The frustrating thing to me is seeing your beloved country destroying itself and not being able to stop it. It is the feeling of hopelessness. What is the use of “one man one vote” in the face of voter fraud? What is the use of one voice of truth in the face of a powerful media propaganda deceiving the people? What is the use of speaking the truth when the people want lies? It’s the irrationality of it all. Perception is reality. It’s image over substance. People believe lies because they want to. Leaders preach to their own choirs. Truth is unwanted. The greatest robbery in human history is justified as a bailout. Marxist redistribution of wealth is sold as fairness. Leaders scramble for their piece of the pie before the money all runs out. Scientists and accountants cook the books for power and money. Statesmen who really care about the country and its people are endangered species while politicians fake compassion with practiced sincerity. Speech is free as long as it is “correct.” All religions are tolerated as long as they are not Christian.
Leaders divide the “united states” with class warfare pitting poor against rich, black against white, and Wall Street against Main Street. The successful are mad villains and the failures made the victims. It is not unreasonable to see another civil war in our future.
And that is not the worse part. The education system is teaching coming generations in the same destructive philosophies. Our children are lost in random values without noble purpose. So the perpetuation of meaninglessness is assured.
Some news articles end with the tag line, “It is hoped that wiser minds will prevail,” but the reality is that fools are prevailing.
Were there wiser minds watching the decline of Rome, Russia, Germany, and Europe who saw the decline and were unable to stop it? I’m sure there were.
I found one wise voice who tried to stop Germany from destroying herself – Dietrich Bonhoeffer. After trying to stop Hitler from destroying his country, he was imprisoned and executed the morning of April 9, 1945. His last words were, “This is the end – for me the beginning of life.” In “Letters and Papers from Prison,” he reflected on his ten year struggle against Hitler’s evil regime, and he asked the question, “Who stands fast?” His answer brought refreshing insight to my frustrated heart. He saw why good men had failed to stop the evil in Germany. He understood why wiser minds did not prevail. Bonhoeffer’s wisdom had the authenticity that comes from the school of suffering. His insights are a prophetic light in America’s present darkness.
Writing from prison, Bonhoeffer reflects back on six groups that failed to stand against evil.
First, the reasonable failed. He writes, “The reasonable people’s failure is obvious. With best intentions and a naïve lack of realism, they think that with a little reason they can bend back into position the framework that is out of joint. In their lack of wisdom, they want to do justice to all sides, and so the conflicting forces wear them down with nothing achieved. Disappointed with the world’s unreasonableness, they step aside in resignation or collapse before the stronger power.”
Reason has its limits. Neville Chamberlain tried to reason with Hitler and failed. Reason will not sway unreasonable people. “Let’s just talk a little longer” does not work with terrorists. Polarization of political beliefs in America is locked in unreasonable debate. Reason does not convince rage
Second, moral fanaticism fails. “Still more pitiable is the total collapse of moral fanaticism. The fanatic thinks that his single minded principles qualify him to do battle with the powers of evil; but like a bull he rushes at the red cloak instead of at the person holding it; he exhausts himself and is beaten. He gets entangled in non-essentials and falls into the trap set by cleverer people.”
It seems counter-productive, but we empower evil by resisting it. When human nature hears “don’t” it “does.” When it hears “do,” it “doesn’t.” A bent to break the moral law is in all of us, and it becomes selective. We promote what we are good at and downplay our failures, and our hypocrisy reduces our credibility with our fellow citizens. Alexander Solzhenitsyn who survived the Soviet death camps writes, “It was granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, the essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of my youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. And it is only when, in the Gulag Archipelago, on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes, not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart and through all human hearts…And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: Bless you prison!”
Evil is not overcome by resistence, but as Paul so succinctly , “Overcome evil with good.” [Rom. 12:21] We have to stand with our neighbors as fellow sinners, not as moralistic judges.
Third, conscience can not outlast evil. “Then there is the man with a conscience, who fights single-handed against heavy odds in situations that call for a decision. But the scale of the conflicts in which he has to choose – with not advice or support except from his own conscience – tears him to pieces. Evil approaches him in so many respectable and seductive disguises that his conscience becomes nervous and vacillating, till at last he contents himself with a salved conscience in order to avoid despair; for a man whose only support is his conscience can never realize that a bad conscience may be stronger than a deluded one.”
