Ann and I finally had a chance yesterday evening to watch the Bonhoeffer program that we recorded on Monday night. It was very impressive.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German evangelical pastor who, along with his brother and brother-in-law, was deeply involved in an entire series of plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the so-called “Third Reich”. They paid with their lives.

What impressed me again about Bonhoeffer, though, was not so much his participation in the assassination plot, but his clear public stand against the Nazi discrimination and persecution of the Jews from the very beginning of Hitler’s dictatorship. That took not only courage but also clear thinking and a firm commitment to standing for what was right regardless of the personal consequences.

It is hard for us today to imagine the atmosphere that ruled in Germany in the 1930’s. Nazi propaganda had succeeded in blaming all of the nation’s troubles on “international Jewry”; responsibility for troubles ranging from the humiliation of the Versailles treaty ending World War I to the economic problems of everyday people was firmly placed on the Jews. The only comparable emotion in America today is the animosity shown toward innocent Muslims and Arabs after 9/11 - only 100 times worse. (Fanatic terrorism is, of course, a different issue.)

Bonhoeffer said, following the pogrom on the “night of crystal glass” in 1938 when hundreds of synagogues were burned or desecrated and thousands of Jewish homes vandalized: “Whoever doesn’t raise his voice for the Jews has no right to sing Gregorian chants.” In other words: No business as usual in the church! Unfortunately, he was a lone voice crying in the wilderness; the huge majority of his fellow pastors remained silent.

Reflecting back while he was incarcerated in prison, Bonhoeffer revealed the key issue in a letter to his friends: “The final question for responsible people is not ‘How can we come out of this looking good?’ but ‘What kind of world do we pass on to the next generation?’”

What did it all accomplish, though? Didn’t it all end in failure? Every assassination plot went awry; Bonhoeffer and his brother were hung naked from the gallows in a concentration camp days before the war ended.

As an American who has lived and worked almost thirty years in Germany, I know what Bonhoeffer accomplished: by understanding the depth of the Gospel, exercising political and social responsibility and following his conscience in the midst of a very confusing and foggy situation, he became a model for German young people after the war of what it means to follow Christ. The church was totally discredited for its participation in the Third Reich. (Pious, Bible-believing folk were some of the most fervent supporters of Hitler; especially in the early years. Why? Because he stood for “traditional German values”!) Without Bonhoeffer and a few others like him it would have been so much more difficult for anyone in post-war Germany to choose for a life with God. His true legacy is that he showed his nation and the world what it means to follow Christ with a political conscience.

One final disturbing thought (and prayer): I have the uncomfortable feeling that the mood in the United States today is not all that far from the sense of discontent, fear and insecurity that gripped the German people in the pre-Hitler years. I don’t think it’s so clear where this nation could end up if there were, for instance, an attack on the homeland with a weapon of mass destruction. How much of our own personal liberty would we be willing to give up for “security”? How would we react to the “outsiders” among us; the Muslims and Arabs, for instance? Would we stand for what is right if our entire society was rushing in the other direction? God give us the wisdom to understand our times, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood his.

P.S.: If you’re interested in learning more about Bonhoeffer, a DVD (or video) of the broadcast can be purchased at Amazon. There is also an excellent radio dramaproduced by “Focus on the Family”. A timeline of Bonhoeffer’s life is available at the PBS website.

P.P.S.: I haven’t forgotten about “House Nazareth”!! I’ll try to write an update for you on the weekend. Please pray for Matthias and Sieglinde. They are under a huge amount of pressure in structuring the rent situation for professional offices on the ground floor and negotiating mortgage terms with the German bank.