Reich Church Vs. The Confessing Church The Barman Declaration

[banana republican]

I would like to open this up for discussion. It is the Confessing Lutheran Church's response to the Hijacking of the Lutheran Faith in Hitler's Germany

(mods this is public Domain and a part of thecreeds of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)

**************************************

Theological Declaration of Barmen

I. An Appeal to the Evangelical Congregations and Christians in Germany

8.01 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, May 29-31, 1934. Here representatives from all the German Confessional Churches met with one accord in a confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, apostolic Church. In fidelity to their Confession of Faith, members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches sought a common message for the need and temptation of the Church in our day. With gratitude to God they are convinced that they have been given a common word to utter. It was not their intention to found a new Church or to form a union. For nothing was farther from their minds than the abolition of the confessional status of our Churches. Their intention was, rather, to withstand in faith and unanimity the destruction of the Confession of Faith, and thus of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices, the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of the Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.
8.02 Therefore the Confessional Synod calls upon the congregations to range themselves behind it in prayer, and steadfastly to gather around those pastors and teachers who are loyal to the Confessions.
8.03 Be not deceived by loose talk, as if we meant to oppose the unity of the German nation! Do not listen to the seducers who pervert our intentions, as if we wanted to break up the unity of the German Evangelical Church or to forsake the Confessions of the Fathers!
8.04 Try the spirits whether they are of God! Prove also the words of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church to see whether they agree with Holy Scripture and with the Confessions of the Fathers. If you find that we are speaking contrary to Scripture, then do not listen to us! But if you find that we are taking our stand upon Scripture, then let no fear or temptation keep you from treading with us the path of faith and obedience to the Word of God, in order that God's people be of one mind upon earth and that we in faith experience what he himself has said: "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Therefore, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

II. Theological Declaration Concerning the Present Situation of the German Evangelical Church

8.05 According to the opening words of its constitution of July 11, 1933, the German Evangelical Church is a federation of Confessional Churches that grew our of the Reformation and that enjoy equal rights. The theological basis for the unification of these Churches is laid down in Article 1 and Article 2(1) of the constitution of the German Evangelical Church that was recognized by the Reich Government on July 14, 1933:

* Article 1. The inviolable foundation of the German Evangelical Church is the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is attested for us in Holy Scripture and brought to light again in the Confessions of the Reformation. The full powers that the Church needs for its mission are hereby determined and limited.
* Article 2 (1). The German Evangelical Church is divided into member Churches Landeskirchen).

8.06 We, the representatives of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches, of free synods, Church assemblies, and parish organizations united in the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church, declare that we stand together on the ground of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of German Confessional Churches. We are bound together by the confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
8.07 We publicly declare before all evangelical Churches in Germany that what they hold in common in this Confession is grievously imperiled, and with it the unity of the German Evangelical Church. It is threatened by the teaching methods and actions of the ruling Church party of the "German Christians" and of the Church administration carried on by them. These have become more and more apparent during the first year of the existence of the German Evangelical Church. This threat consists in the fact that the theological basis, in which the German Evangelical Church is united, has been continually and systematically thwarted and rendered ineffective by alien principles, on the part of the leaders and spokesmen of the "German Christians" as well as on the part of the Church administration. When these principles are held to be valid, then, according to all the Confessions in force among us, the Church ceases to be the Church and th German Evangelical Church, as a federation of Confessional Churches, becomes intrinsically impossible.
8.08 As members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches we may and must speak with one voice in this matter today. Precisely because we want to be and to remain faithful to our various Confessions, we may not keep silent, since we believe that we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation. We commend to God what this may mean for the interrelations of the Confessional Churches.
8.09 In view of the errors of the "German Christians" of the present Reich Church government which are devastating the Church and also therefore breaking up the unity of the German Evangelical Church, we confess the following evangelical truths:

8.10 - 1. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." (John 14.6). "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. . . . I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved." (John 10:1, 9.)
8.11 Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
8.12 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation.

8.13 - 2. "Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30.)
8.14 As Jesus Christ is God's assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God's mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.
8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords--areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.

8.16 - 3. "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together." (Eph. 4:15,16.)
8.17 The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.
8.18 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.

8.19 - 4. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant." (Matt. 20:25,26.)
8.20 The various offices in the Church do not establish a dominion of some over the others; on the contrary, they are for the exercise of the ministry entrusted to and enjoined upon the whole congregation.
8.21 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, apart from this ministry, could and were permitted to give itself, or allow to be given to it, special leaders vested with ruling powers.

8.22 - 5. "Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1 Peter 2:17.)
Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom of God, God's commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things.
8.23 We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commissioner, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church's vocation as well.
8.24 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State.

8.25 - 6. "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt. 28:20.) "The word of God is not fettered." (2 Tim. 2:9.)
8.26 The Church's commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of th free grace of God to all people in Christ's stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament.
8.27 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.
8.28 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church declares that it sees in the acknowledgment of these truths and in the rejection of these errors the indispensable theological basis of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of Confessional Churches. It invites all who are able to accept its declaration to be mindful of these theological principles in their decisions in Church politics. It entreats all whom it concerns to return to the unity of faith, love, and hope.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: The Church's Confession Under Hitler by Arthur C. Cochrane.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962, pp. 237-242.

[bobbieinok]

1. from Barmen Declaration, #10 yahoo search

http://www.daveblackonline.com/do_we_need_a_new_barmen_declarat.htm

Discusses the situation in Germany in 34 and applies the Confessing Church's action to the US today.

....

