5/02/2022

Judging Others is Blinding (Bonhoeffer)

The Church in relation to the State (Bonhoeffer)

"There are thus three possibilities for action that the church can take vis-à-vis the state:
  1. 1st (as we have said), questioning the state as to the legitimate state character of its actions, that is, making the state responsible for what it does.
  2. 2nd is service to the victims of the state's actions. The church has an unconditional obligation toward the victims of any societal order, even if they do not belong to the Christian community. "Let us work for the good of all". These are both ways in which the church, in its freedom, conducts itself in the interest of a free state. In times when the laws are changing, the church may under no circumstances neglect either of these duties.
  3. The 3rd possibility is not just to bind up the wounds of the victims beneath the wheel but to seize the wheel itself."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Church and the Jewish Question.