« I think the Pope speaks very eloquently on this issue... | Main | Ongoing debate.... »
January 26, 2006
Iran's President and Germany's Hitler.....scary times!
I have been thinking a lot about the recent, and ongoing comments from the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
And it is somewhat shocking to me the lack of alarm or attention it is getting in most of the main stream media. I am no scholar on Hitler or his rise to power in Germany, but very few seemed to pay attention to his rantings until it was too late.
People seem to either be too busy, or feel helpless in the global scale of politics to think their opinions or actions can have any effect.
But if you have studied the Nazi's rise to power in Germany, you know that it was a particularly dark time for Christians and the Church. There were some amazing Christians and theologians who opposed Hitler....Dietrich Bonhoeffer comes most to mind. But most of the Christian Church was either compliant with the Nazi's rise to power, or seemed to look off in the other direction as if nothing was going on. Even to the point that the Bible was replaced on pulpits with a copy of "Mein Kempf", and the Nazi flagged draped over it.
When I was visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., I was most impacted by the place when I was leaving, and came across this quote posted on the wall as you leave:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Let's hope that the Church in 2006 does not repeat the mistakes of the past, or we may find ourselves wondering who will be left to speak for others, and for us.
Posted by rhett at January 26, 2006 10:29 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.rhettsmith.com/blog/mt-tb.cgi/313
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
