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The failure of the German Protestant church to mount a decisive resistance to Nazism has long troubled western Christian conscience. Historians rightly warn against simplistic explanations, but one conclusion has proven difficult to escape: long before Hitler rose to power, the church’s theological confidence had already been weakened. When the state demanded ultimate loyalty, many pastors and congregations lacked the moral clarity and will to refuse.

The nineteenth-century Tübingen School of theology did not cause Nazism. Its scholars were not proto-fascists, nor did they anticipate racial ideology or totalitarian politics. Yet their historical-critical approach to Scripture unintentionally contributed to a Protestant culture in which the Bible increasingly functioned as an object of study rather than a source of commanding authority. When political myth replaced moral truth, the church was unprepared to stand against it because the church had long ago lost its biblical, moral footing.

History does not repeat itself mechanically. The present American situation is not Weimar Germany, and the MAGA movement is not Nazism. Still, history can illuminate how the happenings within the church influence how the church interacts with political culture. That raises a difficult but necessary question for American evangelicals today: what weaknesses in our own theology and habits of thought have made many of us susceptible to the distortions of political power?

The answer is not that evangelicalism has repeated the errors of liberal Protestantism. In many ways, we have made opposite mistakes. But the result—a diminished capacity for prophetic resistance—bears an unsettling resemblance.

Authority Dissolved: The Tübingen Lesson

The Tübingen School, led by Ferdinand Christian Baur in the mid-nineteenth century, treated Scripture primarily as a historical artifact shaped by competing early Christian communities. Biblical texts were analyzed as records of theological conflict rather than as a unified witness to divine revelation. The command and authority of Scripture was diminished, and the sacred became profane. The trajectory of the academy spilled into and watered down the vitality of Christian impact in Protestant Germany.

Clergy trained in historical criticism often hesitated to proclaim Scripture normatively. The Bible remained important, but its authority was qualified, softened, and translated into general ethical ideals compatible with modern culture. Christianity became morally earnest but theologically cautious and politically unimportant.

By the early twentieth century, much of German Protestantism lacked the confidence to say an unambiguous “No” to the state. The problem was not simply fear or cowardice. It was uncertainty—whether God had spoken definitively enough to authorize resistance when power spoke with confidence and force.

Karl Barth saw this clearly. In 1933, as the German church accommodated itself to the Nazi regime, Barth insisted that the church exists only under the authority of God’s self-revelation. Where that authority is weakened, the church becomes vulnerable to captivity by the state.

The lesson is sobering: when Scripture no longer stands above culture, culture will soon stand above the church. Today we can say of Nazi Germany and the church alike, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) But, the impact was devastating on Germany, Jews, Europe, and the world at that time, and its effects rumble into the present time.

I do not want to suggest that we can equate Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s to the United States of America in the 2010’s and 2020’s. Still, there are parallels between the exercise of State power in the vacuum left by weakened theology that bear some attention.

Authority Misused: An Evangelical Problem

American evangelicalism presents a striking contrast. Evangelicals affirm biblical authority loudly and unapologetically. We defend inspiration, inerrancy, and revelation. Yet, American evangelicals have drifted from orthodox beliefs. Theological deficiency has yielded to widespread accommodation to political expediency.

MAGA politics has not risen due to the erosion of biblical authority, but by its deformation. Where liberal Protestantism often asked, “Can we really know what God has said?” many evangelicals assume, “We know for certain what God says—and God supports us.”

The danger is not skepticism, doubt, and uncertainty. The danger is in our certainty untethered from robust biblical knowledge and understanding of the full counsel of Scripture.

Biblical Authority Without Biblical Formation

Many evangelicals hold a high view of Scripture read and reference it sparingly. PEW Research studies show that a small percentage of self-identified evangelicals adhere to core evangelical principles or read the Bible more than occasionally. Biblical authority is affirmed in principle while biblical formation is neglected in practice. Scripture is reduced to familiar verses, moral slogans, and culture-war proof texts detached from the full narrative of creation, fall, covenant, cross, and resurrection.

