The Worst Example of Evil Before Hitler: The Galli Report

Waiting Until You’re Ready Might Not Always Be a Good Idea | Why God Hides Himself | The History of Walls | [View online]( [Give Now]( Advertisement [The Galli Report]( [Home]( [Podcast]( [Subscribe]( Friday, October 26, 2018 The Worst Example of Evil Before Hitler If you really want to suggest that someone is evil, all you have to do is compare him to the Führer. Adolf Hitler has been dead for more than 70 years, but he has gained immortality as a historical analogy. Simply glance at today’s news headlines: Major political figures from around the world, including Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are routinely compared to the Nazi leader. Some scholars and journalists claim that Hitler analogies have great contemporary relevance for making sense of the global surge of right-wing nationalism, authoritarian populism, and neofascism. Others dismiss such comparisons as exaggerated hyperbole. But before Hitler became the analogy of evil like no other, what analogies did people use to talk about evil? That’s what “[How Americans Described Evil Before Hitler](” looks at. Waiting Until You’re Ready Might Not Always Be a Good Idea This is a sobering article as the title suggests: “[Your Real Biological Clock Is You’re Going to Die](/hmmdaily.com/2018/10/18/your-real-biological-clock-is-youre-going-to-die/8/your-real-biological-clock-is-youre-going-to-die/).” It’s about our culture’s new custom of delaying having children until the couple is in their late 30s. But there are existential consequences for that practice: In our social world, in our cultural class, at our point in history, people are brought up … to structure their lives as if time were something a person accumulated. One is wary of getting married too soon, of having children too young. Adulthood is a condition to enter cautiously and gradually. … You should not move on to the next step until you’re certain you’re ready. But this idea of certainty is a sham, a distraction, something to turn your attention away from the only truly certain thing, which is that your time will run out. If you intend to have children, but you don’t intend to have them just yet, you are not banking extra years as a person who is still too young to have children. You are subtracting years from the time you will share the world with your children. Why God Hides Himself [This next article]( wades into an old question, but one that has new relevance in our times: The hiddenness of God, which was once a problem for philosophers and theologians, is now a reason for millennials and their older counterparts to reject the gospel. Christian parents and leaders can help them work through this, but they must be able to offer reasonable answers to two questions. First, why would a God who insists that we believe in him not give us more evidence—why would he hide? And second, where would he hide? One would think that the God described in the Bible would be hard to miss. The author explores quantum physics and time, among other things, to ponder this problem—and to suggest where the hidden God is to be found. The History of Walls Let me make clear that I’m not sharing the following National Geographic interview, “[Building Walls May Have Allowed Civilization to Flourish]( because I’m an advocate of building a wall on the US–Mexican border. I’m not. But I found this conversation with David Frye, author of Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick, just plain interesting. Nothing more, nothing less. Grace and peace, [Mark Galli] [Mark Galli] [Mark Galli](mailto:GalliReport@christianitytoday.com) Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today Advertisement More from Christianity Today [Rethinking Our Relationship with the News]( [Rethinking Our Relationship with the News]( Both religion and politics have complicated it. How do we start fresh? Jeff Neely [Read More]( [Ministry Lessons from the Life of Eugene Peterson]( [CT Pastors]( [Ministry Lessons from the Life of Eugene Peterson]( 8 church leaders share what they learned through his books, letters, and friendship. Dean Pinter, Mark Galli, Trygve Johnson, and more [Read More]( [Iraqi Christians Waited Years for American Funds. Is Now Too Late?]( [Quick to Listen]( [Iraqi Christians Waited Years for American Funds. Is Now Too Late?]( The despair and hope of the country’s persecuted religious minorities. 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