We have been warned that this Sunday -- in only two days -- massive ICE raids will result in the wholesale round-up, massive incarcerations and social violence towards any number of human beings will result.
What will you do?
I'm reminded today, as I sit at my desk, of a story about the famed New Testament scholar, Rudolf Bultmann.
On the morning after that first Nazi pogrom, Kristallnacht, the regular lecture of Rudolf Bultmann was to take place.
His usual hall was on the third floor in the south east corner of the building with windows on two sides. For years the view had included the Synagogue of Marburg; but now, it was a smoking foundation.
Bultmann walked in at his usual time to a packed and silent room, everyone braced to hear what he might have to say -- although all were now fearful to say anything. He came to the lectern, opened his folder, but immediately turned away from the students, walking over to the windows. For the entire period Bultmann stood staring out the window at the empty space and made no sound whatsoever. At the end of the time he returned to his notes, closed the folder, and walked out of the room.
What will you do?
I'm reminded today, as I sit at my desk, of a story about the famed New Testament scholar, Rudolf Bultmann.
On the morning after that first Nazi pogrom, Kristallnacht, the regular lecture of Rudolf Bultmann was to take place.
His usual hall was on the third floor in the south east corner of the building with windows on two sides. For years the view had included the Synagogue of Marburg; but now, it was a smoking foundation.
Bultmann walked in at his usual time to a packed and silent room, everyone braced to hear what he might have to say -- although all were now fearful to say anything. He came to the lectern, opened his folder, but immediately turned away from the students, walking over to the windows. For the entire period Bultmann stood staring out the window at the empty space and made no sound whatsoever. At the end of the time he returned to his notes, closed the folder, and walked out of the room.
Sometimes, many times indeed, silence speaks loudest of all.
Bultmann became a member of the Confessing Church and an inveterate foe of the "German Christians" and Nazism. Because of his academic and social standing, he was left alone; lesser men and traitors like Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- also a Confessing Church pastor and theologian -- were murdered. Had Bultmann been a man of less importance there is no reason to believe he wouldn't have died, too, in a death camp.
But I wonder: If Bultmann had seen the image of that smoldering rubble in the days before Kristallnacht, would it have made a difference?
Does it make a difference to me?