Because I draft my blogs about a month before I publish—an author’s convention aimed somewhat unsuccessfully at preventing embarrassment and regret from hastily penned screeds—I am writing this mere days after a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I am very progressive. It won’t surprise you that I would rather elect my pastor’s dog than Donald Trump. You’ll also know that I’m a devout Christian, so I would also never want to see Trump nor anyone else violently harmed. Despite my nonviolent faith, I had two ideas that immediately popped into my head when I heard the news. My first thought went to the many years of Trump’s own violent and racist bombast and more specifically was, “it’s kind of amazing it took this long for someone to try this.” He seems to attract lunatics and eventually a lunatic brings a gun to the party. My second thought was of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

You see, Dietrich Bonhoffer plotted with friends to assassinate Hitler.

I don’t equate Trump with Hitler, but there is some shared rhetorical DNA. Setting aside Trump’s seeming authoritarian aspirations, I do not for a moment think that he is even mentally competent enough or capable enough of rising to that level of ultimate evil. I am however puzzled why Trump would invoke Nazis and Hitler too many times to be a coincidence. It’s weird and offensive.

Also weird to me is how Bonhoeffer, one of the world’s finest theologians and noted pacifists, would find himself at least peripherally related to an assassination plot against Hitler. Bonhoeffer quickly grew disillusioned with the Nazi party as he witnessed their growing anti-Semitism, outright racism and their attempt to bully the church. He became quite vocal in his opposition and determined that Christianity required citizens to stand up against evil.

Despite his opposition to violence, Bonhoeffer eventually concluded that Hitler was the embodiment of evil and needed to be stopped at all costs. Maybe it was due to the influence of his family and academic connections to German miliary officers who saw first-hand what atrocities were being committed in Germany’s name. Maybe he read too much Saint Augustine. One should never read too much Saint Augustine under the age of 50.

I think Bonhoeffer was wrong to resort to violence, but that’s cheap for me to say in my comfy office chair. I am unencumbered in my safe harbor to cling to radical pacifism and nonviolence. Tragically, Bonhoeffer’s involvement with the German resistance—although quite limited—ended in his arrest by the Gestapo, imprisonment and eventual hanging. We were robbed of one of the greatest theological minds in history.

Let me again be clear. Trump is not Hitler. Even though I am proudly progressive, I don’t even believe Trump presents an existential threat to democracy as so many pundits might tell you. I believe in our institutions, and I believe God is in ultimate control. Trump does present a threat to our national security apparatus and to Ukraine. He is a threat to women’s rights and the rights of the weakest in our society. He is a convicted felon and has been found liable for sexual assault. He is puzzlingly incurious and uniquely unqualified. I’m pretty sure we’ve only scratched the surface of his heinous behavior, yet scratching the surface reveals a sexual predator, compulsive liar, an emotionally stunted narcissist and con artist. Despite those threats, Bonhoeffer and anyone else who thinks violence is the answer is wrong. Whatever you think of Trump, he deserves to live his life, lose his elections and face his criminal consequences like anyone else.

Bonhoeffer left us a rich legacy of courage, conviction and will, even facing overwhelming odds. His sacrifice continues to teach us about our own calls to sacrifice in our faithful, Biblical quest for justice. Setting aside his temporary misreckoning of the value of violence in God’s Kingdom, Bonhoeffer offered his life to an authentic faith and continues to call us to live by Christ’s words.

Bonhoeffer’s Undying Call: Do Not Settle for Cheap Grace

Modern humans are obsessed with shortcuts and easy answers to life’s problems in ways that destroy our relationships and psychological health. A gun on a rooftop at a rally is a shortcut. Divorce over compatibility issues rather than seeking deeper connection is a shortcut. Blaming others instead of working together for a solution is a shortcut. Asking ChatGPT for answers instead of studying is a shortcut. Self-medicating instead of addressing your problems is a shortcut. Playing one more level of a video game instead of spending more time in prayer is a shortcut.

There are shortcuts in faith, too, and Bonhoeffer called those shortcuts, “cheap grace.” Cheap grace abounds in many of our churches. These churches promise wealth, abundance, happiness and instant forgiveness without repentance. They do not demand transformation, relationship and union with God, they instead focus on what they consider to be right beliefs. Bonhoeffer was more interested in action because Jesus is more interested in action.

Cheap grace is Christianity diluted by our obsession with shortcuts. How do I get salvation? How do I feel better? How do I get out of whatever irritating situation arises today?

Most Protestants will be surprised to learn that every New Testament writer who wrote about final judgement tied it to works. Here’s just a taste:

Romans 2:5-13

But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury. There will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil, both the Jew first and the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, both the Jew first and the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified. 

Certainly, Paul goes on to discuss justification by faith, but the larger arc in his writing is obedience to faith. Showing up on Sunday but not following Jesus the rest of the week is cheap grace. Praying for God’s mercy without working to dismantle injustice is cheap grace.

Costly Grace

Bonhoeffer gave his life demonstrating costly grace. Cheap grace tells us that we can be Christians without following Christ, without living like Christ, without asking Christ into our hearts to transform us. I’ve written previously how this cheap grace has cheapened the church, cheapened our message and is driving Gen Z out of the pews. It weakens our ability to be a force for good in this world.

Bonhoeffer reminds us that Jesus’s call was not to be happy and wealthy but to pick up our cross. The cross has become an icon for Christians, sort of like the Nike swoosh or McDonald’s golden arches. We’ve lost some of our ability to understand what it means to pick up our cross when we wear crosses around our necks and stick them on car bumpers. If it helps, imagine instead that Jesus said, “if you want to follow me, go sit in an electric chair.”

Christianity is radical, difficult and dangerous. It challenges us. It means standing up for what is right even if members leave your church, neighbors steal your pride flags, and your car gets egged. For Bonhoeffer, it meant standing up for justice all the way to a Nazi hangman’s noose. That is costly grace.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that place in my own faith. But I am certain that there is no point in being a Christian if I am unwilling to be transformed by Christ. I don’t want to love my neighbor most of the time, but Christ compels me to act against my own self-interest. Christ calls me to forgive. When we love and forgive each other, we save the entire world one person at a time.

Let’s Just Try to Be a Little More Authentic

This kind of faith isn’t a burden, it’s a liberation. Jesus’s yoke is lighter than the yoke of guilt, despair, inaction and unfulfilling shortcuts.

Matthew 11:28-30

Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I’m not telling you to go to your death like Bonhoeffer. Perhaps Bonhoeffer’s worldly plotting lead as much to his death as his devotion. But his devotion to an authentic faith should call us to extend ourselves beyond our comfort zone. Jesus will join us there. Bonhoeffer’s perpetual inspiration is for us to look at ways our grace is cheap and look for places in our daily lives where we can make grace more costly. What would it mean to live out our faith in a way that makes a difference in the world right now?

If you haven’t read Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, or if like me it’s been awhile, pick it up.