Thank you for your bold declaration of faith and resistance. One of the strengths of Barmen is its refusal to name Hitler while making clear the evils of his leadership. For the purposes of starting a conversation, I have taken the liberty of revising your powerful confession.
A Declaration of Protest by Churches in America Against Collaboration with a False God
We, the signatory churches of this urgent declaration, declare ourselves to be in statu confessionis, in a state of protest against stone-hearted expressions of Christian faith and dangerous worship of the golden calf of our day. We hereby declare our opposition to the false doctrines and idolatrous practices that have come to infest church life and worship in America. These undermine and pervert the sovereignty of God and the power of the living Christ, who is the embodiment of God’s will and purpose for the world. Christians are called to follow in the gracious and loving ways of Jesus Christ, to be faithful to God alone, and to reject loyalty to and worship of counterfeit lords.
We declare with one voice that supposed Christian supporters of the golden calf of our day undermine the confessional integrity of Christianity in America. Idol worshipers have placed a false god on Christ’s throne as the object of their praise and ultimate fealty. They have succumbed to the temptation that confronted Jesus when the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and then said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus’ answer must be our answer: “Begone Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (Matthew 4:8–10).
We declare with one voice that we repudiate those who self-identify as Christians but worship the golden idol of our day and are diabolically turning the United States into a police state. Such a state is a clear danger to the freedom of all churches to worship God and to proclaim the gospel, without fear, constraint or favor. The emerging American police state blatantly undermines fundamental constitutional rights as well as the rule of law, with individuals subject to arrest, incarceration, and deportation without due process or the right to habeas corpus. A police state is, by definition, an anti-Christian state. Due process and the rule of the law are in the interest of the churches and what they stand for, a more humane and just world in which the dignity of each human being as a beloved child of God, is acknowledged and elevated, and in which justice is served by an independent and impartial judiciary.
We declare with one voice that, in the name and love of Jesus Christ, we oppose those who are turning the United States into a mafia state which seeks to punish and bully those who do not conform to the whims and wishes of its merciless ruler. Such a state increasingly uses extortion, unlawful coercion, and violence to achieve its ends. The levers of power in this mafia state are being used not only to persecute perceived enemies and subordinate the pursuit of knowledge and truth, but to enrich its self-serving potentate. We cannot countenance this development and, at the same time, remain faithful to Jesus Christ whom we confess to be the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)
The church belongs to the living Christ alone. We therefore reject as idolatrous and false doctrine the premise that Christians must acknowledge, in addition to or instead of Jesus Christ, any other person or power as God’s revelation to whom unquestioning allegiance is to be given. We lift up the sweet fruit of God’s spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), and we reject the bitter fruit of evil - hatefulness, suffering, chaos, vindictiveness, cruelty, selfishness, alienation, callousness, and self-indulgence. And we call upon all churches and all believers in America, to stand up and declare in word and in deed the dominion of Jesus Christ, and to spurn all counterfeit Christs as dangerous idols and enemies of the gospel.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply and the revisions to my text. I hope that you or others who have read my declaration and your revision of it will take either of both further and bring them to the attention of denominational leaders and pastors. Or put them on the agenda of the next synod. The silence of the (institutional) churches is deafening and needs to be broken.
I personally think that the failure of the Barmen Declaration to mention Hitler or at least the Nazi regime explicitly was a weakness and allowed it to be ignored, as it largely was. If we do not mention Trump directly it will allow him and his supporters to ignore or even to co-opt it as they have co-opted the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Trump is a master of projection: He constantly accuses others of his own sins and wrongdoings, turning the rhetorical tables on his opponents and detractors. He or his MAGA Christian apologists could do the same with the proposed declaration unless we name him specifically. They'll say it isn't about them but others. There can be no doubt about whom or what we are talking about and who the targets of the declaration are. A mediating position could, however, be to refer to "the current president and his administration", instead of to Trump by name. In any case, I do think that your revised declaration ends on a rather general note about "all counterfeit Christs as dangerous idols and enemies of the gospel." I think MAGA Christians would agree with that and say that does not apply to Trump or themselves. So I think we need to be very specific and very focused on Trump and his MAGA Christian supporters.
