Moral roadblock: “Romans 13”
In 2024, justice still matters. Doing what is right still matters. Living well with one’s conscience still matters.
In the early 2000s, I taught a financial internship course at BYU in Provo, Utah. I won’t bore you with the details, except to say that we spent the first six to eight weeks without computers or work or software manual from the sponsoring company.
That resulted in a great deal of down time – along the lines of eight hours a day – where we talked about accounting, finance, Utah, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the goals and dreams of these ten young people, how funny it was that I, an older Jewish woman, was teaching a bunch of young LDS mostly-guys, and of course, White Rose.
One day when White Rose was the topic, the room suddenly grew still. This is a little uncomfortable for us, someone said. Because if we had been alive back then, we would have supported the Nazi government.
When I eventually regained the ability to speak, I asked why. They explained that it is hard and fast church doctrine that they must support whatever government they live under, good or evil. Resistance, protest, opposition, all of that is out of the question. Maybe we should work to change that, they mused.
Indeed, “Romans 13,” the basis for that LDS doctrine, bolsters the justification for inaction against injustice that is bedrock of most Christian religious denominations. Sects as diverse as the Roman Catholic Church and Southern Baptists have relied on this biblical premise to condemn those who protest against a government, although to be fair, both denominations also have theologians in their ranks who decry that idea.
As recently as 2018, Jeff Sessions relied on Romans 13 to defend then-President Trump, with Sarah Sanders in turn defending Sessions in a public press conference.
Michael Paarlberg reported in The Guardian on June 15, 2018:
“She [Sarah Sanders] was speaking at Thursday’s White House briefing, in response to a question about comments made by the attorney general Jeff Sessions, where he cited a passage in the Bible to justify the policy.
“‘I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,’ said Sessions.
“He added: ‘Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.’
“Sanders was asked about Sessions’ statement, and was challenged: ‘Where does it say in the Bible that’s moral to take children away from mothers?’
“Pushing back, Sanders said: ‘I’m not aware of the attorney general’s comments or what he would be referencing, [but] I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law. That is repeated throughout the Bible.’”
As a quick reminder, here is Romans 13:1-7 verbatim. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
“Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bears not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.
“Wherefore you must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’s sake. For this cause pay tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”
The opinion expressed by both Jeff Sessions and Sarah Sanders was one that prevailed in Germany from 1933-1945 as well. Friends in the White Rose circle, regardless of age, saw pushback from religious acquaintances who held fast to their churches’ doctrines.
Every single church had aligned with the National Socialist regime. The Catholic Church had its Concordat. The Lutheran church elevated the aligned Deutsche Christen branch to official status, with the seven hundred pastors who signed the Niemöller-Bonhoeffer confession marginalized as the Bekennende Kirche.
By 1937, the Freikirchen or independent churches such as Baptists, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists had fallen in line as well, with Bishop Melle – a Methodist clergyman who was their mouthpiece – writing an opinion piece published in aligned newspapers across Germany that called on the faithful to follow Romans 13.
American Methodists raised a boatload of money for the National Socialist Party. A newspaper as well-regarded as the New York Times heralded Bishop Melle’s speaking tour throughout the United States with a headline that shouted, “The Lord Blesses Every Step that Hitler Takes.” Yes, really. In 1936.
Melle raised so much money in the USA for the Nazi Party that there were rumors that Hitler had adopted the German Methodist church. After all, he personally donated 10,000 Marks ($80,000) to a Methodist church in Germany, to buy an organ.
Nazis knew how to wield Romans 13 as a powerful sword, and wield it they did.
This put the students involved in White Rose resistance at a powerful disadvantage. When Alexander Schmorell called for sabotage in Leaflet 3, religious Germans reading the text would have been immediately alienated by his words.
Just as religious Southerners cited Romans 13 in their defense of slavery (yet did not see its application to secession and the civil war) and those loyal to the crown cited it to condemn the American Revolution (yet did not see its application to Henry VIII’s founding of the Anglican Church), so religious Germans cited Romans 13 in defense of supporting the Nazi regime, yet did not see its application to Hitler’s overthrow of German democracy or his destruction of sovereign governments in the countries he conquered.
This was the roadblock White Rose resistance, and other resistance faced. This is the backdrop against which White Rose resistance was carried out. This is context.
In early January 1943 at home in Saarbrücken, Willi Graf and the Bollinger brothers Heinz and Willi discussed their quandary as loyal Catholics. Willi’s diary simply noted that they “conversed about the real meaning of things and powers,” and that the conversation was “very enlightening.”
After the war, Anneliese Knoop-Graf asked Heinz Bollinger what Willi meant. Heinz said that they talked about the moral-theological aspects of resistance against the State, about a consideration of National Socialist ideology as a manifestation of the ‘will to power’ [Betrachtung der nationalsozialistischen Ideologie als einer Manifestation des ‘Willen zur Macht’]. The latter discussion surely centered on Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. But the former? “Moral-theological aspects of resistance against the State” takes us right back to Romans 13.
This is the single-most critical moral dilemma that White Rose resistance faced. Even for the majority of the students who never attended church or read the Bible, this would have been ingrained into their psyche as they prepared for first communion or confirmation. The article cited below, written by Methodist Bishop Melle in 1936? The odds are high that they all read it in their local paper when they were 17, 18, 19 years old.
