"The message of the church to the world can be none other than the Word of God to the world. This Word is: Jesus Christ, and salvation in this name. It is in Jesus Christ that God's relationship to the world is determined. We do not know any other relationship of God to the world apart from Jesus Christ. Therefore the church, too, has no relationship to the world other than through Jesus Christ. ... The message of God's love for the world places the church-community into a relationship of responsibility for the world. In both word and deed, the church-community has to witness to the world concerning its faith in Christ, to work on removing any offense, and to make room for the Gospel in the world. Wherever this responsibility is denied, Christ is denied; for it is the responsibility that corresponds to God's love of the world." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)...executed by the Nazis for his resistance to Hitler.
[Detail of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer memorial in Berlin.]
"Bonhoeffer was stripped of clothing in his cell, tortured and ridiculed by the guards, and led naked into the execution yard. The lack of sufficient gallows to hang thousands of Germans after the July 20 Plot had caused Hitler and Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels to seize on the idea of using meathooks from slaughterhouses and slowly hoisting the victim to dangle from an incrementally tightening noose formed of piano wire."
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