Editor, Times-Union: I must say, I did not sleep again last night with the heavy burden of our country bearing down on me.
The warning cry I heard from our pulpit this past Sunday morning at church mirrored the cry I heard last night from Eric Metaxis at the Right to Life banquet as he spoke of the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The comparisons to what he experienced in Germany with the Third Reich and Hitler’s takeover were breathtaking. Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have died a martyr, but God gave him to us as an example for this time, and this place America finds herself in. We are in the same boat right now.
The American church is silent. There are a few prophets sprinkled here and there, such as the one I heard Sunday, but the pulpits are silent just as the German church was. We are too busy running our daily lives to realize we have a tiny window of opportunity to get this right. In Bonhoeffer's time, the Christians were silent as the Jews were being slaughtered in the gas chambers. The church knew this was happening, but decided to sing louder so they would not have to hear it. The church today remains silent as the millions of babies are sucked out of their mothers and dismembered all in the name of choice. The pulpits are silent with the only weapon we have to stop this: the voting booth. They are too afraid to “get political.”
Folks ... Church ... we are entering the point of no return. Will you speak out? Or will you just worship a little louder in order to not hear the screams of the unborn and the loss of your freedom. Let me repeat: We have a window of time (40 days to be specific). Will you stay silent because you are embarrassed? Or will you use every last fiber of your being to get involved and do something? I know I choose the later. I will not die with blood on my hands from my silence.
After the evening was over last night, they had the elected officials, community leaders and pastors stand up and had those of us who stand with them put our hand on them as they prayed the benediction. My friend Amy and I stood next to an African American pastor. When the prayer was finished he turned to us with tears in his eyes and said, “Thank you for standing with me.” It gripped my heart.
If your pastor is silent ... is it because he is afraid of you? Is it because he is worried about his church firing him? Is it because you have not challenged him to speak out? Or, like we heard at the candidate night, is he a pastor (I use that term loosely who believes killing babies is OK.) If your pulpit is silent, is it because your pastor is under a spiritual attack? Have you prayed for him to have boldness? If your pulpit is silent ... and you have done all of the above ... why are you still there? I believe we are just as responsible for a silent pulpit as the shepherds are.
Does he know you stand with him?
Do you stand with him?
Monica Boyer Kosciusko Silent NO More Warsaw, via e-mail
