Amtssprache
December 4, 2007
Dear Friends,
Adolph Eichmann, the famous Nazi officer in charge of the concentration camps in Eastern Europe, confessed that the he and his henchman in the Holocaust had a word for their responsibility-denying language—amtssprache.(1) Roughly translated, this word means “office talk” or “bureaucratese.” When asked why they did what they did, their typical response might be something like “I had to”, “I was following orders” or “it was the law.”
Amtssprache is not unique to the Nazis. If we do not see this in ourselves, perhaps we need to look more closely. One of the most popular responsibility- denying phrases that find its way into our conversations is “flesh.” You hear this all of the time. We did this or that because we are flesh. This has an element of truth to it. We are all flesh. We all have a propensity to sin. We all have lusts. Yet, isn’t it just as true that the Nazi’s “had to” kill the Jews? They were compelled to follow orders, but they could refuse if they had the character to do so.
Do these words sound like we “had to?”
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Rom. 8:9,10 NIV)
I am positive that the Apostle Paul was aware that we have lusts and are naturally drawn away from the things of God. Yet, perhaps inconveniently, he seems to take away that excuse from us. We have run out of excuses in Christ. We have all the tools at our disposal if we choose to use them.
It seems to me that “the flesh” has gained usage amongst brethren in the same way that the devil has been used in popular Christianity. As the late comedian Flip Wilson, in his Geraldine character, used to say, “the devil made me do it.” The flesh is our amtssprache – an excuse which relieves us of culpability for what we have done.
For the Nazis, their day of reckoning was Nuremburg, the German city and the trials of the same name, where they had to give account for all of their deeds. We will all one day have our own Nuremburg when we stand before the Judge. We will fare much better if we accept responsibility now and stop making excuses. Paul advises us “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1 Cor. 11:31)
Anytime we hear the words coming from our mouths that deny our responsibility for our actions, we need to stop and really think through what we are saying. People may pressure us. We may really, really desire something. We may face severe consequences if we do not act in a certain way. In the end, though, we make the choice.
The night is almost gone, and the day is near Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Rom. 13:12-14 NASB)
Have a great week,
Comments»
Thank you for bringing up the concept of Amtssprache. I find it sooooo valuable in comprehending a large part of global control of people through language structure.
Having studied Marshall’s work one can realize that even the concept of ‘sinning’ supports the language of Amtssprache (should, must, have-to, ought, can’t,… ), reward and punishment (unless one wants a society based on force and fear), and labeling ( facilitating ‘Divide and Conquer’ amongst people) . If it were possible for people to ‘lust’, then it may be looked at not as ‘bad’, but what are the universal human needs unmet behind the action they took that someone labeled as ‘lust’. Then people could decide did that strategy meet their needs, or is there another strategy that may meet their needs and the unmet needs/values of the person that labeled their action as ‘lustful’.
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