German Lutheran pasto pacifist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was 34 when the Nazis hanged him. He was involved in a plot to kill Hitler. He said that when a maniac is driving down the street running over people the Christian’s duty is do more than pray for the victims. Someone has to stop the car… no matter
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Word!
Modern Republican response? “Thoughts and Prayers”
He was hanged at the age of 39, not 34.
Legend 🔥
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Gotta put feet to your faith!
“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.”
“Ideologies, however, are not angry men; they are systems of ideas. Ideologies vent their fury on man, then leave him as a bad dream leaves a waking dreamer. The memory of them is bitter. Ideas are not the subject of history. Ideas only appear in conjunction with the people who uphold them.”
This quote is from Bonhoeffer’s book “Letters and Papers from Prison,” which he wrote during his time in prison in Nazi Germany.
The all time GOAT of “walking the walk”.
Bonhoeffer was an outstanding human being. He got killed 20 minutes from my home at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. A true German hero.
I read a biography on him a few years back, it was honestly terrifying to see how the methods of the nazis in the early to mid 30s are being recycled in xenophobic populist movements today.
Also interesting to note, the author of that biography (well known evangelical author and mouthpiece Eric Metaxas) has gone full Maga Trumpet, ignoring his own writings on the dangers of religious populism.
I got a few Lutheran pastors I need to send this to.
r/titlegore
Still, a hero.
It isn’t just a Christian’s duty… But a human one.
Everyone of us must do their best to stop said car, as well as stop evil and pettiness…
He was 39.
Wish he could run for congress here in the US
Fkn legend!
German military intelligence chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was hanged, also naked and with piano wire, alongside Bonhoeffer.
The Abwehr, which Canaris headed, protectively employed Bonhoeffer, shielding him from the military draft and from earlier exposure of his anti-Hitler subversion.
Canaris’s last words, which he tapped to a fellow prisoner in code, were: “I die for my fatherland. I have a clear conscience. I only did my duty to my country when I tried to oppose the criminal folly of Hitler.”
He’s one of my heros. He had an opportunity to stay on in the US but went home to help the Germans deal with Hitler.
You may want to look up the Barmen Declaration. Not all Christians turned the other way.
Interesting factoid here. The actor who played Wilhelm Burgdorf in Der Untergang (Downfall) is the great nephew of Bonhoeffer, and his grandfather was a member of the German resistance who was executed. Actors name is Justus von Dohnanyi.
Bonhoeffer was a truly inspirational and fascinating person. I was gifted an updated collection of his letters from prison back in high school, and it has continued to be a source for reflection on what it means to truly stand in the gap when there is overwhelming opposition, not only to one’s beliefs but also to any form of oppression that can cause irreparable harm.
He tired ✊️
Swap Hitler with Trump and Nazi with MAGA. There you have it. History repeating itself because we didn’t listen the first time. Fuck every trump supporter. They are enemies of democracy and decency.
We should apply the same logic to firearm deaths in our country.
Netanyahu’s behind the wheel now
I was in Berlin a few weeks ago and spotted his home in Prezlaurberg, up near Oye Records, there was a plaque on the wall.