Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945

14. The NS Church

191 Chapter 14 The NS Church A Party Church? The segment of the Church of Norway that recognized the state after 5 April 1942 has been known by different names: the “Nazi church,” the “Quisling church,” and the “NS church.” For its supporters, it was simply the Church of Norway. It had adhered to Lutheranism’s traditional interpretations of obedience to the state and the doctrine of the two realms and it did not matter that the state was an NS or Nazi state. The state was not accountable to the church, the church had no right to be a “power factor” in the state, and no action of the state was relevant to the church.1 In recognition of its loyalty and submission to the NS state and party, the “NS church” is an appropriate name. Membership Profile Who were the NS Christians, and why did they remain in an NS state church? There is no simple answer. They did not necessarily think of themselves as “Nazis,” for example, and, like other NS members, their motives were probably complex. There are no statistical studies of NS Christians, but postwar studies of the motivations of NS members showed 26 reasons for joining the party.2 The most commonly cited was to “avoid German influence in Norwegian civil administration” (17 percent), and only one person (0.2 percent ) mentioned “attitudes towards Jews.” Motivations were so varied that 192 · Contesting NS Legitimacy only one generalization applies, which is that the NS “became a vehicle for structuring the world into which all kinds of needs and aspirations were projected.”3 Although the NS represented all ages, regions, and strata of Norwegian society, some characteristics stand out: leaders came from highstatus ranks and members from the lower; most recruits were young and urban; white-collar groups were over-represented; the majority (64.4 percent ) were from eastern and eastern inland Norway; recruitment was lowest in the South and West. The demographic profile of NS Christians probably mirrored the party as a whole. This is indicated by the NS church’s lay support organization , Christian Union (Kristen Samling). It formed in 1941 in Skien to overcome the isolation of NS Christians in their communities.4 Christian Union established local chapters in only a few places, but their concentration in eastern Norway corresponds to the general party distribution .5 Like the party, Christian Union had strong urban representation and was weak in the South and West, where the mission societies helped to create a culture that was “immune” to the NS.6 The number of active NS church supporters is a matter of conjecture. Christian Union members met in local, regional, and national conventions , and the annual conventions were well-publicized events of 300 to 500. The organization also published a paper with about 2,000 subscribers . Because NS support was often concentrated in families, the periodical could have been read by twice as many people.7 Allowing for supporters who did not subscribe, a generous estimate would be 4,000 to 5,000.8 Data on the NS clergy are more detailed and reliable. The first tier consisted of 54 who were ordained before Easter 1942 and remained loyal to the NS state church; the second tier consisted of the 32 recruits ordained after Easter 1942.9 Combined, there were 70 pastors who remained loyal to the NS state church. About half were NS members; their average age was 50, seven years older than the average of all clergy; they were generally orthodox Lutherans with culturally conservative and “national church” tendencies; theological liberals were underrepresented, but twothirds were graduates of the Theological Faculty. Finally, their service had been in rural eastern and northern Norway, where socioeconomic divisions and class conflict before the war had been sharper than elsewhere .10 Those who were ordained after 5 April 1942 were from a variety The NS Church · 193 of backgrounds, including the mission societies and free churches. Which of these factors actually caused them to become NS clergy is uncertain, because many more clergy who remained loyal to The Foundation of the Church shared the same characteristics.11 Core Ideas The NS church did not produce a new creed or confession, but its clerical adherents issued three collective statements and intended a fourth.12 These statements are instructive because they represent the only collective declarations by NS clergy and thus provide a clue to the weight that should be given to their motivations. Their primary conviction was that...