The Holocaust

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Col. 1:4

For the older generation – Baby Boomers who were born at the end of WWII – this was one of the saddest episodes in human history.  It was an attempt at genocide of the Jews in Germany, Poland and areas controlled by Nazi Germany. Over 6 million Jews were killed in extermination camps.  That was 2 of every 3 Jews in Europe.

On my first family trip to Germany in the early 1980’s, we visited Dachau, the first of one thousand concentration camps. They were created in 1933 by Adolph Hitler when he became Chancellor of Germany.  It was a sobering experience, one which I will never forget. 

Several years later while visiting Israel with Jewish friends, we toured Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. It was moving and instructive at the same time. The wife of our Jewish friend who accompanied us is now a Docent at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

The DC Holocaust Museum has an Encyclopedia of Holocaust information. It describes the Holocaust as a “systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazi regime and its collaborators”.  It goes on:

“The Nazis, […] believed that Germans were ‘racially superior’ and they wanted to create a ‘racially pure’ state. Jews, deemed ‘inferior,’ were considered an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.”

Over the years, there have been denials that the Holocaust happened.  Those, unfortunately, have crept into social media.  The CEO of Facebook suggested said that he didn’t think deniers of the Holocaust were “intentionally getting it wrong.”  That comment is hard to imagine in light of the existence of gas chambers pictured above. Those are not a mirage. 

Because the next generation get their information from social media, it comes as no surprise that they are largely uninformed.  About 1 in 10 young adults in America think that Jewish people caused the holocaust, or that it didn’t happen, or they aren’t even sure it took place according to a recent survey. 

That may be bad enough, but a shocking 50% of millennials and Gen Z reported seeing Holocaust denial or distortion posts online.  63% of all those surveyed did not know that six million Jews were murdered and 36% thought that less than two thousand Jews died. 

Two thirds of millennials in America don’t know what Auschwitz was and half of Americans believe that the Holocaust could happen again.  Seventeen per cent could not name a concentration camp or ghetto (there were 40,000 of those in all).

Why is this important?  Well, lots of reasons, but the main one is that it shows a tragic failure of the education system to teach accurate history in our school systems.  Edmund Burke is quoted as saying that “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

We are seeing an attack on our foundations and history at unprecedented levels, including the teaching of Critical Race Theory and curriculum based on the 1619 Project. What is clear is that it shows how quickly our foundational knowledge can be lost, and once lost, replaced by “terribly skewed or mistaken things” according to Ralph Emory White. 

Which brings me to Christianity.  Gen Z is the first generation to have been brought up in a post-Christian era, certainly in the U.S. “They are not simply living in and being shaped by a post-Christian cultural context. They do not even have a memory of the gospel,” according to White.

This has huge implications for Christianity.  If they don’t know about the Holocaust, they certainly don’t know that the Nazi party stood for “National Socialist Germany Workers Party” and that socialism has a sordid history. And if they don’t know about the Jewish people killed in the Holocaust, they have no chance of knowing about a Jewish man who lived 2000 years ago.

Our challenge is to reach across generational boundaries and walk beside the next generation. Their views on history and religion are shaped by social media, not history or the bible. As such, it may be too much to ask them to read history books, but not too much to develop a relationship with a mentor. 

They may not remember history, so it is up us to pass it on to the next generation. 

MENTOR TAKEAWAY: One area to explore with your mentee is his or her knowledge of history. To the extent that it is weak, you can provide simple resources to build up what our school systems have left out.

FURTHER READING:

Dachau Concentration Camp  History.com

Social Media’s Denials of the Holocaust is No Mistake – they are Hate Speech The Hill

New Survey Shows Ignorance of Holocaust  

First State by State Survey of Holocaust Knowledge Claims Conference

Generation Z, the Holocaust and the Bible – White

US Holocaust Museum Website

WORSHIP: Graves into Gardens – Elevation Worship

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Enron Redux

Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.  Eccl. 4:8

Not everyone will remember the Enron scandal which occurred in 2001.  It was a high-flying energy company whose stock had soared but was managed by corrupt people.  There was no check and balance on insider corporate transactions resulting in officers of the company enriching themselves to the detriment of the company.

