Lutheran Nazism - "Stormtroopers of Jesus" in Norway

Why the Norwegian Lutheran clergy supported Hitler?
- or -
Was Hitler a product of the Norwegian Lutheran clergy?

Both Ljan Kirke and Ris Kirke were constructed in 1932,
designed in the new tradition of "Positive Christianity" which
was later encoded into the Nazi "constitution."


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Lutheran Nazism - Apostolic Apologetics

In 1932 the Protestant church came under the influence of the Nazi movement called "German Christians" (Bewegung Deutscher Christen, also called "Stormtroopers of Jesus") and lead by the founder, Rev. Joachim Hossenfelder. This movement represented Hitler's "Positive Christianity" views and lawfully encoded into the Nazi "constitution." Hitler tried to force regional Protestant churches to merge into the Protestant Reich Church. Protestant churches throughout Germany participated in the movement but Hitler's union of the churches failed because of in-church bickering. Only one visibly apparent church remains in Germany that shows distinctive markings of Positive Christianity, a reminder of how Christianity and Nazism mixed together during the Nazi regime.
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<http://sites.google.com/site/apostolicapologetics/editorials/nazi-lutheranism>

The "German Evangelical Christian Church"

The first step of the process can be traced to 1921, when The German Church--Sunday Paper for the German Volk began to appear. It had the objective of ridding the German church of the Old Testament and re-interpreting the heroic sacrifice of Jesus on the cross along the lines of German mysticism. Clergy in the state churches were elected, and by the 1930s the Nazi party worked to install its own candidates. Church parties like "The Church Union for Positive Christianity and German Nationality" and "The Evangelical National Socialists" began to be formed. Hitler began to unite these parties into the "Faith Movement of German Christians" in 1932, led by Joachim Hossenfelder who liked to call it "The Storm Troops of Jesus Christ." In actuality, the church was encouraged to view Adolph Hitler as the one that God had raised for the salvation of the German nation. Faith was based on the "Spirit of Luther" and was to have a heroic piety. Sanctification was defined as keeping Germany "racially pure," and was to be a duty of the church.

When the new church leaders had their first meeting, they responded with enthusiastic "Heils" to the words of the brown-shirted Dean Grell, who expressed the need for a German faith and a German God. Eventually, even words like "Amen" and "Hallelujah" would be eliminated from the liturgy because of their Jewish etymology.

Many of Germany's world famous theologians sided with this national church movement, perhaps out of fear of losing their posts in the universities. After Hitler seized power, he heavily promoted the party church and denied other candidates access to the media. As the movement gathered momentum, hoards of people who had previously had no interest in the church began to flood the sanctuaries.

<http://www.hccentral.com/gkeys/barmen.html>