Mary is AGAST to Learn About Hitler – Don Hanley’s blog #49

When I’m struggling to stay awake, I do a lot of reading and writing; I enjoy being asleep and visiting with Mary, John, Ruth, Luke, and everyone who comes into our dream world. So, I was happy to return to my dreamy little town of Nazareth a few years after Jesus’s execution.

Again, Mary greeted me warmly, and after I sat in ‘my’ chair, Mary asked, “Well, Don, when you are awake back in the 21st century, what do you do all day? You can’t be doing much physically if you are as frail there as you appear here with us, so what do you do to keep out of mischief?” She chuckled, and Luke and John joined her.

“Well, I do a lot of reading and some writing. I've written a few books since I retired from counseling and teaching. I am writing a novel I’m calling School of St. Smiles, about what I hope will become the kind of schools we’ll have in the future.

I thought of you, Mary when I came up with the title because your smile inspires me to live more fully and lovingly.” She acknowledged me with that smile. I went on, “The book I’m currently reading is a fictional story about two young and intelligent American women before and during the Second World War.  I tried to explain 19th and 20th-century politics and got many questioning faces. So, I returned to the book I was reading and said, “It is based on true happenings here on earth and starts around the time I was born in 1933. What I found most discouraging is that at that time, nine out of ten German people professed to be Christians, and yet they allowed a fellow named Hitler to become the emperor of Germany. Germany is a large country, about a thousand miles north of Judea. In only a few years, under orders from Hitler, the people there amassed a war machine that killed at least six million Jews and other people he, and his fellow henchmen declared undesirables simply because of the color of their skin or ethnic background or any other reason Hitler declared were undesirable. Some real loving Christians were added to the list of undesirables, and they were executed as well. I think that Hitler would even make a Roman emperor look nice.”

Mary turned white, and I feared she would faint as I talked about all this. She, John, Luke, and Ruth were shocked into silence for several minutes. Finally, Mary took a deep breath and murmured, “You said that most of these Germans who followed or obeyed Hitler called themselves ‘Christians’? How in the world could they dare to say that? Did they know what Jesus taught and what they needed to do if they truly wanted to be his followers?”

I looked at all four of my shocked friends and said, “I don’t know, but I do know that throughout history, most people follow men who come across as strong leaders who they believe will help them be safe and may even become prosperous. And I think that schools too often explicitly tell students to be quiet, sit still, do what they are told, and think only what the teacher tells them to think. That, to me, is indoctrination and not education. Tell me what you think about what Jesus would say about that.”

Luke was the first one to respond, “Jesus always told us to explore what we hear from learned people thoroughly and to compare what we hear from as many sources as possible and also listen to our own heart, and then follow our best and most life-giving ideas and then make a tentative decision as best we can. Our decision must be tentative but not absolute nor unchangeable.” John added, “Luke, that is a real mouthful, and I agree that it reflects what Jesus wanted and what we all must do to have a loving, creative, and peaceful world. again I'll declare that Jesus never said anything that he thought was absolutely to believe and to do and that is to believe and to become loving people. And that we all have the power within us to do that!” So it is not even important to even know who Jesus is or was." 

I loved what Luke and John said, and I wanted to hear more, but darn it, I vanished from the group – so . . .

Please open your heart, follow Luke’s and John's words, but don't just listen to them but live them.