The Historical Suffering Church: Its Image, Its Faith Extending Over Our Tomorrows: 2- Paul Schneider & Stephen Miller

 

I did not intend for this to be a part of my new small series on the persecuted church but as I began to write I realized it would be.

Sometime after Hitler came to power, in 1934, pastor Paul Schneider, the first Confessing Church martyr officiated at a funeral for a young man of the Hitler Youth. It was supposed to be a Christian funeral. During the rite a deputy of the Hitler Youth spoke of fate gathering him to his fathers and said the young man, “had now crossed over into the storm of Horst Wessel.” This was said twice and Schneider protested because this was a Christian ceremony. In a letter to his superintendent he wrote, “I protest. This is a church ceremony, and as a Protestant pastor I am responsible for the pure teaching of the Holy Scriptures.”[i]

This led to Schneider’s first arrest. He would be arrested several times, lose his churches, be beaten in prison and finally poisoned to death.

But what is the storm of Horst Wessel. And who is he.

He was a soldier in the German army who was shot and became a mythical creation of the paganized Nazis. They used his death to unite their rallies and turn their followers as much as possible away from their Christian faith. Goebbels speaks of Wessel’s immortalization.  The storm of Horst Wessel was meant to evoke a pagan eternity earned by Germanic patriotism. Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist, used this idea in at least two of his speeches. He began the myth with a speech, Raise High the Flag, the first part of a poem written by Wessel.

The author of Paul Schneider writes:

National Socialism wanted to introduce its worldview to the German people openly but it did so surreptitiously because it knew it was incompatible with a biblically based faith. Its “national” faith was not permitted to know anything about the “full reality of sin so deeply rooted in the heart and life of man” because it alone felt chosen to set the standard and did not tolerate any critical discussion.

This can be seen in many of Goebbels’ and other Nazi speeches and writings. There was always the righteous, (the Nazis) and the despicable (all others who rejected Nazism). It is constantly there as here in an early Nazi speech; The Storm is Coming:

You, men, women, and comrades, are the bearers, witnesses, builders, and finishers of this unique people’s uprising. Our policies have not been popular. We have served the truth, and only the truth. For twelve years, they have insulted and outlawed and slandered and persecuted us. Now that we are standing at the doorway to power, Marxist lies have joined with bourgeois weakness to fight us. Were we only a party like all the rest, we would collapse under the offensive of our opponents. But we are a people’s movement. That is our good fortune. Here and everywhere else in the land, the red shining Swastika flag flies over people of all camps, parties, classes, occupations, and religious confessions. Our opponents laughed at us in the past, but they laugh no longer.

You men and women standing before me, a hundred or two hundred thousand in number, with heads high, upright, proud, and brave, the carriers of Germany’s future, in your eyes it is written:

We think no longer in terms of class. We are not workers or middle class. We are not first of all Protestants or Catholics. We do not ask about ancestry or class. Together we share the words of the poet:

“People, rise up, and storm, break loose!” …

So our dead comrade Horst Wessel wrote, and we are fulfilling his prophesy. The others may lie, slander, and pour their scorn on us — their political days are numbered.

Adolf Hitler is knocking at the gates of power, and in his fist are joined the fists of millions of workers and farmers. The time of shame and disgrace is nearly over.

You are the witnesses, the builders, the will-bearers of our idea and our worldview.

So this is the pattern; (1)a great need, (2)a hero to lift up, (3) enemies who are worthless, (4)the righteous who are the builders. This is the Fascist’s method of propaganda. But it came up against biblical truth which declares all humanity sinners and only one solution the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who gifts humanity with mercy, forgiveness and rather than immortalization, eternal life and bodily resurrection.

As I have placed the suffering church in contrast to a despotic government in my last posting, The Historical Suffering Church: Its Image, Its Faith Extending Over Our Tomorrows:, I will place this image of a suffering pastor and a despotic government beside a government official who now pushes the same propaganda. Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief, speaking at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, uses, often the same words and concepts as Goebbels.

