Dear Editor,

I recently spoke at a church on the subject of the spiral of silence within the modern American church.

This is not a new concept but one developed by a German sociologist referring to the church of Germany and the rise of Hitler. It says that as the price of speaking up becomes more challenged, those who speak up become less and less. Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this in the churches of Germany in the 1930s and ’40s. It applies to our churches in America today. We are so enamored with “cheap grace” and the “idol of evangelism” that we have forgotten that we still should speak against the things God called evil that we find in both the Old and New Testament. History, if we survive much longer as a nation, will not speak kindly to the pastors, priests, and congregants of our modern churches if we continue to be quiet from the Altar, pulpit and doors of our churches.

Will we be remembered for our sexual revolution, that government is our provider and not God, that a man can have a baby, that some boys are girls and some girls are boys, that marriage is not only between a man and a woman but could be between two men and two women, or perhaps this generation will be remembered as allowing the Communists/Marxists/Socialists/Globalists to take away our freedoms and banish Christianity from the public square in America? Surely the question will be asked of this generation in America, “Where were the Pastors and Christians in all this?”

Eric Mataxas in his book, “Letter to the American Church” spoke of Bonhoeffer, saying we need a religionless Christianity. One that is not satisfied with the status quo.

A Christianity that doesn’t speak against evil is no Christianity at all. We become no better than paganist. John the Baptist spoke against Herod. Jesus called the Pharisees white washed tombs filled with dead bones.

Jesus overturned the money changer tables and went after them with whips. Jesus would have been the epitome of ‘toxic masculinity” by today’s feminist definition.

Christian don’t let a corrupt government and culture define you. You are children of the King of the Universe. If the church stays silent we may become the Israel of the day of Jeremiah.

“Their houses are full of deceit; therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine … Shall I not visit for these things? Saith the Lord; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” (Jeremiah 5:27-29) What will you do pastor, priest and church?

Randy Marple

Shadyside