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Something many Americans choose not to know about the Nazi period in Germany:

Hitler rose to power with the strong support of large numbers of German Christian leaders. Hitler came to power in a nation that was 95% Christian (63% Lutheran, 32% Catholic).

#Hitler #Nazis #churches #Christians #Catholic #Protestant #Trump #BishopBudde
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Just as Bishop Mariann Budde is now being attacked for speaking out.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and executed for speaking (and acting) against the German state as a Lutheran leader. In Austria, the lay Catholic Franz Jäggerstätter was imprisoned for refusing to enlist in the army because his conscience did not permit him to support the Nazis. Jäggerstätter was executed.

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Catholic #Protestant #Trump #BishopBudde #Bonhoeffer
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Bonhoeffer stated, by the way, that in the time he spent at Union Seminary in New York, he found the Black church in the US alive, spiritually profound, biblically faithful — but he found the white Christian churches in the US the opposite. He took back to Germany the inspiration he received from the Black church in the US and that was one of his guiding lights as he spoke out against the Nazis.

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Catholic #Protestant #Trump #BishopBudde #Bonhoeffer
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Pastors and priests whose sermons were considered in any way critical of the Nazi regime were reported to the authorities by people sitting in church to listen, to spy, to report.

If you Americans think we are not there now in our own time and place, if we think this could only have happened in Germany in the 1930s, then we're not seeing what's going on in our country now — with Christians leading the charge.

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Catholic #Protestant #Trump #BishopBudde #Bonhoeffer
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"This is an opportune moment to offer the sad observation that a significant chunk of the German Christian community fully or almost fully embraced the Nazi traditional values program in the early 1930s, and a similarly large chunk in our land today endorses the reactionary traditional values program of the state and new federal governments that I am speaking about."

~ David Gushee

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Trump #BishopBudde #Bonhoeffer #ChristianNationalism
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https://davidpgushee.substack.com/p/the-moment-we-have-been-preparing

Let’s call this version of Christianity reactionary authoritarian majority-culture Christianity. It has emerged in similar forms on several continents – beginning with Europe – and many countries."

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Trump #BishopBudde #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism
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"If a politician comes along at just the right moment and says – I stand with you, I will restore you to the status quo ante, I will overturn the changes you do not like – it seems to be the most natural thing in the world for these reactionary Christian populations to be all about such politicians."

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Trump #BishopBudde #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism
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"Looking again at the Nazi years, we have much evidence that can help us think ahead to worst-case scenarios and scenarios just less than worst case.

We can anticipate that reactionary majority-church Christians will applaud all kinds of steps that could be taken to set back LGBTQ+ dignity and rights. Ater all, that’s what many of these groups have been pressing for over many years time."

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Trump #BishopBudde #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism #LGBTQ
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"Bystanders who are not anti-LGBTQ+ zealots but are frightened of the state and its most aggressive partners – for example, in online spaces – will do what bystanders do. They will try not to get in the way, try not to attract negative attention, will keep quiet."

#Hitler #Nazis #Christians #Trump #BishopBudde #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism
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A.R. Moxon contrasts how Trump voters dealt with Musk's Nazi salute, and how they dealt with Bishop Budde's sermon"

"There was a quick and vigorous response to this homily from many of the same people who had just days before rushed to defend the Nazi billionaire. Their response was far less confused about the bishop's meaning than it had been about the billionaire's: As far as they were concerned, it was a vicious attack."

#BishopBudde #Musk #Nazi #salute
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https://www.the-reframe.com/the-bishop-and-the-billionaire/?ref=the-reframe-newsletter

@Joe_Hill @wdlindsy

They are all Christians.

Authoritarianism is the first expression of Christianity post-Roman antiquity.

In fact, Liberal Christianity is the revolution within the religion. Authoritarianism is a revanchist and reactionary response to the change in broad Society's move to secularism and liberalism.

@bryanbombardier I unfortunately disagree. These people say they are Christians, so they are Christians. It's not enough to say "they're not really Christians" as if the harm they're doing somehow is an aberration to ignore rather than a manifestation to resist. I think we have to realize that there are and always have been authoritarian Christians and (a smaller number of) non-authoritarian Christians.

@masingernd we can resist these aberrant folks. However, words have meaning. One cannot just claim to be part of a group then act antithetical to the purported group. Self reported is a logical adjective to use for these folks. Something like “self reported constitution following MAGA”.

@bryanbombardier Still, these are true Christians. Some of them likely are true Scotsmen as well. Christianity is the collective practices of Christians, and Christians ancient, medieval, and modern have supported war, slavery, totalitarian governments, homophobia, and sexism. I feel sorry for the few people I know who are truly moral, tolerant, anti-fascist, and Christian, but I think they need to own that no good comes from hanging about in a den of thieves.

@soulexpress @wdlindsy Catthulhu approves!
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