It Happened
To deny that the Holocaust occurred is to set the preconditions for another one.
Guest editorial by Richard V. Pierard, professor of history at Indiana State University.
The emergence of David Duke as a political figure has again drawn public attention to the contention that no Jewish Holocaust occurred in World War II. The ex-Klansman has said that Hitler and the Nazis did not systematically and successfully destroy most of Europe’s Jews.
For years, Holocaust denial has been a stock-intrade of shadowy creatures on the extreme Right. In recent times, several pseudo-scholars have come forward to argue against the “extermination legend” and “myth of the six million.” Through an elaborate process of distortions, half-truths, and falsification of data, these “revisionists” seek to convince the gullible that Hitler did not order the annihilation of the Jews, but instead had this “alien minority” placed in labor camps where they could not subvert the war effort.
Harsh war-time conditions caused the epidemic diseases and malnutrition in the crowded camps; crematories were necessary to dispose of the remains of the few thousand who died. Cyanide gas was used for delousing and fumigation in order to check the spread of typhus. There were so few Jews left in Europe because most had emigrated to North America or Israel. Pictures of gas chambers and emaciated inmates are fabrications. And so the story goes.
In fact, Holocaust denial is the ultimate Big Lie. The whole process of destruction is so well-attested through eye-witness accounts, official documents, and contemporary press reports that no one in his or her right mind could deny that it happened.
So why is such a monstrous falsehood perpetrated? The answer is twofold. One reason is anti-Semitism—the ongoing hatred of Jews that animates extreme rightist groups in North America, Britain, France, Germany, and elsewhere. The other is the intention to deny Jews the right to a land of their own, where they may live peacefully within secure borders.
Is Holocaust denial merely a Jewish problem? No, it is also an American Christian problem. We must never forget that anti-Semitism has its roots in the theology and practice of the Christian church, from the writings of the church fathers, through the Inquisition, even in the comments of Martin Luther. Moreover, the U.S. government and people did little to help Jews in the years 1933 through 1945. Opinion polls in our “Christian nation” in 1942 found that people disliked Jews more than the German and Japanese enemies, while officials in Washington pooh-poohed the accounts of extermination programs as “atrocity stories.”
Evangelicals may try to evade the issue by arguing the Holocaust was a product of theological liberalism. But we cannot let ourselves off the hook so easily. Robert Ross excellently shows in So It Was True (1980) that while our magazines reported the grim details of the Nazi policies, our modest attempts to persuade the U.S. authorities to do something lacked moral passion.
Likewise, conservative free church Christians in Germany supported the Hitler regime just as fervently as most in the official church did. In 1984, the German Baptists even issued a formal statement confessing that they had been taken in by the “ideological seduction” of the time. They had not stood up for truth and righteousness.
The bottom line is that to deny the Holocaust is to set the preconditions for yet another one. It behooves evangelicals to stand up and utter a forthright no to the “revisionists” and their fellow travelers. The very credibility of our faith is at stake.
Ex-gay ministries may be the most misunderstood segment of the evangelical parachurch network. They are often reviled by those they wish to reach, and widely mistrusted by evangelical congregations. It seems anything associated with homosexuality—even its healing—feels out of place in a respectable Sunday-go-to-meetin’ culture.
Unfortunately, this lack of acceptance means the church could easily miss lessons these groups might teach. In a recent newsletter from Desert Stream, an ex-gay group associated with the Venice (Calif.) Vineyard, founder Andy Comiskey described new directions these ministries need to take. Each new direction has serious implications for local congregations.
First, says Comiskey, those who seek to minister to homosexuals must be careful not to be caught in the trap of “fight[ing] the deceived on their own turf.” Outrageous claims by the gay PR machine and its media missionaries can easily provoke angry responses and put ex-gay leaders on the defensive. But, says Comiskey, their message of healing is a “holy offense,” tied to the belief that “freedom results from a living relationship with Jesus Christ.” Keeping that message up front is the key to changing lives.
The church at large can learn from this wisdom. What homosexual person who feels a deep need for sexual wholeness will seek help from a church best known for gay bashing or antigay activism? A firm belief in the sinfulness of homosexual activity need not degenerate into antigay rhetoric. It must instead find expression in a gospel-based appeal to experience forgiveness, acceptance, and wholeness.
Comiskey’s second point also touches the church. Those who have grown into greatest wholeness under Desert Stream’s ministry are those who have become “known and liberated unto whole relationships and service of others within the local church.” Will our churches find ways to integrate these ministries into congregational life? Some have; but it must happen on a wider scale. Former homosexuals easily become locked into a negative identity, thinking of themselves primarily as something they are not, rather than as something positive God has called them to be. “To the degree that we … commune together on the basis of our identified problem, we play into the same deception that undergirds the gay community,” writes Comiskey. “We perpetuate the myth that … our brokenness necessitates unique and esoteric healing keys unknown to the majority.” Will the churches facilitate the breakdown of ex-gay isolation?
Third, Comiskey calls for a major shift in emphasis among the ex-gay ministries: from helping homosexual strugglers to the restoration of all sexually broken persons. Heterosexuals who have been sexually abused or are sexually addicted have a “profound common ground” with those struggling with homosexuality. The groups are different enough and enough alike to increase the healing potential significantly. What are needed are sheltering and caring churches that can bring these groups together.
Fourth, in the sunny Southern California culture from which Comiskey writes, ex-gay ministries have relied, perhaps too much, on standard psychological approaches. Comiskey warns that “sin became rationalized,” and “psychobabble replaced the language of redemption. The clear word of the Father was dismissed for a thousand words of false consolation.”
Here, too, is a word for the church. For as the therapeutic culture has engulfed our congregations, many have fallen into an uncritical acceptance of the therapeutic goal (while others have reflexively rejected all psychology). For many, says Comiskey, “ ‘soulgazing’ has displaced the cross.…” But the Father’s goal for his children is not being well-adjusted; it is being holy. There is, however, a proper use of psychology: “to identify what is broken in us so that we might seek the Father more accurately for the freedom only He can offer us.” The churches clearly teach the goal of holiness.
These admonitions from a leader in ex-gay ministry challenge us all. It is worthwhile eavesdropping on that movement’s internal conversations.
By David Neff.
By the time high-school seniors pick up their diplomas this spring, more than three-fourths of them will have earned more than an education during their school years. They will have graduated into the sexual revolution. According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 73 percent of high-school seniors have had sexual intercourse.
The moral consequences of promiscuity are obviously of concern to all Christian parents. (And we cannot pretend that our children are in the chaste 27 percent. Various researchers have found that the statistics on sexual activity are about the same or only slightly lower for children from Christian homes.) But besides the issue of right and wrong, there are the concerns of health and sickness, life and death.
The CDC’s study of teenage sexual behavior reinforces what should by now be common knowledge: promiscuous sex spreads disease. And the center warns that adolescents may be the next group to succumb wholesale to the AIDS epidemic. But this newest and deadliest threat is not their only concern. Other sexually transmitted diseases (STDS), such as syphilis, gonorrhea, genital herpes, and chlamydia are on the rise and have a higher annual incidence than AIDS. While not as deadly as AIDS, these diseases are more than inconvenient; some are incurable or have been linked to infertility and cancer. Already they touch three million teenagers annually.
As Tim Stafford points out in this issue (“The Next Sexual Revolution,” p. 28), we urgently need to build an intentional Christian counterculture—one that challenges all Christians, including teenagers, to be different and to celebrate that difference. We must find ways to present the “good news” about sex—before our children receive the bad news.
By Michael G. Maudlin.
