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Resistance out of Christian Faith 5|2 RESISTANCE OUT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH 5|2 It presents this letter in obedience to its divine mission to speak His Word without fear to every man—including to the lords and masters of the nations—and to attest to His Commandment. It trusts that God Himself gives it the wisdom to carry out its mission so clearly and unambiguously that its concern for the Christian conscience and its love for the German nation are equally and unmistak­ ably recognizable. Be that as it may, we are motivated in our statements, as were our predecessors in office in their letter dated April 11, 1935 (enclosed as appendix), which unfortunately has had no perceptible effect, solely by the one duty of helping the suffering, confused, and threat­ ened members of the Evangelical Church through its words and its advocacy. We are solely concerned that the Reich government should clearly hear and understand through its statements this voice speaking out of con­ cern for the souls entrusted to the Church. The Lord of the Church says: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” These words show the great and earnest nature of the service to which the Church is appointed by God. They recall as well the boundaries set to all earthly powers and their striving. They refer, finally, to the danger to which countless people, including members of the Church, threaten to succumb time and time again. 1. Danger of De-Christianization The Provisional Executive appreciates the import, in 1933 and subsequently, of the protagonists of the National Socialist revolu­ tion being able to declare with emphasis: “With our victory over Bolshevism we have simultaneously overcome the enemy that also fought and threatened to destroy Christianity and the Christian Churches.” We are experiencing, however, that the fight The Wording of the German “The German Evangelical Church, represented against the Christian Church is as alive and Evangelical Church’s Protest Letter by the clerical members of its Provisional well in the German nation as never before to Reich Chancellor Hitler Executive and the Council assisting them, since 1918. presents its respectful compliments to the We are publishing below the important mem­ Führer and Reich Chancellor. No power in the world, no matter what its orandum by the Provisional Executive of the name, can possibly destroy or shield God’s German Evangelical Church, which —as our The German Evangelical Church is closely Church against His will; that is the task of readers are aware—was recently forwarded linked to the Führer and his advisors through God. The Church, however, has to attend to Reich Chancellor Hitler through Under­ the intercession it practices publicly and in to the disputed consciences of its members. secretary of State Meißner, in its full wording, silence for the people, state, and government. because it presents the current situation of the For this reason, the Provisional Executive of Through the distress and confusion of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the rela­ the German Evangelical Church in conjunction present struggle against religion, many bap­ tionship of Evangelical Christianity to National with the Council of the German Evangelical tized Christians are threatened by temporal Socialism in a clear and comprehensive form. Church has taken up its responsibility to and eternal damnation. If even those with The spaced passages in the text are our own. express in this letter the concerns and fears high positions in the state and the party The Editors. which many Christians in congregations, publicly attack the Christian faith (see Ley’s brethren councils, and church boards feel with speech, among others), then members of regard to the future of the Evangelical faith the Church already alienated from the Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany, which and its teachings will become increasingly it has considered long and earnestly. entrapped in their lack of faith, while those who are wavering and unsure will be made fully uncertain and driven to apostasy. Indeed, negative Christians who are in contradiction command may be held higher than the com­ there is a serious threat that the Evangelical of National Socialism through their adherence mand of human authority. In the interpretation youth is allowing itself to be prevented from to medieval dogma … The negative Christian of practical political matters, we consider coming to Him who is the sole savior of all fights for the Church, to the detriment of the ourselves the instrument of God.” Hitler: German boys and girls. A responsible Church people, for its dogma and for the preservation “The party neither previously had nor now has executive must oppose this threat to the of priestly lies and thereby for the devil … the intention of leading any struggle against members of the Church. being an S.A. man and belonging to the con­ Christianity in Germany. It has attempted, fessional front is a contradiction in terms … on the contrary, to create a large Evangelical Such an opposition includes the clear question Though we positive Christians do not think Reich Church by consolidating impossible to the Führer and Reich Chancellor as to so poorly of our fellow men, we nevertheless Protestant Regional Churches, without inter­ whether the attempt to de­Christianize the protect ourselves against infiltration by vigi­ fering in confessional issues in the slightest” German people, through further acts of high­ lantes, spies, and demoralizing elements …”). [Party conference, 9.11.35].). ranking statesmen or simply through looking Under the guise of positive Christianity, on and taking no action, is to become official key concepts of the Christian faith (faith, love, In actual fact, however, one interference after government policy. eternity, prayer, resurrection) have been another has been imposed on the Church since divested of their revelatory content and rein­ the forced elections of July 1933 to this day. terpreted in purely inner­worldly, psycholog­ 2. “Positive Christianity” ical terms through the words of yet other (N.B. The main interferences: 1. Appointment representatives of the Reich government, even of the State Commissioner in Prussia on We trust that the Reich government will heed in statements by Reich Ecclesiastical Minister 6. 24. 35 and the State Commissioners in the words of the Evangelical Church in order Kerrl (see Göring, among others: “We have Bremen, Hesse, Lippe, Mecklenburg, Saxony. to avoid the escalation of the struggle against declared to the Church that we operate on the 2. Ordinance of general church elections religion in Germany. When the N.S.D.A.P. basis of positive Christianity. Through our zeal by the Reich Act of 7.15.33. 3. Radio speech declared in its manifesto that it operated on of faith, our strength of faith, we have shown by the Führer on 7.22.33 in favor of the the basis of a “positive Christianity,” the entire the Church what faith really means.” Kerrl: German Christians. 4. Ban on publications religious population had to and was intended “This [i.e., the confession to positive Christian­ about church matters through the Reich In te­ to understand this as meaning that the Chris­ ity] has nothing to do with dogma, but rather ri or Minister’s unpublished decree of 11.6. and tian faith in accordance with the confessions is independent faith and is that love in the 11.7.34. 5. Appointment of the State Finance and the preaching of the Church was to be form of practical deeds which bids us to say: Department through the Prussian Act of March given freedom and protection, indeed aid and ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what 1935. 6. Appointment of the Arbitration Bureau support, in the Third Reich. they do.’ The essence of National Socialism through the Reich Act of June 1935. 7. The Act is faith, its deed is love, and National Socialist for the Securing of the German Evangelical Later, however, it transpired that significant positive Christianity is brotherly love.”). Church of 9.24.35 and the state church coun­ figures in the state and the party interpreted cils appointed thereupon. Toward individual the term “positive Christianity” as they saw fit. The damage of such statements is all the clergymen: 1. Arrest of the Bishop of Württem­ great­­er in that the Church has never been berg and Bavaria in 1934. 2. Transfer of clergy­ The Reich Minister of Propaganda and Public given the opportunity to refute, with the men to concentration camps, specifically in Enlightenment was soon presenting merely same range of audience, the misinterpreta­ Saxony and Nassau­Hesse. 3. Expulsions of humanitarian acts as positive Christianity, and tions of the Christian faith by high offices. clergymen from their boroughs of office, in in some cases combining this interpretation some cases even from their home provinces, with an attack on the Christian Churches and specifically in Prussia. 4. Arrests of 700 pastors their allegedly insufficient work in the field of 3. Destruction of Ecclesiastical Order in Prussia on the occasion of the pulpit decla­ Christian charity, which the state itself had ration against neo­heathenism ordered by the significantly restricted them from through its The methods of the de­Christianization of the Old Prussian Synod in March 1935. 5. Constant bans in effect since 1933 (see Goebbels’s German people become comprehensible in hindering of confessional services, public speech on the Winter Relief campaign, among their context if one speaking
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