What is Crooked cannot be Made Straight" Ecclesiastes 1:15
by Andrew Baker

Why am I using these images? They are used to accuse Christians of all sorts of evils. And in turn Christians normally deny it all, sticking their head in the sand and trying to pretend that what these images are showing is not true: Clicking their heels together and hoping beyond hope that Christians did not embrace a holocaust of over ten million people, that Hitler and his army were pure followers of Nietzche not professing Christians.

But these images do not lie. Church leaders and laypersons alike routinely embraced the final solution. They voted for the Nazis and joined the Nazi army like everyone else. Nazi leaders were welcomed into churches, Catholic and Protestant alike. Prayers were offered to the God of Jesus Christ by Church leaders for the establishment of the Nazi empire.

Christians hope beyond hope that these Christians were extraordinarily evil people. That they had some sort of insanity or abnormal bent towards evil. That surely, ordinary Christians like ourselves would not be fooled, we would not join such a thing, "We would not have killed the prophets if we had lived then!"

But these images do not lie: from sweet old ladies to men with intelligence, most Germans embraced the Nazis and admired them...even Christians

"But surely Hitler himself was an evil person," it may be protested. "He was not a Christian!!!"

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice....
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech on 12 April 1922

Hitler claimed to be a Catholic. He repeatedly and often appealed and prayed to "the Lord." I could cite quote after quote that I have found of him doing so and if I did not put his name underneath the quotes the reader might just be fooled into thinking it was some American President (G.W. Bush Jr. for example) who said the words and not Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was not the embodiment of an extraordinary evil. He was the embodiment of a people. The Nazis were the expression of the people. They were comprised of men who loved their wives, were loving to their children, were good to their friends, and wanted to see people whom they saw living in poverty to rise out of it, and those who seemed to have everything to be punished or exiled for their perceived oppression (real or not). That is the message of Mein Kempf. And that is the message that people embraced.

Theologians, pastors, bishops, nuns, monks, laypersons joined up en masse with the Nazi party. We like to tell ourselves lies that Hitler was into witchcraft, that he explicitly rejected Christianity, that his prayers were merely show. "He deceived the Church! The Church is not at fault!"

We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else-- in any case something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our programme there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will-- not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord....
-Adolf Hitler, in Nuremberg on 6 Sept. 1938

Hitler clearly denied involvement with witchcraft. He clearly professed otherwise many times.

"What are you talking about? Are you defending the Nazis?" No. I am not defending them. I understand the temptations that seemed to have flourished then, the finger pointing, the scapegoating of people to solve "national" problems. But I do not stick my head in the sand and pretend that these people were some abnormality. They were not.

Most Christians had no ability to resist because the gospel has been subverted. Hitler himself shows one of the ways the gospel has been subverted:

So long as they [Christians] concern themselves with their religious problems the State does not concern itself with them. But so soon as they attempt by any means whatsoever-- by letters, Encyclica, or otherwise-- to arrogate to themselves rights which belong to the State alone we shall force them back into their proper spiritual, pastoral activity.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered in Berlin on the May Day festival, 1937

The German Church and the people are practically the same body. Therefore there could be no issue between Church and State. The Church, as such, has nothing to do with political affairs. On the other hand, the State has nothing to do with the faith or inner organization of the Church. The election of November 12th would be an expression of church constituency, but not as a Church.
-Adolf Hitler, The New Church and the New Germany

The two kingdoms theory: there are two spheres of authority on earth , the civil authority and the spiritual authority ruled by the church. The reformer of the 16th century, Martin Luther basically taught that there are two separate spheres of morality: a private, Christian morality based upon love and mercy and a public morality based upon violence and coercion. He taught that God rules the church through the gospel but He rules the world through the civil authorities. Every individual Christian lives in both of these realms. Hitler is clearly drawing from this Lutheran teaching, even though he is Catholic.

As a result Christians had no practices, no skills to resist the Nazi government of the times. There is no limit to thepower of the civil authorities. Whatever regime happens to be in power, is the will of God and should not be resisted but complied with. Christians must prepare for war, be involved in the violence of the state as citizens of the State. Even Bonhoeffer, who is often appealed to as a model for violent resistance against an oppressive regime, was a reflection of the greater tragedy of the German church at large. Even this man who preached pacifism could did not have the community or practices of nonviolence to keep him from joining an assassination plot.

How many times has this same "two kingdoms theory" been appealed to in modern day America for Christians to support the President and to actively be involved in government and its wars? Christians who believe evil is "necessary" at times, and many of whom believe they can "reform" the government and steer it on the "right" path often make similar appeals.

This all flies in the face of Ecclesiastes:

Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. Eccl. 3:16

It is not by accident, nor by mistake, but the wisest King Solomon wrote that the state is evil. He can say this because he has been king. In this place, in the place of judges and governors IS evil.

Better is a poor but intelligent youth than an old but foolish king, who will no longer take advice. One can indeed come out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom. I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that youth who replaced the king; there was no end to all those people whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Eccl. 4:13-16

Out of prison and straight to the throne! and the people are happy to follow. A man with intelligence, might replace a stupid ruler, but he is no better off. The people will get sick and tired of him too. It is vanity and chasing after the wind to desire this power.

If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields. Eccl. 5:8-9

We see oppression? Well that should not surprise us. It is the nature of government to be corrupt. And the higher up in government, the more corrupt it gets: one corrupt official covering for the next one all the way up to the top rulers. They all profit from the oppression; from the top all the way down to the bottom.

Keep the king's command because of your sacred oath. Do not be terrified; go from his presence, do not delay when the matter is unpleasant, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is powerful, and who can say to him, "What are you doing?" Eccl 8:2-4

These rulers do whatever they want. They have the power. It is not for us to question them, they will not listen. How many times have we heard that our leaders in the USA at this present moment "know what is best" and criticize as unpatriotic dividers those who dare question the laws they are passing? Even in so-called "democracies" the elected officials do whatever they want to do. People have no ability to question, and protests are in vain.

Do not curse the king, even in your thoughts, or curse the rich, even in your bedroom; for a bird of the air may carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. Eccl 10:20

What an indictment. While congress has recently passed laws to allow the CIA and FBI to "spy" on anyone they think is dangerous, we know that they have been doing it without authorization for years anyhow. But Ecclesiastes pointedly potrays this sort of surveillance. "Big Brother is watching" so watch what you say and watch what you do! Don't make to many enemies up there or you just might disappear. Don't question them, not the rulers or the rich whom they serve, someone will hear it, and sell your words to them.

Ecclesiastes does not offer us a two kingdoms model or a model that we are able to reform. But a completely worthless and illusory picture of the State. It is vanity, it is illusion. It decieves and opresses. There is no reform. THERE is where wickedness is. Wickednese is there. It will not leave by being whitewashed with Christian language.

The question I have is what skills do we Americans have to resist the US government? How can we help to ensure we will not produce the tragedy of the German church and the tragedy of Bonhoeffer all over again? How can we come out of this circle of being an impoverished church for the status quo? For we truly face the same sort of ideological warfare, a government that grows more totalitarian everyday (the surveilance they have on us is unbelievable until you experience it); and they have coopted Christianity and all other religions just like Hitlers Germany had the loyalty of the German church at large.

How do we gain the skills to resist?

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Andrew Baker currently works with the mentally disabled in New York City. He is a Mennonite and is active in his local congregation. He has a BA in theology from Wheaton College and is currently considering seminary studies.