Free Republic

What if stupidity isn’t about intelligence at all, but about surrendering the will to think? In this chilling and timely video essay, we explore Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity — a terrifying insight into how smart, well-meaning people can become blind instruments of destruction. Drawing on Bonhoeffer’s life, the psychology of conformity, Milgram’s obedience experiments, social media echo chambers, and the rise of AI-driven misinformation, we reveal why stupidity isn't a lack of intellect — it's a surrender of critical thought. 👉 Why do intelligent people support dangerous ideas? 👉 How does groupthink override personal judgment? 👉 What does it...

The task of offering an analysis of the movie Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin has been complicated for me because the promotion for the movie shows Dietrich Bonhoeffer with a gun in his hand. My attempts to recover from this misleading portrayal have no doubt prejudiced me. I need to confess this may make me less than a reliable witness, but I am determined to give as objective a view as possible. As a lifelong reader of Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, I am not easily pleased with cinematic depictions of his theology.For my part, I would rather have Bonhoeffer depicted...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian, is a Christian hero for many. Executed by the Nazis just days before the end of WWII for his participation in a plot to assassinate Hitler, Bonhoeffer is hailed as a 20th-century martyr. But Bonhoeffer struggled with a moral dilemma – his religious views were in stark contrast to the evil he saw all around him. He chose to face possible imprisonment and execution and to remain faithful to the principles of his belief in God. Across the political and theological spectrum, Bonhoeffer is celebrated as an icon of true Christianity and his theological writings...

Paula Bonhoeffer saw the risks of educating her small, impressionable children in the state’s schools. ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), the German theologian who was hanged in April 1945 by the Nazis for spying on and opposing Hitler’s regime. .... Eric Metaxas’ biography of the Christian martyr—Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Spy—... time to learn more about the man who defied Hitler and paid with his life. ... Metaxas’ work offers a penetrating look into Bonhoeffer’s life, mind, faith, and family. Bonhoeffer was not the only remarkable person in his family. Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer—Bonhoeffer’s parents—brought eight children into the world in the...

YouTube removed an entire radio show from its platform this week, hosted by popular Christian author and social commentator Eric Metaxas, citing violations of their community standards. Metaxas – author of biographies on the lives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, and William Wilberforce, among many other books – announced the news to his social media pages on Tuesday. “It’s happened,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “Despite our going FAR out of our way to comply with their arbitrary ‘community standards’, YouTube decided to remove every single video we’ve ever done on the Eric Metaxas Show off their platform.” The...

OH MY WORD!!!! Fellow Freepers you MUST listen to this!!!! God was NOT mocked yesterday!!!! He was alive and well and used His servant, Eric Metaxas, yesterday to speak straight to the President. It starts at about 35min, BUT the GREAT moment takes place at the 45min mark. BEFORE the Preisdent speaks, God through Metaxas, says that people, even Satan use the scripture to do the OPPOSITE of what God does. I was BLOWN away!!!! Eric did not know that Obama would misuse the scripture in just a few short minutes but GOD DID!!!! THEN the most amazing thing happens...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: Whoever lives beneath the cross of Jesus, and has discerned in the cross of Jesus the utter ungodliness of all people and of their own hearts, will find there is no sin that can ever be unfamiliar. Whoever has once been appalled by the horror of their own sin, which nailed Jesus to the cross, will no longer be appalled by even the most serious sin of another Christian; rather they know the human heart from the cross of Jesus. Such persons know how totally lost is the human heart in sin and weakness, how it...

video starts to get to business at the 8 min mark. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is well known for his heroic opposition to the Nazis. Dr. Hauerwas' lecture examines Bonhoeffer's understanding of lying and why it's approporiate to hold politics to a higher standard of truthful speech. This relationship between truth and politics is a particular challenge for democratic regimes. From the University of California, Berkeley series, "Burke Lectureship on Religion & Society"

On MSNBC’s Jansing and Co. author Eric Metaxas compared the Obama's administration's encroachment on religious freedoms to Nazi Germany. “I met the president. I gave him a copy of my book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which he said he’s going to read,” Metaxas said during the interview. “In that book, you read about what happened to an amazingly great country called Germany…” “In the beginning, it always starts really, really small. We need to understand as Americans — if we do not see this as a bright line in the sand — if you’re not a Catholic, if you use contraception...

Speakers at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in the nation’s capital usually keep their talks diplomatic. After all, the room is filled with ambassadors, lawmakers from both parties, Cabinet members, and people of various faiths from around the world. But Eric Metaxas, the featured speaker Thursday morning and the author of biographies on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce, talked to an audience of 4,000 important people about false religion, human depravity, poverty, slavery, and abortion. But the New York author delivered his sharp commentary with his trademark wit, which kept the audience roaring with laughter. The halls of the Washington...

