After Doubling Down, Eric Metaxas Apologizes for Attacks on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Relatives

What a difference a day makes

Today, Eric Metaxas offered a guarded apology for his slanderous remarks about the relatives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. During an interview with Glenn Beck on November 23, Metaxas said 86 of Bonhoeffer’s relatives who criticized Metaxas were “pro-Hamas, Jew-hating lunatics.” In response, family representatives said they were considering legal action.

Metaxas had trouble recalling what exactly he said. Also, he still had some negative things to say as he was apologizing for saying them. For instance, he began with a negative description of the statement put out by Bonhoeffer’s relatives and Bonhoeffer scholars.

Metaxas: 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. The point is some theologically liberal Bonhoeffer scholars who have hated me since my book came out, wrote some kind of a statement. it's, it's 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.

But I say all that by background that in being upset, 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.

Notice that he begins his apology by calling “many of these theologians and some of the family members” “very much pro-Hamas.” 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.”

(A fair use clip of an interview of Eric Metaxas by Larry Taunton on 12/3/2024. The full interview is available here.)

For the sake of background, I will remind you that there are, in fact, three letters. One was signed by Bonhoeffer scholars and is in the form of a petition. That can be read and signed at Change.org. The other was written and signed by Bonhoeffer’s relatives and takes Metaxas to task for his portrayal of Bonhoeffer.

Another, which Metaxas does not mention, was written and endorsed by the actors in the Bonhoeffer movie. Here is a little of it:

We read the open letter and statement by the Bonhoeffer experts and descendants of the Bonhoeffer family and wholeheartedly share their concerns and condemn any dangerous appropriations.

While Metaxas condemns the family and scholars, the people close to the movie stand in alignment with them.

The Apology

After again saying some of the scholars and family members are pro-Hamas progressives, Metaxas gets to the apology:

And 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.

And 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.

You can watch the entire statement on Rumble. I would embed it if Substack allowed that but the code from Rumble doesn’t work here.

Stay tuned…

I have more on the Bonhoeffer movie and Metaxas coming. There is a strange relationship with Angel Studios that I would like to understand (why does Metaxas have a referral code for ticket sales? angel.com/eric?). Why are they counting the number of people who click through his code and buy tickets?

Not a Christian nationalist movie

Also, just an observation: I saw the movie yesterday and, in my view, it is not a Christian nationalist movie. If anything, I feel like most viewers would see a parallel between the rise of the Nazis and the rise of MAGA extremism. Don’t take Metaxas’ support as an indication that the film supports his view of current politics.

None of this is a comment on the accuracy of the movie. With one exception, I will leave those judgments to my history colleagues who are Bonhoeffer scholars. The exception is of course the incorrect attribution of the “silence in the face of evil” quote to Bonhoeffer. He didn’t write it or say it as far as any primary source can verify. See these links (here and here) for more on that.