When is it Right to Resist? The Moral Questions at the Heart of BONHOEFFER

BY: GOOD.

There is a comforting way to look back at history. We know who the villains were. We know which laws were unjust, which governments abused their power and which people should have spoken up sooner. From the safety of the present, courage can appear remarkably straightforward.

Living through history is different.

People rarely wake one morning to discover that everything has changed. Rights are often eroded gradually. Language changes. A minority becomes a convenient scapegoat. Cruelty is justified as necessary. People who were once neighbours are increasingly spoken about as problems or threats. Institutions accommodate what once seemed unacceptable, and ordinary people learn that keeping quiet is considerably easier than objecting.

BONHOEFFER places us inside precisely that uncomfortable territory. Based on the life of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the film follows a Christian wrestling with an increasingly urgent question: when injustice is being carried out around us, what does faith require us to do?

It is a question that belongs to history, but it certainly doesn’t remain there.

When Silence Becomes a Choice

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Germany’s churches did not respond with one united voice of resistance. Many Protestants welcomed the new government, while a movement known as the “German Christians” attempted to bring Protestant Christianity into alignment with Nazi ideology. Even within the Confessing Church, which emerged in opposition to Nazi interference in church life, most leaders did not openly oppose the persecution of Jewish people. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

Bonhoeffer was among those who recognised the danger early. In April 1933, just months after Hitler became Chancellor, he wrote about the responsibilities of the church when confronted by an unjust state. His thinking developed around three responses: questioning injustice committed by the state, helping those harmed by it whether they belonged to the church or not, and, in extreme circumstances, actively interfering with the machinery producing that injustice. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

That second point feels particularly important today.

Bonhoeffer wasn’t arguing that Christians were responsible only for protecting other Christians. The obligation was towards the victim of injustice.

There is something deeply challenging in that idea because it removes one of our easiest excuses. The person being mistreated doesn’t have to share our faith, politics, nationality, culture or worldview before their suffering becomes our concern.

What Would We Have Done?

We sometimes ask ourselves what we would have done had we lived in Nazi Germany. Would we have recognised what was happening? Would we have hidden a Jewish family, challenged antisemitism or joined the resistance?

It’s an understandable question, but perhaps there is a better one.

What do we do when we see people’s humanity being diminished now?

Around the world today, there is no shortage of people suffering persecution, displacement and the loss of fundamental rights. Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar continue to face a deteriorating human-rights crisis amid military violence. In Sudan, civilians have endured killings, displacement, torture, sexual violence and ethnically motivated attacks. (OHCHR Southeast Asia Bangkok)

The suffering of Israelis and Palestinians has also confronted the world with profound moral questions. UN human-rights reporting continues to document grave violations on all sides, including the devastating impact of Israeli military operations on Palestinian civilians, as well as killings, hostage-taking and other abuses by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. (Human Rights Search Library)

Elsewhere, people continue to face discrimination and violence because of their religion, ethnicity or identity. The UN Human Rights Council has repeatedly expressed concern about violence against religious minorities and has called on leaders throughout society to speak against intolerance and persecution.

These situations are different. Their histories are different, their politics are complicated, and careless comparisons with Nazi Germany can obscure rather than illuminate them. BONHOEFFER doesn’t give us permission to label every political opponent a tyrant or every policy we dislike an act of oppression.

It asks something harder of us: whether our concern for human dignity is consistent.

Our Neighbour Isn’t Only the Person We Agree With

For Christians, this shouldn’t be a particularly radical idea.

Jesus was once asked, “Who is my neighbour?” His answer was the story of the Good Samaritan, in which the person who behaves like a neighbour crosses boundaries of culture and identity to help someone suffering in front of him.

That becomes uncomfortable when applied beyond the pages of the Bible.

It’s relatively easy to speak passionately when the person being mistreated belongs to our group. The harder test comes when the victim is somebody we have been taught to fear, dislike or distrust. Can Christians defend the dignity of a Muslim experiencing persecution? A Jewish person facing antisemitism? A Palestinian child caught in war? A refugee regarded as inconvenient? A Christian imprisoned for their faith? Someone whose politics, sexuality, ethnicity or worldview differs completely from our own?