The American Revolution was almost contemporaneous with the French one, and politically the two were not unconnected; yet they were profoundly different in character. The American democracy is not founded upon the emancipated man bit. quite the contrary, upon the kingdom of God and the limitation of earthly powers by the sovereignty of God. It is indeed significant when, in contrast to the Declaration of the Rights of Man, American historians can say that the federal constitution was written by men who were conscious of original sin and of the wickedness of the human heart. Earthly wielders of power, and...

In getting ready for tonight, Charles Gray asked me to keep two things in mind.  First, he asked me to remember that we have a mixed audience here in Houston Hall, both Catholic and non-Catholic.  Second, he asked me to explain what Catholics mean when we talk about the “sanctity” of human life, and why the Church deals with issues like abortion so vigorously in the public square.  As it turns out, most of my sources tonight are not Catholic.  That shouldn’t be surprising.  Catholics have no monopoly on respect for human dignity.  Catholics do have a very long tradition...

Much of the academic treatment of the famous German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer leaves one unaware of the fact that the young pastor was a strict constructionist regarding scripture. Even the film Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace leaves the viewer unaware of his traditional perspective on Biblical truth. Because of the attention received in journals, books, and films many are aware of the courageous stand of Bonhoeffer in the face of Nazi persecution but far fewer learn that he first stood against liberal Biblical “criticism” of Schleiemacher and Harnack. The relatively recent 2010 biography by Eric Metaxas goes far in setting the...

Joel Belz's informal survey of WORLD readers (May 8, May 22, June 5 issues) showed that 75 percent were pessimistic concerning the future of America, and more than half of those thought that things would become "really bad." Joel's attitude, and mine, is that horrible times might come, or might not: God is in control, and none of us knows the future. But what if? What if we found ourselves living under dictatorship, with our children and ourselves given daily instructions to kill those who disagree? Our runner-up for book of the year is Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (April...

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.—Dietrich Bonhoeffer Question. Silence in the face of murder in the streets of Tehran and a government killing our citizens and soldiers. Vocal support for democratic elections and unseen consequences.

Long ago, during the darkest chapter of the 20th century, a movie was released entitled Hitler’s Children. While the film is virtually forgotten, I cannot forget a certain scene involving some words a Nazi official uttered to a dissident, a heroic Catholic bishop. Dripping with contempt, the officer said (I’m paraphrasing), “In a few years, the churches will be empty.” It was a thought he obviously relished. Ah, Hollywood and its fiction … or, is this a snapshot of history, a rare case in which Tinseltown’s art imitated life? For many people, such a question seems rhetorical. They “know” Nazism...

Economy in a freefall. Political rhetoric. An apathetic electorate dismayed by the slide of their country into irrelevence. Theological liberalism. Doctrinal indifference. America, 2008? No. Germany, just before electing Adolf Hitler to lead their country, with the apparent support of the majority of those who considered themselves Christians. We're rereading a book []by Erwin Lutzer []. In it Lutzer looks at the holocaust and the rise of Hitler and asks the question: where was the Church? This book is a fascinating read, particularly in this time of economic upheaval and election year rhetoric. [snip]Did you know that Hitler was elected...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi / Archbishop Chaput Denver, Aug 25, 2008 / 03:27 pm (CNA).- In a statement eloquently titled “On the Separation of Sense and State,” the Archbishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., and his Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley harshly criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for giving a confusing view of the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion, during a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”“Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate” –says the statement- “tend to take a hard line in talking about the ‘separation of Church and state.’  But their idea...

In his seminal work on Ethics the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that "it is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to tell a lie." At first glance, coming from a brilliant mind such as Bonhoeffer's, this conclusion would seem a worrisome contradiction. Generally, the act of speaking the truth, from a person whose natural inclination is to lie, should be viewed as a positive and a hopeful trend in that person's character development; a turn in the right direction; whereas a lie coming from the mouth of a person whom we...

from the PBS website for "Bonhoeffer": He was born into a comfortable, upper middle class family and he risked it all to join the German Resistance. He had deep respect for human life, but he committed himself to joining plots to assassinate Hitler. Facing the death sentence in prison, he wrote some of the most compelling theology of the 20th century. (snip) Bonhoeffer is the compelling story of one man’s struggle against Nazism and its intimidation of the German Church. His legacy includes a poignant body of work that documents his struggles to determine the will of God and his...