“Merry Christmas”, directed by Christian Carion

I saw a film with the Wehrenfennigs this evening that I would like to strongly recommend to you: Merry Christmas, a French film directed by Christian Carion. It tells the true story of a spontaneous ceasefire arranged by the soldiers in the trenches on the first Christmas Eve of World War I (1914).

When we first came to Europe, we wondered why the ground was so hard for the Gospel. It was almost like the “scorched earth” after horrific battles, when for many years little or nothing can grow.

We heard many different speculations: liberal theology, the Nazi dictatorship, intellectualism… but nothing seemed to account for the barrenness and the scepticism one meets when talking about religious topics in general in most of Europe.

Finally, after much thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that two things came together during the years of World War I that ultimately led to the cold indifference to spiritual things that one often encounters in Germany and other European countries today.

First of all, “Christianity” was used by all sides in the “Great War” to justify the most horrific hostilities that had ever been waged. British pastors blessed the troops as they urged them to slaughter their enemies to save civilization. German soldiers wore belt buckles on their uniforms that said “Gott mit uns” (God with us!). Secondly, the church was so weakened by negative theology and so spiritually vapid that even true followers of Christ could not see beyond their own nationalism.

World War I was much more ambiguous in terms of which side was “right” and which one “wrong” than the Second World War. In the end, the peoples of Europe lost faith that Christianity was anything more or less than the political nationalism being preached from almost every pulpit on both sides of the conflict.

Christian Carion does a very good job of showing this tension through the example of a simple Scottish priest who tried to follow the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and his politically-minded superior. I want to encourage you to check out the website and see the film. “Merry Christmas” brings alive an important step on Europe’s road to becoming the “post-Christian” society it is today. American believers would do well to pay heed to this and pray that we can avoid the same fate.