We don’t have to agree with everything another person believes in order to defend their right to be treated as a human being.

In fact, there is very little moral courage involved in defending only the people we already consider our own.

Injustice Isn’t Always Far Away

And it can be easier to recognise persecution when it is happening somewhere far from home, under a government or system we readily identify as unjust. But vulnerable and marginalised people also live in our own streets, workplaces, schools and churches. Refugees and people seeking asylum may face hostility, exclusion or uncertainty about their future. LGBTQIA+ people can experience discrimination, rejection or the erosion of protections they rely upon, sometimes within communities where they should feel safest. First Nations Australians, people with disability, religious minorities and others can likewise find their voices overlooked or their dignity treated as something open to debate.

We may hold different views about politics, immigration policy, sexuality, theology and social change, but disagreement should never make us indifferent when another person’s safety, dignity or fundamental rights are threatened. The neighbour Christ calls us to love is not an abstract person on the other side of the world. Sometimes they are quite literally the person next door, and standing with them may require us to listen to experiences different from our own, challenge prejudice within our own circles and speak up when remaining silent would be considerably more comfortable.

Resistance Doesn’t Always Look Like Rebellion

The word “resistance” can sound dramatic, particularly when attached to Bonhoeffer. His path eventually connected him with German military resistance circles seeking to overthrow Hitler. He used his intelligence position and international contacts to relay information about Nazi actions, and he was also connected to Operation Seven, which helped Jews escape Germany by presenting them as foreign intelligence agents. He was arrested in 1943 and executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp in April 1945. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

Most Christians will never face anything remotely comparable, and resistance certainly doesn’t automatically mean breaking laws or engaging in confrontation. During WWII, resistance took many forms, from distributing information and hiding people to documenting atrocities, refusing orders, helping people escape and maintaining communities under persecution. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

Our own responsibilities may be far less dramatic. Resistance can mean refusing to repeat a dehumanising joke. Challenging misinformation before sharing it. Writing to a political representative. Supporting organisations working with refugees or persecuted minorities. Giving money, volunteering, peacefully protesting, voting according to conscience or simply refusing to remain silent when a group of people is spoken about as though their lives matter less than ours.

Sometimes resistance is simply refusing to join the crowd.

But How Do We Know When to Speak?

This is where BONHOEFFER becomes more challenging than a simple story about a heroic Christian standing against evil. Bonhoeffer himself wrestled deeply with what faithful action looked like. His legacy is also complex; historians note limitations and troubling elements within some of his early theological thinking about Judaism even while recognising his unusually early opposition to Nazi policy and his later resistance activities. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

Christians today should be equally wary of assuming that every strong political conviction automatically carries God’s endorsement. History contains too many examples of Christians claiming divine authority for positions that caused enormous harm.

So discernment matters. We should ask whether people are actually being harmed, rather than simply whether we dislike a political decision. We should seek reliable information rather than outrage engineered for social media. We should listen to the people directly affected. We should examine our own biases and be willing to discover that “our side” may also be capable of injustice.

And perhaps most importantly, we should apply the same moral standard consistently.

If we condemn the suffering of civilians when one government causes it, we should care when another does too. If religious freedom matters for Christians, it must matter for Muslims, Jews, Hindus and people with no religion. If children deserve safety, their nationality shouldn’t alter our concern. If racism is wrong when directed towards one ethnicity, it doesn’t become acceptable when directed towards another.

Human dignity cannot depend upon whose team someone belongs to.

The Danger of Becoming Comfortable

One of the most sobering lessons from Bonhoeffer’s world is that terrible injustice does not require an entire population of terrible people.

It requires enough people to participate, enough institutions to accommodate it and enough bystanders to decide that speaking up is somebody else’s responsibility.

That should make Christians particularly cautious about becoming too comfortable with political power. Our deepest allegiance cannot belong to a party, government, ideology or nation. The moment protecting “our side” becomes more important than acknowledging the suffering of another human being, something has gone badly wrong.

