Era of Stupidity

The other day I came across a video about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran theologian and pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945. I have always been interested in his story and in his writings, such as his famous quote about discipleship: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (From The Cost of Discipleship, 1937).

What intrigued me was the subject of the video, which was Bonhoeffer’s views on stupidity. Having had some experience in that area, I decided to watch to learn what he said about it – written in one of his final Letters From Prison (1945), shortly before his execution.

Bonhoeffer’s purpose in the letter was to answer the question which so puzzled him, which was how a country so advanced in science, art, literature, and religion as Germany certainly was, could perpetrate the horrors he was witnessing firsthand. His answer was: stupidity. Not so sure of his conclusion, I watched intently. What I saw was not just a critique of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, but a warning to America in the 2020’s, because much of what he wrote applies to what’s happening here today. So let’s consider what he said, and see if I’m right about the parallels.

First, he was appalled by what he saw in society: an authoritarian regime that allowed no opposition, incited mobs that rioted and destroyed shops and businesses, and the persecution and murder of targeted groups. He wondered how the people had turned into cowards, crooks, and criminals.

Second, his answer was that the people had become stupid. By stupid he didn’t mean mentally deficient or uneducated; he meant people who closed their eyes and ears to the truth around them, closing their minds, and yielding their independence and autonomy to those who took power.

Third, stupidity is not a psychological problem, but a sociological one, which is fostered by social group interactions. You don’t inherit it from your parents, but you “catch” it from other people around you. Also, it is not an intellectual problem, but a moral one – the equivalent to what the Bible calls “foolishness.”

Fourth, he said that you cannot reason with or argue with a stupid person. Stupid people are secure and self-satisfied with their prejudices; they are willfully stupid. They speak in slogans and catch-phrases, as if under a spell. If you disagree with them, they become irritated and go on the attack. They are dangerous.

When I got to this point in the video, I sat back and said, “Wow!” It was like watching the news: government mandates, mobs smashing and looting stores, angry people shouting at each other, absence of any civil discourse, public shaming of certain groups, mindless slogans, and moral failures everywhere. Like Bonhoeffer, I found myself asking, “How can a country so blessed as we have been, with our freedoms, prosperity, and resources, have fallen into what Bonhoeffer called, stupidity?”

The core problem predates our situation, or even Nazi Germany. It was known back in biblical times, when the nation of Israel turned away from the true God to worship idols, even when God gave them every gift, creating and preserving a people out of them. The image that comes to my mind is when the newly liberated nation built a golden calf and worshiped it, saying,  “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4,8).

The problem then, and now, is that people turn their backs on God and become fools. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10), and that “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 14:1). Foolishness is a moral issue, not an intellectual one, and the Bible equates it with stupidity. In typical Hebrew poetry, the prophet Jeremiah puts foolishness and stupidity together: “For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children;” (Jeremiah 42:2).  And the basis of their foolishness/stupidity? They don’t know God.

As a nation, we have gone from at least a common set of biblical teachings and references, so that disagreements could be settled by appeal to the one Higher Authority, to a situation where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). In Israel’s case, God allowed other nations to enslave them for their disobedience; is he now doing the same regarding the U.S.?

Scripture supports Bonhoeffer’s view of national stupidity., that people won’t listen and cannot be reasoned with:

1. Proverbs 12:15 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”
2. Psalm 92:6 “The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:”
3. Proverbs 23:9 “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.”
4. Proverbs 26:4 “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.”
5. And finally, Proverbs 29:9, “If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.”

Seeing so many parallels between what Bonhoeffer (and Scripture) said about moral foolishness/stupidity, I was eager to see what solution he might offer for the problem we face today. Unfortunately, here I was disappointed. I was expecting our Lenten call to “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13). Or maybe a fire and brimstone warning to unbelievers to “seek the Lord while he may be found.” (Isaiah 55:6). But Bonhoeffer’s solution was “liberation,” of the soul certainly, but beginning with external liberation.

I can understand that he would have wanted himself and the other prisoners to be freed from their prison, but Christian history is filled with people who were imprisoned physically for their faith, yet thrived spiritually, holding to the faith and accepting their persecution as a testimony to Jesus Christ. I think of other prisoners who did not become stupid or foolish against God: Paul, Peter, William Tyndale, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others, including Bonhoeffer himself.

But I do agree with his assertion that there must be an internal liberation, through which a person becomes free of the social and cultural bondage which keeps him or her in a state of stupidity. How is that liberation achieved? The same way that all of us are called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God: by the power of the Holy Spirit working though God’s Word. Only when we love and fear God are we wise; only by his Word do we believe in God and accept his Truth. And it is that Truth of which Jesus spoke when he said, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

So how do we combat the rampant moral stupidity that has infected our country? By holding fast to and proclaiming God’s Word, for it is more than just an argument or point of view; it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16), sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). It is a spiritual weapon that brings inward freedom, which we pray will also bring wisdom and external freedom back to our nation, which sorely needs it, for we are in an era of moral stupidity.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Psalm 92; Proverbs 29; Hebrews 4:11-13; 

P.S. The video is available at https://youtu.be/ww47bR86wSc  It was posted by Sprouts (not the grocery), www.sproutsschools.com