Our Lenten journey is rapidly drawing to a close, friends. Yesterday in a hotly contested matchup between Constance and Julian of Norwich, Julian prevailed 55% to 45%. She will meet the winner of today's Faithful Four battle between Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Sojourner Truth for the Golden Halo.
To make it to the Faithful Four, Bonhoeffer defeated Athanasius, Barnabas, and Columba while Truth made it past Soren Kierkegaard, Frances Joseph-Guudet, and Absalom Jones.
In the last in-season episode of Monday Madness, Tim and Scott discuss the millions of blank mugs sitting in a warehouse just waiting to be graced with the image of the 2016 Golden Halo Winner. Among other things.
After today, the scene will be set for the Championship Round on the Wednesday of Holy Week, aka "Spy Wednesday." In the meantime, go vote!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As we begin Holy Week reflecting on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man whose lifetime could have overlapped mine if only he had been less courageous and committed to living a fully Christian life, I find myself queasy. Queasy over his gruesome death at Flossenbürg only days before that death camp would be freed by the allied soldiers. Queasy over my knowledge that much as I wish it weren’t true, I wouldn’t have his courage.
Bonhoeffer came from a privileged family where a life of music, scholarship and travel was the norm. Yet when the German Evangelical Church welcomed the Nazi regime into power, Bonhoeffer joined the “Confessing Church” in protest. He began teaching at Finkenwalde, a Confessing Church seminary. But in 1937 the Nazis declared the teaching of these students illegal. After two years of being banned from teaching and even from public speaking, Bonhoeffer left Germany to teach at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Within a few weeks he felt that he had made a mistake and made plans to return to his homeland. His New York friends, fearing for his safety, encouraged him to continue doing God’s work of teaching and preaching far from the threatening Nazi regime. But, he opted to go back to Germany knowing of the dangers.
At about this time, Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi was employed in the Nazi’s military intelligence office. In 1940, D
ohnanyi arranged for Bonhoeffer’s employment in his office. But while in this role he was assisting with the resistance movement. As part of this work, he and his brother-in-law amassed large financial donations ear-marked to help Jewish people escape Germany and other Nazi-occupied countries. It was by tracking these funds that the Nazis found out about their resistance work and had both men arrested, ultimately leading to their deaths.
After the war, ordinary German people, many of whom considered themselves to be Christians, said that they were unaware of the extermination of millions of people. They didn’t speak out against the atrocities because for years they had been stirred into a frenzy of hatred and fear of the “other.” Did they not really know what was happening to those families who were disappearing? Did they not really know what was happening in those camps?
Of course, they didn’t have 24/7 news cycles and social media as we do today. We don’t have an excuse to ignore those who stir up hatred and fear. As Christians, we must speak out against those who create dissent because of fear of people of another faith tradition or those speaking another language. As we worship in this Holy Week, we are called to follow Jesus. And we have the added benefit of having Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s example to follow. His witness and courage spans the decades, challenging us in this 21st century culture of “us” versus “them.” I pray that we will heed his message.
-- Beth Lewis
Sojourner Truth
When I started researching Sojourner Truth, I knew about what a 5th grader knows while doing a basic report for Black History Month: she was an ex-slave in early America, and gave a famous speech about women’s rights. She had that catch phrase, “Ain’t I a woman?” which made her sound folksy, like someone you’d want to drink a beer with.
What I did not expect was how stone cold brilliant she was. She spoke Dutch and English fluently. She spoke extemporaneously about political and social issues with more persuasion than men like Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. She carved out a place and a name for herself with little more than her wits. Her words remain as wise, as relevant, and as slyly funny as they were in the 19th century. (“Oh no, honey,” she said once. “I can’t read little things like letters. I read big things like men.”)
Sojourner was so prescient as to be eerie. Her advocacy of prison reform, for the abolition of capital punishment, for the rights of women, and for Black women specifically, reflect concerns that few others were talking about at the time, but would occupy American politics years in the future (and continue to occupy us today). Before the end of the Civil War, she asserted that newly-freed slaves would need reparations, and access to the property that had been confiscated from former Confederates, because otherwise they would be restricted to sharecropping, and other forms of economic slavery. (She was right).
But it would be a grave mistake to relegate Sojourner to being only a social activist. She did everything she did because of her unshakeable faith in 
Jesus Christ, and in her identity as a beloved and chosen child of God. She walked away from her life in bondage because Jesus told her to go. She changed her name because Jesus told her she had a job to seek the truth. She traveled the country, preaching the Good News of the equality that was the reality in God’s kingdom, and how to make that a reality in the kingdoms of the world. And she fought, tooth and nail, to live her life to make that true. Her every action was grounded in her faith in Christ.
