Sachsenhausen part 2: Faith on trial

It changes things a bit, you know, having been to places like this.
Such atrocities contrived, carried out, gotten away with. I have to admit, it does challenge my faith.

Somehow, the emotive worship songs and psalms of praise seem a bit superficial; a bit detatched from this reality. I mean, its not like you’d go up to a prisoner on the way to the gas chamber and say ‘sing to the Lord a new song…His love endures forever..’ and then run off back to church. Its not that I don’t believe its true. I think it just takes a bit of thought to form convictions as to why its still true, in the face of suffering. And for that, we must get back to basics:

The existence of suffering and God are not mutually exclusive. The reason for human suffering can be traced back to the fall; a consequence of sin that is in all of us. What I can’t tell you is why God allows suffering such as Sachsenhausen. But I know I don’t know everything, so trust He has His reasons.

And its not like He doesn’t do anything about suffering. On the contrary, He gave everything to solve the problem. For God see’s things a bit differently to us – which is no surprise since, after all, He is God and we are not. Its not that He is blind to human anguish – on the contrary He is most fully aware. Its just that He knows that the worst anguish is found not in concentration camps but in Hell, separated from His goodness, under His holy wrath. But what if I don’t believe in Hell? You ask. There are those that deny the Holocaust too.

Ok,to be fair, we know the suffering of war. And sure we wont find history books or survivor stories from Hell. But the result is that we ask why God doesn’t do something about suffering on earth rather than why doesn’t He do something about the eternal suffering to come. And if we did ask the latter, we’d realise that he already has. Thus giving at least hope (if not an explanation) for the suffering on earth now.

And that changes things.

Sachsenhausen

19 April 2010, Germany.

I went to a former WWII concentration camp yesterday. ‘How was it?’ you ask. Im not sure what to answer.
Sobering. Sickening. Anger-inciting.Unbelievable.
It was a labour camp, as opposed to a death camp, so never designed for mass murder. Still, tens of thousands lost their lives there;its still mass murder to me.

We walked through the main gates: ‘Work makes you free’, it said.
We saw the barracks that housed up to 400 people at a time. People would just die on the toilet floors covered in excretement.
We saw the electric barbed wire fence, which many a prisoner, losing all hope and courage, ran into: suicide.
We saw the running track, where prisoners would run around and around, to test out army boots made by fellow prisoners at the factories. Sometimes they carried sacks of sand and ran, up to 70km a day, day after day.
We saw the prison (even though the whole camp was a prison) where inmates were subject to years of solitary confinement , torture and interrogation. Two British officers were chained to the centre of a concrete cell in darkness for 5 years. At the end they were transferred to another camp and then shot.
We saw the pathology building where prisoners with medical training would carry out autopsies. Often they would contract fatal Typhus or other infectious diseases from the corpses in the process. We didn’t have time (nor the guts) to see the infirmary where medical experiments, forced castration and racial research was carried out.

Even more disturbing to hear about was the relationship of the surrounding community to the camp. We read about the SS guards attending dances and social events, acting like ordinary family men. The townspeople would see the emaciated prisoners marching to and from work each day – was just a normal sight. A fine layer of ash would settle over the town when the corpse burning began to increase - did they not stop to wonder? One commander of the camp had been a church elder. Imagine! He let a pastor from town minister to a Bishop who was an inmate. And what did that Pastor think about it all?

I walked through that place thinking ‘God, where are you in all of this?’ I'll bet im not the only one to have wondered. ‘Seeing this is one of the reasons I cannot believe in God’, Michael told me as we walked back to the car. I understand what he means.
This camp by no means proves God - But I still believe in one. Many look at think 'There must be no god'. I look at it and think ‘There must be a God’, because if there’s not, and this is the state of human beings, then we are all doomed.

What God did and didnt say

I attended the Lutheran service at the Berliner Dome last Sunday. It was rather elaborate and traditional. What does God think of all this, I wondered...

Well, God never told us to build big churches with tall steeples. He never said to hang up paintings of Jesus or install stained glass windows. He never suggested we light candles, have wooden pews or a crucifix on the front wall. He didnt require and organ to accompany hymns (or a worship band either, for that matter).

But He did command us to love Him first and foremost. Then to love each other deeply, serve our neighbours and our enemies. To be patient and humble. To uphold justice and defend the cause of the fatherless. To be joyful always, to devote ourselves to prayer, to be filled with thanksgiving.To train up our children in His ways, to preach the word, to take the bread and wine in remembrance of Him. To be still and konw that He is God.

And so, I guess, whatever helps with (and doesnt distract from) any of the above, I'm OK with (and think He is too)

Good to be back

I'm back in the West - The wild wild West.

Where traffic is civilised and crossing the road isn't short of suicide
Where rubbish is found in rubbish bins and houses aren't grilled up
Where dogs are on leashes and cats, too, have owners
Where the price printed is the price paid
Where busses run on schedules (or heck, there exists a schedule),
appointments are made and appointments are kept.

Its not that I didnt like the East or that I couldnt live there.
Just noticed that, though Im still on the other side of the world,
Its nice to be back.