1984: Orwell and Barmen

Here is an excellent essay by Robert McAfee Brown.

Although at first glance it may seem to be 30 years out-of-date, think of everything that has happened since 1984, including 9/11 and the global war on terror, and you will realize what the essay says is extremely important both for today and for tomorrow as well:

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1415

And in the name of ... G-d, we must protest today, as the signers of the Barmen Declaration did yesterday, when the leaders of a government begin to say, “Hear, trust and obey us. We’ll tell you what to think. We’ll decide what information you should have. If we withhold information, it is for your own good. If our public arguments don’t make sense, be assured that there are reasons behind them that we can’t really share with you.” When government officials begin to say such things, as ours clearly have, then that is the time for challenge, because when a government does that, it is beginning to play God over our lives, and the taste of such identification is a very heady thing. It is becoming identified with what Barmen calls the “other events and powers, figures and truths” that are trying to elicit unquestioning and docile loyalty.

Yes, we are at least 30 years beyond the point that our government started acting that way, and I personally believe we are now in the same position as the persons who signed the Barmen Declaration. We finally have spoken out concerning the evil that has taken over our world ... but unfortunately like them we waited too long. We are now on a roller coaster leading to destruction, and there is little we can do except hold on to our faith in G-d for the remainder of the ride.

For those of you would like to read it, you can find the Barmen Declaration here:

http://www.ucc.org/beliefs/barmen-declaration.html

Substitute "US" or "American" for the words "German" or "Nazi" in the declaration, and you will realize that the seizure of power which took place in the US following 9/11 had an impact which was in many ways identical to what happened after the seizure of power which took place in Germany following the 1933 Reichstag fire.