I cannot imagine being in Sojourner’s shoes. Her life was filled with tragedy from a young age; not to mention what she faced from society at large. Yet, in the face of all that was arrayed against her, Sojourner held on to her faith, and her vision of Jesus called this world to, and with her heart fixed on these, she left us an incredible example, leading the way to a new world. After all, in her own words, “The truth is powerful, and will prevail.”
Vote Sojourner.
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218 comments on “Dietrich Bonhoeffer vs. Sojourner Truth”
Going with the Underdog! We all know Sojourner Truth maybe a Golden Halo will make Bonhoeffer more of a household name.
This was the most difficult choice today. Both are so deserving of this honor but in the end, I had to go with DB because he chose to go back to Germany, knowing that it was extremely dangerous. His writings speak to us in the chaotic, dangerous world we are living in today.
Like all folks, this is a hard choice. I lean to D.B. simply because he was courageous and faithful in times when many could not see the dangers. Sadly, there are echoes of D.B.'s time in our society's heart today that are equally dangerous, but subtle if you chose to ignore them.
Impossible choices once again. Drat! Can't vote against Bonhoeffer, one of my moral heroes; but I finally cast my vote for Sojourner. I appreciate and agree with the earlier suggestion that,were she in Bonhoeffer's place, she would done the same.
As others have said, really tough choice. I voted for Bonhoeffer, but either is deserving of the golden halo.
I think this is our closest contest this year. Both of their stories are alive in our world today. It is hard to make a choice between the two. The rising, open hatred and intolerance makes advocating for compassion, tolerance , equality and love a risky venture; one that might ask for great sacrifices from us, sacrifices that we have become unaccustomed to offer. What a powerful reminder for this week and every week.
Hardest choice yet. Both are heroes to me. I grew up looking to Bonhoeffer & Paul Tillich as 2 German theologians who each served Godde & the crazy world of WWII. Both chose honorably, & I read their work & respect their life choices. Having said that, I must vote for Sojourner, mostly because of my concern for the ongoing horror of inequality in this country but also because I pray that women today do not forget the sacrifices that women & men made/make toward equality for women, for all of us. May we never forget. May our younger sisters build on their "mothers" successes & move forward, not back.
It's true -- how difficult it is to vote for one or the other! From a different perspective, I know that I will rejoice in whoever gets the most votes today (and tomorrow) because they are inspiring and amazing people of God. I give thanks for them all.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer all the way. I knew little or nothing about him. Bravo, Beth for such a moving essay. It brought me to tears!
All four of the Faithful Four blogs have been great, as are the saints on whose behalf they were written. If I hadn't already decided to vote for, those blogs would not have made the decision easier.
Pat: You are so right! Cheers to the wonderful Celebrity Bloggers in this year of Lent Madness.
I agree totally - the Celebrity Bloggers have done a super job. And the whole Lent Madness experience this year has been wonderful - so many truly inspiring saints, and I have learned so much. Thank you SEC and the entire team! All four of the Faithful Four are truly worthy of the Golden Halo. The only problem is deciding which to vote for........
People!!!! GO JULIAN!!!!!
Some days I wonder if the "older" saint might have been an example for the "younger".
Sojourner for the win!
A closer vote than I had imagined. I voted for Sojourner because God uses base vessels for exalted purposes. Not to debase Ms. Truth. But we are reminded in scripture that God is glorified when the unlikely occurs. There must be a divine hand in action. Perhaps also for Dietrich -- he was the camel through the needle's eye. But I'm drawn more to the capstone, drawn from the rubble pile that the builders had rejected......
Maybe not a battle of prisoners in the final (I'd have preferred a battle of martyrs). Maybe a battle of one who stood still and one who went wandering, both to tell the story of a vision granted them, perhaps by God.
How can you choose between one who had everything and gave it up for Jesus and one who had nothing and followed Jesus anyway?
For the first time in Lent Madness history I read the comments before voting hoping to find a comment to help me choose...I did not find one. So I settled it by reflecting on the consequences of actions; Bonhoeffer lived the last months, days, and hours of his life with dignity...in the horror of a concentration camp. I became a nurse at Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA in the late fifties, early sixties. It took only a few images of people with numbers tattooed on their arms and memories of their stories to make my decision.
TRUTH!