Dear Professor, thank you, I was in your classroom in the Reagan era at PTS as you taught us about Biblical apocalyptic writings, and the lessons have been helpful to me as a pastor, as I am at present leading a Bible study on Daniel. Public Christian confession together, beginning with public baptism in together in water as following our Lord Jesus Christ with His baptism by John the Baptist, similar to what we see on Palm Sunday, for example, is along the lines of the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer in which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commands us all to begin to pray, together, decisively and boldly, “in thanksgiving, praise and petition” (Barth, The Christian Life: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name.” Is there here in our proposed Confession the unambiguous and prayerful note of “in expectation of His, Jesus Christ’s, appearing” (Barmen Declaration) ? “Thy kingdom come!” This thanks praise and petition to God should certainly set the church in the direction of safeguarding human right, freedom and peace. (Barth, The Christian Life) “Thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.” Here we stand with God in God’s love and reconciliation, which seems like foolishness and weakness in our swaggering and and arrogant world. (E. Busch, Drawn to Freedom). And then all our own human causes for which we pray, in the last 3 petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Are not the closest public Christian supporters of Donald Trump in fact not asking TOO LITTLE of Donald Trump as oir fellow baptized human Christian by the church and and fellow follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, a fellow child of our Father in Heaven, even as serving in the State in the Office of President of the United States, in and with and for our nation and the nations of world? “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? “This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 1:22) Consider that Barmen included, “No one comes to the Father but by me.” (John 14:5) “Father” speaks not only to our Lord Jesus Christ’s “origin,” but the Originator, the Creator, the Source, of all and every human being in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, by God, both God’s Only Son who became also our Human Brother and Head, Jesus Christ “man for all others” ( Barth’s CD The Doctrine of Creation), the Crucified and Risen and Coming Head both of the church and every human being, including Donald Trump, as fellow children of God by our sharing in the flesh and blood of Jesus, and Jewish flesh and blood at that. “God is a humanist.” ( Barth, The Christian Life.”) In the Barmen Declaration we see the church directly confronting not only Statism, but Nationalism, literally German Nationalism, which was also quite literally Racism. In the OT and the NT we see quite clearly the difference that exists between being “a people” and being “a state.” And the church of Jesus Christ is clearly more along the lines of being a fellowship, that kind of people, the fellowship of Jesus Christ by faith in Him, through his gift of the Holy Spirit, not a state, in and with and for the whole world in witness to the coming self-manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, from God. God bless you! Your student, Jim Link
Yes, to all of this. Thank you for writing the statement. I feel that it is important that Trump is named, along with cohorts (who need not be named as the list would be untenable) in order that people have a clear mandate regarding how to respond.
About time. I've been waiting for someone with the capability to write such a statement. Thank you.
Thank you for your bold declaration of faith and resistance. One of the strengths of Barmen is its refusal to name Hitler while making clear the evils of his leadership. For the purposes of starting a conversation, I have taken the liberty of revising your powerful confession.
A Declaration of Protest by Churches in America Against Collaboration with a False God
We, the signatory churches of this urgent declaration, declare ourselves to be in statu confessionis, in a state of protest against stone-hearted expressions of Christian faith and dangerous worship of the golden calf of our day. We hereby declare our opposition to the false doctrines and idolatrous practices that have come to infest church life and worship in America. These undermine and pervert the sovereignty of God and the power of the living Christ, who is the embodiment of God’s will and purpose for the world. Christians are called to follow in the gracious and loving ways of Jesus Christ, to be faithful to God alone, and to reject loyalty to and worship of counterfeit lords.
We declare with one voice that supposed Christian supporters of the golden calf of our day undermine the confessional integrity of Christianity in America. Idol worshipers have placed a false god on Christ’s throne as the object of their praise and ultimate fealty. They have succumbed to the temptation that confronted Jesus when the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and then said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus’ answer must be our answer: “Begone Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (Matthew 4:8–10).
We declare with one voice that we repudiate those who self-identify as Christians but worship the golden idol of our day and are diabolically turning the United States into a police state. Such a state is a clear danger to the freedom of all churches to worship God and to proclaim the gospel, without fear, constraint or favor. The emerging American police state blatantly undermines fundamental constitutional rights as well as the rule of law, with individuals subject to arrest, incarceration, and deportation without due process or the right to habeas corpus. A police state is, by definition, an anti-Christian state. Due process and the rule of the law are in the interest of the churches and what they stand for, a more humane and just world in which the dignity of each human being as a beloved child of God, is acknowledged and elevated, and in which justice is served by an independent and impartial judiciary.
