my question this week: if i could go back in time, would i kill hitler to avoid the holocaust?
i'm sure many people have wished they could go back and do this. a large part of the church neglected to do much about the holocaust, but a man named dietrich bonhoffer was arrested as part of a plot to kill hitler. was he right? no doubt the world could have avoided one of the most heinous chapters in its history had hitler been taken out before the killing began. so the easy answer would be yes. to take one life to save millions seems like a no brainer. and surely, if anyone deserved to be taken out, it was hitler, right?
the only thing that gets in the way, of course, is Jesus. the whole don't kill thing. if pragmatism were the best way to consider this, the answer would be obvious. sacrifice one life to save many. but Jesus had to go and tell us to love all people. and how can you kill those you are called to love. so as much as it sounds crazy, my belief in Jesus forbids me to kill anyone. for any reason. i hesitate to call myself a pacifist, but it is hard to justify killing in light of what Jesus taught, and how he lived. maybe impossible.
so maybe a better question for followers of the Jesus Way to consider is Would you give your life to stop hitler? that is how Jesus took on the evil in the world. with love and sacrifice. it worked for him. so do we believe that his way is the best way to live? can his love (lived out through us) change the world?
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2 comments:
I honestly think that if I could go back and prevent the holocaust from happening by killing Hitler, then I would do it. I don't know if Jesus would support me in this, but when it comes too all of the suffering that those people went through, I probably would resort to murder to prevent it. That's just me though.
Of course, you have to realize the obvious fact that we can't go back in time. Hindsight is definitely 20/20 in this case. If I was living during the reign of Hitler, not exactly knowing what he was about to do then I wouldn't kill him. Even if I knew what he was doing at the time I don't think I would kill him, I would probably just pray.
It's really hard to say because when you take matters into your own hands to the point of murder you are sort of showing that you don't trust God. On the other hand, does the family that got split up and killed in the holocaust care about that? I don't think I would.
What a messy issue.
indeed it is, matt. and it would obviously prevent unspeakable suffering. but i just couldn't justify it through jesus.
he's pesky that way.
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