In March 1933, Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned an essay he entitled: \u201cThe Church and the Jewish Question.\u201d\u00a0 This was sparked by what was called the \u201cAryan Paragraph\u201d \u2013 an order that only those of Aryan descent would be allowed to participate in civil service.<\/p>\n
Metaxas writes that Christians in Germany a unified Christianity that was \u201cstrong and masculine, that would stand up to and defeat the godless and degenerate forces of Bolshevism.\u201d<\/a>[1] These Christians called themselves the Deutsche Christen<\/em> \u2013 German Christians \u2013 and became aggressive in attacking those who didn\u2019t agree with them.<\/a>[2]\u00a0 However, it was the readied acceptance of the Aryan Paragraph by mainstream Protestant Christian leaders that was most troubling.<\/p>\n As Bonhoeffer dialogued and reflected on the storm that was brewing, he reasoned that that the church had a vital role to play in its relationship with the State: The church must \u201ccontinually ask the state whether its action can be justified as legitimate action of the state, i.e., as action which leads to law and order, and not to lawlessness and disorder.\u201d<\/a>[3]\u00a0 Put simply, the church\u2019s role is to help the state be the state.<\/em><\/p>\n Bonhoeffer provided three ways the church was to do this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The question of the church\u2019s relation to the state has been one that I\u2019ve wrestled with time and time again.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gone back and forth on the level of involvement \u2013 falling for the ideal of Christian nationalism when I was in high school and my early university days all the way to complete Anabaptist theology via Hauerwas and others. On reflection of this journey, I can see the development of that inner question of, \u201cWhat is the church?\u201d evolving into the \u201cWhat is the role <\/em>of the church in society?\u201d<\/p>\n What stood out to me in Bonhoeffer\u2019s words is in particular the second point and third points.\u00a0 There is an ethic of love and compassion in the way the church is supposed to interact with the world \u2013 to be unconditionally obligated to aiding those who are suffering under state rule and, when it has gone too far, to be an active force in stopping it. However, the descent into \u201ctoo far\u201d is often a slow one, with little bits and pieces being taken away slowly but surely.\u00a0 When it is under the radar, it can be hard to notice\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026when it isn\u2019t our people who are being directly affected by these actions. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Following up from my post last week, sometimes we don\u2019t recognize when a spoke needs to be driven into the wheels or that compassion needs to be shown unless we take that time to step out, to zoom out, and to reflect on the current situation.<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t take that time, are we part of the problem?\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Are our eyes so blinded by our own little world that we not only don\u2019t see, but even refuse to see?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>[1] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer<\/em> (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2010), 151.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>[2] Ibid.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n [3]Ibid., 153.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n [4] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n
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