[image_credit]Wikimedia Commons[/image_credit][image_caption]Sophie Scholl in 1942[/image_caption]
Her crime? Speaking out against the Aryan white supremacy of the Nazi regime.
It was 1943. Sophie was a member of the White Rose, a clandestine group of university students who were distributing leaflets at universities throughout Germany urging resistance to the Third Reich.
A janitor saw Sophie dropping leaflets off a balcony railing into a central hallway at the University of Munich, and he turned her in to the Gestapo. She was arrested, imprisoned, beaten, and murdered four days later.
After the execution, a pro-Nazi rally was held at the university, and the janitor was given a standing ovation.
“Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go,” Sophie said, before she was guillotined. “But what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian who became a leader in what was known as the Confessing Church, which opposed German Christian policies of exclusion and marginalization. He was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler that culminated in a failed coup on July 20, 1944. As a consequence, he was imprisoned for two years and sentenced to death at a court-martial in Flossenbürg concentration camp in Germany.
On April 9, 1945, he was led naked into the execution yard and hanged. His crime? He would not subvert Christianity to a religion that put Hitler ahead of God. He believed that the German Protestant church failed to stand up against the evils of Nazism and he stood in solidarity with the victims.
Sophie Scholl and Dietrich Bonhoeffer have become heroes in the pantheon of “upstanders” against the Christian nationalism of Nazi Germany.
What is Christian nationalism?
As Georgetown University political science professor Paul D. Miller described in Christianity Today, “Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Christian Nationalists assert that America is and must remain a ‘Christian nation’ – not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.”
We’ve all seen T-shirts proclaiming, “Jesus Christ is my savior and Donald Trump is my president.” This is an example of Christian nationalism.
Hitler hated Christianity but he co-opted most of Germany’s church leaders into supporting his regime. They embraced his ideas of nationalism, racism, and anti-Semitism.
Where are we today?
“The stoking of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, while making nativist appeals to the Christian right, could accurately be described as a white Christian nationalist strategy,” said Robert Jones, chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute, in The New York Times.
Katherine Stewart, author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” was asked about the intersection of Christian nationalism and the “great replacement theory.”
[image_caption]Ellen J. Kennedy[/image_caption]
The “demographic paranoia” extends to people who are seen as the other, who are not white, male, Christian, and heterosexual. This paranoia demonizes people of color; equality-seeking women; non-Christians, particularly Muslims and Jews; and members of LGBTQ communities, especially transgender women, who are seen as abdicating masculinity.
Why is Christian nationalism gaining strength?
There have been several inflection points of social and demographic change in the past two decades:
- The election of a Black president.
- The reversal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military.
- The legalization of gay marriage.
- The decline of Christianity in the U.S. from 80% in 2000 to 65% today.
- The decline of the white population in the US from 77% in 2000 to 57% in 2020 to a predicted white minority of 49.7% by 2045.
The perceived hegemony of white Christianity is irreversibly shifting. Those who feel threatened are passing laws, denying voting rights, stacking courts, challenging and changing materials in public schools and libraries, and acting out with violence against those they see as causing this seismic shift, this great replacement of white Christians.
What can be done?
The organization Christians against Christian Nationalism urges, “We must stand up to, and speak out against, Christian nationalism, especially when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation – including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship—against religious communities at home and abroad.”
Sophie Scholl said, “Stand up for what you believe, even if you are standing alone.” And from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.”
Dr. Ellen Kennedy is the executive director of World Without Genocide and adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. The Rev. John Matthews is past president of the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society and pastor emeritus of Grace Lutheran Church, Apple Valley. The Rev. James Erlandson is pastor at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, St. Paul, and founder and clergy leader of ISAIAH, a faith-based community organization in Minnesota.
World Without Genocide will hold a webinar, “Human Rights and the Threat of Christian nationalism,” on Jan. 25, 2023, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Well, late is not always better than never and this new Christian critique of fellow Christians is decades late in coming. This reactionary decent into Christian Fascism/Nationalism has been ongoing since the Civil War and reconstruction. It was the basis of Jim Crow and White Supremacy, and it became the basis of Republican politics organized around the wedges of anti-desegregation and abortion in the early 1970’s. The toxic attack by the moral majority that began in the 1970’s isn’t a “new” religious crises, it’s just a crises Christians have been ignoring for decades.
