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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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(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