Today’s events in history are a little more depressing. On this day in history, in 1933, in Germany, President Von Hindenbrg limited the freedom of the press, part of the journey towards the same date in 1938 when Adolf Hitler seized control of the German Army and put Nazis in key posts, ultimately precipitating the Second World War.
My PhD focused upon British Propaganda Posters of the Second World War, and I’ve always been convinced of the importance of understanding the media, how it can be used, and how it can be misused. In my current role I work on The BIGBible Project, where we seek to encourage a range of voices to speak into the same topic, not giving any one person too much control or too much credence.
The Nazi Party’s propaganda was so successful largely because after the First World War, harsh reparations were imposed upon Germany, with debts to the rest of the world largely unpayable. Hitler promised to rectify this, which the German nation brought into.
This makes me think about the longer-term ramifications of the way that we treat others in our world. We are all God’s children, and as Romans 8:15 says “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” How do we speak positively into this situation in the wider world?
