[Oe List ...] more on that Bonhoeffer movie

[Richard Alton]

Hey, Don, you can talk to the whole community- your thoughts are great
Dick

On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 6:09 PM Don Bushman via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> NOTE: I replied to the wrong email-the above was intended for one person
> only.
>
>
>
> 828-292-9696
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 5:02 PM Don Bushman <onedonbushman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thank you for reading my email. And even more for responding in your
>> standard thoughtful manner.
>> I don't know that you have to go to the movie, I anticipate you will find
>> what you have already described--which rings true mostly to my experience.
>>
>> I am glad to know that Angel Productions has the slant you described. I
>> like to know when the propaganda targets me.
>>
>> Peace
>> Don
>>
>>
>>
>> 828-292-9696
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 4:31 PM W. J. via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I still haven't seen the movie, but a few of us have. Here's my response
>>> to a private email from one colleague:
>>> Marshall
>>>
>>> D**, I'm guessing from your description that the screenplay was not the
>>> result of any in-depth study of Bonhoeffer's life or his theology.
>>> I bet the screenwriter didn't even bother to read Eberhard Bethge's
>>> biography.
>>> What I think he did is to create a cartoon Bonhoeffer character by
>>> superimposing the skeletal outline of Bonhoeffer's life onto a thriller
>>> movie framework.
>>> Leaving out the nuances and agonizing complexities of Bonhoeffer's
>>> ethical dilemmas as a pacifist.
>>> I'm not shocked that this cartoon version of Bonhoeffer has him wishing
>>> to "tear down the institutional church."
>>> I think the real Bonhoeffer's life was more profoundly nuanced than that
>>> kind of statement. His *Life Together* and *The Cost of Discipleship* were
>>> written while he supervised the underground seminary at Finkenwalde for
>>> students who were preparing to serve the dissenting Confessing Church that
>>> opposed the official German Church coalition that embraced Hitler.
>>> His focus on a "religionless Christianity" is a rejection of the 'smells
>>> and bells' and medieval belief system Luther inherited from Catholicism in
>>> favor of a radical immersion in the secular life of the world.
>>> And also a radical following of Jesus rather than middle class cultural
>>> norms.
>>> Something like the monastic life of seminary students at Finkenwalde. Or
>>> maybe the O:E.
>>> Although Bonhoeffer never abandoned his upper-class entitlement to a
>>> rich, privileged life.
>>> I believe that the real Dietrich was in love with his young student
>>> Eberhard
>>> <https://spiritualfriendship.org/2014/08/08/one-more-post-on-the-gay-bonhoeffer/>,
>>> who was the beneficiary of his will.
>>> Dietrich reluctantly became engaged to marry the much younger Maria Von
>>> Wedemeyer only after her grandmother relentlessly pushed her on him and
>>> only after Eberhard got engaged to Dietrich's niece Renate.
>>> I don't get the sense that he was ever hot to make love with Maria.
>>> Perhaps their experience of 'true love' was always from an emotional
>>> distance, especially after Dietrich's arrest just three months after their
>>> announcement. There were letters and supervised visits. That's all.
>>> After both became engaged, Dietrich wrote to Eberhard, imagining that
>>>
>>> *Now, we can resume our partnership, and we can travel together in those
>>> places where we found so much joy, and we can leave our wives back in
>>> Germany, in Berlin, or some place.*
>>>
>>> In other words, they both acquired beards, and Dietrich longed to renew
>>> and pursue their spiritual friendship as 'soul mates' or whatever they
>>> decided to call it.
>>> But Eberhard was never willing to venture below the belt (as far as we
>>> can tell).
>>> I'm not at all sure that Dietrich was ever willing to go there, much as
>>> he may have longed to do just that. He wrote in prison that he would die a
>>> virgin.
>>> But since Eberhard's *whole life* was about Dietrich--especially as his
>>> martyred mentor and forever lost lover--how *hard* is it to understand
>>> the depth of his love in return?
>>> At least that's *my* version of Bonhoeffer. Now I'll have to see the
>>> damn movie!
>>> Marshall
>>>
>>> Dietrich Bonhoeffer Was Flamingly Gay-- Deal With It
>>> <https://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2014/06/dietrich-bonhoeffer-was-flamingly-gay-deal-with-it/>
>>> Links in the message (1)
>>> One More Post on the “Gay” Bonhoeffer
>>> <https://spiritualfriendship.org/2014/08/08/one-more-post-on-the-gay-bonhoeffer/>
>>> Dietrich Bonhoeffer Was Flamingly Gay--...
>>> <https://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2014/06/dietrich-bonhoeffer-was-flamingly-gay-deal-with-it/>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
ICA Global Fund
The Last Chapter
United Methodist Net Zero
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?
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