"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. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In my last blog, I discussed a portion of the above quote from a sermon preached by German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Next I want to look at the following excerpt from the same quotation: "Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against...pride of power, and with its plea for the weak."

Given the current political mood in America, Bonhoeffer's sermon could have been written any time over the past three years. America has, I'm embarrassed to say, put a power hungry megalomaniac into the White House, in large part thanks to (white) evangelical Christians. In hopes of getting a supposed friend on the Supreme Court, 81% of white American evangelicals supported an arrogant, womanizing, xenophobe, and continue to defend their choice (sin?)to this day. (Before going any further, I want to make it clear, if you can't tell already, I am NOT one of the 81%.)


But power mongering for Jesus is a mindset that effects much more than just politics. Pastors tell us God wants us to be wealthy. Churches strive to be the best show in town. Gospel singers are showered with awards from within the Gospel music industry. Conservative talking heads rant against Muslims and other immigrants, easily conning too many believers that they speak for God Himself. All the while, Jesus tells us that we are merely grains of weed who need to fall and die in order to live. Scripture tells us we need to die to self in order to live for God. We are to turn the other cheek, forgive our enemies, go the extra mile, and seek to be last rather than first. Either contemporary church culture has it wrong or God does.


Bonhoeffer next speaks of pleas for the weak. You can't open the
New Testament blindfolded and point without landing on a verse about this. Even in the old Testament, you'll likely hit one on your second or third try. "Feed the hungry." "Visit the sick." "Defend the oppressed." And yes, "Welcome the stranger."

And as I read Pastor Bonhoeffer's words, the thing that I notice most of all is "Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest..." Simply put, hunger for power and indifference toward the weak will destroy the church. Humility and selflessness will cause it to thrive. The truth is, whenever politics uses and manipulates the church, the church is hurt. When the church influences politics, politics gets better. Think civil rights, asylum reform, and abolition. Think Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce and William Penn. Think Salvation Army, Teen Challenge, and the Sisters of Charity.

It's sad I need to point out the obvious, but I feel I need to say this: the church's "revolutionary protest" must be based on sound theology and clear biblical principles. Churches who protest at funeral of servicemen are not doing the revolutionary work Bonhoeffer speaks of. Neither are those fighting against sensible gun laws. (More likely they have been blinded by the right.) Bonhoeffer speaks from a place in history when the major social issues were oppression of immigrants, racism, disregard for the poorest and weakest in society, and a church world that all too often sold its soul in order to maintain comfort, safety and tax exempt status.

Seventy years later, these are some of the things the followers of Jesus need to concern themselves with today. Whether as a Joseph, working within and above the political world, or as a John the Baptist speaking to anyone who would lend an ear, or as a James, writing beautiful words in defense of widows and orphans, may we be a voice of revolutionary protest in an all too often unjust world.