Midweek Musings - June 5, 2024
90 Years After Barmen, Wealth & Immortality, Pickleball Scandals, Self-Loathing Artists, and Lawrence on the Big Screen
It seemed to have gone largely unnoticed, but this past week marked the 90th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration. The confessional outcome of a German synod held in Barmen-Wuppetal from May 29-31, 1934, the declaration was the work of the Pastors Emergency League, a collaboration of Lutheran, Reformed, and United clergy. Deeply troubled by the claims of Hitler’s ascendant Nazi Party and ideology, the group was particularly troubled by the capitulation of the recently formed national German Evangelical Church to the regime’s idolatrous claims. Sometimes known as the Reich Church, its leadership was ardently pro-Nazi and subservient to the demands of the state.
Rival political parties had already been banned in the summer of 1933. The subsequent formation of the Reich Church and election of Ludwig Müller as “reichsbischof” at the end of that same year sent a dire signal, especially as the church took active measures to align itself with Nazi ideology and political power.
So the work of the synod gathered there in Barmen-Wuppetal late in the spring of 1934 was no small endeavor. Karl Barth emerged as one of the primary drafters of their resulting declaration, which managed to formulate a working confessional consensus among three of Germany’s prominent Protestant church traditions.
Structured as a series of six biblical passages along with accompanying affirmations and denials, the Declaration was remarkable is its power, clarity, and brevity. Consider, for example, the final set:
6. "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Mt 28.20) "The word of God is not fettered." (2 Tim 2.9)
The church's commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ's stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the church in human arrogance could place the word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.
If you’ve never read it before, now would be the time to remedy things.
Within months, Germany’s plunge into Naziism only intensified. In the summer of 1934, Hitler moved to consolidate his power via a wave of assassinations in the Night of the Long Knives and then, following Hindenburg’s death, through a successful national referendum to merge the now vacant presidential powers into those of the Fuhrer’s chancellorship. Within a matter of weeks, Hitler’s hold on Germany’s political, legal, and military structures appeared unchallenged. As the remainder of the decade unfolded, the full scope of his ambitions would become increasingly apparent. By the time Hitler invaded Poland in the summer of 1939, it became harder to deny the inherent evil of the Third Reich.
I’ll admit I’m not entirely sure how to account for the seeming contemporary disinterest in marking the 90th anniversary of the Declaration. This week, there is understandable coverage of both the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Each of those merit their own consideration and certainly represent turning points in 20th century history.
So I’m especially curious about what appears to be a more specific evangelical, or even more broadly Christian, indifference to the moment.
Perhaps that’s because the Barmen Declaration, along with the Confessing Church that spoke through it, is a reminder to us that there is a higher and holier aspiration for the people of God than cultural or political victories. Make no mistake about it, the collapse of a Christian social conscience in 1930s Germany was deeply costly. And it could indeed be argued that there were turning points where things might have gone a different way had the church held true. Germany paid dearly for that, along with the rest of the world. No one paid more severely than the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
It might be tempting to conclude that the Confessing Church was thus a failed enterprise, a losing cause. After all, they seemed to have lost the battle. And even more, postwar Germany accelerated into a form of secularism that has since marked much of Western Europe. But the movement was hardly retreatist or apolitical. Indeed, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s execution was largely due to participation in those covert efforts to undermine an evil regime. But what may have looked like losing was actually winning, when audited under the economy of the Kingdom of God.
The story of the Confessing Church is a reminder that, as long as we live in both the city of God and the city of man, sometimes winning actually looks like losing. It means confessing truth, even when it costs social capital or cultural influence. It means an abiding faith in the power of the Word of God to accomplish the work of God in the world. It rings out in the final stanza penned by another German pastor some five centuries earlier:
That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever!
The way of Jesus is a needed reminder that the path to glory comes through suffering, that the way up is the way down, and that what may look like the most horrific demonstration of weakness, injustice, or loss will ultimately be vindicated in resurrection power.
We should all be wary of ham-fisted efforts to impose historical events onto contemporary life. It’s often clumsy at best, and intellectually dishonest and manipulative at worst. That said, it seems that American evangelicalism still wrestles through these very same questions in ways that transcend any singular political party or candidate.
Christianity believes, hopes, and works for the renewal of all things in Christ Jesus. It stands in every generation on “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). It cannot be warped into a functional instrument in the hands of a political ideology or nationalistic enterprise. Call me old fashioned, but I’m still one of those Baptists for a “free church in a free state” and one who believes that the doctrine of conversion thus has profound social and political implications for freedom, liberty, and human flourishing.
