It’s not complicated, is it?

As the German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote: “Only the person who cries out for the Jews may sing Gregorian chants.”

What does this mean to us today, almost a century after the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany? Here’s my take.

If you don’t cry out against those who are taking food from the hungry, taking medicine from the sick, or shelter from the stranger—you have no moral right to sing your hymns or pray your prayers.

If you are not horrified by the cruelty of Donald Trump and his administration, the cutting off of aid to the poor and sick, the “chainsaw” firing of workers, the slamming of the door to refugees, and the deportation of those whose only crime is seeking a place of safety, I urge you to reexamine the principles you live by. I urge you to reacquaint yourself with the words of the One you claim to follow.

As Pastor Bonhoeffer said: “Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.”