Dietrich Bonhoeffer the German Who Spoke Out

We watched a documentary on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian and part of a German resistant movement against the Nazis before and during WW2. He was, in fact, one of the few Germans who saw through Hitlers sweet talk and thought him a nasty piece of work that would lead to nothing but death.

It's really a shame that for so long so little is mentioned about the resistant movements in Germany. The one Mr. Bonhoeffer was involved in made several attempts to assassinate Hitler, and at the very end they almost killed him. (He had the damnedest luck though, being saved by an exceptionally sturdy wood table.) I feel that if people like Bonhoeffer would be mentioned in the histories of WW2, it would give much more depth to the plight of the every day Germans. It would certainly have made them seem significantly less gullible and foolish.

(It's important to note I'm not talking about Germany currently. Germany now and Germany than are two different things, alright? And I've also got German in me from my Grandpa's side so I'm not unaware of Germans outside of Nazis.)

Mike and I also talked about how it's morally permissible for a Christian to participate in assassination attempts on a government official. This is what we concluded:

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke
Allowing a government to murder millions of people and doing nothing about it is the same as murdering those people ourselves. In the case of the Nazis, the silence from the church allowed the Nazi party to brainwash their citizens into thinking it was OK to murder millions of Jews. Their silence was the same as putting an endorsement stamp on the orders to slaughter the Jews.

Yes, Christ endorses non-violence... in a personal way. That is to say, when a thief takes your jacket, give him the clothes on your back. When your stricken on the cheek, offer the other. Love your enemy, all that good stuff. You'll notice this is all one on one. Your enemy, your cheek, your jacket. These things are not referring to justice in general or about other people's suffering, but to personal encounters.

We have some idea what Jesus opinion is about people who see suffering and do nothing. A good example is the Good Samaritan. In this story a man is robbed and left for dead. The righteous and pious walk by doing nothing--and are deemed to be morally wrong. It's only the Samaritan who gets it right when he steps in to personally help this man. And then there's the example of the Adulterous woman too. Supposedly this woman "deserved" to die by stoning, yet even then Jesus stepped in to save her.

And finally, what about his whole death? Why did he do it? He died so that others might have life. He sacrificed himself to give us all the chance to be made right before a righteous and holy God.

We also know, based on the book of James, that those who go around saying things like "God bless you" while leaving a main starving and shirtless have an empty faith. You can't claim to be religious or righteous if you leave others to suffer when you could do something about it.

All these things bring me to the conclusion that being a pacifist is not Christian. Please note, I'm not saying you can't object to war or violence or whatever. I'm not even saying violence shouldn't be the last resort. That's perfectly alright to think that way.

What I am saying is that sometimes you can't solve a problem by peacefully protesting and saying "Peace, peace!". There are times when a person very twisted and evil rises into power who won't listen to your peace talks and will keep on murdering millions regardless of what you say. The only way to stop these type of people is by killing them and/or violently stop them from murdering innocents.

That's just how the world works. It's not a decision to take lightly. But it's also not a decision to think about too long either. Because while you're thinking some one is dying by your inaction.

Now, I know some people are a little bit off and might try to misapply what I'm saying. For instance, you could say that abortion kills millions of innocents every year. This is a horrible injustice and something must be done.

BUT unlike Hitler, our government doesn't force anyone to get an abortion (like China). Yes, they allow it, but it's the individual who chooses to go through with it. (And even if it was still illegal, people would be doing it anyway like they always have.) It's a moral individual issue, not a tyrannical government issue.

Even within the group of people who get abortions, not everyone does it willingly. Some people are deceived, others are forced by family or lovers to go through with it. You can't lump them all together like you can a "Hitler".

In the case of abortion, murdering an abortion doctor is not going to stop anything. Being physically violent towards women getting abortions also won't work. The only thing that will work is education, alternatives, and the transforming power of Christ. Anything less is just putting a band-aid on a broken leg, morally speaking. (The root of the problem must be fixed first before any real meaningful progress can be made.)

And that's pretty much all I've got to say about that.