The image of storm is often used in Nazi speeches—Miller—"The storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength and the warrior whispers back I am the storm.” He then calls Erika Kirk the storm, but hardly; she is the forgiving Christian. The praise of the hero; Miller’s speech, “You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk. You have made him an immortal.”

The praise of the Nazi followers is often wrapped up in the title builders, “You are the witnesses, the builders, the will-bearers of our idea and our worldview.” Miller, “We are the ones who build, we are the ones who create, we are the ones who lift up humanity.”

There is always the enemy in the Nazi propaganda, for Miller that is also true:

You have nothing, you are nothing, you are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy. You are hatred, you are nothing, you can build nothing, you can produce nothing, you can create nothing.

Here is the anti-Christian attack on Christianity too often used by Miller. Taking MAGA’s supposed Lineage all the way back to Athens and Rome he places their humanity and goodness in a racial context which eliminates the other. He adds righteousness to them because of their supposed lack of sinfulness. He glorifies what is sinful and so shuts them out of the Kingdom of God for the sake of the kingdom of man. At this funeral he shuts the door on Christian faith never mentioning it—yes, he mentions angels whose tears put fire into the hearts of the supposed righteous ones. That is unbiblical but also borders on the edge of paganism as does his words of awaking a dragon in them—in MAGA—in those who follow Trump. “you have no idea of the dragon you have awakened, you have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the west, to save this republic …”

The book of Revelation filled with metaphors speaks of a dragon. His war isn’t good, he attempts to kill Jesus, he lives in rage and gives his power to a despotic being—he ends in hell.

The Christian, those who pray to always put Jesus above any worldly ruler, needs no propaganda in its cruder form, they have the Holy Scriptures—the Word of God, the promises of God.

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where is Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (Colossians 3: 1-4.)

 

 

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[i] Rudolf Wentorf, Paul Schneider: Witness of Buchenwald, (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing 2008) 152-153.

The Historical Suffering Church: Its Image, Its Faith Extending Over Our Tomorrows:

I am beginning a small series looking at the various forms of the historical Church and their experiences of persecution as it is fomented by its relation to the secular culture and governments of their time. This may include a rising unfaithfulness in the midst of persecution. I will not put these events necessarily in a historical sequence because I am more interested in the interplay of Christianity, state, and culture rather than the rise and fall of nations. And I am also interested in how the faithfulness of the Church produces in the end, sadly, the antagonism of state and culture. I am starting with the Anabaptists simply because I was thinking about some of their music when I felt this would be an exploration that would be helpful in these days. 

The Anabaptist were mostly in Switzerland and Germany and were undoubtedly the most persecuted members of the Reformation. As, William R. Estep, author of The Anabaptist Story, writes “Martyrdom became an Anabaptist hallmark.” It was such a hallmark that they have a hymnbook covering most of their sufferings. This was printed in 1564 but also there is the Martyrs Mirror published in 1660 which is still used by the Amish and Mennonites. I will place one of their hymns at the end of this post. 

The persecution of the Anabaptist came about for several reasons. It was of course a time when religious freedom was not generally considered. And the Anabaptist had no king, ruler or pope to protect them. All of the state churches as well as governments persecuted them. One of the reasons is something that has happened too often in church history; true Christians being accused of the crimes of other religious groups. One of the more radical groups, a militant group, took over a town, took power and instituted polygyny. They were eventually overcome by military forces and destroyed but too often the Anabaptist were thought to adhere to the teachings of the militant group. 

The Anabaptist had several distinctive beliefs that rankled other Christians of their day. They did not believe in infant baptism or that communion consisted of the true body and blood of Jesus. (Reformed theology did accept infant baptism.) Beyond this and probably more importantly the Anabaptist were pacifist and believed in living in community. This did not necessarily mean that they lived as a commune all owning the same property. But they did share a great deal and attempted to live separately from others. While they attempted to live as law abiders their preaching was too often considered against the law. And much like in Islamic countries and autocratic countries like China, Russia and North Korea today, even in secret meetings they were sought out and arrested.

