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Veröffentlicht am 7. Januar 2024 von LM. „Justice exalts a nation, but sin is the shame of peoples.“ Proverbs 14:34 Do we need to speculate on what exactly is meant by justice and sin? That should not be necessary. We can keep the theological ball flat: justice is what brings peace and harmony; for individuals, it means walking upright, for a nation, it means well-being internally and a good reputation externally. The opposite is quickly deduced: the unjust person walks bent over and must hide or flee. If sin has permeated an entire nation, a heavy blanket lies over the land, and ridicule befalls its rulers and inhabitants. Now we set out to tear this blanket apart. While many individuals have tried to breathe and live despite it, the feeling is spreading that they have given in to its pressure for far too long. Everyone suffered in silence, but now they admit it to each other and „express“ the externally imposed distress. This can achieve great things. It is not just a few angry farmers driving around. No, a whole movement is forming, comparable in recent German history only to the autumn marches of 1989 in Leipzig and elsewhere. A „jolt“ is going through society, as German Federal President Herzog once demanded. You cannot give away billions to the whole world and then save a few million on the backs of the remaining farmers. You cannot watch as your gas supply is blown up and then claim that an individual foreign ruler is to blame for the new prices. You cannot clear forests for short-lived wind turbines and then long for billions for compensatory power plants. At some point, enough is enough. Injustice has kept a nation down, and its rulers are bringing shame upon it. It is no coincidence that it is precisely the people with the most down-to-earth connection, the farmers, who are the first to burst the bubbles of false dreams. Hundreds of thousands will join them. The call for freedom is already unmistakable and has reached the palaces. They try to contain it with slander and attempts to divide. They will not succeed. The movement has slipped away from the officials of the first hour. People are taking responsibility for themselves and their environment again. „Justice exalts a nation, but sin is the shame of peoples.“ A new longing for just conditions is sweeping the country. However, they will not come about just because public life comes to a standstill for a week. Anger and exhaustion are not a basis for something new in themselves. They will not automatically arise just because representatives of a differently colored party take their seats in the same positions of power. Because then, the calculations of the initial puppeteers might be the only thing that works. Just conditions do not arise from blind zeal that would lead to thoughtless actions. That would only provide others with a welcome pretext to crack down and divert attention from their own guilt and failure. Just conditions begin with just individuals: those who do not play games with others, who lend their voice to those in need and denounce injustice; those who demand honest accountability from perpetrators and act from inner calm. The officer and later co-founder of the German Federal Border Guard, Walter Bartgatzky, described these people as early as 1946. Initially, he said, we should turn „against the conspirators who incite us, [against] the know-it-alls who talk us into things, [and against] the tired ones who paralyze us.“ „The strong are gentle,“ he quotes French Marshal Hubert Lyautey; gentleness as „the cool wisdom, (…) the thoughtful rule of superior intellect and mature moderation over passionate impulsiveness, the power of experienced foresight over the temperament of vengeful emotions. Let us not repay ideologies with ideologies.“ „Justice exalts a nation, but sin is the shame of peoples.“ Discontent and anger must, can, and will be expressed, and individuals will pay a high price for it. But often in history, it has been such experiences that have purified a character for a new task. The desired justice comes from those who now, in these days and weeks, find their way in both places: on the stagnant and surging streets and in prayer in their own quiet chambers. ************ Word for Sunday, December 31, 2023: The longing for the whole Lothar Mack worked as a parish pastor and for various aid organizations and editorial offices. His critical view of the church and current events has led him to become independent. He collects and encourages like-minded people through articles and encounters and calls for independent, faithful thinking in worship services and rallies

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Veröffentlicht am 7. Januar 2024 von LM. «Gerechtigkeit erhöht ein Volk, die Sünde aber ist die Schande der Völker.» Sprüche 14,34 Müssen wir darüber räsonieren, was nun mit Gerechtigkeit und Sünde genau gemeint sei? Das sollte nicht nötig sein. Wir können den Ball theologisch flach halten: Gerechtigkeit ist das, was Frieden und Einvernehmen bewirkt; beim einzelnen den aufrechten Gang, für ein Volk das Wohlergehen nach innen und ein Ansehen nach aussen. Das Gegenteil ist rasch abgeleitet: Der Ungerechte geht gebeugt und muss sich verstecken oder fliehen. Hat in der Folge die Sünde ein ganzes Volk durchdrungen, liegt eine schwere Decke auf dem Land, und Spott ereilt seine Herrschenden und die Bewohner. Jetzt macht man sich daran, diese Decke zu zerreissen. Haben die

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