"Assesing the Heritage," Robert Ericksen

"How could this be?" I keep asking myself. Althaus, Hirsch and Kittel - all of whom were Chrstians, made up of the same faith DNA as myself. These were people who loved Jesus, prayed daily, read their Bibles- these were Christians. Further, they used theology to reach the point of their anti-semitism and their support of Hitler. Theology. I plan on getting my Ph.D in theology. At some point these 3 theologians could have been my colleagues.

How could this be?
Ericksen tells us that Kittel said, "We must not allow ourselves to be crippled because the whole world screams at us of barbarism and a reversion to the past...How the German Volk regulate its own cultural affairs does not concern anyone else in the world." (p 35) Yikes! I always felt that it had to be a sure sign to the Germans that what they were doing was wrong based on how the rest of the world looked at what they were doing, and how it was labeled. Then I see this quote and I'm corrected in my thinking--it was not a sure sign. This frightens me, because I think about my own country. I trust in my government, in our leadership and I don't ask too many questions. I hear on NPR etc that most other nations think very little of us, they say what we are doing in Iraq is wrong etc. Yet, Our country continues to go on and do as it sees fit not concerning itself with what other nations think. Hmmm...the resemblance here is unsettling.

What I'm learning from this, is that nothing is sure. The moment we think something is sure, then stuff like the holocaust happens. Perhaps this is what Barth was talking about in the article we recently read. We have to always ask questions because to not is death. The question of ethics is always in question and it must always be, or people die...unjustifiably.

The hardest part, is that Hirsch and Kittel and Althaus used a direct line of logic. The used Enlightenment reasoning to support what Hitler was doing, to support war, to support the dejudaizing of Germany. And yet...it all seems completely irrational. How can that be?