Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 9
The speaker highlights complicity: Ambrose’s line (“He who knows evil is being done and does nothing… is guilty with the evildoer”), Mennonites helping Jews only when it didn’t jeopardize them, and the contrast with Quakers/Corrie ten Boom/Jehovah’s Witnesses; what specific forms of “silence” are easiest to justify in your setting, and what would “speaking” look like if it actually risked something?
Another way to ask: What kind of silence is easiest to excuse in your church or community when people are being harmed? What would it look like to speak up in a way that actually costs you something?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
According to the speaker, the easiest silence is the “don’t rock the boat” silence that protects comfort and safety; real speaking means refusing passivity even when it brings consequences.
- He quotes Ambrose of Milan: “He who knows evil is being done and does nothing to stop it is guilty with the evildoer,” naming this “complicity.”
- He states German Mennonites “would be passive and silent as the Holocaust happened in their midst,” and “would only help Jews if it did not put their own lives in jeopardy.”
- He contrasts others: Quakers “refused to be passive and silent,” Corrie ten Boom helped at great risk, and Jehovah’s Witnesses “did open their mouths,” with many imprisoned or killed.
- He criticizes the pope’s near-silence, saying Hitler wanted exactly that: “Nobody to say anything. Shut your mouths.”
- He ends with direct application: “You need to speak… Anybody who is silent in the face of evil… is complicit with that evil.”