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

Sat Nov 23 05:22:54 PST 2024

Dear Don, I remember your face well but am shocked you have lost mine! Dick

On Sat, Nov 23, 2024 at 1:27 AM Don Bushman via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> 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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>>
>>
>> --
>> 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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-- 
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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