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About three dozen people filled the pews at the Bethel Worship Center in Wetumpka on an August night to watch the documentary “Letter to the American Church” by Eric Metaxas.
The showing was one of dozens hosted at churches across the state by the Eagle Forum of Alabama, one of the far-right groups signed on as a coalition partner for the controversial Project 2025 policy gameplan from the Heritage Foundation.
The documentary, based on Metaxas’ book of the same name, attempts to draw connections between Democrats and the Nazi party with a clarion call to churches to rise up and act rather than maintaining the traditional American boundary between church and state.
As part of that message, the documentary invokes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor famously involved in a plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
The film depicts the German church as idly sitting by during the rise of the Nazi party to make the argument that the American church must take action to defeat the political left.
But descendants and scholars of Bonhoeffer last week issued a statement shaming Christian nationalists for appropriating Bonhoeffer as an icon for an agenda they say he would have no part in.
“From Project 2025 to violent political rhetoric, the legacy of German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is being invoked this election season on behalf of Christian nationalism,” the letter from scholars begins. “It is a dangerous and grievous misuse of his theology and life. As an international group of Bonhoeffer scholars, we warn against it.”
A separate letter from 86 of 100 adult descendants of the Bonhoeffer siblings was made public Friday, Oct. 18.
“We are horrified to see how the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is increasingly being distorted and misused by right-wing extremists, xenophobes and religious agitators,” that letter begins. “As direct descendants of the seven siblings of the theologian and resistance fighter executed by the Nazis, we can testify based on what we learned from our families that he was a peace-loving, freedom-loving humanitarian. Never would he have seen himself associated with far-right, violent movements such as Christian nationalists and others who are trying to appropriate him today. On the contrary, he would have strongly and loudly condemned these attitudes.”
The family specifically calls out Metaxas, who in addition to invoking Bonhoeffer’s legacy in the documentary also penned a controversial biography of Bonhoeffer. That biography has now been adapted into a feature film set to release later this year.
“In the book, he ignored the historical context and misrepresented Bonhoeffer as a fundamentalist evangelical. Metaxas, now a right-wing Trump supporter, regularly compares U.S. President Biden to Hitler, speaks of ‘total war’ and posts photos of a gun on a Bible,” the Bonhoeffer descendants wrote.
Metaxas will be in Alabama on Nov. 15 for the inaugural Albert Patterson gala raising funds for 1819 News, a media site originally founded by Alabama Policy Institute, another coalition partner supporting Project 2025.
Bonhoeffer’s family writes that his quotes have been misused and “reduced to set pieces” including in the Project 2025 manual itself.
“More recently, they have increasingly been used by many whose intentions are diametrically opposed to Bonhoeffer’s thoughts and actions; ranging from Project 2025 — the Heritage Foundation’s proposed program for Trump — to the German right-wing extremist Björn Höcke,” the family wrote. “We descendants can bear witness to the attitude passed on in the family. We grew up listening to frequent talk and debate about resistance to National Socialism, its motives and consequences. At a time when intolerance, antisemitism and other forms of racism and xenophobia, nationalism and authoritarianism are on the rise around the world, we believe it is important to clarify publicly: Dietrich Bonhoeffer fought narrow-mindedness, oppression, and exclusion throughout his life.
“The abuse of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s legacy by Christian nationalists and others is of such cynicism that we are unlikely to convince these demagogues. But we call on American voters in particular: Do not be deceived. Look carefully at history. Only by working together, in the spirit of freedom and concern for others, will we be able to solve our problems. This is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer stands for.”
