Quote of the day......

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace.

-Dietrich Bonhoffer, theologian and writer, studied in Berlin and at Union Theological Seminary in New York, played a central role in resisting Nazis during WWII, he has posthumously become one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. Was executed by the Nazis just before the end of the war on April 9, 1945-

Dietrich Bonhoffer considered what it means to follow Christ in a modern world that was under siege by a dangerous and criminal government, in his case the Nazis. His philosophy addresses the life of discipleship and the path to follow in all ages of the post-resurrection church. He even has said, somewhat scandalously, in my opinion, that "Every call of Jesus is a call to death." One must think of this as the total submission to Christ, the death of the old self, and not the literal necessity of immediate death as martyr.

Even though his strong convictions took a path that caused his martyrdom, I think that his references to death are not a call to violence or the violence of intentional martyrdom as Muslim fanatics consider, and not the risk of retaliatory death that this may entail but the risk of death by not being a doormat to evil. His convictions to stand up to those and governments, in this case the leviathan government of the Nazis, that go against Christ, natural law and rights, is one that does not allow a Christian to stand idly by since by standing idly by one is tacitly participating in the crime.