Deception

This year marked the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII and the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. On Monday, I had the opportunity to listen to a 100-year-old man talk about his efforts to provide aide for several Jewish families in the Czech Republic. His powerful story inspired everyone.

Immediately following his story, you could hear a pin drop. Then, a timid and soft-spoken young student read her award-winning essay about how she would have stood up to the Nazis. Written from a German perspective, it was certainly intriguing. She described the actions that she would have done to prevent such tragedy. Don’t get me wrong, it was a creative and well written essay. However, it made the inaccurate assumption that every German knew what was happening and that they made a cognitive decision to allow the atrocities to continue. This is not how ethnic cleansing works. No sane person signs up for fascism.

The German people were not knowingly evil, they were propagandized. Hitler and company were smart enough to know that the German people would not condone mass murdering of the Jews. Before the anti-Jewish campaign seeped into the people’s psyche, much of the slaughtering took place underground. For years, many of the Germans didn’t know what was taking place. By the time the whispers of the Holocaust surfaced, enough time had gone by to brainwash the public into believing that the Jews were dirty criminals and preventing German success.

If I were to elaborate further, I would say more about Theresienstadt. This was a place pitched to the German people as a beautiful resort. Even the Jewish people boarded the trains willingly because they thought they were going to a welcoming refuge for Jews. The government said there were spas, cinemas, fine dining, and swimming pools. At Theresienstadt, more than 90,000 Jews met their tragic death. The point here is… this is how propaganda works. The Germans did not signup to kill Jews, rather, they let the authoritarian state do what fascists do.

As the shepherd of Lamb of God Church, my primary responsibility is to tend to the spiritual wellbeing of the flock. This is accomplished by leading us into the ways of Jesus, which are rooted in love and compassion. Learning accurate history is important. By understanding where we’ve gone astray in the past, we become better able to stay on the righteous path of Christ in the future. That is the only guiding question the matters, “which way is the way of Jesus?” Don’t follow anyone blindly. Don’t follow me or the Church blindly. Don’t follow the news media blindly. Ask questions, reflect, challenge, and seek. If you are searching for love… true love, you will find it in Christ alone.   

In remembrance,

Pastor Lucas

Photo by Karsten Winegeart