Instead of recognizing the rise of Evangelical Christian Fascism and denouncing it… American Christians just went along for the ride for decades, all one big happy tent of Jesus-n-friends until what? Obama got elected? Please.
So now some Christians are finally recognizing the moral vacuity of a brand of Christianity devoid of Jesus… but why wasn’t that obvious from the beginning? What part of: “Christ” is confusing here? It’s not a bad thing for Christians to finally recognize the anti-Christ but let’s not pretend these guys are the first to sound the alarm. Had they stepped up when Reagan stomped on the poor in the 80’s and simply pointed out the fact that Jesus isn’t/wasn’t a trickle-down kind of guy; the “faith-based” community might not have become the juggernaut of fascism and moral turpitude that ended up in the White House in 2016. It remains to be seen whether or not this new found Christian enlightenment has arrived too late to turn back the tide of Christian Nationalism.
As far as Hitler and his Nazis are concerned, we can give some credit wherever it may be due to Christian’s who apposed the Nazis, but let’s not pretend they were the backbone of resistance. The Nazi regime arrested, tortured, and murdered millions over the years; Jews, Communists, Anarchists, Homosexuals, etc. etc. I’ve never seen any historian describe Christians or their church as a backbone of resistance in Nazi Germany, and in Italy the Church was downright complicit in the rise of Fascist Nationalism.
So yes, please… Let’s see some Christians finally step up and confront the moral and political toxicity that’s always been the basis of evangelical “moral majorities” and their “values” and culture wars. But we have to note how ridiculously tardy these new champions are.
Nothing new, Paul; don’t forget Martin Luther’s virulent antisemitism. And at the Council of Nicea, didn’t pagans who wouldn’t adopt Christianity get boiled in oil? Don’t forget what happened to the famed librarian at Alexandria, killed by a mob who used clam shells to scrape her flesh from her body, a mob headed by Cyril (later known as Saint Cyril).
Thank you! My religion is better than your religion, could suggest why folks are opting for, don’t want any religion. The great irony is, suspect a good chunk of the Christian nationalism, get rid of the first amendment/America is a christian country, are the same folks that are heart and soul against any movement on the 2nd amendment to reduce gun violence. My god, my guns, one hell of a witches brew.
Fear the other other. I think the authors from their urban posts would be better off writing about Clyburns 12/20/30 plan to lift some people out of rural poverty(probably a waste of money). Or discussing open permeable borders. Or debt at 12% of GDP.
Give something for people to “believe in” besides opiates…..Yet your program has validity but you need to see this wrapping of religion for what it is. A mighty force for change good or evil.
Why a webinar? That way you’ll get mostly old liberal people and no one else….. I remember a dynamic moment 20 or so years ago at the HHH public affairs hall UM. A son of a prominent 60s 70s evangelical F Schaeffer (?) had just written a critical book on the right wing and fundamentalism and was on tour. He spoke and read and the following discussion was all nodding heads….. Then a baptist preacher of a russian refugee church got up and spoke forcibly of his congregation and their belief in the fundamentals of Christianity. The author was so delighted for the counterpoint and engagement . It is what makes life good…..So open the doors and hold this in a place like New Prague in the exurbs or in the Dakotas. This is what people hear when they glaze at the globalists. Soon you will be as poor as those of southern lands.
One of my best friends was Dr Peter Erspamer who authored “The Elusiveness of Tolerance”. We were at a lecture on the armenian genocide. Again it was all nodding heads until a Turkish student stood up and gave his counter point. I hope your series goes well.
your group is basically promoting a secular progressive nationalism of the mind. This has never worked with mpst humans who are guided by familial bonds and emotions.
Christian nationalists are nationalists who happen to be Christian. The nationalist movement is all about ending our involvement in foreign wars, (including proxy wars against our historical adversaries), limiting our immigration to legal immigration (versus open borders), and returning this nation to a self-sufficient one (versus one that’s reliant on foreign producers of oil and manufactured goods).
