How Much Horrendous Suffering Can Christian Theology Tolerate?
The survival of the church depends on the devout not noticing
During my recent stay in London, I visited The Wiener Holocaust Library, which is an easy walk north of The British Museum. For a long time I have been following it on Twitter and—more recently—on Facebook, and wanted to see it in person. I have always been stunned that there are holocaust-deniers, because the evidence for this crime against humanity is massive. The Nazis themselves kept detailed records, confident that their elimination of Jews was an important contribution to the world, and they could hardy cover up the stark realities of the concentration camps. On this, see especially Martin Gilbert’s book, Atlas of the Holocaust (1993, 254 pages). Moreover, there is an abundance of survivor memoirs.
Before I left the library I purchased a slender, large format paperback book (50 pages), Death Marches: Evidence and Memory, by Christine Schmidt and Dan Stone, produced by the Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership. This book is not available on Amazon, but it can be purchased on the shop section of the library’s website.
I do wonder how much church-goers are aware of—how much they pay attention to—events that qualify as horrendous suffering. How do they reconcile such events with their faith, their belief in a powerful, loving god? Even horrors that fall far short of the Holocaust are minimized. Following a school massacre in Dunblane, Scotland in March 1996 (16 kids and a teacher were killed), many flowers were left at the school entrance. Included was a Teddy Bear with a note attached, “13 March 1996: The day God overslept.”
This was an attempt to exonerate the Christian god, which sounded better than saying “god is dead” or “god was busy somewhere else in the Cosmos.” But clergy and apologists know that god overslept is far too incriminating, and they do their best to divert attention from truly horrific events that destroy belief in the god they champion. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 225,000 people, including many fetuses, babies, toddlers, and children. But this pales in comparison to the Holocaust, which was the intentional murder by the Nazis of millions of Jews and others deemed undesirable. How does it possibly make sense to claim that “god knew what he was doing” (and several other variations on this theme) to allow this to happen? Why don’t laypeople see that horrendous suffering at this level totally cancels belief in god?
That’s probably why not thinking about it is the preferred approach.
But come on, please face the realities of history, which are hard to reconcile with Christian claims that their god cares about, and monitors the acts, words, and even the thoughts of every person on the planet. How could god not be aware of what was happening on the Death Marches? In their Introduction, Christine Schmidt and Dan Stone wrote the following:
“Toward the end of the Second World War, the Nazis and their collaborators forcibly evacuated under heavy guard hundreds of thousands of prisoners still held within the camp system. Prisoners were sent out on foot, by rail, and horse-drawn wagons, in lorries and by ship. Routes stretched from several dozen to hundreds of miles long. Thousands of people were murdered en route in the last days before the war’s end, although it is impossible to know exact numbers.
“Retreating from the advance of Allied forces, the Nazis evacuated camps in eastern Poland and the Baltic states in the summer of 1944. Beginning in January 1945 the second stage of evacuations was carried out from the large camps in occupied Poland, including Auschwitz- Birkenau. The final stage, beginning in March 1945, saw prisoners evacuated from camps in Germany.
“These chaotic and brutal evacuations became known as ‘death marches’ by those who endured them. They form the last chapter of Nazi genocide.” (p. 5, Death Marches, Evidence and Memory)
One survivor, Hungarian István Klauber, reported on his experience:
“We travelled in open freight cars in a wild blizzard, we were wearing ragged summer clothes, we had no blankets and…we had no food or water…The guards were not satisfied with hundreds of people dying of fatal exhaustion, so they used more radical methods: they attacked with machine guns. Out of 10,000 prisoners leaving with the transport only 2,000 arrived in Dachau on April 30. All of us were close to death.” (p. 12, Death Marches, Evidence and Memory)
“As the Western Allies pushed east, they encountered many massacre sites and rapidly organized reburials, forcing locals to exhume bodies, build coffins, and bury the dead in a dignified fashion. These ‘forced confrontations’, as one historian calls them [Christopher E. Mauriello, Forced Confrontation: The Politics of Dead Bodies in Germany at the End of World War II], took place at numerous locations. They were designed to humiliate and admonish the German people for crimes committed in their name.” (p. 19, Death Marches, Evidence and Memory)
Humiliate and admonish. Unbelievers who are horrified that devout churchgoers manage to ignore—are happy turn a blind eye—to the horrendous suffering in the world, in order to cling to their cherished beliefs about god, should adopt the same practice of humiliating and admonishing. How can the devout be so oblivious, so dense? Hint: not thinking about it is the preferred approach.
