Over the years, I’ve watched a hundred + documentaries on the rise of Hitler; the Shoah שואה; the capitulation of the church; and living under the reign of the Nazi mind-set.

The hellish story is a significant part of my family’s heritage. My grandfather, grandmother and relatives moved from Cologne to California in the 20’s-30’s, where my step-uncle lived and did business in America as a full-fledged member of the Nazi party. In graduate school, my seminary offered a complete course on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. While I was a youth pastor in the 80’s, a mother of one of the girls in our group used to play with Bonhoeffer’s sister in Breslau. “The Cost of Discipleship” has been one of the most formative influences on my own theology and praxis.

All to say, throughout my life, I’ve thought A LOT about what it would have been like had my family NOT immigrated to America in the 20’s and 30’s. Would they – and would I – have had what it takes to do the right things in a totalitarian state? The question has formed the fabric of so much of who I am.

None-the-less, it hasn’t been until this last month, that I’ve honestly begun to believe I now have to make this kind of vital decision – in real time; discerning the season, perceiving the socio-political dynamics, envisioning the road-map ahead of us; understanding a bit of the social-psychological dynamics (my undergraduate major), and living with fidelity to the Spirit of Christ, with compassion, and civility to my neighbor.

In less than a month our nation is has lurched into the gutter; laws and protocols abrogated; policies thrust upon us by fiat; threat upon threat; promises (made just weeks ago) broken; violent, openly racist men propped up into positions of unimaginable power; checks and balances trashed; fires set; the vaults of American records handed over to men who daily tell us they have no regard for personal liberty; adolescent retaliation; the weaponization of every authority within their grasp; and the jeering applause of millions of blood-thirsty, cursing “patriots” who just want what’s due them, plus a pound of flesh.

Today the storylines are being formed that will allow us to justify the (re)appropriation of native lands, the invasion and seizure of foreign lands, tribunals, police-state surveillance, and perhaps even, re-education camps. For anyone who still retains an ounce of perspicuity (we’ve been on this journey for nearly a decade already) all of this can be clearly seen -not even imagined – realized. Every bit.

In the days of John the apostle, he had the choice to bend the knee to Caesar, OR declare that “Jesus was Lord”. To assert one, was to deny the other. I am convinced the Christian church is in an identical moment. Today, believers in America can choose to believe the way forward is through the Sermon on the Mount, prophetic alarm, repentance and the crucified life, or we can continue to entrust our lives, our commission and our nation to the narratives and the ways of one boastful, lustful, hostile man.

Friends, two crosses lay before us; one is broken and proudly flies on banners that promise to protect our rights, and never touch our flesh. The other remains very much intact, and capable of bringing our self to death – but into league with our King.

By the grace and Spirit of God, I know which I shall choose.

I pray you do as well…

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JSB • February 8, 2025