Courage To Stand Up To Injustice

In the direst historical moments, Christian faith has led some to civil disobedience and even martyrdom. Many churchgoers will be familiar with men and women like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Corrie ten Boom, whose faith led them to defy the Nazi persecution of Jews. A somewhat lesser-known hero is Jane Haining, a missionary of the Church of Scotland who sheltered (or, in the Gestapo’s view, “harboured”) Jewish girls in a Budapest orphanage until her arrest in April 1944. When the Church of Scotland encouraged her to return home, she wrote back, “If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness” (“Dumfriesshire Missionary Who Died in Auschwitz to Be Commemorated in Budapest,” ITV News, April 12, 2019, https://www.itv.com/news/border/2019-04-12/dumfriesshire-missionary-who-died-in-auschwitz-to-be-commemorated-in-budapest). The courage of such Christians inspires us to stand up to injustice when the image of God in other human beings is violated in our society. We do not have to agree on everything, but we are called to resist the dehumanization of other image bearers, regardless of how they identify, their immigration status, their religion, or any other cultural hot-button that is twisted to diminish their humanity.