In the case of the Holocaust, I do wonder to what extent anti-Semitism plays a role in Christian denial/ignorance of this Nazi crime. In fact, Martin Luther’s virulent hatred of the Jews probably helped fuel Nazi fanaticism. He offered seven suggestions on how to treat Jews, the first two being:
“First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools ... This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians ...”
"Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.”
How in the world can any Christian, anywhere, not disown Martin Luther? Why isn’t there a campaign in the Lutheran Church to change its name?
Jesus-script in John’s gospel has helped fuel anti-Semitism. Addressing the Jews, we find these words: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” (John 8:44) When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the 1940s and 50s, we were taught that it was “the Jews who killed Jesus.” I had no contact with Jews until I went away to college; there was a Jewish fellow in my dormitory, but the last thing that came to my mind was that he was somehow to blame for the death of Jesus.
My departure from the Christian faith, ironically enough, accelerated when I was in seminary. In none of the theology courses were we presented with reliable, verifiable, objective evidence for god(s). All of the many theological books and treatises we read amounted to guesswork, speculation, wishful thinking—all presented as fact. The close study of the gospels didn’t help, since they contain so many flaws and contradictions—and theological disagreements. Any layperson who carefully studies Mark’s gospel, then John’s, can easily understand these problems.
But it is the problem of horrendous suffering that destroys Christianity. The devout should be required to study (1) the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648, which claimed up to eight million lives—Christians slaughtering Christians; (2) the Black Plague in the 14th century, which killed perhaps a third of the human population between India and England—and which the church blamed on sin; (3) the Inquisition; (4) the Crusades; (5) the widespread burning of witches; (6) the ghastly killing machine that World War I turned out to be; (7) and, of course, the Holocaust; (8) they should be required to think hard about the murder of 462 women and children in the church at Oradour-sur-Glane in rural France on 10 June 1944.
The preferred approach of not thinking about it is the best way to keep fooling yourself—don’t look directly and honestly at horrendous suffering—as the clergy hope will continue. A good place to start the adventure of discovery is a visit to the Weiner Holocaust Library website.
During my recent stay in London, I visited The Wiener Holocaust Library, which is an easy walk north of The British Museum. For a long time I have been following it on Twitter and—more recently—on Facebook, and wanted to see it in person. I have always been stunned that there are holocaust-deniers, because the evidence for this crime against humanity is massive. The Nazis themselves kept detailed records, confident that their elimination of Jews was an important contribution to the world, and they could hardy cover up the stark realities of the concentration camps. On this, see especially Martin Gilbert’s book, Atlas of the Holocaust (1993, 254 pages). Moreover, there is an abundance of survivor memoirs.
But come on, please face the realities of history, which are hard to reconcile with Christian claims that their god cares about, and monitors the acts, words, and even the thoughts of every person on the planet. How could god not be aware of what was happening on the Death Marches? In their Introduction, Christine Schmidt and Dan Stone wrote the following:
“Toward the end of the Second World War, the Nazis and their collaborators forcibly evacuated under heavy guard hundreds of thousands of prisoners still held within the camp system. Prisoners were sent out on foot, by rail, and horse-drawn wagons, in lorries and by ship. Routes stretched from several dozen to hundreds of miles long. Thousands of people were murdered en route in the last days before the war’s end, although it is impossible to know exact numbers.
