Also… I’ve recently been reading a lot of Bonhoeffer as well. Reading Letters From Prison for the first time. I love this passage from an essay he wrote describing the 10 years leading up to his imprisonment… When I read it I thought— Damn! Bonhoeffer sees me. Truly a prophet for his generation and beyond.
“One may ask whether there have ever before in human history been people with so little ground under their feet - people to whom every available alternative seemed equally intolerable, re-pugnant, and futile, who looked beyond all these existing alternatives for the source of their strength so entirely in the past or in the future, and who yet, without being dreamers, were able to await the success of their cause so quietly and confidently. Or perhaps one should rather ask whether the responsible thinking people of any generation that stood at a turning-point in history did not feel much as we do, simply because something new was emerging that could not be seen in the existing alternatives.” (from “After Ten Years”)
On the other hand, Bonhoeffer might think that legalized abortion constitutes an even clearer status confessionis. If abortion is “nothing but murder” and “the preservation of bodily life is the very foundation of all natural rights,” as Bonhoeffer argued, surely the church negates its own message if it does not intervene on behalf of the unborn. Would that intervention mean voting Republican? Perhaps.
"With chaos in the White House, human rights abuses happening on the border, and white supremacy on the rise, it seems hard to believe Bonhoeffer would not seize the opportunity to vote against Donald Trump. He may well have argued that the immigration crisis has all the earmarks of a status confessionis. Undocumented people who have never known a home other than the United States are being deported every day, and legitimate asylum claimants are being mistreated. Surely, this is a depravation of human rights that requires the church’s intervention in the form of service and direct action. In this case, that intervention might mean voting Democrat."
The point of the article is that people are trying to co-opt Bonhoeffer for their political side, and that's nearly impossible to do. I would agree with that. The point of my Substack is not to say Bonhoeffer would vote for one side or the other, but what I think he would tell us to consider as we went to vote. I intentionally did not name a candidate in this post because, if I could say anything with some confidence, it's that Bonhoeffer would not tell us which candidate we must vote for.
Also… I’ve recently been reading a lot of Bonhoeffer as well. Reading Letters From Prison for the first time. I love this passage from an essay he wrote describing the 10 years leading up to his imprisonment… When I read it I thought— Damn! Bonhoeffer sees me. Truly a prophet for his generation and beyond.
“One may ask whether there have ever before in human history been people with so little ground under their feet - people to whom every available alternative seemed equally intolerable, re-pugnant, and futile, who looked beyond all these existing alternatives for the source of their strength so entirely in the past or in the future, and who yet, without being dreamers, were able to await the success of their cause so quietly and confidently. Or perhaps one should rather ask whether the responsible thinking people of any generation that stood at a turning-point in history did not feel much as we do, simply because something new was emerging that could not be seen in the existing alternatives.” (from “After Ten Years”)
So little ground under our feet.
man, he's so good.
I’m grateful, as always, for your thoughtfulness and commitment to honest, prayful, and PUBLIC contemplation. Thank you for writing this, friend.
Thanks, David, and thanks for reading! Whenever I see you've like a post I know I did it right 🙏🏼
On the other hand, Bonhoeffer might think that legalized abortion constitutes an even clearer status confessionis. If abortion is “nothing but murder” and “the preservation of bodily life is the very foundation of all natural rights,” as Bonhoeffer argued, surely the church negates its own message if it does not intervene on behalf of the unborn. Would that intervention mean voting Republican? Perhaps.
This is a excerpt from an article I read.
In that same article, the author says:
"With chaos in the White House, human rights abuses happening on the border, and white supremacy on the rise, it seems hard to believe Bonhoeffer would not seize the opportunity to vote against Donald Trump. He may well have argued that the immigration crisis has all the earmarks of a status confessionis. Undocumented people who have never known a home other than the United States are being deported every day, and legitimate asylum claimants are being mistreated. Surely, this is a depravation of human rights that requires the church’s intervention in the form of service and direct action. In this case, that intervention might mean voting Democrat."
The point of the article is that people are trying to co-opt Bonhoeffer for their political side, and that's nearly impossible to do. I would agree with that. The point of my Substack is not to say Bonhoeffer would vote for one side or the other, but what I think he would tell us to consider as we went to vote. I intentionally did not name a candidate in this post because, if I could say anything with some confidence, it's that Bonhoeffer would not tell us which candidate we must vote for.
Here's the whole article for reference: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-would-bonhoeffer-vote/