Well … this is a surprise: A Southern Baptist acknowledges that Christian churches were complicit in Hitler’s rise in Germany in the 1930s and obliquely suggests they might be abetting evil today.
Let Kristallnacht and Bonhoeffer’s call and what happened to the Jews in the 1930s be a warning to us. The Church slept and approved of the evil rising in their nation because they weren’t targeted and they perceived what was happening as benefiting them and enhancing their “way of life.” The Jews were seen as a threat and they went along with the State eliminating them from them. But, after the horrors of the War and the destruction of their country when all was lost, they saw their own role and responsibility in what happened. And, they repented in shame and sorrow.
I love learning from history because it helps me better understand the day I live in. Seeing how Christians in the past reacted to their situation gives me sharper eyes for my own. And, it causes me to ask, “What if the church had been different? What opportunities did we miss? What evil could we have rejected and opposed? How were we subverted?” The 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” and the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I that created the situation that gave rise to Naziism, speak lessons that we can still learn from today.
I doubt the warning will be heeded. After all, The Donald hates the same people his cult does — and who cares about Kristalwhatsit anyhow? That was a long time ago, and far, far away, et cetera, et cetera.
Once again: The stupid are like the poor, and will always be with us — and will always be exploited by demagogues. We need to get past some idea of reasoning with them, appealing to their better natures, drawing them into the communion of decent-minded people of goodwill, and figure-out how to beat them and push them aside.