This is the second in a series of articles about the state of the Christian Church in Germany. Evangel Society guest Phillip Koerner spent a year in Germany studying in the town of Saarbruecken. He was active in the local Christian community and made many critical observations about culture and the church. This journal represents his personal observations. (part one)

One of the more absurdly interesting moments of my experiences in Germany occurred on a warm spring day while walking home from a nearby church. As my fiancée Paola, her best friend, and I walked along the river, I spotted a bee crawling along the pavement directly across my path. Reacting entirely from instinct and without giving it a second thought, I squished the insect under my heel. Almost immediately, Paola's friend let out a cry of anguish,as though I had just driven over her pet puppy. She scolded me and demanded to know why I had crushed the pest. Completely stunned by surprise, I responded that, after all, "It's just a bee." I then received a lengthy lecture on the dearth of bees in Germany and the impending environmental consequences. At Paola's signal, I quickly apologized and dropped the subject. Nevertheless, I could not help but chuckle under my breath the rest of the way home. How on God's green earth do the Germans go about counting the unimaginably high number of bees each spring? Only in Germany would there be life-and-death concern about the dwindling bee population. I half expected to be informed about the devastating effects mankind had wrought upon ants and mosquitoes as well.

The German people's extremely liberal social, political, and environmental agenda, makes it hard believe that this is the same Volk that once burned the French countryside to ash. What was once a hardened "master race," prepared to dominate the western world, has become a nation of people unwilling to take a strong stance on anything. They fear the specter of the Nazi regime, not to mention the ninety-five percent approval rating Hitler always enjoyed. The sins of the father are passed on to the son, and that applies to nations too. Germany still lives in the shadow of its dark past. Unfortunately, this even applies to the German church.

The spiritual weakness of Germany can be traced to its Nazi history. Hitler physically removed any and all detractors including churchmen. Men of strong moral fiber either fled the country or were silently eliminated. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in one example of Godly man. His commitment to Christ led him to leave the safety of America in order to return to Germany where he felt God was calling him to act against Hitler. There he worked for Allied Military Intelligence and even helped orchestrate a plot to assassinate the Fuehrer in 1944. Sadly, he was eventually captured and executed by the Gestapo, insisting until his last breath, that he would have no part in rebuilding the Christian community in postwar Germany unless he also endured its trials. Few Christians survived the holocaust, and those who had fled were slow to return, if at all.

Having stood for so long on the side of fascism, the pendulum of political thought swung to the complete polar opposite after the war. The generation that rebuilt Germany vowed never to allow such ideals to dominate their nation again, and in doing so, they emasculated Germany. They eliminated anything that would have been favored by the fascists.. Masculinity and the martial virtues were seen as dangerous, and to this day, both remain largely foreign concepts to German society.

Chaos has ensued. A quick glance at German society reveals the extremes to which the social order has shifted. Graffiti (apparently seen as a form of "free expression") is everywhere, on virtually every church, every building, and every home. Children are rarely, if ever, disciplined. Even in church, I watched every Sunday as children were allowed to run through the aisles during the pastor's sermon, never once asked to pay attention or sit silently during prayer.

Christopher Street Day and the Love Parade, two of Europe's largest celebrations, have both become almost exclusively homosexual in nature and shockingly explicit. The sights and sounds of such "festivals" would violate every public decency law in America and completely dwarf anything the Burning Man festival has to offer. The German military subsists almost entirely on post high school youths who are forced to serve for two years as part of their civic duty (assuming they cannot find another form of civil service). No one pursues careers in the military, and any Christian man who enters the army is looked upon as a non-believer by his own congregation. One friend of mine admitted to me that he very much wanted to be a soldier but could not pursue that path, because of how his church and family would perceive such a decision. From what I was able to ascertain, the only quasi-acceptable reason for choosing the military route is doing so in order to witness to the non-Christians who chose "violence" instead of peace.

