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

[Don Bushman]

Thanks for the encouragement, Dick-in some ways I feel closer to our
community members than people I know well, even if I can't recall their
faces.



828-292-9696



On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 5:44 PM Richard Alton via OE <
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> 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
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> richard.alton at gmail.com
> Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
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