Dietrich Boenhoeffer was a German pastor who lived from February
4, 1906 until April 9, 1945. As a young boy, he witnessed World War I from 1914
to 1918. He also saw the beginning of World War II but not its end. He
had been arrested in 1943 because he stood for something and he was executed by
the Nazis on April 9, 1945 - five months before the end of the War. By
standing and fighting against the Hitler’s Nazi regime’s euthanasia program and
genocidal acts against the Jews, Boenhoeffer stood for humanity and for the
best potential values of mankind. He
actively stood for life, love, freedom, peace and justice.. In his book, The
Cost of Discipleship, published in 1937, Dietrich Boenhoeffer foresaw and
lamented the cheapening and selling of grace, which is now what we see in
today’s world. He also stood for the idea that Christians and the church
ought to see themselves as the moral conscience of a society in which injustice
was rampant. Certainly, the Church has lost its way. But that is not what this piece is
about. It is about the value of
standing.
I have been thinking of Dietrich Boenhoeffer lately. If I was asked to weigh in with an opinion about this life and the value of his body of work before now, I would most likely have described him simply a visionary who may have lived before his time. But for that to be the conclusive commentary on his life would not be doing justice to the memory of such a remarkable man. Boenhoeffer stood for something and was murdered for what he stood for, which was the right of all humans to live without being persecuted and/or killed because of their race, ethnicity or religion.
How far have we really come from the time of Boenhoeffer? We live in the same world into which he was born and raised; the same world where he was murdered for standing up against the persecution and killings of fellow humans. Against all odds, he spoke truth to power because he could not bear to be a cheerleader for injustice. So, how far have we really come from the time of Boenhoeffer? I don’t know because, as I think of the times that we are in, it seems to me that ours is a topsy-turvy world in which the idea of progress is really a mirage. It appears to me that the more it appears that we have made progress in our ability to achieve and show practical demonstrations of love and compassion in our world, the more it seems that things are actually regressing, or remaining the same at best.
We have mastered the art of beating down people that we dislike, some for no reason that makes sense. Yet, no human should have the authority to be judge, jury and executioner over a fellow man. Religious texts are used to support oppression, stealing from the poor, and casting others as inferior and beneath human. We condemn others, not because there is a divine instruction to condemn them but because they do not fit into our prescribed rules of conduct. So we fish out the Holy Book of whatever religion we practice and twist the words to support our hunger for judgement. When any of us uses the Holy Book of our religion, any religion, as a cudgel to whip others that we disagree with because we have determined that they are sinners, we become present-day persecutors and deny both the humanity of our brothers and sisters and the existence and power of grace. When we do that, we actually suggest by our deeds that others are unworthy of love, liberty or even life because we are perfect and they are not.
If I sound pessimistic or concerned, it is only because I choose reality over baseless optimism While I perceive of the former as honest, the latter, to my mind, represents nothing more than the acceptance of crumbs thrown down by oppressors who know and expect that the rest of society would be happy to pick up and perceive those crumbs as brownies. Now, we have mostly become carnival barkers for people who use their power and authority as guillotines for dehumanizing and destroying others. Therefore, we allow a few powerful people to pick winners and losers among us and, in that role, determine who should live and who should die; who should have the opportunities for gainful participation in a prosperous social and political economy and who shouldn’t; who should have a right to good medical care, affordable housing and food security, and who shouldn’t; which immigrants from what parts of the world should have a right to keep their children and which immigrants should have their children forcibly taken from them and put in cages where powerful people would not even put their dogs. The same powers determine what countries should sit at the table when major decisions are made even on matters that affect the entire world, and what countries should be excluded from the opportunity to determine their future.
But it is not at the macro level where we ought to always focus and either complain or act. It is also, and in fact mostly, at the micro level of society where individuals oppress their neighbors or even people that they do not know. The world needs communities of active change agents who understand that we each have a responsibility to be loving and compassionate to one another. Silence in the face of cruelty is not the best antidote for a world that is increasingly riddled with acts of wickedness that are occurring in the homes that we know, in our neighborhoods, our communities and our nations. We cannot change our world unless we are ready, willing and able to change ourselves.
The problem isn’t always that we vocalize support for cruel acts perpetrated by our neighbors but that we stay silent when we should speak up; defend oppressors when we should be advocating for the oppressed and, in some cases, rationalize wicked acts by the powerful either because we are afraid to defend what is right or because we truly believe that those wicked acts are necessary to maintain the illusions that we hold about our own relevance. Sometimes, we remain silent because we believe that our own status and security are best guaranteed when we do not protest the injustice that happens to others. Of course, times also abound when we stay quiet because we consider the oppressed as the “other”. Well, I happen to believe that Thomas Paine was right when he said that “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself”. History is replete with accounts of oppressors against whom the tides turned even in their own lifetimes. That isn’t ancient history; I know because I have seen that repeated several times even in my own lifetime.
