After calling 86 descendants of Dietrich Bonhoeffer “pro-Hamas, Jew-hating lunatics,” Eric Metaxas issued something of an apology Dec. 4.
Metaxas, who wrote a controversial biography of Bonhoeffer and is a well-known Christian nationalist and 2020 election denier, used part of his own radio show to “apologize” for some words he couldn’t exactly remember.
Before his apology, Metaxas reminded listeners of how awful the people are who he allegedly is apologizing to and how they are harming ticket sales for the current Bonhoeffer film — panned by Christianity Today and BNG alike — which he somehow has a relation to even though the producers have tried to distance themselves from him.
“There was this, very strange, very strange statement put out by people claiming to be Bonhoeffer descendants. Obviously, Bonhoeffer had no kids, so he has no descendants, but these are relatives, of, you know, I guess maybe his siblings or whatever,” he began. “The point is some theologically liberal Bonhoeffer scholars who have hated me since my book came out wrote some kind of a statement. A lot of it is just awful. It’s so preposterous and it bothers me because it hurts a great film. It’s such a great film that everybody should see the film. This is not a film for Christian nationalists or whatever people are saying. It’s just so crazy.”
“I was on Glenn Beck’s podcast and I think everything I say on there is great and I hope you’ll watch it.”
That was “background,” he said, to admit: “I let myself say something. I was on Glenn Beck’s podcast and I think everything I say on there is great and I hope you’ll watch it. But the only thing I said that I thought, no, that was wrong, I shouldn’t have said that. I know that many of the folks, many of these theologians and some of the family members are very much pro-Hamas, you know, kind of folks, that’s where they’re coming from.”
Then Metaxas struggled to remember exactly what he said, even though his words have been published internationally and elicited a threat of legal action from the Bonhoeffer descendants.
“I said something where I said that there, I, I, I said pro-Hamas Jew haters or Jew hate or something like that. Now, you know, that may be true, but I don’t know that that’s true. And I shouldn’t have said that. And for saying that, I, I apologize because I should not have said that. That was just not right.”
Then he attempted to justify himself by pointing out how he agrees sometimes with the “left.”
“What’s ironic is so many, I agree with so much, people on the left wouldn’t realize it, but there’s so much that I agree with them about. And I think of the heroic stance that Bonhoeffer took and his relatives took, his brothers and his brothers-in-law and his sisters that they all took in standing up for the Jews. And so to me, I think it was just in a moment of weakness and in being hurt that I said that. So I just wanted to publicly say, I shouldn’t have said that. I apologize for saying that.”
Religion scholar Warren Throckmorton, who has been chronicling the rift between Metaxas and the Bonhoeffer family, isn’t buying the apology.
“Notice that he begins his apology by calling ‘many of these theologians and some of the family members’ ‘very much pro-Hamas,’” Throckmorton wrote. “Metaxas never documents this, never says how he knows this is so, and repeats his charge just before offering what he says is an apology. I want to point out that he made exactly the same charges just yesterday on the Larry Taunton Show. He once again slandered the relatives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and for good measure included a general attack on scholars who study Bonhoeffer. For some reason, Metaxas has fixated on the claim that those who criticize his approach to Dietrich Bonhoeffer are ‘pro-Hamas progressives.’”
Related articles:
Metaxas calls Bonhoeffer’s relatives ‘Jew-hating lunatics’
Bonhoeffer family and scholars warn against Metaxas and Christian nationalists