Trump sold that vision and it resonated with 75 million voters. It’s not going away when Trump goes away. The idea has resonated with so many people that those opposed to it are resorting to all manner of deceit and government control to try to stop it.
But nationalism isn’t limited to Christians, or white people. I’m neither. Christians who believe that abortion is a sin will naturally prefer the political party that agrees with that view and oppose the party who doesn’t. Pro-life people aren’t limited to Christians either. There are plenty of national and local examples of prominent democrats who left that party for that reason alone, and the former St. Paul mayor Coleman, for example, was Jewish.
But you don’t have to be any of those things to believe that being self-sufficient, strong militarily only to deter potential adversaries, and to believe that a nation without borders isn’t a sovereign nation at all, but simply a global territory. Twenty-five percent of Black voters voted for Trump. Fully half of Hispanics are now republican voters. Many of the new republican leaders are women, including Black women.
The paranoids who cry Nazism and fascism and throw around charges of racism and sexism are asking you to believe a lie. They’re simply desperate people who fear and resent their own freedom and who through any means necessary, are pushing back against what they see as the inevitable loss of their collectivist society where the role of government is simply to decide who gets what.
But to whether or not this is a Christian nation … on December 25th of every year, the government shuts down operations to celebrate the birth of the founder and leader of Christianity. Name another religious leader who’s birth is a national holiday.
Merry Christmas.
Does it count if conservatives pretend it doesn’t exist?
“Black voters remained overwhelmingly loyal to the Democratic Party, voting 92%-8% for Biden.” “Even as Biden held on to a majority of Hispanic voters in 2020”
VS: “Twenty-five percent of Black voters voted for Trump. Fully half of Hispanics are now republican voters.”
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/
Seems we have a credibility issue here, DT or Pew?
“Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true!”
I’ll second that. Go Team Tester.
Are you saying that because you agree with Team Tester’s attempt to define away the problem of Christian Nationalism, or because you simply approve of having a “counterpoint” stated, whatever its merit may be?
His first four paragraphs ring true. Very well written. Then he goes off the rails.
3 1/2 paragraphs. Look normal (people unlike you and I and most commentators) are too busy with other things in their life. It may be work, it may be family, it may be other pursuits. We are a little bit freaky. Go ahead disagree.
Its tough being Mayor.
Emotional Intelligence=Every day in every way Don’t be a bully. Stop thinking you are right about everything. Family structures are different and can result in different orientations. Recognize that.
Just a quick note Dennis… doubling down on extremism doesn’t actually explain it away or justify it. Yes, Nazis and Fascist and KKK people always describe themselves as just good old boys who happen to share some common interests. Problem is we’ve seen this all before. People who want to tear up our elections and impose their will and religion on everyone else may be Christian Nationalists… but they’re not patriots or champions of freedom.
“The paranoids who cry Nazism and fascism and throw around charges of racism and sexism are asking you to believe a lie. They’re simply desperate people who fear and resent their own freedom and who through any means necessary, are pushing back against what they see as the inevitable loss of their collectivist society where the role of government is simply to decide who gets what.”
So people who’ve been a victim of racism, sexism or other form of degradation or attack are “paranoids” and “liars”? Isn’t it possible that others who are different from you might have experienced these things and might not “resent their freedom” but justifiably fear the loss of their freedom? Isn’t it possible that such people who feel victimized by racism, sexism, homophobia or other discrimination might be justified in pushing back against dominant religious and political forces that encourage this discrimination? I wonder if you’ve ever heard this quote by German Lutheran pastor and theologian Martin Niemöller?
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
“Christian nationalism” is no more nationalist than it is Christian.
Christian nationalism betrays every so-called Christian virtue. The ethos of the Christian nationalist is power that seeks to mock, humiliate and obliterate the other as a projection of an absence of self and the nihilism that necessarily develops in its wake. (And no one on the national stage has ever embodied, and unashamedly paraded, this more openly than Trump, hence his cult worship by the Christian nationalists.)
And far from being nationalist, Christian nationalism is its opposite: the nominal local name for a globalist authoritarian movement that is the political expression of coalesced private wealth: first, the wealth of corrupt resource-economy rent-taking in politically and economically undeveloped nations, joined more recently by concentrated U.S. and European wealth that has concluded, apparently rightly, that it no longer need submit to the 75-year compromise set into rule of law, with the only modest (I am facetious) rates of accumulation that compromise has allowed.
