ICYMI: 2-Minute History — ‘Gott Mit Uns’ and Other Fascist Lies
The weaponization of God by fascists has roots in history + links to my 2-Minute History posts to date and an update from my excellent summer workation, featuring Wake Up Sonoma’s Bad Faith screening
***Originally published on February 2, 2024, I am republishing ‘Gott Mit Uns’ and Other Fascist Lies because it is incredibly relevant in this moment. Please take out a membership to join our community and support independent investigative journalism.
Author’s Update: I just finished the second leg of my four-part ‘workation’ — spending time with Anne Nelson, Peter Coyote, and the brave and brilliant people of Wake Up Sonoma. You can learn more about their efforts to defend the integrity of their beautiful community from a hostile and cynical CNP-connected takeover at our previous event invite from March.
The event centered around a screening of Bad Faith, which I have written much about on these pages and will be writing more in coming days. The film was even better the second time around, and I encourage you each to watch and share with your network.
The most important takeaway from spending time these last few weeks in activist trenches from Florida to Northern California — where grassroots efforts are underway to take back communities and take back narratives and defend reality — is this: people have power.
More on all of this soon but for now I’m going to go practice some of Peter Coyote’s radical optimism and remember to meditate 20 minutes a day. It’s in the quiet spaces that we find strength and directed action.
Look forward to seeing many of you at my birthday roast tomorrow. It’s cool to realize that among the things I want to do on my 60th is spend time with you.
Original 2-Minute History from February 2, 2024 here:
2-Minute History — ‘Gott Mit Uns’ and Other Fascist Lies
Among the blessings of meeting people in real life are the small conversations that occur around the larger conversations.
While spending time irl with author and journalist Anne Nelson — whose book Shadow Network informed the new documentary Bad Faith — as we were discussing the extremist right’s misappropriation of God, she told me that the Nazis in WWII wore belt buckles inscribed with “GOTT MIT UNS” — God is with us — as they committed unspeakable acts of cruelty.
As I did research on the subject, I learned that this was an age old tradition — would-be conquerors ordaining themselves with the divine right to rape and pillage.
Here, in Nelson’s own words, is a 2-Minute History briefing:
So the Christian religion, like other religions, has been perverted by political interests since almost the beginning.
The Crusaders used it is as an excuse to slaughter fellow Christians in Byzantium. But one thing that you found was that Hitler centuries later realized that the majority of Germans were practicing Christians. And he and his propagandist Joseph Goebbels understood that using him as a Christian symbol would be powerful among these people. And whereas, what he was actually doing ran as counter to the teachings of Christ as you can imagine.
They co-opted the symbolism. So one of the most popular images of Hitler, which was a painting that became a postcard — a poster you then saw all over Germany, with him as a crusader knight and bearing the standard of the cross in battle against the heathens.
And another factor that you had was this tradition in the army of the belt buckles that were imprinted with ‘Gott mit uns’ — God is with us. And they would wear these belt buckles into battle on the Russian front. And then, as they slaughtered millions of Jews in the Holocaust by bullets — with the idea that God was supporting their side. One of the things I write about in Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler is the number of people of faith who objected to this. And there was one letter that I found really moving. It was by a young Catholic soldier who wrote to his parents from the Russian front, saying how much the actions were going against his belief. And he was shot for writing the letter. So you can look at the perversion of Christianity for political gain as a spiritual battle.
History is echoing so loudly in this moment it’s deafening. Nelson referred to the recent God Made Trump ad as “heretical.”
I am hoping to reach true people of faith in the work I am doing so they can see how their empathy is being cynically and intentionally abused to support criminals in a power grab — a centuries’ old tradition.
Please share this 2-Minute History report with your networks and please stay kind, stay focused, and stay loud.
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More from the 2-Minute History series:
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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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“It was Dark, so I could Nazi.”