Opposing evil
As long as I’ve been alive, Nazis have been portrayed as the worst evil, that which categorically must be opposed no matter the cost. From Indiana Jones to Wonder Woman, Captain America, Superman and Hellboy, comics and adventure stories present Nazis as a foil to the good guys. And for good reason. Hitler’s Nazi Party present iconic villainy: glamorous pageantry combined with reckless disregard for human life and any idea or person who falls short of their ideal society…a society that can only be maintained through total and violent control.
Baber ident 300
Self-identifying Nazis still exist, but by and large, they are fringe extremists, generally ignored or despised by larger society. Unless a person calls themself a Nazi, I find it unhelpful to accuse them of being a Nazi. Nevertheless, similar ideals are growing in popularity in American society, and right-wing fringe extremists are sadly given more of a platform and a voice these days. It is foolish to pretend that Trump’s rise and return to power do not also coincide directly with immediate rise and returns of blatant racism and white supremacy disguised as returning the country to former greatness, wealth and safety through eliminating and suppressing diversity.
For decades, American Christianity has become more and more comfortable with the idolatry of power, to the point that there is an expectation to be Republican and unquestionably supportive of Donald Trump and MAGA-identifying candidates if one is to also be a good evangelical Christian. In sadly similar parallels to the German Church of the 1920s and 1930s, American Christians have largely fallen prey to rhetoric that their country is a mess and the only way to restore its greatness is through suppression and aggressively one-sided dominance of political control.
Trump is not a Nazi, and he’s nowhere close to Adolf Hitler, but that does not mean that he isn’t dangerous. He revels in the worship of evangelical Christians. He loves to be the idol of a people who think he loves them and is their only hope for salvation. But he does not love anyone but himself. He only cares about the so-called greatness of America as it elevates his own sense of grandeur, and he has shown time and again that he will evade responsibility for his own actions at the expense of even his closest followers. He will not speak out against hate crimes, and instead engages in both-side-ism when white supremacists do harm, while vilifying and criminalizing even peaceful protests of those who do not otherwise support his cause (i.e. Black Lives Matter protests).
I don’t need to wait for Jesus to become the mascot of powerful parties who use him only to gain votes and uphold ideals that have nothing to do with anything Jesus ever taught or stood for. Wait, that’s already happened.
I don’t need to wait until detention camps are set up for immigrants to take action. Wait, that’s already started…
I don’t need to wait until racial minorities are incarcerated and killed by police at higher rates to take action. Wait, that’s already started.
I don’t need to wait until women’s voices are silenced and their very health and well-being is policed by lawmakers. Wait, that’s already started.
I don’t need to wait until laws are set in motion to demonize, silence and criminalize the existence of sexual and gender minorities in society. Wait, that’s already started.
I don’t need to wait until half of the country decides that conformity and consent to MAGA ideology is the best option for fixing our problems…because wait, that’s already happened.
So what am I waiting for? And what does faithful Christian action look like in these times and places? I will start by learning from the history of the Confessing Church under Nazi occupation, when only 3,000 out of 18,000 Protestant pastors chose faith in Christ over fear of Nazi retaliation. The Confessing Church was an ecumenical movement of evangelical Christians who refused to heil Hitler, and instead agreed to uphold true Christian ideals as they directly opposed the Nazi takeover of German Christianity. I will read up on people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, and Martin Niemöller, people who created the Barmen Declaration of 1934, expressing allegiance to Christ as being in direct conflict with allegiance to political power, and insisting the church must always be an alternative community protecting the least in society regardless of who is in political power.
Read your history, my friends. You cannot know what you would have done in their shoes. You have your own shoes. If you are an American Christian, insist that your church be an alternative community that refuses to get in bed with power, and diligently love and protect the well-being and dignity of those most in danger from today’s politics. What are you waiting for?