The left is not globalist, it is deeply nationalist. The left believes that the welfare of Americans is best sustained in a world of stable, democratic nations and, therefore, that it is appropriate to invest outside one’s borders toward this end. The left supports Ukraine not only because Putin is seeking to perpetrate a genocide, but because his aggression is the front of the assault of globalist autocratic power against local democratic aspirations everywhere. Christian nationalists support Putin not because of some good-faith but errant notion that nationalism rejects any engagement beyond one’s borders, but because, in their nihilism, they seek the globalist destruction of national interests and of the very notion of the individual as the locus of freedom and the element out of which nations are constructed.
“But to whether or not this is a Christian nation … on December 25th of every year, the government shuts down operations to celebrate the birth of the founder and leader of Christianity. Name another religious leader who’s birth is a national holiday.”
It’s called an accommodation to the majority or plurality.
Easter would seem to be far more significant theologically to Christians than Christmas. Why don’t we close everything then?
“Christian nationalists are nationalists who happen to be Christian. ”
This is wrong, as is the entire screed following it. The correct definition is found in the article above, which perhaps Mr Tester didn’t read.
“Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Christian Nationalists assert that America is and must remain a ‘Christian nation’ – not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.”
Oh, I think Dennis read the definition of (white) Christian Nationalism. He just doesn’t like it, and even he can’t find a way to defend the indefensible here. Hence terms must be “redefined”.
Trumpism is largely Christian Nationalism, and such “believers” are a huge demographic of its support. Thus Trumpism has to be made more palatable as a rhetorical matter, with attempts to disguise its Christian Nationalist elements as “America First” isolationism. The “conservatism” of the 1930s…
Petty nitpicking grievances.
Not really. The secular, cultural, and economic celebration of Christmas has come to overshadow its significance as a religious holiday. There is very little about the way Christmas is commemorated that does not have a non-Christian origin (ironically, the parts of American Christmas that traditionalist Christians used to find the most offensive – lavish gift giving and Santa Claus – do have Christian origins). Christmas has been co-opted for non-religious purposes since the 4th century CE.
Some of the early and late church and community is built upon roman pagan structures. Not necessarily a bad thing. It enabled a certain flourishing. There is a very interesting short book that covered this topic 10 or more years ago perhaps by Barnes?
George Barna and Frank Viola.
I think to attribute Naziism to Christian nationalism is absurd.
Why, part and parcel with ACTUAL German Nazi ideology was the belief that German Protestantism was the only true faith.
Evidence please.
See the South Park video where the kids call their teacher a nazi.
Well, Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah.
“when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation – including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship—against religious communities at home and abroad.”
Where is this happening? Was someone beheaded recently, based on leading with that imagery? Who is demonizing who, precisely? Hair on fire, happy holidays…
You’re on the wrong thread William. The discussion about extremism was hashed out in a different commentary.
An arts history prof was fired this week from Hamline because a medieval slide image about Mohammed offended a Muslim Student. Nary a word in the local news. Found on national mainstream sites…..This is not the kind of world where many people esp. those favoring freedom of speech want to live.
Whenever I hear “great replacement theory” I think Native Americans must be laughing through their tears.
As a rule of thumb, if what you have to say involves invoking Nazies, chances are you don’t have something useful to say.
Well, Sal… are you telling there’s nothing useful to be said about the holocaust? Can we talk about the holocaust without invoking Nazis? Simplistic maxims are rarely the wisdom they pretend to be. Nazis exist, you ignore that fact at your own peril.
My own view is that ruling out analogies to Nazis effectively means that most of the lessons the 20th century teaches us are now out of bounds. I have noticed that Godwin’s Law which says basically that Nazi analogies are forbidden has never been extended to include accusations of communism. I routinely get accused of communist and socialist tendencies, which for me is the cause of much late night weeping when I am overwhelmed by the infamy of it all.
I am actually a history minded sort of person. There are time when the past seems more real to me than the present. I do make analogies but mostly not for public consumption, because as useful as they can be to understand things, they are usually bad rhetorical tools. People are less likely to vote my way after I call them a Nazi, experience has taught me. And as Trump himself suggested, many Nazis were very fine people, one of the most haunting and terrible things about history I know.
