I wish I knew what it was that made some people so adamant about politics. I’m all for those who take their citizenship and their voting privilege seriously, but honestly, some people act as if they would like to burn you at the stake if you disagree with them.
I had the opportunity to visit my daughter in Hawaii over Thanksgiving holiday. We had various options for Thanksgiving day dinner and ended up enjoying it with her neighbor’s family who turned out to be a talkative, opinionated, animated group with three teenagers coming and going the whole time. One of them is 15, and very involved with her Catholic Church. This did not come from her family; it was something she has determined on her own, and the next day when we were together again, she badgered me with questions about the Bible and faith. She was like a sponge soaking up all she could as a disciple of Christ.
After Thanksgiving dinner, as the pie and ice cream came out, her mother, whom I had been talking with most of the evening, asked me a question about my political affiliation — who I voted for in the last election — and as I answered, she screamed, “YOU DID WHAT?”
Suddenly everyone was focused on the ice cream melting on their plate, and one of the kids cried out, “Mom … don’t get started.” But she had no intention of letting this subject go. In the end, we were able to get back to the friendly exchange we had earlier, but she couldn’t get over the fact that someone she liked so much would be in the throes of the “enemy.”
I couldn’t believe that what I thought was a strong camaraderie that had been built in such a short time could come crashing down so easily by just one word: Democrat or Republican. That’s all it took. Is this how relationships get broken? Is it really that important? Are we really that much different? I turned out to be on the other side, and that one thing cast a pall on all that we had connected over previous to this.
By the end of the evening we had smoothed over some of the rough edges by affirming where we could both agree, but it still was different. Something was broken between us and I couldn’t help but think about family members and friends I have met who haven’t talked to each other for years strictly because of their politics. It should not be this way.
We must try something different. I’ll tell you what’s different … love. It’s that simple.
Republicans are red
Democrats are blue
But it really doesn’t matter
Because I love you
A NEW TIME FOR CHURCH AT THE CATCH
This Sunday and for the next four weeks, we are going to try a new time for our online church service. I will go live on Facebook at 1:00pm Pacific time. This will be on a trial basis, so let us know what you think. Remember, that if you can’t attend at one o’clock, you can always view the video any time thereafter by going to http://www.facebook.com/thecatch. See you there!
John Fischer The Catch 
A few thoughts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer…
From Life Together (1939):
“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies.
At the end all his disciples deserted him.
On the cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers.
For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God.
So, the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes.”
“Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.”
From Ethics (1940-1943):
“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders… I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”
From Letters and Papers from Prison (1951 – published after his death)
“Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity…
The process at work here is not that particular human capacities – for instance, the intellect – suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances.
The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him.
He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.
This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.”
From a Bonhoeffer sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:9:
“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak.
Christians are doing too little to make these points clear … Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power.”
For readers unfamiliar with him, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during WWII who ministered at churches around Europe and the United States including Berlin, Barcelona, London, and New York.
He had intended to
In July 1939 he felt it necessary to return to Germany, writing to a friend:
“Christians in Germany will face a terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization.”
At age 39, on April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazi regime at Flossenbürg concentration camp, just two weeks before the United States liberated the camp.
If you want to know more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, here is a link to his biography:
Biography – International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section
“In me there is darkness,
But with You there is light;
I am lonely, but You do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with You there is help;
I am restless, but with You there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with You there is patience;
I do not understand Your ways,
But You know the way for me.”
“Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor
And in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.
You know all man’s troubles;
You abide with me
When all men fail me;
You remember and seek me;
It is Your will that I should know You
And turn to You.
Lord, I hear Your call and follow;
Help me.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
Shalom, Peace…
Some additions to the above (please forgive my unintentional omissions aaaand the lengthiness of what follows) …
The unfinished sentence in my brief blurb of Bonhoeffer should have said:
He had intended to travel to India in 1935 to study non-violent resistance with Mahatma Gandhi but abandoned those plans when asked to direct the theological training of pastors for the Confessing Church in Germany (considered illegal by the official State Church in Berlin).
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Most prominent political parties have always claimed that the Bible and Jesus Himself justify their causes, agendas, and tactics.
Even Bonhoeffer has been widely quoted – and misquoted – by people across the political and ideological spectrum who have claimed he would support their side on controversial issues.
In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s time, “The early weeks of the Nazi government were turbulent. The political violence that had marked the early 1930s in Germany continued, but now Nazi storm troopers and paramilitary groups had free rein. The regime immediately targeted real and potential enemies, particularly Communists, journalists, and others.
The first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened in March 1933 and on March 23rd the German Parliament passed The Enabling Act, which consolidated all power in Adolf Hitler.
It was followed by a new racial law [targeting Jews]: the April 7th ‘Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.’
From there, “the ‘German Christian Faith Movement’ embraced Nazi ideology, notions of a racially pure church, and the idea of aligning the church with the Nazi state.”
– The Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (see biographical link above)
Most Germans took the union of Christianity, nationalism, and militarism for granted, and patriotic sentiments were equated with Christian truth.
The ‘German Christian Faith Movement’ exalted the racially pure nation and the rule of Hitler as God’s will for the German people.
Bonhoeffer’s and several others’ response was written in The Barmen Declaration (1934).
In an appeal to Evangelical congregations and Christians in Germany they wrote:
“Be not deceived by loose talk, as if we meant to oppose the unity of the German nation! Do not listen to the seducers who pervert our intentions, as if we wanted to break up the unity of the German Evangelical Church or to forsake the confessions of the Fathers!
Try the spirits whether they are of God!
If you find that we are speaking contrary to Scripture, then do not listen to us! But if you find that we are taking our stand upon Scripture, then let no fear or temptation keep you from treading with us the path of faith and obedience to the Word of God, in order that God’s people be of one mind upon earth, and that we in faith experience what He Himself has said: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”
Therefore, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Then, The Barmen Declaration is spelled out by six theses which begin, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14.6)
Each thesis follows a pattern:
The heart of the declaration is as follows:
The declaration concludes:
“It entreats all whom it concerns to return to the unity of faith, love, and hope.”
You can read the entire Barmen Declaration (translated from German) here: The Barmen Declaration – EKD
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From Ethics (1940-1943):
“Christ was not essentially a teacher, a lawgiver, but a human being, a real human being like us. Accordingly, Christ does not want us to be first of all pupils, representatives and advocates of a particular doctrine, but human beings, real human beings before God.
Christ did not, like an ethicist, love a theory about the good; he loved real people.
Christ was not interested like a philosopher, in what is ‘generally valid,’ but in that which serves real concrete human beings.
Christ was not concerned with whether “the maxim of an action” could become “a principle of universal law,” but whether my action now helps my neighbor to be a human being before God.
God did not become an idea, a principle, a program, a universally valid belief, or a law. God became human”
Shalom, Peace… 🙂