 Estep gives an account of the fate of one of the preachers Michael Sattler: 

Michael Sattler shall be committed to the executioner. The later shall take him to the square and first cut off his tongue, and there forge him fast to a wagon and there with glowing iron tongs twice tear pieces from his body, then on the way to the site of execution five times more as above and then burn his body to powder as an arch-heretic. 

 Different Anabaptist groups would form mainly the Amish, the Mennonites and the Hutterites. They would spread to many countries including Russia and North and South America. It was in Germany during the Nazi years that some of their past Christian endurance would be tested. In Germany where their concerns about social evil and pacifism, their sense of Christian community, came in deep conflict with the Nazi officials. 

 It was the Hutterites in particular who came into conflict with the Nazis. Some of the other groups of Anabaptist like other German citizens felt that Hitler was bringing morality to Germany and did not oppose him. Pastor Martin Niemöller at first also thought Hitler was bringing morality to Germany since he had promised to protect Christianity—of course a lie. But Niemöller became Hitler’s adversary and was his personal prisoner for eight years. 

The Hutterites, under the leadership of Aberhard Arnold used all of there distinctive beliefs to continue as citizens of Germany but would eventually fail. They schooled their children in their own community, they tried to avoid military service for the young men, they took in strangers, farmed and sold much of their produce to their surrounding community. At first, they attempted to continue this by appealing to German officials, trying to convert them to what they called the way of love. When at one point they were raided they baked their oppressors a cake. Another time, differently, behind a closed door, they threw documents into a stove so there would be no proof that they had ever spoken against the Nazis.

 The important point here is that they never gave away their own principles nor their Lord who they served rather than worldly leaders. But one by one, as it too often happens in totalitarian regimes, the Hutterites’ lives and principles were attacked and their property destroyed. They needed Hutterite teachers and had to tell outsiders to no longer send strangers to their door. As they began to lose their property and looked, quietly, for property in Switzerland and then eventually, carefully, stealthily, began to move across the border. They did not go all at once and two men spent some time in prison but not for long. Their community in Germany was gone but they would eventually emigrate to the UK and then to South America. 

Much of what I have been writing comes from a history on the Aberhard Arnold, Burderdhof site. There is a series of articles there dealing with their history in that time. It begins: 

“It is inherent in imitatio, in being Christlike, that we are ready for imprisonment and death,” Eberhard Arnold told members of the Rhön Bruderhof in March 1933. It was two days after Adolf Hitler’s address to the Reichstag and granting himself complete power, the moment Germany passed the point of no return to become a Nazi dictatorship. Eberhard spoke to his community about the challenges National Socialism would create for them as a result of their commitment to Jesus’ way of peace. Indeed, the fate of the entire Bruderhof in the years 1933–1937 serves as an example of Christian resistance and witness in this era of state violence. 

The pacifism of the early Anabaptist movement was a core principle of the Bruderhof's identity. This meant that from the very beginning they distanced themselves from the regime, which quickly revealed its brutal, violent nature. The community members were also firmly opposed to the National Socialist racial principles. The Bruderhof thus stood in decisive opposition to National Socialist ideologies and expressed this antagonism in clear terms.” 

 Some of the experiences of the Hutterites can be acknowledged as helpful for Christians in any totalitarian setting. While the Hutterites did not suffer all that the Confessing Church, the White Rose, Corrie Ten Boon and others suffered they did lose much yet faithfully stood their ground in the faith. As scenarios changed, they keep on finding ways to stay together and hold to their faith. As so many experienced in that time they experienced communities and individuals who took no real notice of the evil happening around them leading to a sense of isolation but still they clung to each other and to the Lord—the best that history can write about anyone they were faithful to each other and to Christ.  

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymnal I don’t usually use Wikipedia for endnotes but this one is so interesting that others may want to read it.

[1] Estep gives three references for this quote far to long to add to a blog post, but the quote is well referenced—it is historical.

[1] Eberhard Arnold and National Socialism, Part One