Don’t Be a Bystander

Reflections on Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I thought it would be a good time to remind us of the lessons learned from the past on fighting tyranny and specifically, the responsibility of Christians to resist.

When the early followers of Jesus proclaimed Jesus as Lord, they were making the statement that the way of the Most High God was not the way of tyrants and Empire.

Resistance is exhausting. Some days, it feels futile, but “the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.”

We can believe that is true because when we say that Jesus is Lord, we proclaim that the God of the universe has a hand on the scale. It bends when we join with what God is already doing.

Tyranny and oppression win only when we give into our fears. Do not be afraid for the Lord your God is with you.

In January, I wrote a series of reflections on Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (if you have not read it, please do), and I’m going to reshare those posts, with some updates, over the next 20 weeks.

I need to be reminded, every day, that oppression is only pushed back when we the people refuse to keep silent.

I will not allow them to rewrite history.

I will not allow them to pervert the Gospel for their own gain.

I will not allow them to drag us back to a time when separate and unequal was the law of the land and sanctioned by the religion of slavery and dominance.

I will not be a bystander.