Hanna Schott, Love in a Time of Hate: The Story of Magda and Andre Trocme and the Village That Said No to the Nazis (Herald Press, 2017). ISBN 9781513801254 (paperback). $22.95. Reviewed by Myra Kroeker (EFC Steinbach), BA, wife and mother.
Frequently articles in The Messenger refer to the Second World War. Blaming is the easiest part of military history. So often I glance at a headline and the assumptions jump out at me. There is a tragic inter-war history at play here, mostly forgotten.
It’s easiest to say, “The Nazis did it.” The least fair is to say, “The Germans did it.” Do you know any Nazis?
Nothing, not even really unusual behaviour, comes from nowhere. There is always a reason for things. It may be a crazy reason, but it’s still a reason, maybe part of a more complicated reason. In any case, we sometimes take the easy way out. God forgive us.
Editor’s note: Walter Kruse, the writer of this letter, passed away recently. As an educator of varied gifts, including artistic handwriting, he was once slated to serve here as Executive Secretary/Editor. He will be missed. Our sympathies are extended to the wider Kruse family.
While North Korea’s Sept. 9 test of a nuclear weapon was condemned around the world, the focus should be on opposing nuclear weapons, not on who can have them.
It’s curious logic for those countries possessing nuclear weapons to disallow them elsewhere. How likely is it that sanctions and other punishments will help North Korea to feel less isolated and give up a weapon that some others have?
Make no mistake. North Korea should not have, test, or use nuclear weapons; no country should under any circumstances. The use of such weapons involves indiscriminate, long-term harm. It is an offense against God and people made in his image. Nations need to protect themselves, but not in this way.
The use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were horrific acts. Yes, they shortened World War Two, freed many people in POW camps (including three of my relatives), and prevented more war crimes by Japanese forces. They also spared many Allied and Japanese soldiers who would have died in further ground fighting.
However, the basic purpose of having soldiers is to protect non-combatants.
Something is amiss when civilians are killed to protect soldiers. In this instance, soldiers killed non-combatants, elderly men, women and children, including some Catholics and Protestants.
No nuclear weapon is so precise that it will not kill civilians; even much smaller missiles, even used in drone strikes, cannot do so.
Nuclear weapons clash with the good news of Christmas.
A publication of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference