By Douglas J. Hagmann
In present-day America, we are being bombarded with increasingly dire headlines about the condition of our nation. Common elements among these headlines of domestic disorder and discontent are reports of unbridled government overreach into our lives, from much-publicized gun control laws, warrantless searches and seizures to the perverse and absurdly shameful degradation of our human dignity at the hands of the TSA and the DHS.
Today, we face an assault on our freedoms for which those who lived before us have shed their blood, entrusting us with the gift of an indivisible nation under God. Yes, under God.
Time seems to have separated us from the ultimate sacrifices of our forefathers, for we no longer see their blood that once stained dirt on the battlefields of America. We no longer relate to the sorrows of our ancestors or their sacrifices, nor do we feel pride in their successes. We are no longer taught the history of a nation that freed itself from tyranny and oppression. Instead, we are subjected to the deliberate perversion of history that characterizes our founders as terrorists—along with portraying those of us who object to such depictions as threats to the state—by an ever-increasing totalitarian government operating in tandem with modern-day academia and a state-sponsored press.
As Americans, we are witnessing the systematic dismantling of our country by the incremental erosion of our liberties and rights by methods that are shaking the very foundations upon which this country was founded. We’ve seen this before, as history is filled with examples of our current predicament, but somehow, today, things seem different to those who are paying attention. In many ways, things are indeed different, yet it is fitting to cite what was written long ago: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Today’s headlines proclaim that those of us who cherish the rights bestowed upon us by our Creator are now considered terrorists. This results from the cancer of moral and cultural degradation that we have allowed to take root in the very soil stained with the blood of our forefathers. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. What will we tell our children and grandchildren about what we’ve done to stop the metastasis of tyranny?
Just as the insidiously evil oppression by our government existed in many forms in the past, so does the template for freedom. The question is whether we are prepared to answer the call to preserve our remaining rights and regain our liberties lost. To do so, however, requires us to recognize not just the symptoms but the disease itself. It is the disease of evil—aided and abetted by silence in the face of evil—that allows tyranny to exist and flourish. Fortunately, we have an example to which we may refer. There are lessons to be learned by history, and examples to personify.
Sixty-eight years ago this week, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (pastor, martyr, prophet and spy), who was arrested in Hitler’s Germany, was hanged in Flossenburg, a Nazi death camp. Much has been written about the life and death of this man, with a particular focus on his faith-based convictions in thought and deed. The manner in which he lived his life in a country that experienced the perverse incremental transformation of political, moral, and religious values should not only serve as an example to us in America but as a warning. Properly viewed, his senseless execution by the direct orders of a maniacal and tyrannical madman exists as a metaphorical exclamation point at the end of a sentence—his death sentence. He met his fate as he lived his life, with such unwavering convictions that even the most respected of his peers were unable, or perhaps unwilling, to stand firm beside or behind him.
Sadly, most high-profile Americans claiming to possess intellectual honesty and moral integrity (particularly those with a microphone or keyboard and an audience of significance) seem to lack the corresponding desire and courage to point out the disturbing similarities between the state of Hitler’s Germany and present-day America. And there are many such parallels. The precious few who point them out are the victims of a relentlessly vicious campaign of character marginalization and accusations of racism and bigotry. We become “magnets of marginalization” by people with a rabidly Progressive and Socialist mindset. Unsurprisingly, the tenor and tempo of such accusations are rising as they are met with little resistance.
The reason for this tenacious campaign against men and women of faith is simple. It exists in the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It can exist in each of us should we summon the courage to be steadfast in our refusal to accept the tolerance of evil. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was outspoken against those who remained silent in the face of the moral and religious degradation of his country. He spoke out against lukewarm pastors and cultural Christians who supported Hitler or acquiesced under the pressure of the false doctrine of tolerance.
As we’ve seen from issues ranging from infanticide to the insidiousness built into the health care bill that requires Christians to act against their beliefs, most Christian conservatives have capitulated through compromise. Unlike Dietrich Bonhoeffer, they endorse the perversity of political and social correctness that exists in present-day America, opting against taking a stand for their faith.
As God-believing Americans who cherish the rights bestowed upon us and enumerated within our Constitution (perhaps better known in the Western media as “bitter clingers”), we are in the midst of the destructive transformation of our nation. The tinder is present and ready for ignition, needing only one spark from any source to ignite America into a state of chaos that would result in a tyrannical clampdown.
The firewall to prevent this transformation—the Christian leaders and the body of the church—is crumbling by inaction and outright apostasy. The parallels between the present-day United States and Hitler’s Germany are evident. Just as the similarities are evident, so is our collective inaction, which is eviscerating the very soul of America. It is this silence and inaction that will rip America from her Judeo-Christian foundations and make it possible for a fall of biblical proportions.
