When I first met Bonhoeffer by Jim Wallis ('Bonhoeffer' on PBS tonight)

[Sapphire Blue]

When I first met Bonhoeffer
by Jim Wallis

(Excerpt)

When I first met Dietrich Bonhoeffer, through reading his books as a young seminarian, he explained the world of faith to me. This young German theologian who was executed by the Nazis for his opposition to Hitler helped me to understand the difficult religious experiences I had known in America.

I had just come back to Jesus after rejecting my childhood faith and joining the student movements of my generation when I discovered for the first time the Sermon on the Mount as the manifesto for a whole new order called the reign of God. I discovered Matthew 25: "As you have done to the least of these, you have done to me."

The evangelical Christian world I had grown up in talked incessantly about Christ but never paid any attention to the things that Jesus taught. Salvation became an intellectual assent to a concept. "Jesus died for your sins and if you accept that fact you will go to heaven," said the evangelists of my childhood. When it came to the big issues that cropped up for me as a teenager - racism, poverty, and war - I was told explicitly that Christianity had nothing to do with them: they were political, and our faith was personal. On those great social issues, the Christians I knew believed and acted just like everybody else I knew - like white people on racism, like affluent people on poverty, and like patriotic Americans on war.

Then I read Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, which relied heavily on the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount and the idea that our treatment of the oppressed was a test of faith. Believing in Jesus was not enough, said Bonhoeffer. We were called to obey his words, to live by what Jesus said, to show our allegiance to the reign of God, which had broken into the world in Christ. Bonhoeffer warned of the "cheap grace" that promotes belief without obedience. He spoke of "costly discipleship" and asked how the grace that came at the tremendous cost of the cross could require so little of us. "Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship," he said, "and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth."

Continued @ http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=060206#2

Don't forget!

BONHOEFFER
A documentary film by Martin Doblmeier

National PBS broadcast Feb. 6 at 10 p.m. EST (Check local listings)<http://www.pbs.org/bonhoeffer/locallistings.html>.

"A touching narrative on the nature of faith...powerful and shocking." - The New York Times

Visit www.journeyfilms.com, www.bonhoeffer.com, or www.pbs.org/bonhoeffer
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=060206#top

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Thanks for posting this

[hlthe2b]

2. Funny you should mention this... I rented this documentary

just two days ago from Blockbuster (and I really love documentaries). But, I'm having trouble getting into this, even though I'm very interested in the story. I have it for a full week, so maybe I'll try again--or get the book.

If anyone felt similarly after watching and can tell me that it just starts slow, I'd appreciate it. I'm puzzled because I'm on a real documentary kick lately (just saw BLind Spot about Hitler's secetary, and about six others which I enjoyed). :shrug:

[Sapphire Blue]

3. I'd like to know what you think if/when you view it!