German ‘Confessing Church’ movement marks 75th anniversary (Baptist Standard)

[struggle4progress]

By Bob Allen
Published: June 05, 2009

... "In Nazi Germany, German Christians had to decide whether they were <Nazi> German or genuinely Christian," Gushee said. "These leaders, on the basis of scriptural authority and a careful reading of Christian tradition, made the right choice" ...

"American Christians need to decide whether we are Christians or Americans first," Gushee, who writes an Associated Baptist Press column, said. "We need clarity about the discontinuities between these two identities and the dangers of confusing the one with the other" ...

After witnessing vicious, state-sanctioned violence against Germany's Jewish community on Nov. 9-10, 1938, Martin says in the film, there were only about two or three of Berlin's pastors preached on it the following Sunday.

"The fact of the matter is, the Confessing Church was a very small minority," Martin said. Even many within the Confessing-Church movement thought Bonhoeffer, who eventually was executed for taking part in a plot to assassinate Hitler, was too radical ...

http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9642&Itemid=43

[rpannier]

1. We had a family that lived near us that were German Jews who finally left Germany

The grandfather said he knew it was time to leave when the SS arrested a Catholic Monsignor for speaking out against what the Nazi's were doing.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. 'There are a handful of people who got it'

"The fact of the matter is, the Confessing Church was a very small minority," Martin said. Even many within the Confessing-Church movement thought Bonhoeffer, who eventually was executed for taking part in a plot to assassinate Hitler, was too radical.

"There are a handful of people who got it," he said.

Gushee said like those at Barmen, Christians today need "the sturdy resources of Scripture and Christian tradition to resist the siren songs of nationhood and peoplehood and, yes, national security."

This is the lesson churchgoing folk need to take away from this story, which is all too reminiscent of the period beginning with Chimpolini's ascent to power. Only a handful have shown the courage to speak out against perversion of Christian doctrine with jingoistic propaganda. I view those Christian leaders who swore fealty to the neocons as collaborators no less degenerate than those who attempted to provide legitimacy to Hitler's Third Reich.

However, I am hopeful that new Christian leaders will reject the rhetoric of empire-building, which is in direct contradiction to Christian theology. The fact that this article appears in a publication of the Southern Baptist Convention is encouraging!