Good Men Doing Nothing

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke

I have become more aware of the issue of our silence that we Evangelical Christians in America struggle with, today more than ever. James wrote, “If anyone, then, know the good they ought to do, and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:17) The sin of omission, of what we are not  doing (speaking out against obvious evil), is just as serious to God as the sin of commission. As it was said wisely by Edmund Burke “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Today most of our leaders are not speaking out publicly as a completely anti-Christ ideology is being forced down our throats. And we in the pews, like sheep, have gone astray along with them by just taking it lying down.

I have been greatly impacted by a recent book by Eric Metaxas entitled, “Letter To The American Church.” He tells a haunting story of what happened in Nazi Germany just 90 years ago. There were roughly 18,000 German pastors in the country at that time. They we divided into three groups. There was one group of 3,000 who strongly supported the Nazi’s agenda and there was another group of roughly 3,000, known as “the Confessing Church” who strongly opposed Hitler and the Nazis. But there was this other group of 12,000 pastors who were not willing to take a stand one way or another. They wanted to remain “neutral.”  Metaxas reminds us that the church had great cultural power in Germany at that time but when they failed to use their voice, they “doomed the entire nation. The blood of the scores of millions who died in the Second World War and the blood of millions murdered in…the Holocaust is on the hands of those twelve thousand.” (pgs. 45-46)

What are we afraid of speaking out about? Metaxas, in his book, mentions some of the issues that we as Christians are afraid to speak up about. Interestingly, they are  all having to do with our children. He writes, “the unborn are murdered and body parts are being sold for profit…very young children in schools are being fed pernicious ideas on the subject of sexuality…older children are being confused by sexual activists that they agree to have their bodies mutilated, so they can never become the men and women God created them to be.” (pg. 84)

Why don’t we even speak out in defense of our own children? There are many factors that has brought us to this place, but it basically comes down to the desire to be accepted, to be liked by others so we that we will “not turn them off.” We pretend, like those 12,000 German pastors in the 1930s that we can stay “neutral” so “political involvement” won’t but a stumbling block in the way of people hear our gospel message. He addresses this self-deception, “Do you worry that being negatively portrayed in the media might make it harder for you to share your faith with skeptics? That is not an entirely wrong concern but with every day that passes it becomes less important. If we allow our ideological enemies tell us what we can and cannot say and what views we can and cannot have, we have taken our eyes off God.” (pg. 85)

How did this betrayal of our faith by saying and doing ever happen? 1930s Germany is again instructive. A woman by the name of Elisabeth Noelle-Neuman, a German sociologist and political scientist who lived through the horrors of the Nazi Germany came up with a concept which she called the “Spiral of Silence.” Metaxas explains, “when people fail to speak, the price of speaking rises. As the price to speak rises, still fewer speak out, which further causes the price to rise, so that fewer people yet will speak out, until a whole culture or nation is silenced. This is what happened in Germany.” (pg. 52). Are we willing to stand with “the 3,000” in our nation at this time of history? History has not treated those silent 12,000 German pastors very kindly. But how will history judge us, especially after having their tragic example we could have learned from, we have chosen also to remain silent?

In closing, I want to be clear. This is not a call to sit back and be critical of our pastors. This is a message for the laity, for “garden variety Christians” like me. The late great CK Chesterton, when asked what is wrong with the world, responded with two words, “I am.” I am asking myself, “what does the Lord want me to do in my sphere of influence? I am looking at anything I can do to fight the demonic agenda that is out to destroy the bodies and souls of the unborn, innocent children and vulnerable youth. I am finding out what is already going on around me and joining with those who are already engaged in the battle. Then by doing something I am no longer doing nothing. You and I can repent of doing nothing and, like the boy who gave Jesus his lunch of fish and loaves, offer that something we have and put it into HIS hands to work with!

Lord Jesus, lead us into practical repentance for our silence. Please show us how and where we can start. In Your Victorious Name, Amen