The recent instances of antisemitism on the so-called “right,” associated with influencers like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, are a pernicious and disturbing phenomenon that must be clearly condemned and rejected by the MAGA movement. Fortunately, numerous prominent conservatives have taken a resolute stance against this troubling development. Those who are concerned that in-fighting could assist our enemies and weaken the efforts to save America and the West must draw a clear demarcation line between negotiable issues, such as economic theory on tariffs, and major deal-breakers, such as the adoption of fundamentally un-American ideas like antisemitism.
These ideas are all the more insidious when they are under the guise of “isolationism” or Christianity. “Isolationism” as opposed to “interventionism” is but a matter of academic debate with little practical significance. By protecting a strategic ally like Israel, America is protecting itself as well as Western civilization. As for Christianity, it is incompatible with antisemitism, as its most inspiring and heroic figures have demonstrated. Such was the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian who was executed for his courageous acts against the Nazi regime.
Tucker Carlson’s show on Wednesday, November 12, caused a storm of well-deserved outrage regarding the host’s comment on Bonhoeffer.
Tucker criticized Bonhoeffer for abandoning Christianity by advocating violence. This is a misleading and dangerous claim, since Christians are not expected to remain passive when they are attacked. Protecting oneself and others with force is morally justified. The “just-war” doctrine permits the use of force to defend against evil and has a long Christian tradition associated with St. Augustine.
Bonhoeffer himself discusses the moral justification of his choice to actively resist the Nazis as early as 1933, in an essay titled “The Church and the Jewish Question.” Joseph A. Kohm, Vice President for Development of the C.S. Lewis Institute, remarks:
Bonhoeffer posits three reactions the Church must have regarding the State. First, the Church must act as a form of conscience toward the State, asking the State “whether its actions are legitimate and in accordance with its character as state.” Second, the Church, “has an unconditional obligation” toward any victims resulting from any illegitimate State activity. And finally, when the Church, “sees the state fail in its function of creating law and order,” the Church must not only “bandage the victims under the wheel” of the State, but they are “to jam a spoke in the wheel itself.” [emphasis added]
Bonhoeffer was instrumental in the so-called “Operation 7,” which succeeded in helping fourteen Jews escape from Germany to Sweden. He acted as a double agent to sabotage the Nazi government and was involved with family members and close associates who plotted Hitler’s assassination. Throughout his life and in death, he retained his unwavering commitment to the Christian faith, which illuminated the very essence of his being, both in his speeches and writings and in his deeds. This year marks the 80th anniversary of his execution, which happened on April 9, 1945, at the Flossenbürg concentration camp, less than a month before the end of the war.
Any attempts to smear Bonhoeffer’s legacy are not only historically incorrect but morally reprehensible. Let us not forget that “kindness to the cruel is cruelty to the kind.” Actively fighting evil is an inherently Christian and American sentiment, in line with the Declaration of Independence and the founding of our country. It is no coincidence that Benjamin Franklin suggested that the Great Seal of America bear the inscription: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,” which harkens back the Biblical verse: “We must obey God rather than men.”
[Featured image via Wikimedia Commons]
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Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.
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