A very sad and scandalous part of Seventh-day Adventist history is the alliance that was formed between the Seventh-day Adventists of Germany and the Nazi (National Socialist German Workers’) party during the 1930s.
Hitler won a seat at the bargaining table in Weimar Germany in July 1932, with only 37% of the vote. [1], and was levered into power as chancellor by a deal reluctantly agreed to by German President Paul von Hindenburg [2]. On 23 March 1933 he passed the Enabling Act which made the Nazi party the sole party governing Germany and himself effectively a dictator. [3] The Nazis almost immediately, among many other things, began to enact legislation regarding religion and churches.
They proceeded to ban all small denominational churches, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Alas, the German Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, as it had done with the Kaiser in World War 1, compromised and cut a deal with the Nazis, who then re-instated it as a permitted church in turn for them committing themselves to support the Nazi agenda. [4] [5].
By benefit of the hindsight of history, we may wonder how Seventh-day Adventists could do such a thing. We need to remember that at the time, not many knew of Hitler's murderous designs towards the Jews and others he considered Untermensch (subhuman). In fact, from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective, there was much to commend Hitler. He was a vegetarian. He opposed the use of tobacco and alcohol. He was opposed to homosexuality. He was anti-communist and therefore implicitly anti-atheism [6]. He was even opposed to abortion [7].
In fact, there seems to be much to recommend him even today, at least to a small group of contemporary conservative Adventists. Which brings us to the situation I wish to address in this article.
Fascism Today
The specter of European fascist dictators has re-emerged with the appointment of Viktor Orban as life-time dictator of Hungary [8]. The topic of fascism is presently very controversial, often provoking very emotional responses. What we must recognize, of course, is that fascism morphs over time in ways that are often complex. We find this in the classic fascism of Benito Mussolini a century ago in Italy [9]. To find a consensus among academics as to what constitutes fascism is just about impossible, at least according to the BBC [10]. However, if one seeks to blend the most credible assessments of scholars on this subject, their opinions all share the following properties:
· It is authoritarian and undemocratic, usually involving a supreme leader who is nearly always a dictator.
· It gravitates toward the right-wing of the political spectrum, often calling itself conservative.
· It is nationalistic and, in some way or form, racist.
By the above definitions, the rule of Viktor Orban of Hungary is definitely fascist. Tragically, we presently find a small group of theologically conservative Adventists commenting very favourably on Viktor Orban's regime. They are actually upholding and praising it [11]. It would appear history is repeating itself.
Adventists and Hitler’s Regime
I don’t wish in this article to pursue an in-depth analysis of what fascism is and how it comes about, but rather, to consider why it has been, and still seems to be attractive, to some Seventh-day Adventists.
In 1933, when German Adventists cut a deal with the Nazi party, Seventh-day Adventism was socially homogenous as well as theologically conservative. Many don’t realize the extent to which Germany under the Weimar Republic was very much the opposite, with very liberal social standards relative to such issues as sexuality and abortion [12]. German Adventists for this reason would have found themselves attracted to what Hitler offered relative to Germany’s social problems at the time. They shared this perspective with virtually all other German Christian denominations, who at the time—like Seventh-day Adventists—were socially conservative.
Thus Seventh-day Adventists weren’t the only church to cut a deal with Hitler. Oddly enough, the Jehovah's Witnesses—regarded by most as a cult, then as now—were among the few denominations to hold out against Hitler [13].
Contemporary Adventists and the Lure of Fascism
As the Christians of Germany in the 1930s became frustrated with the moral decadence of Weimar society, today’s conservative Christians find themselves similarly frustrated with the moral decadence of contemporary Western society. In addition, Western nations today are undergoing a level of financial collapse not seen since the 1930s. If we put ourselves in the shoes of those Christians of the 1930s, or indeed the shoes of conservative Christians today, we can see the attractiveness that fascist regimes can hold for them.
Christians who are both socially and theologically conservative—and it helps to remind ourselves that the two are not the same—have over the years become much like the Christians in Weimar Germany, frustrated as they watch cultural forces bring down both long-settled moral standards and financial systems they once trusted. They long for the “good old days” when, under a more culturally conservative society, there was greater peace and prosperity.
One can understand their thinking. Without question, widespread moral laxity contributed to the fall of Weimar Germany and is undermining much that is stable and positive in Western society today.
The problem lies in the perceived solution.
As the people of society voluntarily abandon traditional Christian values and embrace laxity and self-indulgence, while at the same time turning a deaf ear to pleas from their churches for personal reform, the temptation to save society by forcing them to become more moral becomes increasingly hard to resist. Just as Adolf Hitler appealed to German Adventists in the 1930s because of his promise to end the moral decadence of the Weimar Republic and bring back traditional Christian values, so too does Viktor Orban appeal to certain contemporary Adventists with a similar message. When we look at Viktor Orban's social policies, we find they do profess adherence to many traditional Christian values. Indeed, unlike Hitler, Viktor Orban is a professing Christian. [14]
Five Problem Areas
I too wish to see a raising of moral standards in Western society, and for its previous economic prosperity to be restored. Being nearly 70 years of age, I can personally remember the greater stability in so many ways of my childhood years. However, the thinking of these conservative Adventists who are praising Viktor Orban is faulty in five (5) areas:
One: Watching some of their online conversation, I am struck with the hypocrisy found in many of their comments. There are many entries condemning, rightly, the totalitarianism and lack of freedom found in the former and current communist regimes. However, it is hypocrisy to condemn totalitarianism in a leftist regime and praise it in a rightist one. Totalitarianism is wrong in an absolute sense, not made right or wrong on the basis of whether you agree or disagree with what the totalitarian regime wants to enforce.
