Spiritual Resistance

Spiritual resistance, one of the hallmark tenets preached by Le Chambon’s pastors, was a guiding force for the town’s citizens, who collectively sheltered thousands of refugees from Spanish, French, and Nazi oppression. Pastor André Trocmé drew inspiration from the Calvinist tradition of humanism, as well as other sects, including the American Quakers, whom he greatly admired for their active, tireless pursuit of alleviating human suffering—including in the internment camps of southern France. Pastors Trocmé and Theis addressed their parishioners in Le Chambon with the following words:

We face powerful heathen pressures on ourselves and our families, pressures to force us to cave in to this totalitarian ideology. If this ideology cannot immediately subjugate our souls, it will try, at the very least, to make us cave in with our bodies. The duty of Christians is to resist the violence directed at our consciences with the weapons of the spirit… We will resist when our enemies demand that we act in ways that go against the teachings of the Gospel. We will resist without fear, without pride, and without hatred.

Trocmé’s sermon was the beginning of a larger movement that was joined by pastors in a dozen neighboring villages.