"SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS ITSELF EVIL"
OUR ETHICAL INTELLIGENCE COMPELS US TO CONFRONT EVIL WHENEVER AND WHEREVER WE FIND IT!
What others have said
It's not about the extent to which something happened or did not happen; it's whether we choose to confront evil and call it what it is, or simply let it pass because it 'wasn't enough of a big deal. — Joyce Rachelle
Love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminating evil once for all, but by resisting and overcoming it anew every day. — Thomas Merton
We can be under the power of a spell, but we must overcome such a power; we must liberate ourselves from evil. Everyone can fight. — Hazrat Inayat Khan
So fixed are our spirits in slothfulness and cold indifference that we seldom overcome so much as one evil habit. — Thomas A Kempis
To overcome evil with good is good, to resist evil with evil is evil. — Nazr Mohammed
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. — Friedrich Nietzsche
There was one thing more than any other that turned this New York, liberal, Jewish, Columbia University graduate student away from modern liberalism: its use of moral equivalence to avoid confronting evil during the Cold War. — Dennis Prager
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. NOT TO ACT IS TO ACT. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer1
About
This week, we continue considering foundations. Truth is the foundation of ethical intelligence, and we must act when we encounter lies and deception. We see the deadly result of inaction during the run-up to World War II in Nazi Germany, especially inaction by the Christian Church in Germany.
I know and understand this because one of my unfinished side projects is a semi-fictional novel set during the second world war that chronicles the story of one ordinary man from Hamburg, who turned into a reluctant war crimes perpetrator. The research I have completed in connection with that novel-writing project has reminded me of truth’s fragility.
Hitler came to power in Germany through a steady stream of lies cleverly disguised as truth, which we now call propaganda. As we discussed in our last issue, Adolf Hitler, and his communications mastermind, Joseph Goebbels, were experts at transforming lies into "truth" and convincing people that the truth was a lie. This initiative effectively muted or, in some instances, actively involved the German Christian Church.
Our objective in this article is to demonstrate that truth consists of more than ethically intelligent people telling the truth. Our obligation to ourselves, our families, and our community requires us to step forward and do more. When we see public lying and deception, we cannot remain silent. Using the terrible consequences of Nazi Germany's quest for world domination as an example, we will demonstrate the truth in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's statement, which is the title of this article.
"SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS ITSELF EVIL"
The slumber, then the storm
As we begin, please note that although this article focuses mainly on German Christians, it does not condemn them. Most of the German populace, Christian or not, stayed silent during Hitler’s rise because they were duped by lies and propaganda. And, by the time reality sank in, it was too late. Germany had become a totalitarian state murdering its dissenting citizens by the thousands.
Hitler’s rise from a failed, destitute Austrian (yes, he was not a German) artist to Chancellor of Germany in 1933 is interesting and compelling. I encourage anyone interested to watch some of the excellent documentaries available for free on YouTube.
If you do, you will discover that Hitler had a gift for charismatic public speaking and an uncanny ability to move people through forcefully delivered lies and carefully conceived deception. He also played on the shame Germans felt from their humiliation from losing WWI. The Germans especially resented the reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles, which had bankrupted the country.
The earliest document that formed the cornerstone of Hitler’s deceptive Third Reich foundation was the Nazi Party Platform published in 1920. Article 24 of that Platform speaks to the constructive role of the Christian Church in the “new” German state.
We demand the freedom of all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not jeopardize the state's existence or conflict with the manners and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The Party as such upholds the point of view of a positive Christianity without tying itself confessionally to any one confession. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit at home and abroad and is convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only be achieved from within on the basis of the common good before individual good.2
The 13 years between the 1920 Nazi Party Platform and Hitler’s 1933 speech before the Reichstag were turbulent and violent. Those years provided Hitler the opportunity to carefully craft the public persona required of a German Chancellor. Among many matters presented in the speech were the criminalization of dissent and Hitler’s profession that Christianity formed the foundation of the emerging Third Reich. Hitler’s normalization was complete. (emphasis added)
… Hitler, in March 1933 (and 1933 generally) was normalized. People who had fought against him now actively supported him, rationalized the violence of his supporters, insisted that he was at least better than the opposition, and believed that he was sincere in his professions of Christian faith (despite all appearances). The only group to vote against the act that enabled his dictatorship was the Social Democrats (democratic socialists; the communists would have voted against it, but they were banned or arrested). A rabidly factionalized press spun the situation as his being in control and decisive and finally doing the things that liberals had been too weak to do–such as cleansing the community of criminal elements. And those talking points were repeated by people who normalized behavior they had been condemning just months before.3
A 2006 film entitled Theologians Under Hitler included this commentary.