If nothing else, perhaps 90 years after the Barmen Declaration, we’d all to well to interrogate our own impulses and instincts. The truth is, most of us are unaware of our own idols until the Lord rather directly confronts us with them and grants us the grace of repentance.
Almost seven years ago, I preached a sermon at Southern Seminary on 1 Kings 22 and made used the Barmen Declaration in the introduction. You’ll have to be the judge of the biblical exposition and homiletical quality. But the relevant sections from Barmen are even more timely now.
Immortality and Venture Capital
The Los Angeles Times has a rather interesting profile on the growing world of medical “longevity treatments” among the Uber-wealthy. Andrea Chang’s story largely focuses on Peter Diamandis, a 63 year-old investor in Santa Monica, who is an active voice (and participant) in the movement.
“I woke up at 6. I meditated for 15 minutes. I took fecal samples — I hate to say that, unappetizing, sorry,” Diamandis says as he makes his way up Wilshire Boulevard. “Went through my dental protocol. Did push-ups and sit-ups and squats. And then came here.”
“Here” is a sixth-floor doctor’s office in Santa Monica, where the XPrize founder has been coming every few weeks to undergo therapeutic plasma exchange. The $7,500 procedure involves removing blood, running it through a machine to separate out the plasma and replace it with albumin and saline, and then returning the replenished blood to the body.
As I read Chang’s story, I could not help but think of the sanitarium movement in the late 19th century. Much of it was animated by new religious movements, such as Seventh Day Adventism. But it took a particular institutional and commercial form in the renowned Battle Creek Sanitarium, managed by John Harvey Kellogg for nearly 70 years. You know Kellogg for his Corn Flakes, but the Battle Creek Sanitarium represented the convergence of alternative spiritualities and expanding American wealth in some rather conspicuous, and at times colorful, ways.
Pickleball Ponzi
Jeannie and I may be the only 40somethings in Southern California who have not yet played a single game of pickleball. Should that not change by the time we hit our mid-50s, I expect we will be deported out of the state, relegated to spend our remaining years among those that “just don’t get it.”
So I know I’m in the minority. Pickleball has taken over tennis courts and, apparently, it’s also big business. But here comes the scandal, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Who’s at the center of this imbroglio, you ask? That would be Rodney “Rocket” Grubs.
“Grubbs was well-known and well-liked in Brookville—a town of 2,600 tucked amid rolling hills about 40 miles northwest of Cincinnati—where he coached tennis and opened a pickleball shop. He traveled to dozens of tournaments a year, playing and selling merchandise through a company, Pickleball Rocks, that he touted as “the world’s most recognized pickleball apparel brand.”
But authorities say he was also issuing promissory notes—usually for $25,000 at 12% interest over 18 months—to people across the country, telling them they were part of a small group of investors and seldom making good. In court filings, Grubbs said he owes a total of $47.5 million, including interest. The money has largely vanished.”
I don’t know who will buy the movie rights to this, but surely there’s more drama to come.
Monet, Self-Loathing, and Art
If you’re an artist or love one, you’ll want to share this bit of insight. It seems Claude Monet, the pioneer of French impressionism, was his own toughest critic.
“Sotheby’s estimates that Monet may have wrecked as many as 500 canvases. One newspaper account from 1908 said that he destroyed 15 in that year alone and put their value at $100,000, which, accounting solely for inflation, would equal $3.4 million today.
Of course, his paintings have skyrocketed in value since then, so the real equivalent is incalculable. Considering that incredible rise in value and renown, it’s ironic to read his own words: “My life has been nothing but a failure, and all that’s left for me to do is to destroy my paintings before I disappear,” he once said.”
If you can, go hug a painter.
Lawrence on the Big Screen
One of the recurring themes of my adolescence was the knowledge that, at some point in a given year, my father and I would settle in to watch Lawrence of Arabia together. It’s one of his favorite films, and for good reason. But a viewing also inevitably brought with it a much needed nap, as one or both of us, would at some point pass out on the sofa. We’d finish the film though and then do it again. Come to think of it, we’re long overdue to watch it together again.
So imagine how excited I was to see that it will be in theaters this August 11 and 12. I don’t know about you, but I plan on being there. And if you find me napping halfway through, just know that’s how it’s supposed to be.
What I’m Reading
Evan Dalton Smith, Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father’s Journey (UNC Press)
Matthew Stewart, An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War over Slavery, and the Refounding of America (Norton)