Some folks have noted that I don't seem to be posting all that much, or really at all, lately. A big part of that is a choice on my part to be less angry, as my anger was started to seriously leak out at people who didn't deserve it, or at least, at people who didn't deserve the extreme depths of it that they were receiving.
In that silence (excuse the occasional Facebook post not limited to ANF) I had hoped to hear other ministers speak against the various atrocities coming out of the Washington these days, and while voices are present, they are largely drowned out by a very vocal contingent of pastors who seem to see it as their personal duty to advocate for every action the White House makes.
It reminded me of the Theological Declaration of Barmen, which chilled me. Adopted in 1934, the Declaration was written mostly by theologian Karl Barth as rejection of the theology of the "German Christian" movement, a movement that saw the church as little more than an extension of the Nazi Party.
You can find the full text of the document here. It isn't very long. What it represents is simple enough: German Christians were more and more acting as if their faith was beholden to the government, and used platforms like pulpits to advance the governments goals.
It worried me because we very much see it in modern Churches today, where preachers often seem to have TWO tasks... not only the preaching of the scripture, but explaining how that scripture conforms to the ideology of the Republican Party.
It isn't even very subtle. Back during the election, when Donald Trump had a tape released where he boasted about sexually molesting women, Pat Robertson went right on TV and said; "Well, at least we know he isn't gay!" This supposed pastor who has often held sexual propriety as the most important of Christian morals advocating for an admitted sexual predator because he was the Nominated Candidate for President of the Republican party!
History is a valuable teacher in this kind of situation, and unfortunately the history of Nazi Germany is very useful. It was actually very simple... religious leaders found that they had gained a greater hand in the government than they had previously, and when one gains power, one typically wants to hold on to it. So bit by bit, point by point, they placated out of control government figures until the whole of their message had become dedicated to propping up a political platform.
People often forget that there was a time when the Church, while very present in American Life, was not particularly active in government. Separation of Church and State were taken very seriously. But with the advent of Ronald Reagan and the so-called "Moral Majority" Evangelical Christian leaders started finding themselves invited into the halls of political power, and they liked it. And so what at the time was an alliance of convenience with the Republican Party became what is today almost a fused being... it can be difficult tell where the Evangelical Church ends and the Republican Party begins. And as the Republican parties actions become more and more unconscionable, the harder the Evangelicals work to hold up the myth that the GOP is, in any way, shape, or form, following a recognizable Christian ideology.
And heaven help the Pastor who doesn't maintain that image. Pastor find that their congregations demand that they stay "fair and balanced" if they do not adhere to GOP protocol, while those who do are let loose to bash all enemies of the conservative machine.
So let me be clear. In a great many ways, the GOP has so far deviated from any recognizable interpretation of the scriptures as to be almost anathema to them, and yet, Evangelical Pastors across the country are apologizing for them and calling for Christians to be loyal, not to Christ, but to the Conservative movement, to the detriment of their own faith.
83 years ago, German Theologians from many disparate denominations recognized the threat such theological adherence to a political ideology posed, not only to the church, but to the nation. And now, it's happening here.
I'm not telling you that you can't be a good Republican and a good Christian. But when you require your pastors, and other theological leaders, to maintain the myth that to be Christian and to be Republican are synonymous terms, you are following a path that led, ultimately, to the kind of destruction that made the Nazis the Nazis.
Christians are called worship God with all of hearts, minds, and strength. I know that it is easier to believe that voting a certain way is the "Christian" way, but that is very, VERY dangerous thinking. It has led to horrible consequences before. And it can happen again.
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