Flowers for the Living

Annellies Marie Frank (1929 - 1945), better known as Anne Frank, was only fifteen years old when she died in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in Germany. She and her family were hiding with the help of brave Christians in concealed rooms behind a bookcase in a building where her father worked in Amterdam. After the Jewish family was eventually betrayed and arrested, Miep Gies, one of their protectors, was able to rescue and preserve Anne's diary. The book was published as Het Achterhuis (in English as Diary of a Young Girl.)

The diary contained Anne's thoughts on many subjects such as growing up, sexuality, her hopes to become a meaningful writer, and her present situation. One very thoughtful quotation is, "Dead people receive more flowers than living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude."

Anne understood that we should appreciate the people around us. Christians, especially, should understand this. As I have said before, since Jesus was willing to shed His Blood for our salvation and since His Blood is of infinite value and is freely offered to everyone, this means that each of us is of infinite value. We should be always ready to explain this Good News to anyone who will listen. (1 Peter 3:15)

Also, one of the things which non-believers noticed most strongly about the early Christians was how much they loved each other as Jesus told them to (John 13:34-35). For example, in this quotation from the Roman convert and Christian apologist Marcus Minucius Felix in his book, Octavius. The book is presented as a dialogue between a pagan and a Christian. The pagan is talking in this quotation.

"And now, as wickeder things advance more fruitfully, and abandoned manners creep on day by day, those abominable shrines of an impious assembly are maturing themselves throughout the whole world. Assuredly this confederacy ought to be rooted out and execrated. They know one another by secret marks and insignia, and they love one another almost before they know one another; everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of lust, and they call one another promiscuously brothers and sisters, that even a not unusual debauchery may by the intervention of that sacred name become incestuous: it is thus that their vain and senseless superstition glories in crimes."

From Minucius Felix, Octavius, R. E. Wallis, trans. in The Ante-Nicene Fathers
(Buffalo, N. Y.: The Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887), Vol. 4, pp. 177-178.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, their religious beliefs, or their actions.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Samson Occom: (b. -1723 – d. 1792) Mohegan Presbyterian minister.  Occom was a descendent of Uncas  and a student of the Congregationalist minister, Eleazar Wheelock.  He was the first Native American to publish documents and pamphlets in English.

Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (b. 1692 – d. ca. 1747) German-American Dutch Reformed minister, theologian, progenitor of the Frelinghuysen family in the United States.   He was an ardent evangelical who emphasized pietism, conversion, and church discipline.  All five of his sons became ministers and his two daughters married ministers.

Oskar Schindler: (b. 1908, Moravia – d. 1974) Roman Catholic/Nazi industrialist who is credited with saving 1200 Jews from the Holocaust and is the subject of the film, Schindler’s List.  He shielded his jewish workers by employing them in “business essential to the war effort.”  He is the only Nazi buried at the Mount Zion Catholic cemetery  in Jerusalem.

Laura Sheldon Wright: (b. ca 1808, Massachusetts)  Wife of Asher Wright, a missionary to the Senecas.  She translated several hymns into Seneca.

David Brainerd: (b. 1718, Connecticut – d. 1747) Student of Jonathan Edwards. Made many converts among the Mahicans and Delawares in the 1740’s.

Gone!

     I just spent the last week in Mundelein and Vernon Hills in Illinois and came away with an odd feeling.  I saw maybe eight black people the entire time I was there and several of them were employees of restaurants and stores I visited.  I saw plenty of Asians and Hispanics but almost no blacks.  It felt creepy, a whole group of people suddenly just gone.  I live in the Deep South where African Americans have a heavy and very visible presence.

     During my alone time during the week I read Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover.  One of the prime movers in the Torah Bible Code movement was Rabbi Michael Dov Ber Weissmandl,  who spent the last years of his life pursuing the codes.

     The more obvious historical significance of Rabbi Weissmandl is his role in at least being able to delay the extermination of the Jews of Slovakia by bribing and deceiving numerous Nazi officials.  It haunted him the rest of his life, but, ultimately the rabbi was not able to save even his own immediate family.  In total, over six million Jews were murdered.  It was as if the entire Jewish population (about 5.2 million in 2009) of the United States were missing.

     The near absence of black people reminded me of the sudden disappearance of the Jews from Europe.  There and then suddenly just gone.  

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, their religious beliefs, or their actions.  This will be a recurring segment in this blog.

Rudolf Wolters (1903-1983)  German architect, Nazi government official, diarist.  He helped in the rebuilding of West Germany after World War II.  He was raised as a Catholic.

Erik the Red (950-ca. 1003)  This Norwegian navigator left Iceland in 982 and explored Greenland, eventually establishing a colony there.  Tradition says that he became a Christian on his deathbed at the urging of his wife Thjohild.

Absalom Jones:  (1746, Delaware - 1818)  Black clergyman born as a slave.  He taught himself to read using the New Testament and was a co-founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Alfred Charles Sharpton, Jr.:  (b. 1954)  Pentecostal minister, social activist, writer, radio and television commentator

Frances Octavia Smith:  (1912, Texas - 2001)  aka: Dale Evans.  Writer, singer-songwriter, actress.  Wife of cowboy movie star, Roy Rogers.