Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.
Albert Einstein, Jew by birth and Atheist by choice as quoted in this Time article from 68 years ago (Monday, Dec. 23, 1940).
It's long-ish, but well worth your time. You'll hear of pastors arrested for not changing their message to fit the will of the Führer. They refused to submit to the Führer over Christ. The courts freed them, but the Nazi's just threw them in the concentration camps. Then, when offered release with the sole condition being that they not preach, not that they change their preaching, just that they stop preaching, they refused. To be imprisoned and forced into silence was preferable to voluntarily not preaching.
Said one daughter of writing to her imprisoned minister father, "When I write the address, 'Concentration Camp, Sachsenhausen,' then I am always very proud."
HT: Jessie Gardner via. Twitter
]]>Capitulating to unrighteous authority always seems to be wrong.. unless the authority's title is Pharisee.. or pastor.. or husband.
Guess what I am saying is that the pressure to capitulate is one found in almost every realm of life. Those in authority always seem to be interested in the "greater good" and doing what is "right" in their eyes. They seem to have little regard for the rights of the individual.
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