When Scripture is diffused and fragmented i this way, it no longer functions as a judge standing over the church. It becomes a tool wielded by the church—or by political movements exploiting the Church’s theological deficiency.

The irony is profound. The Bible is loudly defended even as its most demanding teachings—love of enemies, truthfulness, humility, self-sacrifice—are deplatformed and sidelined. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16) may be observed more fully in the absence of practice than in the reciting thereof among people who describe themselves as evangelicals today.

A Deficient Theology of Power

A robust theology of power is lacking in evangelical circles today. Theology understands the power God, but Scripture reveals that God wields His divine authority with restraint rather than domination, mercy rather than coercion, and love rather than judgment. God’s glory is demonstrated not in overwhelming force but in covenant faithfulness. Christ’s kingship is revealed not on a throne of conquest but on a cross. (Colossians 2:6-15)

Scripture says, “God is love.” (1 John 4:7) Though God is all-powerful, Scripture does not say that God is power; it emphasizes love as the essence of who God is.

Yet, popular evangelical thinking seems to treat power as a primary means to political ends. What matters are outcomes: policies enacted, courts shaped, enemies defeated. Character becomes secondary to effectiveness and results. The question shifts from “Is this faithful?” to “Does this work?”

Moral pragmatism has replaced biblical faithfulness to the character and teaching of Jesus, While Nazism enthroned power openly, MAGA politics baptizes power rhetorically and embraces power pragmatically as the primary means to its political ends. The difference matters—but the theological danger is real in both cases.

The power of the state is the way of empire, but it is not the way of Christ. Jesus cautioned his followers not to lead with power. “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them… Not so with you.” (Mark 10:42–43) God shows His power more in the restraint than in the exercise thereof.

When National Identity Replaces Ecclesial Identity

Another point of vulnerability lies in the substitution of national identity for ecclesial identity. Where nineteenth-century liberal Protestantism loosened doctrinal boundaries, MAGA-aligned evangelicalism tightens them around cultural and national markers.

“Christian” becomes less a confession shaped by baptism and discipleship and more of a signal of cultural belonging and political platforming. America assumes covenantal significance. Political opponents become enemies of the gospel. The language of faith is recruited to sanctify resentment, grievance, and culture war.

The term, evangelical, carries more political weight than theological meaning, as seen from recent PEW Research Studies. Self described evangelicals align politically, but not theologically, and most of them do not score highly on core evangelical doctrines. They feed on the news and political memes in their social media feeds, rather than feeding on God’s Word.

The devolvement of the church into cultural and political identity is not new. German Protestants once baptized Volk, soil, and destiny. American evangelicals are tempted to baptize restoration, nostalgia, and loss of manifest destiny. Different myths—but a similar captivity to social, cultural, and national norms.

When the church cannot distinguish clearly between the kingdom of God and the fortunes of a nation, it loses the capacity to speak prophetically to either. Paul said, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20), but we seem to have lost our focus on God’s kingdom as we conscript God’s name in service of our national honor.

Fear-Driven Faith

Fear is one of the most powerful solvents of Christian character and integrity. Many evangelicals today operate with a siege mentality. Cultural change is framed in urgent, apocalyptic terms. The future is threatened by loss. In such a climate, extraordinary measures begin to feel justified to avoid it (though we fear, all the same, the apocalyptic inevitability of it).

Truthfulness becomes negotiable under a siege mentality. Cruelty is excused as toughness. Empathy is seen as weakness. Moral compromise is rationalized as necessity.

Scripture acknowledges fear—but never treats it as a trustworthy guide. Faith overcomes fear. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) Notice how Paul nestles in power with love and self-control. These are trustworthy guides in the exercise of authority, and they do not give in to fear.

Anti-Intellectualism and Epistemic Fragility

Ironically, where the Tübingen School over-intellectualized faith, contemporary evangelicalism can view reason with suspicion. Nuance is dismissed as compromise. Expertise is equated with elitism. Certainty is preferred to truth.

Yet, God bids us to reason. (Isaiah 1:18) Scripture consistently calls God’s people to wisdom, discernment, and humility. When critical thinking is rejected, communities become vulnerable to manipulation—especially by charismatic leaders skilled at channeling fear and grievance.

Both excessive skepticism and reflexive certainty weaken the church’s moral discernment. Both dissolve truth, albeit in different ways. One dissolves truth in skepticism, doubt, and uncertainty; the other dissolves truth in blind faith, overconfidence, and simplistic certainty. Either way, the result is a fragile position that must be propped up with raw power because it has no sustaining hold in eternal truth.

The Shared Failure: Loss of Prophetic Distance

Despite their polar differences, liberal Protestantism in Weimar Germany and MAGA-aligned evangelicalism in the US share a tragic similarity: both lost the capacity to stand against political power with clear, theologically grounded resistance.

Liberal Protestantism doubted whether it could speak for God at all. MAGA-aligned evangelicalism assumes with brash certainty that it speaks for God. One negates the church’s voice. The other hijacks it. Both are silent in the face of the corrupting influence of power where biblical clarity and courage to resist is required.

Protestant liberalism ceded the power of its prophetic voice to the State. MAGA-aligned evangelicalism traded the power of its prophetic voice when it seized the power of the State.

“We must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29) is the rallying cry of those whose citizenship is grounded in God’s kingdom. Lest we forget: that kingdom is not of this world.

Until Christ comes again and the new Jerusalem descends from heaven (Revelation 21:1-2), the fight is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12) and ways of thinking that set themselves against the knowledge of God and obedience to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

A Call to Repentant Engagement

This is not an argument for political withdrawal. Christians are called to seek the good of their neighbors, to pursue justice, and to engage public life faithfully. But engagement without theological faithfulness and discipline quickly becomes a snare for captives.

The question before evangelicals is not whether Scripture is authoritative, but whether we will allow it to stand in judgment over our politics—or whether we will merely attempt to use Scripture to sanctify our politics.

History’s warning is clear: weak theology is susceptible to power. Whether the church loses its confidence in God’s word or submits the power of God’s word to the State, political power rushes in to fill the vacuum left by the absence of strong, faithful theology.

The call before us is not disengagement, but discipleship—learning again what it means to follow a Lord whose authority was revealed in service, whose victory came through suffering, and whose kingdom does not require our moral compromise to survive. True faith does not sacrifice character and integrity at the alter of political expediency. May we be found faithful when Christ returns!

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1. Karl Barth, Theological Existence Today! (1933) — Barth’s direct response to German Protestant accommodation.
2. Doris Bergen, Twisted Cross — definitive history of the “German Christian” movement.
3. Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind — evangelical anti-intellectualism.
4. Christian Smith, The Bible Made Impossible — fragmentation of biblical authority.
5. Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry, Taking America Back for God — Christian nationalism.
6. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne — evangelical masculinity and power.
7. Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations — Christian political theology.
8. Barna, CRC, Widespread Worldview Confusion Grows as Americans Redefine God (Feb. 18, 2025)
9. Jeff Hilles, American Evangelical Church Attenders are Typically not Evangelical – updated, Biblical Christian Worldview (2024)
10. Barna, CRC Research finds America’s evangelicals are fewer, less biblically grounded and politically disengaged (Aug. 8, 2024)

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Editor’s Note:

The influence of the Tubingen school of theology that developed in Germany in the 1800’s remained a strong force in mainline protestant theology in the west when I studied theology in college in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I have only recently considered how the loss of an authoritative voice in Scripture resulting from that theology may have contributed to the rise of Nazism without much resistance from the church. As I considered that connection, another thought came to me: to what extent has the weakening of evangelical theology in the US contributed to the rise of Trumpism? This article is the result of my brief research on the subject. I am sure there is much more to be said and to be written, but I hope that we do not devolve into heinous evil before we work it all out.