Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words slice through time like a prophetic arrow:
"We must finally stop appealing to theology to justify our reserved silence about what the state is doing — for that is nothing but fear. ‘Open your mouth for the one who is voiceless’ — for who in the church today still remembers that that is the least of the Bible’s demands in times such as these?"
Bonhoeffer lived these words during Nazi Germany, when many in the church remained quiet in the face of systemic injustice, oppression, and murder. He saw something deeply troubling: believers using theological reasoning, or what they claimed was faithfulness to “spiritual” matters as a cloak for cowardice. Instead of speaking against evil, they retreated into pious detachment.
The tragic truth is that the temptation Bonhoeffer addressed is alive and well. Even today, Christians can be quick to say, “Our job is just to preach the gospel,” as if proclaiming good news doesn’t include confronting the bad news of injustice. Or we adopt a posture of “not getting political,” forgetting that the prophets of Scripture: Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, all addressed the actions of rulers, not because they were partisan, but because God’s people are called to stand for truth.
When Bonhoeffer quotes Proverbs 31:8, “Open your mouth for the one who is voiceless,” he reminds us that advocacy isn’t an optional add-on to the Christian life — it’s the minimum requirement. If our faith does not move us to speak for the oppressed, the marginalized, the scapegoated, and the silenced, then it has grown cold, safe, and self-serving.
Silence, in times of moral crisis, is not neutrality; it is siding with the oppressor. And the more we hide behind theological justifications for that silence, the more we resemble the Pharisees Jesus condemned for tithing mint and dill while neglecting “the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness”(Matthew 23:23).
Bonhoeffer’s challenge still stands:
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Will we speak when the vulnerable are threatened?
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Will we risk our comfort to confront injustice?
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Will we remember that the least God asks is that we give voice to those who have none?
Theology that does not lead to action in defense of the voiceless is hollow. Faith that does not resist evil is empty. And a church that will not speak in “times such as these” has forgotten its Lord, who Himself stood publicly with the poor, the outcast, and the condemned, even when it cost Him His life.
Now is not the time for reserved silence. It is the time to open our mouths.
Patrick Carden
