Soon after Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned to Berlin, German tanks rode across Poland, Belgium, and France. Bonhoeffer was in a coffee shop when the news announced that Germany had conquered France—the country it had been defeated by in the First World War.
Everyone in the coffee shop erupted with nationalist pride and lifted their arms in the air to shouts of “heil, hitler.” Bonhoeffer did what everyone else did. The friend he was with in the coffee shop stared at him with his jaw open, wondering how Bonhoeffer could do such a thing. Dietrich leaned down and told him to stand up with everyone else—that there was greater work to be done which could not be sacrificed in a coffee shop.
It was at this point that his friend realized that Bonhoeffer had become a part of the conspiracy to get rid of Hitler.
And yet, to many people on the outside, they saw Bonhoeffer as one who compromised. Bonhoeffer had taken a job with the Abwehr (Germany Military Intelligence) and seemed to be living a life of comfort while others suffered. Although these critics were unaware of the clandestine work he was doing to get rid of Hitler, Bonhoeffer’s actions raise the question of how, as a people of faith, are we called to be amongst or against culture.
This question has existed from the first centuries of Christianity. For the early Christian, did it matter if they fulfilled the Roman law of pinching incense to the emperor? Did it matter if they ate meat sacrificed to a Roman god—if they knew that god didn’t exist? Or, as Christians, are we called to make a stand against idolatry and injustice, even if that means our own peril?
Bonhoeffer struggled with this question in his life. He came to the conclusion that the greater good would be accomplished, if, to some, he looked like a compromiser, while he lived as a conspirator.
How do we live in this tension? In what ways are we called to live a faith that goes against the world around us? Do we live out a life of justice, humility, and love of God? Or, do we compromise our faith?
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