Bonhoeffer saw elements of the German church surrender their independence to political ideology. The lesson isn’t that Christians should withdraw from politics. It is almost the opposite. Christians can participate vigorously in public life while remembering that no political movement gets to own our conscience.

Sometimes faith will put us alongside the majority.

Sometimes it should put us in their way.

Courage Before We Know the Ending

There is another reason we find historical courage easier to admire than present-day courage: we know how the story ends.

Bonhoeffer didn’t.

When he spoke against Nazi policies in 1933, he couldn’t fast-forward to 1945 and confirm that history would eventually vindicate him. When he returned to Germany, helped the resistance and accepted increasing personal risk, he didn’t know that generations later people would read his books and make films about his life.

He simply had to decide what faithfulness required while standing inside an unfinished story.

So do we.

BONHOEFFER leaves us with an uncomfortable challenge. Perhaps the question isn’t whether we would have resisted injustice eighty years ago. We cannot do anything about that now.

The question is whether we are willing to notice injustice in our own time, particularly when noticing it is inconvenient. Whether we will listen when a vulnerable community tells us it is afraid. Whether we’ll defend someone’s humanity even when they don’t belong to our tribe. Whether our compassion will survive political disagreement. And whether we are prepared to speak when silence would be much easier.

Christians won’t always agree about governments, wars, policies or the best way to respond to injustice. But we should be able to agree on something much more fundamental: no person becomes less precious because of their ethnicity, religion, sexuality, nationality or politics.

Bonhoeffer’s life reminds us that there can come a point when standing on the sidelines is itself a decision.

The difficult part is recognising that moment while we’re still living through it.

BONHOEFFER is now streaming on to GOOD. Watch now CLICK HERE

If the themes in BONHOEFFER have prompted you to think about how you can stand alongside people experiencing injustice, persecution or disadvantage, there are many Australian organisations where you can learn more, volunteer, campaign or lend your support.

Amnesty International Australia – Campaigns against human-rights abuses in Australia and internationally, including persecution, discrimination, repression and threats to freedom of expression.
Micah Australia – Micah mobilises Australian Christians to advocate for a more just and compassionate world, including humanitarian assistance, global poverty and Australia’s response to international crises.
Refugee Council of Australia – Advocates for humane and lawful policies towards refugees and people seeking asylum and works to ensure refugee voices are heard in Australian public policy. People can become members, volunteer, donate or participate in campaigns.
Australian Red Cross – Offers a more hands-on humanitarian avenue, supporting people affected by disasters, conflict and displacement, assisting migrants and refugees and promoting international humanitarian law and respect for human dignity.
Common Grace – A prominent movement of Australian Christians led in part by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders. It focuses on pursuing justice, healing, truth-telling, and meaningful reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples
ANTAR – A national organisation advocating for justice, rights and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including work on racism, incarceration, cultural heritage, land rights and self-determination.
People with Disability Australia (PWDA) – A national disability-rights and advocacy organisation representing people with disability and working to ensure their voices influence laws, policies and decisions affecting their lives. It is one of the organisations recognised under the Australian Government’s Disability Representative Organisations program.
Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) – Advocates for the human rights, safety, participation and equality of women, girls and gender-diverse people with disabilities.
Equal Voices – An Australian network of LGBTQIA+ people of faith and allies working across denominations. It advocates for LGBTQIA+ people within churches and public policy, provides support and resources, and encourages churches to become welcoming and affirming communities.
ActionAid Australia – Works internationally on poverty and human rights, particularly supporting women in marginalised communities to campaign for their rights and address structural injustice.
Act for Peace – An Australian Christian humanitarian organisation connected with the National Council of Churches in Australia, working with communities affected by conflict and displacement. It is also an accredited Australian international-development NGO.
Caritas Australia – The Catholic Church’s international aid and development organisation in Australia, providing another faith-based option for people wanting to respond to poverty, humanitarian emergencies and injustice internationally.

Feature Image: Promotional image from Bonhoeffer