We declare with one voice that, in the name and love of Jesus Christ, we oppose those who are turning the United States into a mafia state which seeks to punish and bully those who do not conform to the whims and wishes of its merciless ruler. Such a state increasingly uses extortion, unlawful coercion, and violence to achieve its ends. The levers of power in this mafia state are being used not only to persecute perceived enemies and subordinate the pursuit of knowledge and truth, but to enrich its self-serving potentate. We cannot countenance this development and, at the same time, remain faithful to Jesus Christ whom we confess to be the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)
The church belongs to the living Christ alone. We therefore reject as idolatrous and false doctrine the premise that Christians must acknowledge, in addition to or instead of Jesus Christ, any other person or power as God’s revelation to whom unquestioning allegiance is to be given. We lift up the sweet fruit of God’s spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), and we reject the bitter fruit of evil - hatefulness, suffering, chaos, vindictiveness, cruelty, selfishness, alienation, callousness, and self-indulgence. And we call upon all churches and all believers in America, to stand up and declare in word and in deed the dominion of Jesus Christ, and to spurn all counterfeit Christs as dangerous idols and enemies of the gospel.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply and the revisions to my text. I hope that you or others who have read my declaration and your revision of it will take either of both further and bring them to the attention of denominational leaders and pastors. Or put them on the agenda of the next synod. The silence of the (institutional) churches is deafening and needs to be broken.
I personally think that the failure of the Barmen Declaration to mention Hitler or at least the Nazi regime explicitly was a weakness and allowed it to be ignored, as it largely was. If we do not mention Trump directly it will allow him and his supporters to ignore or even to co-opt it as they have co-opted the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Trump is a master of projection: He constantly accuses others of his own sins and wrongdoings, turning the rhetorical tables on his opponents and detractors. He or his MAGA Christian apologists could do the same with the proposed declaration unless we name him specifically. They'll say it isn't about them but others. There can be no doubt about whom or what we are talking about and who the targets of the declaration are. A mediating position could, however, be to refer to "the current president and his administration", instead of to Trump by name. In any case, I do think that your revised declaration ends on a rather general note about "all counterfeit Christs as dangerous idols and enemies of the gospel." I think MAGA Christians would agree with that and say that does not apply to Trump or themselves. So I think we need to be very specific and very focused on Trump and his MAGA Christian supporters.
This is fantastic. I will bring this to my leadership at the Episcopalian Church
Dear Professor, thank you, I was in your classroom in the Reagan era at PTS as you taught us about Biblical apocalyptic writings, and the lessons have been helpful to me as a pastor, as I am at present leading a Bible study on Daniel. Public Christian confession together, beginning with public baptism in together in water as following our Lord Jesus Christ with His baptism by John the Baptist, similar to what we see on Palm Sunday, for example, is along the lines of the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer in which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commands us all to begin to pray, together, decisively and boldly, “in thanksgiving, praise and petition” (Barth, The Christian Life: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name.” Is there here in our proposed Confession the unambiguous and prayerful note of “in expectation of His, Jesus Christ’s, appearing” (Barmen Declaration) ? “Thy kingdom come!” This thanks praise and petition to God should certainly set the church in the direction of safeguarding human right, freedom and peace. (Barth, The Christian Life) “Thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.” Here we stand with God in God’s love and reconciliation, which seems like foolishness and weakness in our swaggering and and arrogant world. (E. Busch, Drawn to Freedom). And then all our own human causes for which we pray, in the last 3 petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Are not the closest public Christian supporters of Donald Trump in fact not asking TOO LITTLE of Donald Trump as oir fellow baptized human Christian by the church and and fellow follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, a fellow child of our Father in Heaven, even as serving in the State in the Office of President of the United States, in and with and for our nation and the nations of world? “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? “This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 1:22) Consider that Barmen included, “No one comes to the Father but by me.” (John 14:5) “Father” speaks not only to our Lord Jesus Christ’s “origin,” but the Originator, the Creator, the Source, of all and every human being in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, by God, both God’s Only Son who became also our Human Brother and Head, Jesus Christ “man for all others” ( Barth’s CD The Doctrine of Creation), the Crucified and Risen and Coming Head both of the church and every human being, including Donald Trump, as fellow children of God by our sharing in the flesh and blood of Jesus, and Jewish flesh and blood at that. “God is a humanist.” ( Barth, The Christian Life.”) In the Barmen Declaration we see the church directly confronting not only Statism, but Nationalism, literally German Nationalism, which was also quite literally Racism. In the OT and the NT we see quite clearly the difference that exists between being “a people” and being “a state.” And the church of Jesus Christ is clearly more along the lines of being a fellowship, that kind of people, the fellowship of Jesus Christ by faith in Him, through his gift of the Holy Spirit, not a state, in and with and for the whole world in witness to the coming self-manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, from God. God bless you! Your student, Jim Link
Yes, to all of this. Thank you for writing the statement. I feel that it is important that Trump is named, along with cohorts (who need not be named as the list would be untenable) in order that people have a clear mandate regarding how to respond.
Thank you