Two: I find, looking back on the last 60 years of my life, that the big changes in Western society have been in three (3) areas.
1. Changing attitudes toward sexuality issues.
2. Changing attitudes regarding business ethics and ethics generally.
3. Changing attitudes toward the poor.
There is an increasingly vocalized attitude on the part of certain ones that the poor deserve their poverty, that there is only personal success or personal failure. Alas, I am sorry to have to say, this attitude has largely come out of America and spread throughout the Western world. There are deep theological reasons for this, but they must be discussed another time.
The West, like Sodom of old, is guilty of two great sins. Most people know about the sexual sins associated with Sodom (Gen. 19:5; Jude 7). But few know the other sin for which Sodom was condemned:
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy (Eze. 16:49).
While the online conservative Adventists mentioned above appear to love God's Ten Commandments and manifest zeal for them, a lengthy analysis of their public comments reveals serious omissions so far as what God’s law requires of the Christian. For example, I see endless articles published condemning homosexuality, but few if any condemning the lack of Christian ethics in modern business and in society generally. And I find no articles from these sources condemning insensitive attitudes toward the poor and the strangers among us—the latter being those we today call immigrants. Tragically, many who engage in these public online discussions mention the poor and needy only in derogatory terms.
God’s commandments and Biblical moral standards do not lend themselves to a right-wing/left-wing split along the lines we see in Western culture today. The fact is that both good and bad can be found on both ends of the secular political spectrum, and on all points in between.
Three: There seems to be, at least in a few circles of socially conservative Adventists, a growing idea that the end-time Sunday laws will be brought in by political progressives (liberals) based on the climate change crisis. Supporting this theory is the recent promotion of Sunday-sacredness by the current Pope as a solution to global warming and other environmental issues. However, in contrast to this is Ellen White's clear statement that America will pass the first Sunday law(s) based on other issues.
Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance [15].
That is, those who bring in the Sunday laws blame the lack of Sunday observance for accelerating natural and other disasters, not environmental issues. That is not to say political liberals and environmental concerns won’t be mingled at some point with the Sunday movement, just as the temperance movement was mingled with Sunday-law agitation in Ellen White’s day [16]. But the predictions of the inspired writings are clear that Sunday legislation in America will be promoted by conservative Christians who are troubled by the lack of Sunday observance, which they will claim to be the cause of society’s moral collapse—as distinct from their own unscriptural theology regarding the supposed abrogation of God’s law through a false doctrine of grace [17].
Four: As Seventh-day Adventists, we are more blessed than any other Christians in the depth of our knowledge about the great controversy between Christ and Satan. We of all people should know the importance of free will in God's plan of salvation. For members of our faith community to support enforced consensual morality as a means of establishing “righteousness,” is to show a lack of understanding as to God’s desire for only loving and willing service in the struggle between good and evil.
Five: Sadly, I find among some theologically conservative Adventists the same lack of faith and trust in God that is found among those Adventists who call their theology “progressive.” Speaking of the latter element in the church, Ellen White predicts:
A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure [18].
In other words, those who today we would call theological “progressives” look to intellectual learning and humanism to do God's work in the last days. This agenda they share with theologically liberal denominations who observe the first day of the week. However, there is a class of theologically conservative Adventists who also lack faith:
The class represented by the foolish virgins are not hypocrites. They have a regard for the truth, they have advocated the truth, they are attracted to those who believe the truth; but they have not yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit's working. They have not fallen upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, and permitted their old nature to be broken up [19].
These, because of their lack of conversion, will be inclined to look to the secular arm of the law to do God's work and establish righteousness in the last days. This agenda they share with those theologically conservative denominations who observe the first day of the week.
Seventh-day Adventists are called to be a unique denomination—above politics, above both liberal and conservative culture, above our cherished social opinions—guided exclusively by Holy Scripture and the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy.
REFERENCES
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler%27s_rise_to_power#Seizure_of_control_(1931%E2%80%931933)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Appointment_as_chancellor
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933#Text
4.http://holocaust.projects.history.ucsb.edu/Research/Proseminar/corrieschroder.htm
5. Alomia: Fatal Flirting: The Nazi State and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Published by Digital Commons @ Andrews University, 2010 https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=jams
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany#Atheists
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Germany#History
9. https://www.livescience.com/57622-fascism.html
10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8316271.stm
11. “LGBTQ Activists Outraged as Hungary Prepares to Define Gender as ‘Sex at Birth,’” http://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2020/4/30/lgbtq-activists-outraged-as-hungary-prepares-to-define-gender-as-sex-at-birth
12. http://www.ukapologetics.net/weimar.html
13.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Orb%C3%A1n#Personal_life
15. Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 10, p. 239.
16. ----The Great Controversy, p. 587.
17. Ibid, pp. 586-587.
18. ----Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 204-205.
19. ----Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 411.
Tony Rigden, a former atheist/deist, came into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1980 as the result of a miraculous conversion and the reading of the book The Great Controversy by Ellen G White. He has since been a regular Sabbath School teacher, very part-time lay preacher, elder and briefly head elder. Formerly an electronics technician and computer programmer, Tony is currently still part-time programming but mostly retired. Former hobbies included diving and private flying. Currently he is a volunteer guard (train conductor) for one of New Zealand's leading vintage railways.