I am currently reading William L Shirer’s classic book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960 ed.). Adolf Hitler and the Nazis put incredible pressure on Protestant pastors to submit to the Nazi ideology…
In the spring of 1938 Bishop Marahrens took the final step of ordering all pastors to in his diocese to swear a personal oath of allegiance to the Fuehrer. In a short time the vast majority of Protestant clergymen took the oath, thus binding themselves legally and morally to obey the commands of the dictator (331).
Of course, there were a few like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who were appalled at those who caved in to Hitler.
I have been a pastor for 30 years! I pray that I will always to be true to Jesus!
1 comment
Comments feed for this article
April 7, 2015 at 7:06 am
Mary
I saw an article once of the percentage of pastors like Bonhoeffer who stayed true to the gospel during Hitlers facism. I wish I had saved it. Do you have any references or links?
Thank you!!!