Growing up on a military base in Germany for many years when the exchange rate was favorable for enlisted personnel, my parents made a point of traveling to expose us to history and beautiful places. For seven years we visited castles, cathedrals, multiple countries, museums and beautiful creations from valleys to mountain tops.
Yet, three places stood out to me: Auschwitz, Dachau and Anne Frank’s house.
I remember walking through Anne’s house, going up to the room behind the bookcase where she and her family hid and reading her diary when I was in fifth grade. While visiting Auschwitz and Dachau when I was 10, I stood in the gas chambers and to this day, the oppressive heaviness washes over me whenever I think of it. I stood in gas chambers where thousands lost their lives because of their religious, political, disability, sexual or immigrant status. How did they get there?
It started in so many small ways, including in the 1930s when the German Student Union started burning books; books they deemed against Naziism, or which fell into their definition of immoral and rebellious, or which were written by Jewish people and others they targeted.
As abhorrent as this was, it’s been repeated throughout history, even today. Research shows book burning attempts to censor ideas and thoughts that are not in line with the current rulers and to control populaces. From a
“The unifying factor between all types of purposeful book-burns in the 20th century, (Rebecca) Knuth says, is that the perpetrators feel like victims, even if they’re the ones in power … Nazis … regularly employed language framing themselves as the victims of Jews.”
Here’s the deal. This is nothing new.
This summer, the
has a series that journeys through the book of Jeremiah. It’s as if these scriptures are speaking to us today in powerful ways.
Who was Jeremiah? He was a prophet in Jerusalem during the Babylonian takeover that forced people into exile. Jeremiah, like all prophets, was not liked; he suffered persecution, beatings, was thrown into the stocks, given a death sentence and left to die in a muddy cistern. Prophets and prophetic preachers throughout history also face persecution, even today.
A few Sundays ago, the Scripture was Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23 and 27-3, which discuss the scroll that God had Jeremiah dictate to read in the temple during the fourth-year reign of King Jehoiakim. Jeremiah dictated to Baruch and had Baruch read the scrolls in the temple on the day of fasting. The king then sent for the scroll and as Jehudi read it, the columns were cut off and thrown into the fire “until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire,” per scripture.
So,
It happened in Nazi Germany. It happened under the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It happened during the Roman Empire, during Apartheid, and by multiple religious and authoritarian leaders throughout history. Again, new regimes, rulers, and leaders used book burning (and now banning) to impose their will on people, to control the narrative, and to keep people in line.
However, if you continue reading Jeremiah 36:27-28, you find hope:
“Now after the king had burned the scroll … the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah has burned …”
Ultimately, God’s word will survive, and we can trust that even when Scripture is burned, ignored or contorted to fit prevailing viewpoints. God will have the final say.
In Matthew 25, God calls us to love our neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide drink for the thirsty, care for the sick, visit those in prison, and welcome the stranger while also telling those who do not do such loving, Christlike deeds, to “depart from me …”
Even when times seem dire and we start to feel despair, remember, God’s word and love will prevail in the end, always.
The Rev. Ana M. Wilson is a board-certified chaplain and certified in