of the misguided belief we will protect ourselves in the process, we set things we cannot control in motion. When we withdraw aid to those in need, we become responsible for their fates. When we support the oppressor, we become the oppressor. When we speak or think violently, we become one with the violence of the world. When we type our hateful rhetoric online, we become aligned with the voice of the Evil One. Our thoughts and words become, over time, things of substance on the earth. This is why we can’t separate politics, religion, economics, anthropology, or history into separate “spheres” as the German Christians tried to do. Each of these categories feeds into the others, just as each person’s life impacts the lives of others which, eventually, impacts the world at large.
The German Christians didn’t know where the Hitler train was ultimately headed, but that doesn’t matter. History indicts them because they helped start the momentum that led to destruction.
Some theologians posit that The Satan is an entity that wishes to unravel or destroy the fabric of loving life with which God has endowed humanity and the world in which we live. Others hold to the privation theory of evil or, simply stated, evil as the absence of good. Either way, we can discern good from evil by looking at the “fruit” of the matter at hand and within ourselves, at the wellspring of our hearts. Our spiritual center of resistance must include questions like:
Am I harboring disdain of any kind toward any human being?
Is there anyone in need or in pain that I feel no empathy for or am ignoring?
Who will be impacted by my choices and alliances? What will those impacts be and what can I do to limit the damage?
Have I considered all options and all consequences? Am I listening to the voices of those unlike me or those that will be impacted the most?
What are my desires? What are God’s desires for me, for others, and for the world?
Most importantly, our spiritual center of resistance must include the Golden Rule as taught by Christ.
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 7:12
God is so wise. God knows that we are tempted continually to look out for ourselves and those closest to us first, even if it’s to the detriment of others. Jesus broadened our aperture in this simple teaching: In every single thing, do to ALL others as you want them (or would be more than willing to allow them) to do to you. If you want your body cared for, then care for the physical bodies of others. If you want a safe home, then help others have a safe home. If you want your deepest needs met, then meet the deepest needs of others. Jesus then, perhaps realizing all the proof texting Christians would one day do to avoid this radical image of God’s requirements, made it plain that all of the Law and the Prophets – all of God’s words to us – are contained in this one, simple rule.
This should have been the center of spiritual resistance of the German Christians in their time. It was the center of the spiritual resistance for the Confessing Church. And it must be our own center of spiritual resistance as the Church here and now. Make no mistake, this is not a popular stance now anymore than it was when Jesus was walking the earth. This is the teaching that got Him crucified. Yet, this is the narrow path we’ve been called to walk with our small vapor of human life on this earth. As Karl Barth so aptly noted regarding the role of the theologian (all Christians) in times like these:
“Faced with the special concern that is laid upon him, the theologian must stay awake, a lonely bird on the roof, that is, on the earth, but under the open – wide and unconditionally open – sky.”
Something has scrambled the Christian Nationalist brain to the point that they can take the teachings of Christ and see not love and inclusion but, instead, cold apathy and exclusion within them. This thinking is what has enabled Christians to participate in horrors throughout human history, and it is what we must – must! – resist now at all costs. This resistance will be lonely and, many times, we will be forced to stand alone in the face of a violent onslaught meant to shame and shake us. That is when, my friends, we must force ourselves to look up – into the ‘wide, and unconditionally open sky” and into the very face of God who is Love – and stand firm with all that we are and all the hope of what we can become.
The German Christians lost their minds and their way. We can learn from them and choose another path.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” G.K. Chesterton
So well said!
I would be remiss if I didn’t add: I have been 100% guilty of everything I spoke “against” in my previous comment! 🙏🏼