Your Bonhoeffer Moment

In the past, I have written in the name of Pope John Paul II, but Bonhoeffer works as well.

Here is an extract from  “Your Bonhoeffer Moment: An Open Letter to Christians Who Love Bonhoeffer but (Still) Support Trump” http://eerdword.com/2020/01/10/your-bonhoeffer-moment/

"In the words of Bonhoeffer, you would have acted in the confidence that your decision to vote for a write-in candidate was an effort not to 'extricate [yourself] heroically from a situation' but to take responsibility for how 'the coming generation is to go on living.' You would have voted your conscience in a way that placed you out of step with your friends and colleagues...but, like Bonhoeffer, you would have demonstrated the courage and foresight to dissent from those around you, not the least of whom were trusted religious authorities, and take a stand for Christ that carried no guarantee of being recognized as such by others. This would have been difficult, but . . .

It would have been a real Bonhoeffer moment.

You would no doubt have experienced, as Bonhoeffer did, isolation and loneliness, even tortured uncertainty. But you would have had the spiritual comfort of knowing that you took an unpopular stand based on your effort to discern God’s will in that moment. It would have been your private “Bonhoeffer moment,” since you would have done the thing Bonhoeffer might do if he were in your place.

Perhaps you failed to seize your first Bonhoeffer moment by voting for someone you suspected did not deserve the support of a serious Christian. Perhaps you have come to regret this decision. But there will be other Bonhoeffer moments ahead...

If none of the candidates in an election meets your standard, does it matter whose name you write in? I recently browsed through the official results of Alabama’s special Senate election. Given the highly Christian populace of the state, I was surprised that among the 22,852 write-in votes—which included votes for Mickey Mouse, Mel Brooks, and Gus Malzahn (Auburn’s football coach)—Bonhoeffer’s name did not appear even once. One certainly makes a statement by writing in names like Beyoncé, Bugs Bunny, or Buffett (Jimmy and Warren both received multiple votes), but imagine the statement a Christian voter could make by writing in 'Bonhoeffer.' So the next time you are presented with a slate of candidates, consider each one on his or her merits. If you find that you cannot—as a Christian and a responsible citizen—vote for any of them, write in 'Bonhoeffer.' That will be a Bonhoeffer moment you can feel good about."