Reading for an essay this evening, I came across this piece from Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, written in prison in 1945 just weeks before his execution for opposing the Nazi regime:
"Is there a God who takes part in the personal destiny of man? It becomes difficult for me to believe so, for this God has now for years permitted torrents of blood and suffering, mountains of horror and despair, to be engendered against mankind by a few hundred thousand bestialised, spiritually diseased and deluded individuals ... He has allowed millions of decent people to suffer and to die ... Is it not possible that with our arbitrary nationalism we have affronted God and practised idolatry? Yes, in that case the things that are happening would have meaning: God desires to root out thoroughly in all nations the propensity to harness him to their national ambitions. If this be true, we can only beg God to let it suffice, and in the place of tears and death, to give ascendancy to the apostles of reconciliation who have recognised this spirit in God and this purpose in his judgments. For this I pray to him."from Richard Bauckham, "The Bible in Politics: How to read the Bible politically", SPCK, 1989; p58].