Quote of the Day 2-20-11

3 Responses to “Quote of the Day 2-20-11”

1. yor bro ken says:

   February 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy  by Eric Metaxas
   with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.
   http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255411/bonhoeffer-brave-interview?page=2
   LOPEZ: How does a Lutheran pastor [Dietrich Bohhoeffer] wind up as a spy?
   METAXAS: As I say, Bonhoeffer was no pacifist. He had been part of the conspiracy against Hitler and the Nazis from the beginning, but not in any official capacity. He mostly provided moral support to the resistance. But when the war started, everything changed. Bonhoeffer knew that he couldn’t pick up a gun to fight in Hitler’s unjust war of aggression. At first he escaped to the U.S., but no sooner did he arrive here than he knew God was calling him back to stand with his people in Germany. That’s when he got involved in the conspiracy in an official capacity, as a spy.
   His brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, was a leader in German Military Intelligence, which was actually a center of the conspiracy against Hitler. So Dohnayni hired Bonhoeffer. Of course both of them and many others in the Abwehr were actually working against Hitler and the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was specifically charged with getting word to the Allies — mostly to Churchill’s government — that there were Germans inside Germany trying to bring down Hitler.
   Bonhoeffer had no theological problem with deceiving the Nazis. On the contrary, he felt God called him to do it. He knew that when God commands us not to lie, it doesn’t mean that if the Gestapo asks us if we are hiding Jews and we really are hiding Jews, we are obligated to say so. I write about this in my book. Bonhoeffer has a much more nuanced and deeper understanding of these things and he challenges Christians to go beyond mere religious pieties and to really serve God with our whole hearts. In his case, that meant deceiving the Nazis.
   LOPEZ: How does a Lutheran pastor wind up in a plot to kill Hitler?
   METAXAS: Well, this is an extension of that same idea. God does not say we shouldn’t kill, but that we shouldn’t murder. So we are forced to think about what murder really is. If I am trying to prevent the death and torture of millions of innocent Jews, am I allowed by God to take the life of the tyrant who is overseeing those horrors? Bonhoeffer didn’t have a flippant attitude about any of this, and he even thought that he might be wrong, but he cast himself on God’s mercy. He didn’t know for sure that he was right, but he didn’t lazily and comfortably ignore his responsibility to do what he thought was right just because he had doubts. He knew what was at stake and he knew he had to act.

   =======================================

   How does history view Dietrich Bonhoeffer, some 65 years after his death?

   “Whoever pursues righteousness and mercy will find life, righteousness, and honor.”
   

   1 Sam 2:30…But now the Lord says, Be it far from Me. For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.  AMP
    

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2. yor bro ken says:

   February 20, 2011 at 12:20 pm

   Filmed in German with Engliish subtitles. Excellent movie. Well worth the watch.

   Sophie Sholl:The Final Days

   http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=sophiescholl

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3. Jill Stanek says:

   February 20, 2011 at 4:37 pm

   Thanks, bro. That information comes in handy today with the debate about Lila.

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