BOOK REVIEW: ‘Letter to the American Church’

OPINION:

Like the German church in the 1930s, the American church in the 2020s is culpable for the pending devastation of human life and the collapse of a great nation. Comparisons could not be more compelling as proffered in “Letter to the American Church” by New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas.

“Letter to the American Church” is a culmination of Mr. Metaxas’ in-depth understanding of the decline and fall of Germany under the Third Reich, especially as seen through the life and activity of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Mr. Metaxas draws on his research from his previous bestselling biographies on Bonhoeffer, William Wilberforce and Martin Luther to present a somber prophecy of where America is headed.

Whereas Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce are examples of Christian courage and faith in action against horrific practices and politics, Luther is identified as a key figure whose teaching was negatively influential to the German church in the 1930s. Most of the German church leaders defaulted to Luther’s hypercaution against political involvement. So, because of loyalty to Lutheran tradition, timidity, or misinterpretation of Scripture — in particular Romans 13: 1-7 on submission to authority — most of the German church found itself siding with fascism, either directly or by default. 

“Letter to the American Church” identifies a “well-established Lutheran theological box” that had trapped the German church in “an amicable relationship between church and state.”

“But four hundred years after Luther, when God looked to His Church to stand against the great evil that had come upon Germany and that would devastate much of the world and murder millions, they balked, using as their chief excuse this outdated application of Paul’s words from two millennia before. They felt religiously justified in doing nothing, and the unprecedentedly evil results of their pious inaction would make the world gasp. Indeed, the world gasps to this day, as it struggles to take in how it is possible that a nation ostensibly Christian could have in any way allowed such things to take place. 

But what about us? Haven’t we in the American church swallowed these same lies, and haven’t we been similarly silenced from speaking and acting boldly against what we see happening in our own time if what we say and do is characterized as “political”? How else can we have allowed things to get to the point where they now are in American society?”

“Letter to the American Church” is determined to help prevent a horrible rerun of history. And a tweak of a familiar aphorism applies: Christians who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. 

• Anthony J. Sadar is an adjunct associate professor at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. 

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