Raj and I just got back from watching Valkyrie. I wasn’t sure what to expect being that the leader of nutjobs was the star of the film, but I was pleasantly surprised. True to history, the attempts on Adolf Hitler’s life were unsuccessful. This got me thinking. What would I have done if I were in Nazi Germany as a Christian? Would I have defied the government? Would I have stayed quiet and gone along in my everyday life? Would I have felt compelled to help the Jews? Would I have been blind and deaf and just listen to whatever the media told me?
The men and women who chose to defy the government did so for different reasons. Some defied because they felt it was their Christian duty. They knew it meant their lives. They chose defiance anyway. How does a Christian reconcile obeying those God has placed in government when the leadership is being ungodly?
What does that look like now? Are there similarities within our society today? I wonder what a Christian response should be in the face of evil being done by those in leadership positions. Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed a Christian response in Nazi Germany was to end Hitler’s life. Clearly, he was extreme. But what is the proper response?
January 4, 2009 at 10:38 am
jared and i went to see valkyrie a couple of days ago, and we really, really liked it. the story is so powerful and i’ve been thinking about the same questions you mentioned.
the whole issue of taking someone’s life to save many is a great ethical dilemma for believers. my husband and i actually feel differently about it. he is more of a pacifist than i am. i believe that taking action is a good thing in the face of senseless murder. however, the early church did not use violence to defend themselves admist persecution because their martyrdom brought greater glory to God. so, i guess like in all situations we should approach it from the perspective of what brings the most glory to God.
i, personally, tend to think that in the case of nazi germany those who were silent and did nothing were accomplices. i’m not convinced that the holocaust is the same as the persecution of the early church because it was a senseless and systematic effort to eliminate a group of people born into a certain religion whether they were devout or not. it was religious persecution, but it seems to be rooted in racism (also evidenced by the fact that other groups were murdered besides Jews).
but i am not an expert on such things