Erwin Lutzer, the author of When a Nation Forgets God, quotes a German man…

“I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian.

“We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could anyone do to stop it?

“A railroad track ran behind our church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed as we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by.

“We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars.

“Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we could hear the cries of the Jews on route to a death camp.

“Their screams tormented us.

“We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns.

“By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.

“Years have passed, and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me. Forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.”

— When a Nation Forgets God, 7 lessons we must learn from Nazi Germany, by Erwin W. Lutzer.

The title of this post comes from a Dylan Song I learned as a child, “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again”:

“Now the preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest
But he cursed me when I proved it to him
Then I whispered, “Not even you can hide
You see, you’re just like me
I hope you’re satisfied” – Robert Zimmerman

The reason I bring these quotes together is not to shame Christians or anyone else, but to say we are all mere humans who need to stop thinking that our group is somehow superior to all others in the heart of the true God.