"My Grandpa Wasn't a Nazi!"

Resisting the sway of the masses by being rooted in Christ

I’ve lived most of my life in the South. I’ve known plenty of “old families,” the kind whose houses have impressive names and are listed on the Register of Historic Places. I don’t come from that kind of family myself; I hail from a line of people who still had outhouses in the 1980s. But plenty of those families still exist, the kind where every generation has a son with a number after his name, reminding him that he carries the burden of a legacy that stretches far beyond his place on the football team at State.

But you know what he doesn’t carry? The burden of his ancestors having built that legacy on the backs of enslaved people. It’s true. I’ve lived 50 years in the South and I’ve never once met anyone who has said their family were slave owners.

This is a curious thing, isn’t it? We know slavery existed, and yet… no evidence seems to suggest it did.

But maybe that’s because we’re reaching too far back. After all, who can be blamed for not knowing how their great-great-great grandparents did business 162 years ago?

WWII is much nearer to our present day. It ended only 80 years ago, fought by GenX’s grandparents. That means that the Millennials of today have easy access to the stories handed down. We have plenty of proof that the tales have been told; the U.S. alone has 335 entries labeled, “World War 2 films,” on Wikipedia. The war has not (yet) been lost to the murkiness of time.

I’m married to a German-American. I know many Germans, and quite a few whose families emigrated in the years after the close of WWII. And guess what? No one has any relation to anyone who ever saluted Hitler and meant it.

It’s curious that when we look in the rearview mirror, that place where the wrong side of history is so clearly separated from the right, that we can’t find anyone, anywhere who chose poorly. No one treated human beings like property. No one goose-stepped their way to a genocide. No one murdered Native Americans to take their land, no one complied with expelling Jews, no one looked the other way as babies were ripped from their mother’s breasts and sold.

Except, of course, they did.

They did, and we know it.

People end up on the wrong side of history all the time. And most of those people mean well. Maybe they’re carried away by some sweeping sentiment, or swayed by the impassioned speech of an especially winsome character. Possibly they’re looking in their own backyard and so filled with fear by what they see happening or what they fear is coming, that they find their fingers coiled into a fist before they can see the humanity in person they’re about to punch. This happens. It’s happened for eons, and it will continue to happen as we march closer and closer to Jesus coming again.

You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.—Matthew 24:6-13

Yet in every genocide, in every war, in every near-extinction of a people, in every persecution, there are a handful of those who endure. History tells us that the Quakers were known for their abolitionist beliefs, but largely forgotten are the men who campaigned to make that an official church stance. John Woolman was a Quaker who traveled extensively, unable to reconcile the cheaper price of goods and economic prosperity with the horrific practice of calling another person property. Woolman labored tirelessly, persuading other believers of the truth of Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Casper ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who refused to either participate in or ignore the persecution of his Jewish neighbors during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Going a step further, he and his family offered shelter to anyone who asked. When they were swept up by the Gestapo in 1944, Casper was offered the opportunity of release if he would promise to stop aiding Jews. “If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door again to any man in need who knocks,” he replied, knowing he had just sentenced himself and his daughters to the concentration camps.

So how did these men— and others like them— not fall into line? How did they reject the popular narrative? How did they become the ancestors from which we would all like to claim we descended?

Knowledge of the Word

The only way to stand firm when the winds of division are blowing is to have a solid understanding of Scripture. If we are firmly rooted in the Word of God, then whatever is said in the public sphere is measured not by the actions of the many, but by Truth. Filtering current political thought— which fuels the world’s most horrific conflagrations— through the lens God has provided is the only way to find yourself walking on the right side of history. All that we need to know in dealing with our fellow man, be he friend or foe, is found in the Bible. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was put to death by the Nazi regime in the waning days of WWII, wrote, “I can only move forward with certainty upon the firm ground of the Word of God. And, as a Christian, I learn to know the Holy Scripture in no other way than by hearing the Word preached and by prayerful meditation.”

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.—Hosea 14:9

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.—Hebrews 5:14

Radical Faith

What separated Daniel and his companions from the other captives taken to Babylon in Daniel 1? They were all chosen from good families, all handsome, all strong, all smart and showing promise. But the Bible only mentions these four among the throng. Why? Despite their circumstances, despite the commands given to them by those in charge, despite the behavior of their fellow captives… they refused to comply with the orders that flew in the face of their knowledge of God and His Word.

This, truly, is what separates a Casper ten Boom from the guy down the street. When everyone else is yelling, “It’s the Jew’s fault!” or “If we don’t go along, we’ll die!” Casper chose to hold fast to what he understood of God’s promises. He knew there very well might be a cost, but the cost of not obeying the Lord was harder to bear.

This is the theme, again and again, in truly great men and women of faith: when faced with a choice of running with men, or being trampled by those very men in the pursuit of running with horses… they will still choose the horses.

You can only do this if you are firmly, unmovingly anchored in Christ.

“If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out,
How can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket by the Jordan?”—Jeremiah 12:5

Trust in Things Unseen

What we see parading before us can be frightening. Tense situations often produce a surging, mob-like mentality. We hear the constant barrage of information, and try to find a foothold in what’s true and what’s propaganda. We see our friends and family choosing sides, or leaning in one direction or another. And our emotions come into play, too, leading us to set up camp where we feel safest.

But where we’re safest just may not be where Jesus is.

The odds of being a large, affluent, land-owning family in the pre-Civil War south without using slave labor were minimal.

Only a minority of Germans became full-fledged Nazis. But by 1936, over 90% of Germans were at least somewhat supportive of the Nazi regime.

Our ancestors made choices. Choices they may not have been proud of when the darkness receded and the light of the truth was allowed to shine. You want to know why I’ve never met anyone proud to claim a slaveholder as their great-great-great grandfather? The same reason no one proudly hangs photos of their great-grandfather in his SS uniform on the living room wall. When the dust settled, and when the rhetoric died, all that was left was Jesus… and He was available to everyone the whole time.

But sometimes, He feels far away. He feels removed from the price of eggs and the state of the public schools. He feels distant from wars in Europe and the rise and fall of the stock market. Friends, He’s not. You can’t see Him, but He’s here, and He’s given us the Holy Spirit. Just like Jesus was fully present in the messes that gave rise to some of the worst parts of human history, just like the Holy Spirit was nudging those who believed in the darkest days, He is here with us today. He has given us all that we need to land on the right side of the chapters being written in the moment. There’s no reason for you and I to find ourselves as an uncomfortable footnote to the family story that is told a hundred years from now. We can walk upright and leave footprints of faith for our ancestors to follow, thanks to the testimony we live out today.

Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.—Hebrews 11:1

In Christ,

Heather