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 British Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge explained how Hitler's
universal healthcare plan
eventually led to the
Holocaust:
"We have been accorded,
for those that have eyes to
see, an object lesson in what
the quest for 'quality of
life' without reference to
'sanctity of life' can
involve...The origins of the
Holocaust lay, not in Nazi
terrorism...but in pre-Nazi
Weimar Germany's acceptance of
euthanasia and mercy-killing
as humane and estimable."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer rebuked
German Christians who stood
silent while Hitler
intimidated church leaders to
accept the socialist,
anti-life agenda of the
National Socialist Workers
Party (NAZI).
The New York Times reported
Oct. 10, 1933:
"Nazi Plan to Kill
Incurables to End Pain; German
Religious Groups Oppose
Move...The Ministry of
Justice...explaining the Nazi
aims regarding the German
penal code, today announced
its intentions to authorize
physicians to end the
sufferings of the incurable
patient...in the interest of
true humanity.
The Catholic newspaper
Germania hastened to observe:
'The Catholic faith binds the
conscience of its followers
not to accept this
method.'...In Lutheran
circles, too, life is regarded
as something that God alone
can take...
Euthanasia...has become a
widely discussed word in the
Reich...No life still valuable
to the State will be wantonly
destroyed."
Bonhoeffer warned Germans not
to slip into the cult of Führer
(leader) worship, as he could
turn out to be a Verführer
(mis-leader, seducer).
Jimmy Carter, in his book
Sources of Strength, 1997,
wrote:
"Rev. Niebuhr urged
Dietrich Bonhoeffer to remain
in America for his own safety.
Bonhoeffer refused. He felt he
had to be among the other
Christians persecuted in
Germany.
So he returned home, and...in
resistance to
Hitler...preached publicly
against Nazism, racism, and
anti-Semitism...Bonhoeffer was
finally arrested and
imprisoned.
Born FEBRUARY 4, 1906, he died
April 9, 1945, just a few days
before the allied armies
liberated Germany. He was
executed on orders of Heinrich
Himmler. He died a disciple
and a martyr."
Jimmy Carter concluded:
"The same Holy
Spirit...that gave Bonhoeffer
the strength to stand up
against Nazi tyranny is
available to us today."
As a young man, Bonhoeffer was
deeply effected by the
Abyssinian Baptist Church in
Harlem, New York, where he
taught Sunday School and
formed a life-long love for
African-American spirituals.
Bonhoeffer challenged
believers:
"To endure the cross is
not tragedy; it is the
suffering which is the fruit
of an exclusive allegiance to
Jesus Christ"
In his most widely read book,
The Cost of Discipleship,
Bonhoeffer wrote:
"Cheap grace is the
mortal enemy of our church.
Our struggle today is for
costly grace."
On February 16, 2002, Dr.
James Dobson told the National
Religious Broadcasters:
"Those of you who feel
that the church has no
responsibility in the cultural
area...
What if it were 1943 and you
were in Nazi Germany and you
knew what Hitler was doing to
the Jews...Would you say,
'We're not political-that's
somebody else's
problem'?"
Dobson concluded:
"I thank God Dietrich
Bonhoeffer did not give that
answer, and he was arrested by
the Nazis and hanged in 1945,
naked and alone because he
said, 'This is not
right.'"
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