The first flush of Nazi victory seems to be turning into a kind of prolonged fever under the influence of which the intellectual and cultural storm troopers of Germany will apply the white hot iron of their zeal to the Church of Luther.
It is now seriously proposed to tear the Old Testament out of the Bible, create a new basis for religion in a new edition in which the Norse gods of mythology will take their places as objects of religious worship. It has already been laid down as an indisputable fact that Jesus had no Jewish blood in him, but was simply a misunderstood Indo-German. This will enable the Germans to accept Jesus so long as he keeps his proper place among Wotan, Odin and the other divinities after whom the days of the week are named.
At its first convention, held yesterday, the “German Christian Movement” laid down the thesis that the German people require new gods for worship and named a commission to amend German church life in order to make it conform with the “pure Aryan spirit.” It was proposed that not only the mythologies of old, but fairy tales, and the chief personalities of German spiritual and philosophical life should be incorporated as objects for worship. These personalities, of course, would have to be proven pure Aryan.
The supreme council of the Evangelical Church reminded Chancellor Hitler of his promise made before the Reichstag on March 23 during which he promised not to touch the two Christian denominations to which most Germans belong, the Lutheran and the Catholic.
The plan to abolish the church tax, by which the Evangelical Church of Germany is practically maintained, and substitute for it what may be called a “culture tax” points to the possibility that Hitler may have to break this pledge.
The Rev. Dr. Frederick H. Knubel, president of the United Lutheran Church in America, was inclined to scoff at reports from Berlin that the Lutheran establishment in Germany would be put out of business, as a creed and an institution, and a new composite religion formed.
While not denying that members of the German Christian Movement were “Christians” he said that some of its aims were “ridiculous” and “not Christian”.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
