The recent co-optation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by evangelical Christians on the political Right (e.g., Eric Metaxas) and the Nazi resister's re-invention as an evangelical warrior-saint is, for someone who has long admired Bonhoeffer, quite disturbing. Like every human being, there is enough ambiguity in the development of his political thinking and theology to paint a variety of portraits. But those on the Right who wish to claim Bonhoeffer's legacy should bethink themselves and the relationship of their own politics to the politics of the regime Bonhoeffer gave his life to defeat.
In a speech delivered on July 22, 1933, Adolph Hitler pledged that "The national government [of Germany] will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the very heart of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press--in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past years."
Those words sound remarkably like Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck-speak. I am grateful to Jeffrey C. Pugh's 2008 study of Bonhoeffer Religionless Christianity for (1) its consistently moral voice and reflection and (2) complicating the picture of Bonhoeffer the man.
The above quote from Hitler may be found on page 27 of that book.
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