Yet none of them documented how they came to terms with this doctrine that was loudly preached during the Third Reich to keep people in line. Hans and Sophie Scholl may not have attended church or been especially religious, but they debated theological matters constantly. Otl Aicher recorded a great deal of his journey from mere religion to faith that lived outside the walls of the Catholic Church that had alienated him with its cowardice. Willi Graf wrote his sister Anneliese much about his personal struggles with faith, as he experienced the same abandonment that Otl knew. Alexander Schmorell’s Russian Orthodox faith had also long used Romans 13 to keep czars and despots in power. Traute Lafrenz emphasized to me that they were all spiritual, but not religious, a statement that included herself.
And none of them entrusted the struggle over this doctrine to pen and paper.
But. We know that they somehow got past the guilt that clergy like Bishop Melle tried to burden them with. We don’t know how, we just know that at some point, they decided that justice, that doing what was right, that living well with one’s conscience, was more important than obeying the words of a dead apostle.
Thinking about the concluding paragraph for this post, it dawned on me that their inner debate over this warped view of government and our responsibility as citizens is less important. It does not matter the steps they took to get from Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation to Alexander Schmorell’s words:
“And now every resolute opponent of National Socialism must ask himself this question: How can he most effectively contend with the current ‘State’? How can he deal it the severest blow? Undoubtedly through passive resistance. Clearly, it is impossible for us to give every individual specific guidelines for his personal conduct. We can only allude to general issues. Everyone must find his own way to realize resistance.”
What matters is that they found their way, just as we must find ours.
In 2024, justice still matters. Doing what is right still matters. Living well with one’s conscience still matters.
POSTSCRIPT – Noteworthy quotes:
“The peasants have taken on themselves the burden of three terrible sins against God and man, by which they have abundantly merited death in body and soul. In the first place they have sworn to be true and faithful, submissive and obedient, to their rulers, as Christ commands, when he says, ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,’ and in Romans XIII, ‘Let everyone be subject unto the higher powers.’
“Because they are breaking this obedience, and are setting themselves against the higher powers, willfully and with violence, they have forfeited body and soul, as faithless, perjured, lying, disobedient knaves and scoundrels are wont to do. St. Paul passed this judgement on them in Romans XIII when he said, that they who resist the power will bring a judgement upon themselves. This saying will smite the peasants sooner or later, for it is God's will that faith be kept and duty done.
“In the second place, they are starting a rebellion, and violently robbing and plundering monasteries and castles which are not theirs, by which they have a second time deserved death in body and soul, if only as highwaymen and murderers. Besides, any man against whom it can be proved that he is a maker of sedition is outside the law of God and Empire, so that the first who can slay him is doing right and well. For if a man is an open rebel every man is his judge and executioner, just as when a fire starts, the first to put it out is the best man. For rebellion is not simple murder, but is like a great fire, which attacks and lays waste a whole land. Thus rebellion brings with it a land full of murder and bloodshed, makes widows and orphans, and turns everything upside down, like the greatest disaster. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful or devilish than a rebel. It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you.” (Martin Luther in 1535, Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants – emphases mine.)
“These days, I have often been asked: ‘What is then your – the Free Churches’ – position to the National Socialist state?’ To that question, I can only answer that the churches which are united in the Association of Evangelical Free Churches (Baptists, Methodists, Evangelical Community, and the Association of Free Evangelical [i.e., independent] churches) are thankful for the full freedom to preach the Gospel of Christ, and for the ministry of revival services, counseling, social welfare, and church planting.
“We have seen the National Socialist takeover as a deed of divine providence, a providence that in the critical days of radical change points its Church to the foundational works of the Apostle Paul regarding the attitude of the Christian to the State, in Romans 13. It asks of her to remain in faithful intercession for those in command.
“Along with intercession, we have combined our thanks that in the Führer, God has sent a man whose task it is to banish bolshevism from Germany and to snatch a nation of 67 million people from the pit of despair, a pit to which it had been led by a world war, the Treaty of Versailles, and its results. Instead of despair, the Führer has given the people new faith, its own mission, and its own future.” (July 24, 1937, from an article in the Ulmer Tageblatt/Ulmer Sturm entitled “Sharp Protest of the Free Churches: ‘Thankful for Complete Freedom to Preach the Gospel!’” Translation © 1995 Denise Heap. Emphasis mine. In White Rose History, Volume I.)
For further reading:
“A Church in Crisis: Historical Reflections on Leadership.” November 1998 speech given by Roland Blaich as 1998-99 Walla Walla College Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. This speech should be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the role of religion in the Holocaust. - Also, Claremont McKenna College sponsored student-led research on this topic. Kudos!
“The Fight to Define Romans 13.” Lincoln Mullen in The Atlantic. June 15, 2018. Mullen names names and pulls no punches, citing clergy and politicians who have used Romans 13 to keep people in line.
“Helmuth Hübener.” No author given. This is from the LDS Website. Hübener, together with his friends Rudolf Wobbe, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, and Gerhard Düwer, were convicted of printing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in Hamburg in February 1942. Hübener was seventeen years old when he was executed on October 27, 1942. His church, an LDS (Mormon) ward in Hamburg, excommunicated him after his execution.
The LDS Church practiced “Romans 13” during the war. The NSDAP did not shut them down, as they did other small, non-aligned denominations like Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The LDS Church reinstated Hübener after the war (1948). From what I see and read, they are still coming to terms with the injustices that LDS members as well as the LDS church in general perpetrated during the war, all in the name of Romans 13.
Making progress, long way to go.
© 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. Please contact us for permission to quote. To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. Digital version of White Rose History, Volume I is available here.