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| Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
(6.2-minute read)
The name Dietrich Bonhoeffer probably won’t mean much to most people. He opposed Hitler and to make a long story short, he was murdered in a concentration camp by the Nazis. The vast majority of clergy in Germany supported Adolph Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn’t. If you get the chance you should look him up. Truly inspirational, incredible man. The Evangelical Party members and Conservative Trump loving pastors in this country are not cut from the same cloth as Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He would be their enemy.
Different strokes.
A few years ago we were talking with a previous pastor at our church about the message that he had provided. It was a good message but I can’t really remember what it was now. It was good not profound. Anyway he mentioned that he couldn’t give that message at another church that he also pastored because it would be considered too political. Too political as in liberal. I expressed surprise because his message didn’t seem to be political or controversial at all to me.
It was a few months after that that we received an email from a different guest pastor apologizing for a sermon that he had given that some people in the congregation had taken offense to and informed him as such. It seems that they felt it was a slam against the President. Again, that means that they considered his message to be too liberal. Also again, the sermon that he had given was innocuous in political terms, strong on Jesus terms.
Jesus was wrong.
I remember a discussion board comment that I read concerning immigration where the Christian said in response to a criticism about the administration’s policies that was stated with scriptural references that “Jesus was wrong.”
“Jesus was wrong.” That’s a stunning statement. And that really is a cornerstone statement for the Evangelical Party’s support for President Trump. Their excuses for their “Chosen One’s” actions is that God uses seemingly bad people to accomplish his goals. They ignore the part that people chosen for spreading the good news changed their evil ways after they found Jesus.
The Evangelical Party is now using their < amassed fortunes > to solidify their power within the government. They are ignoring the one simple fact that dictators like Trump don’t share their power. They eliminate troublesome areas like the Constitution, a free press, critics, intellectuals, protestors, etc.
The real Jesus.
If a pastor in this country isn’t preaching a liberal Jesus they aren’t preaching about the real Jesus. The real Jesus did not support or bend a knee to Rome or Caesar. The real Jesus did bend a knee to the poor and the outcasts of society. The real Jesus ministered to immigrants and those in peril. Jesus was a peaceful protestor. Jesus would be a face in the crowd of protests taking place today around the world.
And you’re right, the real Jesus wouldn’t be name-calling like I am. But he did run some people out of the temple. So there’s that.
Jesus was with the protestors that the First Dictator of the United States cleared out from in front of a church so that he could have a photo op holding a bible in front of a sacred place. Trump’s actions were blasphemous.
The sacred place was the ground where the protestors were standing. Clergy was standing with them. The Caesar that Trump is ran people off from in front of their own church.
The real Jesus wasn’t a constitutional conservative.
Pot meet kettle.
The United States has been and is being called out for our systemic racism on the world stage for all to see. The nations that we have criticized for their treatment of protestors are seeing the videos of how our police state is reacting to our own. Our hypocrisy is being called out in front of the nations of the world. Our thug President is being called out. It’s the same stage where people laughed at him because he really isn’t the stable Genius that he claims he is. They laughed at him because he is a buffoon. He’s also a dangerous buffoon.
What else does the world see?
The world also sees how this nation regards the poor and people of color. To the Ducé, immigrants are rapists, murders and gang members, filthy people that are coming to take advantage of us. The world sees our nation breaking up families and putting brown people in camps and cages.
The people of the world also see our filthy rich Evangelical Party clergy backing the first Dictator of the United States of America that rules by Executive Order. Our first strongman in power that called in troops to keep himself safe in his fortress, deep in his bunker.
The world saw armed militias called out by the President to liberate states! Heavily armed white people showed up in our halls of government unchallenged in order to answer the call from their Ducé.
A Ducé that praises dictators that have slaughtered their own people.
What the world doesn’t see is the clergy mixed in with the protestors. The clergy that does preach from the pulpit the liberal Jesus and what the Christian response should be. The general public doesn’t see that either. Unfortunately the clergy that preaches the real Jesus doesn’t have the billions that the Evangelical Party has to spend on messaging as they seek to create the nation in their own intolerant image.
It’s a cult.
We’re just going to have to accept that white conservatives in general are not going to be of any help in bridging the racial divide or solving the systemic racism that exists. The same applies to conservative evangelicals. They have their “Chosen One” to back and nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is going to dissuade them from that. They have cast their lot. To back away is to be attacked by the Ducé. He demands absolute loyalty and servitude. Anything less is unacceptable. He has to be told on a regular basis that he is the greatest that has ever been.
Acceptance or denial.
In order to fix a problem the first thing that needs to happen is to admit that a problem exists. We can say there is racism and probably have widespread agreement with that statement. How much? How little? That’s where the problem resides for a lot of white people.
Can white people accept the following? There’s racism. There’s white privilege. It’s systemic. White power is what a large portion of this election is about.
I’m going to posit the majority of conservative supporters of President Trump are simply not culturally or intellectually capable of accepting that premise.
In order to accept that, it must also be accepted that white people are the majority of the problem. In other words I accept that whether I like it or not I am part of the problem. Liking it or not liking it is immaterial to the solution. And then I must do what I can to remedy the situation.
“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer