I appreciate this topic more than I can express - your views resonated with me. I'm in my mid-50s and my late grandfather was a German Catholic, with all the baggage that entailed in the early 1900s. And while he emigrated to the US in the 1920s, the long reach of Nazi Germany was never swept under the rug. From his retired, late-in-life friends in the 1970s-early 1990s in Missouri who had been WW2 pilots who came home with German wives, to photo albums of his extended family who remained in Germany during the war, it was a topic in our house. I live in Texas now. From week to week I'm appalled at our political candidates who use Christianity for credibility, the creep of religion into political strategizing and overt programs to develop political candidates within the church, and the vocal "neighbors" on Nextdoor who lack the self-awareness to see they're walking or being led on a depraved and destructive path. I try not to let the most blatant and uninformed statements go unchallenged, as politely as I can. These issues deserve more public discussion despite the admonishment that "it's not polite" or "too confrontational" or "made someone feel bad" - all along the lines of being agreeable and letting THAT group of people have their say without question. I feel like it's going to take a lot more of us to keep surfacing the conversation, to slow and hopefully turn back the tide over the next few decades. Thank you for thoughtful, perceptive writing! Looking forward to your book.
I appreciate this topic more than I can express - your views resonated with me. I'm in my mid-50s and my late grandfather was a German Catholic, with all the baggage that entailed in the early 1900s. And while he emigrated to the US in the 1920s, the long reach of Nazi Germany was never swept under the rug. From his retired, late-in-life friends in the 1970s-early 1990s in Missouri who had been WW2 pilots who came home with German wives, to photo albums of his extended family who remained in Germany during the war, it was a topic in our house. I live in Texas now. From week to week I'm appalled at our political candidates who use Christianity for credibility, the creep of religion into political strategizing and overt programs to develop political candidates within the church, and the vocal "neighbors" on Nextdoor who lack the self-awareness to see they're walking or being led on a depraved and destructive path. I try not to let the most blatant and uninformed statements go unchallenged, as politely as I can. These issues deserve more public discussion despite the admonishment that "it's not polite" or "too confrontational" or "made someone feel bad" - all along the lines of being agreeable and letting THAT group of people have their say without question. I feel like it's going to take a lot more of us to keep surfacing the conversation, to slow and hopefully turn back the tide over the next few decades. Thank you for thoughtful, perceptive writing! Looking forward to your book.