Congress enacted legislation which, while well intended, doesn’t really correct corrupt leadership.  The Sarbanes Oxley(SOX) Act created a template for corporate governance.  Primary among its provisions was dealing with conflicts of interest. 

While SOX only affected for-profit corporations. The leading organization that promotes best practices for Christian non-profits and churches is ECFA (Evangelical Counsel for Financial Accountability). It was quick to embrace SOX accountability and conflict of interest rules.

Among other ECFA standards,  It set forth rules for approval of compensation as well as dealing with conflicts of interest of transactions with a “related party”, which could be the family of an officer. Only disinterested members of a Board can vote to approve a transaction where there is a conflict of interest.

Many states changed their non-profit statutes to require governing boards to have disinterested members approve any transaction where there is a conflict of interest. 

What is surprising is that Enron was a public corporation whose stock was traded on the NY stock exchange. As such, it was already highly regulated and subject to a myriad set of oversight and rules regarding governance. Arthur Andersen, its large auditor, went out of business. 

One concept of governing Boards (whether they are elders, trustees or directors) is that they are responsible for oversight and have fiduciary standards.  In the public arena, there are no more “rubber stamp” or figurehead boards where the members do no real governing nor holding officers accountable. 

Can Enron occur again?  I am sure it will in the for-profit world, but it will be another iteration designed to escape discovery.

I give this background because the Christian world has seen its share of ministry leaders fail, yet the real culprit is their governing boards who have sat on their hands when there was anecdotal evidence that something was wrong. 

An Enron “event” has occurred several times in the Christian world recently.  Two examples:  Bill Hybels of Willow Creek, and more recently, Jerry Falwell, Jr. at Liberty University, a Christian college in southern Virginia. 

Hybels was senior pastor at Willow Creek, a mega church with around 16,000 members near Chicago, ILL. He stepped down in 2019 when allegations of sexual misconduct and intimidation of employees surfaced. A majority of the Elders resigned, and the allegations were found to be correct by a third party investigation.

Having been on an Elder Board of a church where a group of the elders attempted to bring the senior pastor into a level of personal accountability, I can say that there were signs of trouble with Hybels long before it became public. Just the strength and charisma of a leader makes such efforts hard. 

And then there is Jerry Falwell, Jr., a lawyer by training, who took over Liberty University from his father. He recently resigned over character issues – a lifestyle that was not consistent with Christianity. He acted with impunity in part because the Trustees were not adhering to good governance principles. 

The Liberty Board had 33 members, which by any best practice standards is too large for a working Board where dissenting voices could be heard. Instead of investigating issues which had been obvious for years, they looked the other way (or worse, they didn’t even look). 

To add insult to injury, Falwell was permitted to resign making him eligible for $10 million in termination benefits. What should have happened?  They should have fired him, and they all need to resign and start over.

In the Christian world, you shouldn’t need SOX or its non-profit adaptations to govern a ministry or a church. The Bible has plenty to say about the character and conduct of leaders, as well as being accountable and stewardship.  

The trouble is that many ministries are top down leadership models where a strong and charismatic leader can fail in plain sight.  Good governance on ministry boards comes with the requirement to be involved, not sit back and watch a disaster unfold. 

We are all capable of depravity.  It happened to Bill Hybels and Jerry Falwell, Jr. It is a lesson to all boards that we need each other to be held into account. No man is an island. Being a “King” is inconsistent with being a servant.

The challenge is for each of us to realize that we are all capable of some level of failure and brokenness. We need others in our lives to keep us on the path when we veer off course. That requires a commitment, humility and transparency which is so often lacking from a top down leader.

I am noted for telling others that if you don’t have an accountability group, you are an accident waiting to happen.  Satan doesn’t pick on groups – he picks on individuals.

MENTOR TAKEAWAY:  Personal integrity is a team sport. Make sure your mentee has close friends to help him or her stay on track.

FURTHER RESEARCH:  Enron Scandal: The Fall of a Wall Street Darling

Sarbanes Oxley Act

After Jerry Falwell Jr., a Reckoning for Liberty University – WSJ

The Falwell Fiasco:  Where was the Board?  Ministry Watch

ECFA Principles of Stewardship – Conflicts of Interest

WORSHIP:  Cornerstone – Hillsong

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