Bonhoeffer Never Said That!

June 10, 2014
This is how these things happen. AMAZING. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that Dietrich Bonhoeffer NEVER said “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.” But it’s EVERYWHERE on the internet that he said that. But he didn’t. Who said it? Eric Metaxas. On page 486 of my Bonhoeffer book I sum up a theme of his and put it in those words. It is what I believe, but I came to put it in those words while writing my book on Bonhoeffer because it’s a theme of his. I was trying to help the reader understand Bonhoeffer’s thinking.But Bonhoeffer NEVER EVER actually said it himself.

But the toothpaste is out of the tube and the quote is EVERYWHERE on the internet. The number of places you will find that he said that is practically infinite. Click here to see. It’s mind-blowing. So if YOU put it out there and can put your tiny piece of toothpaste back in the tube, you will be doing a service to history. Let’s see if it is POSSIBLE to correct this error immediately. Such mistakes really do a terrible disservice to history. But can you imagine how far this mistake has gone already? Let’s try and correct it as an experiment… If you put it out there, please fix it. On behalf of history and accuracy, I thank you.