Certainly, our world would greatly benefit from individuals and communities that carry with them lights of compassion and courage. While we can sit with bowels full of thoughts and compassion, it takes more than thoughts and compassion to stand from our seats of comfort to accomplish the kinds of changes that positively impacted our world in the past - and still do in small doses. It also takes standing up; standing for something. Society stands still at best, or regresses at the worst when all we do is sit. Nobody’s freedom or national independence has ever been attained because people sat. We must all decide to do more than sit because the conveyance of hope demands that we take a stand, and then stand up. Robert Kennedy was right when he said that “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”. We fall, and our world falls, when all we do is sit.
I have been thinking of Dietrich Boenhoeffer lately. If I was asked to weigh in with an opinion about this life and the value of his body of work before now, I would most likely have described him simply a visionary who may have lived before his time. But for that to be the conclusive commentary on his life would not be doing justice to the memory of such a remarkable man. Boenhoeffer stood for something and was murdered for what he stood for, which was the right of all humans to live without being persecuted and/or killed because of their race, ethnicity or religion.
How far have we really come from the time of Boenhoeffer? We live in the same world into which he was born and raised; the same world where he was murdered for standing up against the persecution and killings of fellow humans. Against all odds, he spoke truth to power because he could not bear to be a cheerleader for injustice. So, how far have we really come from the time of Boenhoeffer? I don’t know because, as I think of the times that we are in, it seems to me that ours is a topsy-turvy world in which the idea of progress is really a mirage. It appears to me that the more it appears that we have made progress in our ability to achieve and show practical demonstrations of love and compassion in our world, the more it seems that things are actually regressing, or remaining the same at best.
We have mastered the art of beating down people that we dislike, some for no reason that makes sense. Yet, no human should have the authority to be judge, jury and executioner over a fellow man. Religious texts are used to support oppression, stealing from the poor, and casting others as inferior and beneath human. We condemn others, not because there is a divine instruction to condemn them but because they do not fit into our prescribed rules of conduct. So we fish out the Holy Book of whatever religion we practice and twist the words to support our hunger for judgement. When any of us uses the Holy Book of our religion, any religion, as a cudgel to whip others that we disagree with because we have determined that they are sinners, we become present-day persecutors and deny both the humanity of our brothers and sisters and the existence and power of grace. When we do that, we actually suggest by our deeds that others are unworthy of love, liberty or even life because we are perfect and they are not.
If I sound pessimistic or concerned, it is only because I choose reality over baseless optimism While I perceive of the former as honest, the latter, to my mind, represents nothing more than the acceptance of crumbs thrown down by oppressors who know and expect that the rest of society would be happy to pick up and perceive those crumbs as brownies. Now, we have mostly become carnival barkers for people who use their power and authority as guillotines for dehumanizing and destroying others. Therefore, we allow a few powerful people to pick winners and losers among us and, in that role, determine who should live and who should die; who should have the opportunities for gainful participation in a prosperous social and political economy and who shouldn’t; who should have a right to good medical care, affordable housing and food security, and who shouldn’t; which immigrants from what parts of the world should have a right to keep their children and which immigrants should have their children forcibly taken from them and put in cages where powerful people would not even put their dogs. The same powers determine what countries should sit at the table when major decisions are made even on matters that affect the entire world, and what countries should be excluded from the opportunity to determine their future.
But it is not at the macro level where we ought to always focus and either complain or act. It is also, and in fact mostly, at the micro level of society where individuals oppress their neighbors or even people that they do not know. The world needs communities of active change agents who understand that we each have a responsibility to be loving and compassionate to one another. Silence in the face of cruelty is not the best antidote for a world that is increasingly riddled with acts of wickedness that are occurring in the homes that we know, in our neighborhoods, our communities and our nations. We cannot change our world unless we are ready, willing and able to change ourselves.
The problem isn’t always that we vocalize support for cruel acts perpetrated by our neighbors but that we stay silent when we should speak up; defend oppressors when we should be advocating for the oppressed and, in some cases, rationalize wicked acts by the powerful either because we are afraid to defend what is right or because we truly believe that those wicked acts are necessary to maintain the illusions that we hold about our own relevance. Sometimes, we remain silent because we believe that our own status and security are best guaranteed when we do not protest the injustice that happens to others. Of course, times also abound when we stay quiet because we consider the oppressed as the “other”. Well, I happen to believe that Thomas Paine was right when he said that “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself”. History is replete with accounts of oppressors against whom the tides turned even in their own lifetimes. That isn’t ancient history; I know because I have seen that repeated several times even in my own lifetime.
Certainly, our world would greatly benefit from individuals and communities that carry with them lights of compassion and courage. While we can sit with bowels full of thoughts and compassion, it takes more than thoughts and compassion to stand from our seats of comfort to accomplish the kinds of changes that positively impacted our world in the past - and still do in small doses. It also takes standing up; standing for something. Society stands still at best, or regresses at the worst when all we do is sit. Nobody’s freedom or national independence has ever been attained because people sat. We must all decide to do more than sit because the conveyance of hope demands that we take a stand, and then stand up. Robert Kennedy was right when he said that “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”. We fall, and our world falls, when all we do is sit.