I really want Dietrich to win the Golden Halo. I also want Sojourner to win the Golden Halo. And I ALSO want Julian to win the Golden Halo. That makes it very hard to vote! On the other hand, actually, this way I can't lose, huh? Today I decided I would vote for Sojourner. But as my cursor was hovering over her button, I just couldn't face not voting for Dietrich. So I moved my cursor, and then I couldn't face not voting for Sojourner! As long as I felt so equally torn, I decided to vote for Sojourner in the hope of having a person of color wearing the Golden Halo. Black Lives Matter.
ALL lives matter!
It is because all lives matter that the Black Lives Matter movement has found it necessary to form. All lives DO matter, but in actual practice it seems that very little attention is paid to the value of Black lives. So saying Black Lives Matter is important, precisely because all lives do matter. (Incidentally, I am Caucasian myself.) However, I don't think LentMadness is the appropriate place to discuss this. I tried to find you on Facebook, but there are a number of Donna Devlins. I am Kathy Floerke -- I think there's just one of me if you want to continue this dialog elsewhere.
Goodness! Several of me? There really is only one of me and I'm not on Facebook.
That is the truth! Just ask these saints.
My mother was a teenager during WW II. They truly did not know what atrosities were done to the Jews, only that they were taken away. Why did Western leaders, who were informed, not do anything sooner? The land where the synagogue stood was barren and bordered up as of 2006 when we went back to visit relatives. They lived on "Jew Alley" before the Nazis renamed it. My grandfather risked everything to help Jews and the resistance, narrowly avoiding arrest many times solely on his quick wit and quicker bicycle peddling. As much as I admire Sojourner Truth, a martyr outranks a preacher in my book every time.
Dietrich would go, and he did,returning to Germany from the safety of the US. If we lost Constance, maybe we can have Dietrich. I am married to the son of Holocaust survivors, so am biased.
People knew but were powerless. People fought but were nameless. Everyone's name was Johann Smith. People worked great deeds behind closed doors in the night. Even after the last bullet flew and the hate lived. No written record exists of what happened behind those closed doors in the dead of night. Remember the person who most people were afraid of was there neighbor who was also doing things in the dead of night. The SS had ears.
Sojourner Truth is the ideal evidence that the "soft bigotry of low expectations" should be forever banished. Slavery wasted so much talent. We are blessed by those brilliant people who rose above it and bequeathed such a great legacy. May it be so with the racism we have not yet escaped. Sojourner!
I agree, Kathy. In the United States, today, Sojourner is a more appropriate winner, though both are heroes for sure. I've only been a player for a short time, and I wonder how the male-female balance of winners has stacked up?
It was a tough choice. I am thrilled to have learned more about Sojourner Truth and in awe of what she accomplished. But I am German, my biological parents spent time in an SS prison. I must vote for a person of such conviction as Bonhoeffer.
Today in Lent Madness we have to chose between the two, a decision good for 2016. The choice we need to make is to follow either one of them, a choice that gives Christ the victory.
I was all ready to vote for Dietrich, until Megan wrote of Sojourner's intellect--"stone cold brilliant" are the exact words. So was Dietrich, but that was already known and expected. But for a woman who had been a slave to have been so brilliant, to have stood up for women's rights--that was unexpected.
Sometimes God is in the unexpected.
What was STruths name before she changed it? Both did great things. DB was about to get married but he was killed so he gets my vote
The woman we know as Sojourner Truth was born Isabella --she changed her name in the 1840s as a result of a vision. This is based on reviews of two biographies.
It was hard to choose today! I go with Sojourner Truth because her life was chronically difficult, where Bonhoeffer's life was acutely difficult.
I'll be happy either way.
In the year and a half he was imprisoned, DB was interrogated regularly by the Gestapo and never gave away his friends. At night, during the Allied bombing of Berlin, prison guards left their bomb shelter to huddle in DB's cell. They gave him paper and smuggled out letters to his former students, pastoring to the young pastors serving as soldiers in the army. Many of them are the ones who corrupted the East German leaders, and made possible the restoration of Germany. His theological writing, also smuggled out, may well restore our church in our postmodern time. To remember Dietrich only for "the plot" is to ignore his life, his service, and devalue the life of this good man and martyr for our time. And I think he, surely, would vote today for Sojo. Praise God for our heroes.
Dietrich had different mountains and valleys to travail, but they were as difficult for him as for the other saints including Sojourner. He would be the first to uphold Sojourner for her gifts and sacrifice...he knew what it meant for the "first to be last". A very difficult choice....but must admit a long time affection for Bonhoeffer.
For myself, this was the hardest selection to make.