In my Church History class today, we were discussing Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Desmond Tutu. We’ve finally gotten to movements in the 20th century and we were talking about people who followed their conscience and spoke out against things that were wrong. One thing that stuck out in my mind was the fact that Hitler melted down all the church bells in the land for the “war effort” though there were very few bells left in Germany and would probably have made one tank at the most. Instead, it was a sign of the church being silenced.

This kind of thing resonates with me because I live in a community where we have church bells that ring on the hour and the bells at either Capital or Christ play a well-known hymn every hour. At the traditional service, the ringing of the bell calls us to worship and it is a symbol to me of why I am sitting in a stone building on Sunday morning with a hundred or more other people. The following poem is my reflections on the melting down of the bells and on the fact that we are called frequently to follow our consciences when religion is made to be oppressive in the way that the Nazi party did. This also reflects my feelings toward the ACLU for their “political correctness” that has meant a loss of symbols for many faithful Christians.

They melted down the bells today,
Their mournful tones gone far away
The call to worship never to peal,
The silence around us growing real.

Who calls us to worship this day?
Whose tones drive the demons away?
Whose voice calls our conscience to say
What false god we claim is our only way?

What mournful silence fills the air!
What cacophony of demonic laughter there!
What silent tears our elders bear!
What mortal sins do we dare!

Oppressed people us implore
But their silenced voices echo no more
A gaping hole into us bore
Innocent lives lost forever more

Why they broke was a mistake
The state they wanted to make a fake
Oh the lives that they will take!
Oh the meaning of these things at stake!

Someday they will come again
Their peals echoing in the wind
Oh that day shall come again
When we stand for what we hold within.

C/S

**For the record, I am not against the displaying of Jewish, Hindu or Muslim symbols. I am against the removal of things like artwork displaying the Ten Commandments, crosses, or nativity scenes from public places. I feel that everyone should be allowed to practice their religion equally and this means that Christians should have the right to display their symbols as well, if for no other reason to remind us what we should be standing for in a culture that is moving so far away from it.