Yes, Bonhoeffer and others met a nasty end for their long resistance to Hitler's National Church. It's sad to know that most Protestant clergy in Germany supported the National Church and were willing to accept the Aryan Paragraph. True Christians? Not so much.
Yes, Bonhoeffer and others met a nasty end for their long resistance to Hitler's National Church. It's sad to know that most Protestant clergy in Germany supported the National Church and were willing to accept the Aryan Paragraph. True Christians? Not so much.
Yes, that's right! I came here to Wiesbaden in 2013 as a "partnership" year-long exchange between the UCC-NY and the Ev. Churches in Hessen-Nassau, and landed in the only "Resistance church" in the entire area: the Ev. Bergkirche. I'm still here. The church council member, Hans Buttersack, died in Dachau for the crime of helping to protect the Jewish neighbors. The Pastor Franz von Bernus was such a national figure in the Confessing Church and so popular that he avoided being imprisoned for any long stretch of time and he, along with the congregation continued to "do Church" until the end of the war.Martin Niemöller spent his first night out of prison at the pastor's house next door. BTW, I did my theological Mdiv at Union Theological Seminary NYC, where Bonhoeffer spent a couple of years, the last before he returned to his fate.
Daria, Bonhoeffer was a courageous man. He was born into a family with a certain upper -middle class status. He was, one could say, a conservative Christian, who could not accept that the government, whatever it was, was the power that determined how a Christian should live one's life in regard to others. The Confessing Church, more than being at issue with the Jews and others considered by them in the Nazi paradigm to be undesirables, was at issue with the NS Party's requiring allegiance to Hitler and the Party line rather than allegiance to Christ.
Bonhoeffer went to Union Theological Seminary NYC in 1930 to do his post-grad work, but was not impressed. He discovered Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, taught Sunday school and fell in love with the African American Spirituals. As he said, he learned the "Black Christ" of the under trodden.
Again, as the Nazis made life for the Confessing Church more and more impossible, Bonhoeffer went back to Union Seminary.
The summer before I entered UTS, I worked for the Maine Seacoast Mission and became friends with a retired minister who was also a UTS student. That was 1940 and Herb would get a knock on the door of his dormitory room nightly. "This German," he said to me, "would come into my room, saying," I don't know what to do. If I go home they'll kill me. If I stay, I can't live with myself." I told Herb (in his 90s) that his room was Bonhoeffer's Gethsemane.
So yes. I would never have walked the path I have been on if not for Bonhoeffer and his witness.
Rosalind, thank you so much for responding and sharing your personal connection to Bonhoeffer. I'm afraid Bonhoeffer would be saddened by what passes for Christianity in some circles today as well. I need to learn more.
I will put Bonhoeffer on my list of "to reads" for 2022.
Yes, Bonhoeffer and others met a nasty end for their long resistance to Hitler's National Church. It's sad to know that most Protestant clergy in Germany supported the National Church and were willing to accept the Aryan Paragraph. True Christians? Not so much.
Yes, that's right! I came here to Wiesbaden in 2013 as a "partnership" year-long exchange between the UCC-NY and the Ev. Churches in Hessen-Nassau, and landed in the only "Resistance church" in the entire area: the Ev. Bergkirche. I'm still here. The church council member, Hans Buttersack, died in Dachau for the crime of helping to protect the Jewish neighbors. The Pastor Franz von Bernus was such a national figure in the Confessing Church and so popular that he avoided being imprisoned for any long stretch of time and he, along with the congregation continued to "do Church" until the end of the war.Martin Niemöller spent his first night out of prison at the pastor's house next door. BTW, I did my theological Mdiv at Union Theological Seminary NYC, where Bonhoeffer spent a couple of years, the last before he returned to his fate.
You have incredible access and attachments to something very few people in the US are aware of. Bonhoeffer must have been an amazingly courageous man.
Daria, Bonhoeffer was a courageous man. He was born into a family with a certain upper -middle class status. He was, one could say, a conservative Christian, who could not accept that the government, whatever it was, was the power that determined how a Christian should live one's life in regard to others. The Confessing Church, more than being at issue with the Jews and others considered by them in the Nazi paradigm to be undesirables, was at issue with the NS Party's requiring allegiance to Hitler and the Party line rather than allegiance to Christ.
Bonhoeffer went to Union Theological Seminary NYC in 1930 to do his post-grad work, but was not impressed. He discovered Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, taught Sunday school and fell in love with the African American Spirituals. As he said, he learned the "Black Christ" of the under trodden.
Again, as the Nazis made life for the Confessing Church more and more impossible, Bonhoeffer went back to Union Seminary.
The summer before I entered UTS, I worked for the Maine Seacoast Mission and became friends with a retired minister who was also a UTS student. That was 1940 and Herb would get a knock on the door of his dormitory room nightly. "This German," he said to me, "would come into my room, saying," I don't know what to do. If I go home they'll kill me. If I stay, I can't live with myself." I told Herb (in his 90s) that his room was Bonhoeffer's Gethsemane.
So yes. I would never have walked the path I have been on if not for Bonhoeffer and his witness.
Rosalind, thank you so much for responding and sharing your personal connection to Bonhoeffer. I'm afraid Bonhoeffer would be saddened by what passes for Christianity in some circles today as well. I need to learn more.
I will put Bonhoeffer on my list of "to reads" for 2022.
Wow. Thank you so much Rosalind for taking the time to share this.
Wow