“Retreating from the advance of Allied forces, the Nazis evacuated camps in eastern Poland and the Baltic states in the summer of 1944. Beginning in January 1945 the second stage of evacuations was carried out from the large camps in occupied Poland, including Auschwitz- Birkenau. The final stage, beginning in March 1945, saw prisoners evacuated from camps in Germany.
“These chaotic and brutal evacuations became known as ‘death marches’ by those who endured them. They form the last chapter of Nazi genocide.” (p. 5, Death Marches, Evidence and Memory)
One survivor, Hungarian István Klauber, reported on his experience:
“We travelled in open freight cars in a wild blizzard, we were wearing ragged summer clothes, we had no blankets and…we had no food or water…The guards were not satisfied with hundreds of people dying of fatal exhaustion, so they used more radical methods: they attacked with machine guns. Out of 10,000 prisoners leaving with the transport only 2,000 arrived in Dachau on April 30. All of us were close to death.” (p. 12, Death Marches, Evidence and Memory)
“As the Western Allies pushed east, they encountered many massacre sites and rapidly organized reburials, forcing locals to exhume bodies, build coffins, and bury the dead in a dignified fashion. These ‘forced confrontations’, as one historian calls them [Christopher E. Mauriello, Forced Confrontation: The Politics of Dead Bodies in Germany at the End of World War II], took place at numerous locations. They were designed to humiliate and admonish the German people for crimes committed in their name.” (p. 19, Death Marches, Evidence and Memory)
Humiliate and admonish. Unbelievers who are horrified that devout churchgoers manage to ignore—are happy turn a blind eye—to the horrendous suffering in the world, in order to cling to their cherished beliefs about god, should adopt the same practice of humiliating and admonishing. How can the devout be so oblivious, so dense? Hint: not thinking about it is the preferred approach.
In the case of the Holocaust, I do wonder to what extent anti-Semitism plays a role in Christian denial/ignorance of this Nazi crime. In fact, Martin Luther’s virulent hatred of the Jews probably helped fuel Nazi fanaticism. He offered seven suggestions on how to treat Jews, the first two being:
“First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools ... This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians ...”
"Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.”
How in the world can any Christian, anywhere, not disown Martin Luther? Why isn’t there a campaign in the Lutheran Church to change its name?
Jesus-script in John’s gospel has helped fuel anti-Semitism. Addressing the Jews, we find these words: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” (John 8:44) When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the 1940s and 50s, we were taught that it was “the Jews who killed Jesus.” I had no contact with Jews until I went away to college; there was a Jewish fellow in my dormitory, but the last thing that came to my mind was that he was somehow to blame for the death of Jesus.
My departure from the Christian faith, ironically enough, accelerated when I was in seminary. In none of the theology courses were we presented with reliable, verifiable, objective evidence for god(s). All of the many theological books and treatises we read amounted to guesswork, speculation, wishful thinking—all presented as fact. The close study of the gospels didn’t help, since they contain so many flaws and contradictions—and theological disagreements. Any layperson who carefully studies Mark’s gospel, then John’s, can easily understand these problems.
But it is the problem of horrendous suffering that destroys Christianity. The devout should be required to study (1) the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648, which claimed up to eight million lives—Christians slaughtering Christians; (2) the Black Plague in the 14th century, which killed perhaps a third of the human population between India and England—and which the church blamed on sin; (3) the Inquisition; (4) the Crusades; (5) the widespread burning of witches; (6) the ghastly killing machine that World War I turned out to be; (7) and, of course, the Holocaust; (8) they should be required to think hard about the murder of 462 women and children in the church at Oradour-sur-Glane in rural France on 10 June 1944.
The preferred approach of not thinking about it is the best way to keep fooling yourself—don’t look directly and honestly at horrendous suffering—as the clergy hope will continue. A good place to start the adventure of discovery is a visit to the Weiner Holocaust Library website. David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of two books, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes, the first of which is Guessing About God (2023) and Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also now available.
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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