“There is no question of ever accepting Nazi representatives in the Austrian cabinet. An absolute abyss separates Austria from Nazism … We reject uniformity and centralization. … Catholicism is anchored in our very soil, and we know but one God: and that is not the State, or the Nation, or that elusive thing, Race.”
Prior to Anschluss – 1938
Chancellor Schuschnigg was one of those chaps who was pro-German but anti-Nazi. Schuschnigg believed Austria to be a German state and he believed Austrians to be Germans. He was Chancellor atop a the rightist Christian social party.
Schuschnigg’s view above offers an interesting insight into Christian Nationalism. No one would have accused Schuschnigg of not being a Christian Nationalist. However, Schuschnigg (like the Chancellor before him who was assassinated by the Nazis) held a particular kind of Nationalism that was at vast variance with the National Socialists in Germany. That variance was so vast that Schuschnigg labeled it an “abyss.”
Now, part of the abyss was accounted for by the fact that Austria was Roman Catholic and Schuschnigg believed that the Germany he resisted was primarily Prussian Protestant. Schuschnigg rightly understood that a Roman Catholic people and a Protestant people can never mix. (The Nazis solved this by creating a “gottgläubig” category.) Gottgläubig was a Nazi religious term for a form of non-denominationalism and deism practised by those German citizens who had officially left Christian churches but professed faith in some higher power or divine creator. By creating this category the Nazis were able to make the Germans Nazis first and Christians second. In conjunction with this the Nazis created a Reichskirche and appointed Ludwig Müller as the first Reichsbischof (Bishop for the Reich). The role of Müller was to keep the Churches in line with serving the Party.
Now, it must be said here that the Churches at this time in Germany were, generally speaking, not historically orthodox . The Protestant churches had been shot through with Liberalism and a creeping Barthianism. Bonhoeffer, and Niemoller, for example were both trained at Seminaries that were anything but orthodox. Niemoller himself, had been a supporter of the rise of the Nazis for quite some time before re-thinking his position.
So, the Christianity in Germany was slammed together under one Nazi umbrella. This Nazification of the Church and the whole German people was to the end of what Schuschnigg lifted his voice against. In this Nazification was the aim of uniformity, centralization and the turning of the State/Party and Race into a God (idol).
However, it still remains the goal to have a Biblical Christian Nationalism. All because unbiblical expressions of Nationalism might exist, doesn’t mean that a Christian nationalism that is characterized by unity in diversity among one distinct people, and as governmentally decentralized can’t be championed. A Christian Nationalism that understands Biblical jurisdictionalism/subsidiarity should be the goal of every Biblical Christian.
Also, we should add here that it is possible to prioritize one’s ethnicity/race without lifting one’s ethnicity/race above God as an idol. Schuschnigg writes of “that elusive thing, Race.” However, keep in mind that Schuschnigg wasn’t living in the multi-cultural/multi-racial hell that we are being forced to live in. Race, is not quite so elusive when you’re part of a people who are being sought out to be replaced.
This kind of statement needs to be made because I have been privy myself to chaps who want to make some kind of hero out of the Austrian Corporal. I have been privy to men who speak in glowing terms about National Socialism. This reveals a profound misunderstanding of history. The mustachioed Schicklgruber was no hero. Yes, we can cheer them for fighting the Bagels (who declared war on Germany first) but they hardly provide a role model upon which a Biblical Christian should aspire.
The creation of “Positive Christianity” by Germany in order to give a generic (neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant) theology provides one example as to why a Biblical Christian can not be a supporter of a renewed National Socialist Kingdom. In 1937, Hans Kerrl, the Reich Minister for Church Affairs in Germany, explained that “Positive Christianity” was not “dependent upon the Apostle’s Creed”, nor was it dependent on “faith in Christ as the Son of God”, upon which Christianity relied; rather, it was represented by the Nazi Party: “The Führer is the herald of a new revelation”, Kerrl said. No lover of Jesus Christ could ever embrace such a monstrosity.
By all means let us pursue Christian Nationalism. By all means let us vigorously practice the Ordo Amoris. By all means let us ora et labora with the purpose of ending the “White Replacement”project. However, we must not fall into the thinking of C. S. Lewis’ Dwarf character, “Nikabrik,” from Lewis’ novel “Prince Caspian.” Nikabrik, as you will recall, becomes so desperate to win out against the evil Telmarines that he calls on black magic to summon up the evil White Witch in order to deliver old Narnia from the Telmarines. Nikabrik’s pursuit is a warning against embracing past evil in order to fight off present evil.