Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
“There is just one thing that you won’t hear about.”

“There is just one thing that you won’t hear about.”

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 12:57 am by Dan Peterson

“There is just one thing that you won’t hear about.” 2020-07-23T00:57:55-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This inscription at Flossenbürg concentration camp reads as follows:
In resistance to dictatorship and terror, they gave their lives for freedom, justice, and human dignity:
Pastor Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
Captain Ludwig Gehre
Major General Hans Oster
General Dr. Friedrich von Rabenau
Judge Advocate General Karl Sack
Captain Dr. Theodor Strunk
Murdered on 9 April 1945
The scriptural citation in the cross is to 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The title of my forthcoming presentation for the 2020 FairMormon conference has now been posted. It is “The Book of Mormon Witnesses: Variety and Complexity.” My remarks will likely include a medley of four short clips — totaling, altogether, roughly five or perhaps six minutes — from the forthcoming Interpreter Foundation Witnesses theatrical film. They are also very likely to be accompanied by still photographs taken on the set of the film.

***

Over the past few days, I’ve been doing some reading in Christiane Tietz, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologe im Widerstand (Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck, 2013), about the heroic Protestant theologian and anti-Nazi martyr (1906-1945), who was executed just twenty-one days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide. As my own notation inside the book indicates, I bought it during a visit to the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald in August 2015.

Here are three passages stemming from the year of study (1930-1931) that he spent in the United States at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. I give them in my translation:

The first is a passage from a letter to his parents. In my translation, I use the ethnic term that I expect Bonhoeffer himself to have used when speaking English:

I lived in Washington entirely among the Negroes [unter den Negern] and, thanks to the students, came to know all of the leading people of the Negro movement [Negerbewegung]. I spent time in their homes and had extraordinarily interesting conversations. . . . The circumstances are, frankly, rather unbelievable. Not only the segregated railway, tramway, and bus south of Washington, but also, when (for example) I wanted to go with a Negro [mit einem Neger] to a restaurant for something to eat, I was denied service. (31-32)

So far as I can tell, the second passage may come from that same letter:

The way in which Southerners talk about Negroes [die Neger] is simply disgusting, and pastors are no better than others in this respect. . . . Frankly, it is incredible [unheimlich] that such things go wholly uncorrected in a land with so exceedingly many phrases about “brotherhood,” “peace,” and so forth. (32)

His impression of such Christian racism is especially striking in view of a passage in a letter that he wrote to his friend Max Diestel:

In New York, one can hear preaching about almost anything. There is just one thing that you won’t hear about. Anyway, it’s so seldom that I, at least, haven’t yet managed to hear it — namely, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of the cross, of sin and forgiveness, of death and life. . . . But what takes the place of the Christian message? A belief in Progress, an ethical and social idealism that arrogates to itself (on what basis one can’t really tell) the right to call itself “Christian.” There are essentially “benevolent” churches, and some that really do engage in social issues, but one can scarcely escape the impression in many such cases that people have forgotten what it’s actually about. (30)

***

The official website of the Church of Jesus Christ has posted a nice article and a very short video in preparation for Pioneer Day, which is a state holiday in Utah that is celebrated annually on 24 July and that is often also noted by Church members elsewhere around the world:

“Latter-day Saint Leaders Honor Pioneers of Past and Present”

Posted from Estes Park, Colorado

Union Theological Seminary

Witnesses

Previous Post

July 22, 2020

Living longer and better through religious involvement? A summation

Next Post

July 23, 2020 A tale of two adjacent states

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Cornelius' profession?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Shepherd Roman centurion Fisherman Carpenter