Religious nationalism: where do we draw the line?

Last week I watched the film Bonhoeffer about the German Lutheran pastor and theologian who opposed Hitler.

The film begins at the end of his life, as the 39 year-old Dietrich Bonhoeffer is held as a prisoner by the Nazi regime and awaiting execution. A series of flashbacks record his wealthy upbringing, his beloved older brother’s death in World War One and his decision to study theology against the wishes of his father. 

When he travels to the US to study at the Union seminary in New York, he becomes disillusioned with the weak theology he encounters, but is inspired by the vibrancy of the Abyssinian Baptist church in Harlem where he teaches Sunday School and learns about the racial injustice faced by his black friends. While he was away Hitler and his Nazi party come into power at home.

Response to Nazism

Inevitably, a key theme of the film is how the German Church responds to Nazism.  The influential church leader Martin Niemoller initially criticises Bonhoeffer for speaking out against Hitler but he later repents and becomes one of the most outspoken critics of Nazism. He is arrested, beaten and imprisoned, but unlike Bonhoeffer, survives the war.

The film portrays the struggle faced by many German Christians as their discomfort and unease turns to horror and despair as they witness the growing Nazi atrocities. Bonhoeffer leads an underground seminary to teach pastors for the rebel ‘Confessing Church’ and then becomes a double-agent in the military intelligence division. In this role he decides to join the plot to assassinate Hitler which leads to his arrest and, ultimately, his execution.

Concrete actions

Of course, Bonhoeffer wrote brilliant theology but it is his concrete actions which provides a lens of authenticity to everything he wrote and said.  His theology was practised. 

It means that his book The Cost of Discipleship is read differently because the reader knows that the author lived what he taught and paid the price.  This integrity is not always the case with preachers, theologians and church leaders (or bloggers!)

Religious nationalism

The film Bonhoeffer has been released at an critical time because we are living in a moment when religious nationalism is increasingly powerful and dangerous. Donald Trump has won the overwhelming support of Evangelical Christians in the US with a brazen emphasis on ‘America First’ and no one is sure where it will all lead.

Let me be clear: it is never wise to compare anyone with Hitler. It is the quickest way to polarise and ruin any chance of a sensible discussion. 

Bonhoeffer’s challenge

But I do think its relevant to accept the challenge that Bonhoeffer brings us. His life and example challenge all Christians: where do you draw the line in terms of the acceptability of a leader’s behaviour? When is it right to denounce the actions of elected leaders in church? Where is the ethical line?

Trump’s ‘America First’ policies have begun with a series of new tariffs on trade. But he has also referred to taking over the sovereign territory of other countries such as Greenland, the Panama Canal and, most shockingly, Gaza. 

What happens if he acts on these suggestions? Do you denounce these plans now – or wait till he acts?

How about the plans to scrap the development agency USAID? Or the sanctions he made against the International Criminal Court? How about his order to remove all mentions of climate change from government websites?

Where is the line?

Costly discipleship

Following Jesus must be costly. He promised that we will have ‘trouble in this world’. If it is not costly, then we are not doing it right. 

Bonhoeffer’s most enduring contribution is the clarity with which he saw how his own Evangelical tradition had twisted the grace of God into something cheap which could be accessed without any cost:

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

This theological weakness is directly related to the failure of his church to stand against the rise of Nazism:

“We Lutherans have gathered like eagles round the carcase of cheap grace, and there drunk the poison which has killed the life of following Christ…Cheap grace has turned out to be utterly merciless to our Evangelical Church…Instead of opening  up the way to Christ it has closed it. Instead of calling us to follow Christ, it has hardened us in our disobedience.”

A challenge

Again, I am not comparing Trump to Hitler. But I think Bonhoeffer’s theology and witness should challenge us all in these times when the Christian faith is being directly co-opted to support policies which seem to be the opposite of what Jesus preached in the sermon on the mount.

I would encourage everyone to see the film Bonhoeffer and, even better, to read The Cost of Discipleship. For the time is coming when we all need to consider more seriously where the ethical lines should be drawn.

We may not be able to influence events much but that is not what we are called to. We are called to bear faithful witness to Jesus. As Bonhoeffer wrote eight years before his execution:

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

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