By 1934 most of Germany had succumbed to the hypnotism of Nazism. Almost immediately after Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933, the Nazi government pressured Protestant Christians to defrock non-Aryan (i.e. Jewish) ministers and subscribe to the Nazi “Führer principle” as the organizing policy of church government. Despite the atheistic bent of some Nazi rhetoric, the pro-Nazi “German Christian” movement became a force in the church. In this movement, Hitler was considered a German “prophet,” and racial consciousness was considered a source of revelation alongside the Bible. Though some Christians resisted this movement, including Franz Jaegerstetter, Martin Niemöller, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the “German Christians” affirmed Hitler as a new Messiah and accepted Nazism’s anti-Semitism.

It was in reaction to the excesses of the German Christians that another group, calling itself the “Confessing Church,” was formed, chiefly out of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. The Confessing Church took its name because it clung to the church’s great historical confessions of faith. The Barmen Declaration was the work of this group, written at its initial synod in Barmen, Germany, in May 1934. Although the declaration focused on concern for the church and ecclesiastical renewal, it was also considered a political document with clear political implications. This is obvious even in the initial affirmation, which reads, “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.” This affirmation is meant to motivate Christians to greater trust and obedience, regardless of the consequences—and the signers of the declaration knew that the costs might be high.

The German people acknowledged that truth was to be found only in the Nazi Party—apart from “the one Word of God.” Moreover, Germany’s salvation was now located in Nazi ideology, that is, in “other events and powers, figures and truths,” as the declaration put it. Racial purity and anti-Semitism were now the twin “truths” of German society. For the signers of the Barmen Declaration, to accept Jesus Christ meant to reject these “truths” and especially Adolf Hitler. The same attitude was taken by Martin Niemöller in a book he published during this period entitled “Christus ist mein Führer,” or Christ Is My Leader. The use of the term “Führer” was intentional, since everybody in Germany referred to Hitler by that title. For Niemöller, “Christ is my Führer” implied its negation, “Hitler is not my Führer,” and for stating this Niemöller spent seven years in Dachau.

....
Closing statement of essay--

For both Barth and Bonhoeffer, action by the church was justified on the basis of ensuring that the state fulfilled its God-given function as state and not as god. Tragically, the Confessing Church in Germany acted too late. I hope we do not repeat their tardiness.

July 16, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

[banana republican]

2. So what does this mean for today???? n/t

[Stunster]

3. Protestants were more likely to support Hitler than Catholics

Sorry if I sound unecumenical, but the definitive study of Nazi voting patterns is: THE NAZI VOTER: THE SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF FASCISM IN GERMANY, 1919-1933, by Thomas Childers, (University of North Carolina Press, 1983).

Using census data and multivariate regression analysis, Childers identifies all the key social variables influencing votes for the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in the elections to the end of the Weimar Republic. Among other things, he shows quite conclusively that Catholics were far less likely to vote for the Nazis than were Protestants, especially in rural areas where the influence of the Church was strongest. The statistical tables, 4.8 on page 261 ('Party Vote and Religious Confession'), A. II. 1 on page 280 ('National Socialist Vote and Major Structural Variables, 1924-32, Urban Sample'), and A. II. 2 ('National Socialist Vote and Major Structural Variables, 1924-32,
Rural Sample'), all clearly demonstrate that German Protestants were
substantially more likely to vote Nazi than were German Catholics. This was in part because the Catholics were urged to vote for their own party, the Center Party (Zentrum), by the Catholic hierarchy.

Here are some telling quotes from Childers' work:

"Just as the industrial working class remained by and large immune to the National Socialist 'contagion', so areas of Catholic concentration continued to be relatively impervious to Nazi electoral advances." (page 258)

"In spite of these efforts to reassure Christians, and particularly
Catholics, of the NSDAP's support for Christianity, the party continued to fare far better in Protestant Germany than in Catholic areas. Although the Nazis registered sizable gains throughout the country in 1932, their vote in Catholic towns and villages lagged far behind their totals in Protestant communities." (page 259)

"The NSDAP also encountered a major obstacle to its ambitions in the
Catholic population. Although the party won an increasing percentage of the Catholic vote after 1928, its electoral base remained far smaller in Catholic Germany than in Protestant areas. Catholic support for National Socialism was by and large concentrated in the same social and occupational groups that formed the mainstay of the party's constituency in Protestant areas, but the NSDAP was never able to undermine the solid foundation of Catholic support for the Zentrum. Backed by the Church, the Zentrum, like the Marxist parties, offered its followers a well-defined belief system vigorously reinforced by an extensive network of political, social and cultural organizations. Although a vote for the Zentrum was hardly an enthusiastic endorsement of the Weimar system, the strong Catholic support for the party continued to impose a solid barrier to the potential expansion
of the National Socialist constituency." (page 266)

So much for the Goebbels-like rantings within anti-Catholic circles on this issue!

[nemo137]

4. the Evangelical Covenant Church uses this in worship sometimes.

I haven't been in a while, but I'd not be surprised if some pastors come back to it every now and again.

[Liberal Christian]

5. A teensy correction

It was not the "Confessing Lutheran Church," but the "Confessing Church." This distinction is important to me because it includes the Reformed Church in Germany, one of the predecessor denominations of my own denomination, the United Church of Christ, which lists the Barmen Declaration on its website (www.ucc.org) as one of the documents under "What We Believe."

Having said that, I will also say that I find Barmen to be a helpful and cautionary document for us today as the Religious Right becomes more and more indistinguishable from the Republican Party and the current government.

One of the most chilling images from Martin Doblmeier's excellent documtary Bonhoeffer is a photograph from a Hitler-capitulated German Christian church showing a banner with the swastika superimposed on the cross of Jesus Christ. It called to mind too many images I've seen mixing the cross and the American flag. Those, too, are chilling images for me.

Barmen reminds us where the primary allegiance of the Christian must be: "Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death." More than country, more than president, more than anything -- it is the Christ made known in Scripture to whom we owe our first allegiance.

That's the importance of Barmen for this time in history -- or any time.