The problem here is that men of conscience cannot fight dirty like those with no conscience, and unfortunately, in a corrupt world, dirty fighters win, at least in the beginning. Jesus knew the score, “The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. (Luke 16:8-9 NIV) Of course, in the long run, men of evil conscience destroy themselves, but until then, men of conscience die martyrs deaths.
Fourth, the way of duty ultimately fails. “From the perplexingly large number of possible decisions, the way of duty seems to be the sure way out. Here, what is commanded is accepted as what is most certain, and the responsibility for it rests on the commander, not on the person commanded… The man of duty will in the end have to do his duty by the devil too.”
This was the “Nuremberg defense” which was used by Nazi leaders to justify their crimes against humanity. They said, “We were just doing our duty.” This passes the responsibility back to the commander, who may be giving evil instructions as Hitler did. The “blame game” is the main sport in Washington D.C., but in the end, the judges confirmed that personal responsibility superseded blaming duty to an evil man.
Fifth, the man of freedom fails to stand fast against evil. “As to the man who asserts his complete freedom to stand four-square to the world, who values the necessary deed more highly that an unspoilt conscience or reputation, who is ready to sacrifice a barren principle for a fruitful compromise, or the barren wisdom of a middle course for a fruitful radicalism – let him beware lest his freedom should bring him down. He will ascent to what is bad so as to ward off something worse, and in doing so he will no longer be able to realize that the worse, which he wants to avoid, might be the better. Here we have the raw material for tragedy.”
If we use our freedom to compromise and avoid “something worse,” we end up sliding down the “slippery slope” to the “something worse,” not something better. Evil takes over in incremental steps and once the dam is breached, the flood comes. Freedom is a valuable treasure, but it is not easy. It requires discipline to preserve or it can be turned on its head. Evil men have turned our Declaration of Freedom into a document of license, using freedom of speech to drown out truth, freedom of religion to suppress it, and the freedom of due process to empower criminals, and the freedom from cruel and unusual punishment to protect terrorists.
Sixth, private virtuousness will fail. “Here and there people flee from public altercation into the sanctuary of private virtuousness. But anyone who does this must shut his mouth and his eyes to the injustice around him. Only at the cost of self-deception can he keep himself pure from the contamination arising from responsible action. In spite of all that, he does, what he leaves undone will rob him of his peace of mind. He will either go to pieces because of this disquiet, or become the most hypocritical of Pharisees.”
Many have chosen the root of retreat to the back lines, hoping the guns of war will not reach them. As you can tell from the my opening lines, I am prone in this direction out of hopelessness to change the culture. However, the war will eventually come to our door and we will have to confront it eventually. It is obvious that retreat only extends the war. It is also tempting to sit back with like-minded people and say, “At least I am not as bad as them,” which leads to the hypocritical judgmentalism that Bonhoeffer warns about.
Bonhoeffer explained that folly is more dangerous than evil. He saw folly was the root of irrationality. “Folly is a more dangerous enemy to the good man than evil. One can protest evil; it can be unmasked and, if need be, prevented by force. Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, as it makes people, at least, uncomfortable. Against folly we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it; reasoning is no use; facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved – indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied; in fact, he can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make him aggressive. A fool must be treated more cautiously than a scoundrel; we shall never again try to convince a fool by reason for it is both useless and dangerous. If we are to deal adequately with folly, we must try to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is a moral rather than an intellectual defect. There are people who are mentally agile, but foolish and people who are mentally slow, but very far from foolish… The fool is capable of any evil, and at the same time, incapable of seeing it is evil.” The only real cure for a fool, says Bonhoeffer, is inward liberation – to live a responsible life before God.
So who is the man who stands in Bonhoeffer’s experience? “Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his duty his freedom or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God… Civil courage can only grow out of the free responsibility of free men… It depends on a God who demands responsible action in a bold venture of faith, and who promises forgiveness and consolation to the man who becomes a sinner in that venture. Where are these responsible people?”
The responsible people who will take action by God’s direction are the hope of turning our culture around. There are many out there in America as there were in Rome, Russia and Germany. They had to endure the collapse before they saw the recovery, but life did come from death. It always does.