Confessing Church

First, pardon me for my screwed up writing and intensely bad grammar. Its late and I lack sleep, but just wanted to write something here before I head off to dreamland.

I came across this very interesting article regarding the 'Bekennende Kirche' or the 'Confessing Church'. It was formed primarily to combat the emerging trend of the politicization of the church under the Nazi Regime. The Reich Church, headed by the Archbishop Ludwig Muller, incorporated the extreme and antisemitic views of National Socialism into its religious charter, and proclaiming Hitler to be the defender of Christianity against the Jewish-Bolshevik hordes. Above all, it calls for the complete submission of the German will and consciousness to Adolf Hitler, invoking the verses that calls for submission to the authority. The Reich church proceeded to bring the often fractioned Lutheran protestant churches of Germany under the fold of the Swastika banner, bringing unity once again to the church in Germany. It was a kind of revival to the Germans - here a great savior had been sent to revive and defend Germany and Christiandom, and very often Hitler would proclaim his mission;

"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 2

"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work."

- Adolf Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936

Despite the acceptance of Nazi Christianity, there were a few pastors who 'opposed authorities', namely Martin Niemoller and the famous Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They were the architects of the 'Confessing Church' who saw the evil excesses of National Socialism, and would often speak up against the meddling of affairs by the state. Dietrich Bonhoeffer would later on even go on to active resistance, and dying as a contemporary martyr for his beliefs.

We see them as heroes who did the right thing, but to the Germans then, they were the enemy of the state, 'bad Christians with a spirit of humanism and lawlessness' as someone recently proclaimed. This brings me to the question - when do we actually submit? Is feigning ignorance enough to allow us to get away? When we see questionable things happening, what do we do? I know most of us would say trust God and submit, but that actually really is an excuse to escape from the undeniable responsibility and obligation to act justly in the face of wrongdoing, regardless of authority. The crusaders 'submitted to authority' and went on to wage the bloodiest war in medieval history - even the Muslims were more civil, allowing other religions in their conquered lands to flourish, while the Christians simply massacred entire populations in the name of God and submission to the commands of the Popes. For this, I am ashamed of my faith sometimes.

Borrowing a quote from Meusel, an outspoken church leader of the 'Cofessing Church', she responded to the Confessing Church's timid action by saying:

“Why does the church do nothing? Why does it allow unspeakable injustice to occur? …What shall we one day answer to the question, where is thy brother Abel? The only answer that will be left to us, as well as to the Confessing Church, is the answer of Cain." ("Am I my brother's keeper?" Genesis 4:9)

For all that I've been through, I had enough with the 'submission' order. I will not give in so naively and follow 'leaders' like blind sheep to the slaughter. If church pastors need to preach a sermon on submitting to authorities, one should start to ask oneself why in the first place do they need to preach such a sermon? A pastor who screams at others (and especially his wife) 'I am the pastor, therefore I am right' is not really someone that I want to emulate or model after, heck, he would even be considered less of a man by the world itself. He would not be someone that I would want to 'submit' to. Haha.

7 years of submission has turned many to mindless drones set on autopilot and this is something that I wish not to become. True, life would be a little more tougher, and your friends would most probably ostracize you, but it does nothing more than to prove the point of their incapacity to think beyond the system which has enslaved them, thus resulting in their knee-jerk reaction to you.

Wow, harsh words yet again for another seemingly innocent post.

I need to sleep.

The next time someone comes up to me and slaps me with a 'submit to authorities' sermon, I will 'submit him' with an rear naked choke.

Haha.