World of Strangers (Bonhoeffer 1938)

The "temporary" head of the German church announced in April 1938 that all pastors were to make an oath to Hitler for his birthday:

Anyone who is called to a spiritual office is to affirm his loyal duty with the following oath: "I swear that I will be faithful and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, that I will be conscientiously observe the laws and carry out the duties of my office, so help me God" ... Anyone who was called before this decree came into force ... is to take the oath of allegiance retroactively ... Anyone who refuses to take the oath of allegiance is to be dismissed.    20 April 1938. Dr. Werner.

Here again, the confessing church compromised and consented to the oath. Karl Barth writes in response:

I am most deeply shocked by that decision and the arguments used to support it ... No one who beseeches you not to jeopardize the future credibility of the Confessing church in this dreadful way?

"Bonhoeffer was ashamed of the Confessing church, the way one feels shame for a scandal of one's own family. This Confessing synod approved the oath to the Fuhrer when it already knew of the impending order that non-Aryans must have a large "J" stamped on their identity cards--an omen of worse things to come, and the thing that finally moved his twin sister's family to flee. And the threat of war against Czechoslovakia was growing. The possibility of a gap between Bonhoeffer and the Confessing church was becoming real." (Bethge 603)

Another big moment for the church that year related to a published letter from Karl Barth to a colleague in Prague, Professor Josef Hromadka. It encouraged the Czechoslovakian people to vigorous military resistance:

Every Czech soldier who fights and suffers will be doing so for us too, and I say this without reservation--he will also be doing it for the church of Jesus, which in the atmosphere of Hitler and Mussolini must become the victim of either ridicule or extermination.

The German church leaders accused Barth of heretically mixing politics and religion. (Again, notice the insane irony of those who just pledged obedience to the Fuhrer). Of course, it is not really irony at all. They had chosen a side, regardless of Christianity or religion, they had chosen the State and so as arms of the State they must fight against any resistance.

On November 9, the Kristallnacht took place.  Bonhoeffer wrote 9.11.38 beside an underlined verse in Psalm 74: "they burned all the meeting places of God in the land." He also underlined the next verse: "We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long."

At the end of that year, Bonhoeffer began to write down something he had pondered for years--a meditation on Psalm 119. He wrote about vs 19 (I am a sojourner on earth; hide not thy commandments from me!) in the face of the approaching political challenges:

The earth that nourishes me has a right to my work and my strength. It is not fitting that I should despise the earth on which I have my life; I owe it my faithfulness and gratitude. I must not dream away my earthly life with thoughts of heaven and thereby evade my lot--that I must be a sojourner and a stranger--and with it God's call into this world of strangers. There is a very godless homesickness for the other world, and it will certainly not produce any homecoming. I am to be a sojourner, with everything that entails. I should not close my heart indifferently to earth's problems, sorrows and joys; and I am to wait patiently for the redemption of the divine promise--really wait, and not rob myself of it in advance by wishing and dreaming.