Springtime for Hitler and Germany

I Just finished reading Footprints on the Horizon by Stephanie Grace Whitson. It was ok. It was on my research list because her period setting is similar to my own novel (WWII, Post-War Nebraska) and I wanted to read some other works to get a feel for how they approached it.

It was published by Bethany House. If that doesn't immediately speak to you, change the name to Zondervan. I have no problems with books including faith and religion, it's not for everyone but, as a Christian, I don't mind. I even believe there are authors who manage to weave it in and apply their character's faith without it being heavy handed, as in the case of Liz Curtis Higgs. This was not one such example. I was kind of miffed when the one Catholic character was (praise the Lord!) saved at the end of the book and converted to Baptist. Apparently, this character became quite fiery and was intent on starting up a revival. Sigh. I have no beef with the Baptist church but a smidge of denominational diversity was not going to hurt anyone.

Those complaints aside this story did raise an interesting point for me. Footprints on the Horizon is set in Crawford, Nebraska, a small town just outside of the Fort Robinson military reservation. Toward the end of WWII, Fort Robinson served as a prisoner of war camp. With the shortage of men, many ranches and farms used prisoner of war labor and it was controversial. Footprints on the Horizon deals with, among other things, the community of Crawford's initial hate and distrust of the German prisoners and eventually coming to befriend them as human beings and not Nazis. It's not a new concept. We all learned in school about the radical freak out about Germans (and Japanese) during the war. Street names were changed to sound less German. Families of German descent were considered suspicious and their shops and stores were boycotted. Anyone having anything to do with Germany was considered to be a potential Nazi. And obviously, every one who fought on Hitler's side was in love with the master race and readily killed Jews. I would hope that, by this time, everyone recognizes and accepts the untruth of those assumptions. Many German soldiers were impressionable young men who believed they were fighting for the good of their homeland. Many soldiers and civilians had no idea about the atrocities going on in the labor camps. Many who were faced with the injustice of neighbors being taken away stood up to defend them. Many were just trying to protect their families. Not every German was a Nazi. Not every Nazi was a barbarous killer. This is not to say that atrocities and injustices weren't done and this is not to excuse those who were "just following orders" and took no moral stand, Nuremburg addressed that. The point I want to make is when we look at German now we don't assume they're a Nazi. We don't shun our Shrader and Zimmermann neighbors because their families hailed from Germany.

So, why do we assume all Middle Easterners are Muslim extremists? Why do we assume all Muslims are attempting to destroy the United States, Christianity, and apple pie? Why, ten years out from the 9/11 attacks, do we still assume that every Muslim American harbors a secret hatred of their country? Well, I don't assume that. Maybe you don't either. There are people that do. There are people who think that burqas should be outlawed because people could be hiding bombs and shit under them. There are people who think that we need to outlaw Sharia law now because otherwise one day we'll all have to answer to it. And there are people who are idiots for all these reasons. Sorry, that wasn't said in Christian love. There are people whom God did not grant much intelligence and whose hearts are the size of the Grinch's pre-Cindy-Lou-Who.

I'm tired of hearing about whether or not a religion is "peaceful". Except perhaps Satanism, which I'm not sure if that's technically defined as a religion or not, I'm pretty sure peace is widely accepted as being a "good idea" by most faiths and creeds. And I have yet to learn of a religion in which violence was not widely implemented as the means of establishing that peace. Christians, we have no room to talk about being a "peaceful" religion. The crusades always come to mind, of course, and you might say, "But that was the Catholics, and everyone knows they're just as bad." And to you I say, "Iconoclasm, witch hunts, Anabaptists, Westboro Baptist Church." So, let's all just check our baggage at the door, shall we? Can we all just get on with our lives following Wheaton's law?

P.S. Why is apple pie so American anyway?