Rather than resisting, the greater part of the German church saw Hitler’s rise in 1933 as an act of God’s blessing, a new chapter in the story of God among the German people. This film, based upon ground-breaking research, introduces the viewer to three of the greatest Christian scholars of the 20th century: Paul Althaus, Emanuel Hirsch, and Gerhard Kittel, men who were also outspoken supporters of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In 1933 Althaus spoke of Hitler’s rise as "a gift and miracle of God." Hirsch saw 1933 as a "sunrise of divine goodness." And Kittel, the editor of the standard reference work on the Jewish Background of the New Testament, began working for the Nazis to find a "moral" rationale for the destruction of European Jewry.45
By 1939, many in the German Christian Church had become disillusioned with the Third Reich. Hitler and his supporters had begun interfering with the Church, and many finally realized that Hitler hated Christians as much as he hated Jews. At first, one of those prominent Christian leaders, Martin Niemöller, highly regarded Hitler and his Third Reich. At the end of the decade, Niemöller had figured out what was happening in the country and became quite critical of the regime.
As a consequence, Niemöller spent eight years in a Nazi concentration camp. At the end of the war, he made this famous statement.
First, they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the people with mental and physical disabilities, and I did not speak out—because I was not mentally or physically disabled.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.6
By the time the German Church and the populace understood the condition of their country, it was too late. Hitler’s total tyranny had a violent lock on the country and its people. One man, however, stood up to the regime and lost his life.
Courage is contagious, and so is cowardice.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the few to take a stand against Hitler’s lies and is a remarkable exemplar of ethical intelligence. Veronica Brady, a noted Australian author and literary critic, characterized her thoughts after reading the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as,
… his idea of God in the midst of the world, and his ethical intelligence quite overwhelmed me. His political intelligence also impressed me: he had realised what Hitler was up to, and stood up to be counted.7
Unlike Martin Niemöller, who was condemned to a concentration camp, Fredrich Boenhoffer was executed for his alleged participation in the plot to assassinate Hitler. Boenhoffer made the ultimate sacrifice for what mattered. Whether you believe clergy should be involved in politics or not, each of us has a personal responsibility to confront evil. We must speak out. Martin Luther King, Jr. got it right when he said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Christian scholar Eric Metaxas, an expert on Bonhoeffer and the German Christian Church in the 1930s, has drawn a comparison between the German Church of the 1930s and the American Christian Church of today.
If you do not speak, you are not being neutral, but are contributing to the success of the thing you refuse to name and condemn. Contrarily, it follows that those who speak out make it easier for others to speak out. Just as cowardice begets cowardice, courage begets courage. When we speak out, we inevitably encourage others to speak out along with us, decreasing the price of speaking out. So there is no way to remain neutral in such situations. Either we help evil, or we fight evil. Either we speak and thereby help others to speak truth, or we cower in silence and thereby lead others to do the same.8
Again, I am not picking on Christians. I am one, but I can discern the exact comparisons as Metaxas as I study the Nazis and their reign of terror. Given the events of the past three years, the ease with which the American Church freely relinquished its rights under our Constitution is striking. Additionally, most of our population meekly followed illegal and immoral orders given by government “leaders.” We behaved like sheep, just like the Germans.
When I was summarily dismissed from my online college teaching appointment in September 2021 because I refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, most reactions were, “well, you have to follow the rules.” If Nuremberg taught us anything, rules are not holy or inviolate, especially when such rules are illegal.
Standing up for what was right cost me income and lost employability (yes, they spread the word that “I was not a team player.”), but, in the end, it most likely saved my life, given the vaccine heart injury epidemic we now see unfolding.
My leadership guru and mentor, John Maxwell, says conflict resolution consists of one word—confrontation!
Silence is not an option!
Not confronting evil is evil.
And, not acting is acting.
Do the ethically intelligent thing! SPEAK UP AND OUT!!
What do you think?
Next week, we will continue the journey.
Remember, you cannot lie and be ethically intelligent.
Until then, Shalom!
References
Unless otherwise noted, quotations are taken from A-Z Quotes, Goodreads, and Brainy Quotes.
German National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei. (1920). Platform of the National-Socialist German Workers’ Party. In: American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (Jewish Virtual Library).
Roberts-Miller, P. (2017, August 13, 2017). “Decide for Peace or War:” How Hitler was normalized. https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/2017/08/13/iv-decide-for-peace-or-war-hitlers-march-23-1933-speech-before-the-reichstag/
Theologians Under Hitler. (2022). Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. https://www.keene.edu/academics/cchgs/collections/media/detail/theologians-under-hitler/
Theologians under Hitler. (2006). [Film]. P. G. Johnston; Espresso TV.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2022, July 22, 2022). MARTIN NIEMÖLLER: "FIRST THEY CAME FOR...". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
Brady, V. (1997). (Battlers and Stirrers)(Interview). Gail Jones [Article]. Journal of Australian Studies, 54-55(Sept-Dec 1997), 136-150.
Metaxas, E. (2022). Letter to the American Church. Salem Books is an Imprint of Regnery Publishing.
January 31, 2023, Volume 3, Issue 3