As a rule of thumb, if invoking nazis is out of bounds, there is much that cannot be discussed.
Why should we care about Whoopi Goldberg’s latest remarks?
By the way, am I the only one who chuckles a little every time I see a Christian Nationalist say: “Merry Christmas” as if it’s a courageous act of defiance? They are literally hanging people to death in Iran and these people think being ignored is a burden of their oppression. And what part of Jesus tells you to use his birthday as an attempt to provoke and disrespect other faiths and religions?
Problem with Christian Nationalist… they’re lousy Christians AND lousy nationalists.
How do you know who the Christian Nationalist’s are
They are usually quite eager to inform one of that fact. Can’t make it through a basic conversation, actually.
How do you know ensconced in your little bubble? I don’t know normal people usually talk sports, movies or other topics. How’s the weather? Let my chat bot get back to your chat bot.
We have followed the news since January 6, 2021…
Well there are some pretty bad bumper stickers out there. Now most normal people are too afraid to display. Obnoxious Christian Nationalists go to church maybe twice a year.
The best bumper sticker “I (heart) Jesus and I love Kosher pickles!”
Maybe by the public proclamations they make, the groups they associate with (or defend), as well as the politicians they openly support?
Just a theory…
Anglicaqns in the UK may feel different. Remember for the liberals and the extremes on the right it is all about feelings.
It’s funny how these guys with the moral compasses and zero tolerance for disparity and ANTIFA suddenly can’t tell the difference between bingo night and terrorism. How do we know a bunch people who call themselves Christian Nationalists are Christian Nationalists? Yeah… it’s a real ontological problem.
It’s like when the gun experts in the room suddenly can’t recognize an assault rifle when they see it… they look at a AR15 and say: “What is that? Some kind of banjo?” “How could we possibly tell the difference between a vacuum cleaner and an assault rifle… because maybe it’s an ‘assault’ vacuum cleaner?” Whatever.
Listen: If the only prejudice you worry about is prejudice towards Fascists and white supremacists, and Christian “nationalists”… you’re probably a Fascist, white supremacists, or Christian “nationalists”.
Ok I can easily identify a Tea party person by their large obnoxious yellow flag, or their tiny yellow sticker. I can easily identify a thin blue liner. Mr NRA, Maybe some Christian nationalists if they conflate Trump with God. Thats an if. A Jerichoite if they call themselves a Jerichoite. Grateful dead if they are still alive. I can identify Obama or Hilary haters. I can even identify the guy humping in his Chevy Van, “If its rocking don’t come knocking:…….Now we could enter some really interesting territory. How many of your total High School classmates home schooled , parochial schooled or classically private charter schooled their kids? And what was the motivations for their choice? And what were these disparate communities like?…..Surely you must know that at times I just take a rhetorical position that is not mine and steel man it. I’ve told you guys countless times I have never voted for a republican and voted dem over a hundred times and I am 60 something.
I am of the Tar generation that remembers things before social media. You act as if you are the “youngers” i.e. you throw around baseless accusations of racism. You are confused. You attack and ask questions later. Read Zadie Smith.
“Remember for the liberals and the extremes on the right it is all about feelings.”
Liberals? Meaning the 81m folks who voted for Biden?
Nice, neat and tidy to just shove everyone into a box and cast generalities their way. Reality? No. Nice, neat and tidy? Yes. Reality is that if we start with 250m boxes some accurate descriptions can be made. All downhill from there.
No what I notice amongst a group of 6 or so left wingers and 3 or so right wingers is a push for ideological purity. This has been going on for a long time and I see it as a wee bit of a problem…….. Like if I am ever framing something actually or rhetorically I am not sure I could trust these guys to carry a bag of groceries to the car for fear I might offend them. I mean if I want a narrow ideological frame work I can find it here at times or amongst some of my old HS classmates. It is so tiring and I find it uncivil. I mean really is this the civics they practice, preaching to their choirs? See my earlier real lived comments to the authors of this article. I would like to see multiple facets to the discussion. In the end we are all dead anyway.