Would a New (and Revised) Bonhoeffer Please Stand Up?

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(Originally posted 3/1/2016)
This was Germany: discouraged, economically struggling, beaten down and rudderless. It is into this leadership vacuum that a polarizing man named Adolf was ushered.
How different is our country now from the Germany into which Hitler swept with Nazism? Our economy, our civil culture wars, our safety, our waning confidence in leaders (at all levels: political, spiritual and otherwise) – we’re in a hard place. More to the point though, what is the state of the human heart when we are faced with challenging circumstances and seemingly insurmountable difficulties? Unless trained by wise counsel or hard experience, we tend to flee to short-term solutions; often choosing to drown our sorrows in the bottle of simplicity and rhetoric rather than take the slow road to health through humbling self-reflection, sober diligence, and hard work.
We, like the Germans of the early 20th century, are in a precarious place. Yet, we cannot choose to follow their lead in how we move forward. We must not. Not on a political level, not on a spiritual level, not on a social level.
Germany devolved into hatred and greater confusion. For generations, Germany yielded her identity to a system that fanned the flames of fear and insecurity – choosing a scapegoat to demonize rather than insisting on honor, integrity, love and kindness.
As a Christian, I am committed to reflecting Jesus Christ in my life. There is no place in such a life for hatred of anyone (not Muslims, corrupt police, not the rich, the poor, the in-between; no one) even those who make themselves my enemies. I can’t take a serious look at the sins of others without quickly sensing the Spirit’s reminder of my own sins and failings and how God loves me passed them. I can’t select a scapegoat without remembering the true Scapegoat that God sent to take our sins for us and how He said “love your neighbor as yourself.” Still, I must look at life and the world and be willing to identify sin, call it sin, and work to change patterns of wickedness in my own life, home and in the larger home I call my country and world. God’s grace frees me to see my sin without despair and empowers me to make changes diligently. God’s grace also teaches me to reject ungodliness in how I view others and their sin; never embracing sin, but always seeking love and redemption for the person who commits it.
That said, please, if you are awake, prepare for the challenge we’re in and the one we’re going to face. Love your children purposefully (when it’s hard and when you’re busy). Please, if you call Jesus “Lord,” resist the temptation to use your understanding of right and wrong to transform you into a judge of others, rather than a righteous agent of reconciliation between God and man.
Also, please educate yourself about God, world events, leaders and issues. We cannot sit idly by and let others decide who we are or what we stand for. Germany wasn’t taken over by Adolf Hitler and Nazism, it was changed by detached, removed people accepting simple solutions to complex problems. A country gave up their dignity and birthright as free, independent thinkers and handed their nation over to evil – one decision at a time. This can happen again.
If you are of age, please exercise your right to vote. Politics aren’t everything, but our leaders represent us and decide certain things for us and our future. If you are too young to vote, please listen up when people talk about world events; you’re not too young to make a difference. Ask questions, challenge assumptions. If you are a leader of others, please, lead well on the issues that matter and reject true evil in favor of love and truth.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrestled to exalt Christ in a tumultuous time and culture where people needed to choose Christ over hatred, Christ over state, Christ over ease, Christ over simplicity. We face the same challenges today. We need a Bonhoeffer today; many of them. We need them before the most difficult gears are set into motion. We don’t need anti-government plots against lives, but we need strong, thinking people who will work together with others; even others we disagree with. We need loving, truth-filled individuals to stand firm and reject needlessly inflammatory answers in favor of deliberate life-giving solutions that may take longer, but will lead to stability. I believe that we can have a diverse society that doesn’t have to be hate-filled or in constant war (with bullets or words). Who will stand today? I hope you will. I’m trying to do my part where I am.
====== I confess that much of my understanding of pre-nazi Germany comes from Eric Metaxas’ book: Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. (I highly recommend this book and have two copies for locals to borrow – print and audio). Others have critiqued Metaxas’ book as having taken too many convenient liberties with Bonhoeffer’s life as supporting Metaxas’ evangelical faith. Having similar views as Metaxas, I, too, may be missing some things. Decide for yourself after reading and doing your own research. Regardless of whether or not Bonhoeffer would have felt comfortable in a 2016 evangelical church, the point remains, we must take decisive action as individuals to resist the tide of our culture towards systematized hatred and wicked solutions.