The lessons learned from his and from others' faith in the face of hideous oppression serves us well to this day. It's particularly appropriate to remember him and the others on Christmas Day.
Noteworthy:
"At Christmas time in 1942 Bonhoeffer had circulated a long letter to his closest colleagues assessing a decade of resistance, later reprinted as the essay 'After Ten Years.' In it he asks the question, 'Who stands firm?'
Today, there are Christians who quietly stand up to tyranny. On the morning of December 25, they will acknowledge the day’s significance.
In Beijing, a husband will wish his wife 'Merry Christmas.'
In Havana, a family will exchange gifts.
A minister in Riyadh will read the Gospel.
A priest in Pyongyang will silently say Mass.
These men and women, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, resist without fear. They grasp a fundamental fact about the intersection of freedom and faith, as true for Christians as it is for men and women of all religions. They understand that to be human is to know God; to be human and free is to know God fully."
And those of us here in America, while not oppressed and directly threatened as our brethren listed above, must continue to fight the battle against the insidious attacks on and repression of our beliefs by those of a certain worldview..
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