hmm, that's the question I've asked myself after watching the film about 2 weeks back. Dare I speak up for morality and my beliefs, in the face of oppression and threat of death?
Honestly, I don't think I have that courage. In an age where we emphasize individuality and creativity, I think the system has instilled within me the herd mentality, of going with the flow, or following the masses, if you will.
When I see the dramatisation of how the young members of the White Rose movement struggled to use peaceful means to invoke the people to awaken to their conscience, it just moved me. In the age where one had no internet and under war-stricken times, the White Rose produced hundreds of hand-printed letters and pamphlets. The determination to get the message across, no matter what the response of the reader might be, or whatever the cost, just stirred within me deep emotions for these martyrs.
In the cross-examination scenes, where Sopie has the dialogue of debating the state of affairs in Germany under Nazi rule, we see the strength and weakness of Sophie in her replies to the German inquisitor. Strength of her convictions and beliefs in a Higher Good; "weakness" in her compassion and humanity towards the plights of the Jews, the handicapped and her fellow citizens of the nation.
To me, these are the kind of qualities that God moulds His people to be under difficult times. Personally, I have grown fat under "peace-time" conditions. I've really forgotten that out there, there are brothers and sisters suffering and dying for the cross... I need to realign my allegiance back to the King of All creation, and to seriously start considering what my purpose is on this earth.
hi, i watched the film, and my friend and i were like you, thinking the very same question to ourselves in the aftermath of it. brings to mind many of our christian brothers and sisters who have died for what they believe to be the Truth (ie the Gospel and its power to save) - some of them are named in scriptures, but many more are unnamed and unknown to us. may we be inspired by accounts such as those of sophie's, her brothers and the white rose group, to work towards a day whereby we are are both able and willing to lay down our own crosses and bear Christ's cross all the way over the threshold into eternity.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. Still, I don't know how much I'll lay down for my Lord. MAy He have mercy from us all. May we continue to hold fast to God's Word and Love.
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But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
- Philippians 3:7-11 (NASB).