Sixty-eight years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer died not only for his faith but to illustrate that we must not be silent in the face of tyranny. If not for our own sakes, let us summon that same courage for the sake of our children and their children. After all, the ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children[ia].
By Douglas J. Hagmann
It is unlikely that most of today’s Americans are familiar with the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I had forgotten the account of Mr. Bonhoeffer until a valued listener of our nightly radio program sent me Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, a gripping book by Eric Metaxas.
I devoured the 592-page book in three days, reading the final page only yesterday. I find it anything but coincidental that I completed this gripping account on the very day that the 2012 U.S. presidential election was decided in favor of Barack Hussein Obama.
While reading the account of Mr. Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, theologian, and spy involved in the plot to kill Hitler, I became awestruck by the obvious and stunning parallels between 1930’s Germany and present-day America, specifically in terms of the Christian church. Yesterday, for the second time in four years, most Americans decided in favor of Obama despite the vocal and visible moral objections made by many Christians of all denominations. I have no doubt that many people who profess to be Christians cast their vote to reelect Barack Hussein Obama, somehow justifying their vote over any moral or ethical concerns residing in their spirit. How is this possible?
It is here that I cite the foreword written by Timothy J. Keller, friend of the author and author of the New York Times bestselling book The Reason for God. Keller writes:
“It is impossible to understand Bonhoeffer’s Nachfolge without becoming acquainted with the shocking capitulation of the German Church to Hitler in the 1930s. How could the ‘church of Luther,’ the great teacher of the gospel, have ever come to such a place? The answer is that the true gospel, summed up by Bonhoeffer as costly grace, had been lost. On one hand, the church had become marked by formalism. That meant going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn’t really matter much how you live. Bonhoeffer called this cheap grace. On the other hand, there was legalism, or salvation by law and good works. Legalism meant that God loves you because you have pulled yourself together and are trying to live a good, disciplined life. Both of these impulses made it possible for Hitler to come to power.”
Does that sound or ‘feel” familiar? Thanks to the laborious research by author Eric Metaxas that is articulately detailed in his book, which also corrects over a half-century of the hijacked legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by the Progressive left, Christians in America should now fully understand exactly what is taking place within our country. We have allowed the word of God to be diluted, perverted and turned into a convoluted platform for social justice by elected leaders whose tyranny has extended into and ripped into our spiritual fabric.
Many Christians have collectively embraced cheap grace and legalism promoted by leaders across the political spectrum as spiritual equivalents to the true gospel, thereby reconciling their faith with the perversity in America today. After all, it is politically correct and socially acceptable to tolerate perversity in all forms rather than risk being labeled as intolerant, bigoted, Islamophobic, homophobic, or the mother of all derisive brandings, racist. It is precisely here, however, that tolerance of evil becomes evil itself.
This is the exact moment for all Christians in America to live in the spirit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by uniting and practicing “costly grace.” As a Christian, I believe we were born for this exact moment in time and have been selected to engage in this spiritual battle for not only our salvation, but the salvation of others. Like it or not, we have been selected as warriors on the front lines of an epic spiritual battle.
Some might look at the reelection of Barack Hussein Obama and other leaders with similar agendas as a death knell for the Judeo-Christian spirit in America. I chose to view it as a real-world test of my Christian faith personally and our Christian faith collectively. It is clear that the spiritual battle lines have been distinctly drawn. We are now called to emulate the spiritual strength of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so that we may change the course of Christianity in America. Unified in the spirit of costly grace, we can do it.
We must engage the battle and not abandon the fight at this historic moment in time. Traditional marriage between a man and a woman as defined by the Holy Bible must be reinforced, not redefined. The wholesale slaughter of our nation’s unborn under the demonic perversity of women’s rights must not be accepted or further tolerated. We must not submit to a system that requires us to forsake our beliefs under the color of law. Acting in the spirit of costly grace, we must summon the spiritual courage of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to change the course of our nation.
As my friend Steve Quayle has often said, there are no political solutions to our spiritual problems. Never in the course of American history has this proven to be so true. Therefore, it is up to us, the “Bible holding bitter clingers,” to rise to the level of true Christians and engage the forces of evil that have overtaken our great nation.
Make no mistake – this is not a call for violence but for leadership to every Christian living in the United States. We have been given a most important task, which is to be leaders among men. Believers of the true gospel can no longer be silent. Together, we can make a difference. Our souls depend on it.