The more time I spent around German men the more I became aware of the emasculated Christianity to which they aspire. Young men are not taught their roles as Christian leaders. Manly leadership is absent from all aspects of their lives (again because it is identified with the tainted past). Men frequently live at home or financially subsist off of their parents into their late twenties without any expectation for independenceEven something as trivial as exercise and weight training are depreciated by German young men. (I was immediately identified as a "body builder" - which I most definitely am not - simply because I regularly visited the gym). Without revealing too much, my own fiancée, who was raised in Germany, confessed that she was immediately attracted by my masculine characteristics which seemed positively blinding in comparison to the vast majority of German men she had known.

While the lessons of the Holocaust are many, the most important one, seemingly lost upon the congregations of Germany, is the reality of spiritual warfare. When Christians withdraw from the society, retreating into disconnected communities, they grant Satan the power to destroy. The Lord showed Israel countless times that he blesses Godly leadership, and that even the most unsuspecting actions of Christians fearlessly spreading the Gospel burn like wildfire, impacting non-believers in ways we cannot even fathom. He was willing to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of only a handful of believers. He exalted Joseph to the highest office in Egypt under Pharaoh in order to preserve His people. He called out Nehemiah, a man close to the king of Persia, to lead the expedition to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The Old Testament is teeming with the fruitful works of Godly men who followed the will of The Lord and influenced the world around them. Why then do the German Christians of today shun political activity? The lesson of the holocaust should spurn Christians to enter politics so as to fight against the secularization of society. Being fortunate enough to live in democracy, believers should, under no circumstance, allow the leadership of government to rest entirely within the hands of the spiritually dead. As Paul states in Romans, those who are not covered by the blood of Christ are in bondage to sin, unable to produce any fruit. How then can they possibly create anything but sin?

But leadership will be absent unless Christian boys become Godly men, manly and righteous. If they are not allowed to grow in the masculine aspects of Christianity, their spiritual growth will be stymied. Young boys, more than anything else, need parental approval and loving discipline. They must be taught to obey their parents and to be respectful of others, even in something as simple as sitting quietly during the church service. They must learn to walk with God, resisting temptation, and remaining unafraid of Christian confrontation. How can a young man possibly be a good witness, if he fears the worldly consequences of revealing his faith in Christ? How can he be expected to withstand the humiliation and persecution of his professors (common in German universities where the theology departments are staffed entirely by atheists), if he is not taught to be strong, enduring physically, mentally, and spiritually? Christianity is a faith of meekness and humility, but not of weakness. Christ came to this earth first as a suffering servant, but he shall return as a conquering warrior. This is spiritual warfare, and if we deny ourselves the martial virtues, we deny ourselves the ability to fight. Just as Bonhoeffer realized, there comes a time when even the Christian must take up the sword to protect the innocent. Having accepted the possible consequences of his actions, he entered into a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler himself. This is the legacy of the Christians in Germany, a legacy that they, unfortunately, seem to have forgotten.

As Christians, we are called to be bold in our witness, to defend others, to stand up for the truth of the Gospel of Christ. In doing so, we are called to display our love, mercy, and gentleness, but not to such an extent that it completely removes leadership, discipline, and courage. The Bible is replete with images and biographies of Christian soldiers. It is teeming with examples in which the Christian life is compared to a soldier's battle. In Paul's analogies comparing the Christian life to a race or warfare, he repeatedly appeals to our need of strength, devotion, and endurance in this life. What better way can Christians witness than to fill in the gaps and holes of the secular society around them. As American society faces attack from the world around it as well as from the enemies within, I pray that we Christian men remain strong spiritual leaders in our families and in our churches; leading, as Christ did, with a fearless and resolute gentleness. I pray that we may always display the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ even while arising to defeat the minions of Satan that seek to destroy us. I pray also that the full nature of God will be revealed to the Christian men in Germany, and that they will rediscover Bonhoeffer's wonderful dream of rebuilding the Christian community in Germany.