Nationally Renowned Author Eric Metaxas will speak at Grace Woodlands Church on Oct 16 to shed light on the state of the American Christian

THE WOODLANDS, TX — On October 16, New York Times #1 bestselling author and national radio/TV host Eric Metaxas will be at Grace Woodlands Church, giving the message at the 9 am and 11 am services and signing books afterward. 

Eric has written several acclaimed biographies including Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, and penned over 30 children’s books including the bestsellers Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving and It’s Time to Sleep, My Love. He has testified before Congress about the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S., spoken before world leaders at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, and was the 17th recipient of the Canterbury Medal awarded by the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom. 

According to Eric’s website, his newest book, Letter to the American Church “reveals the haunting similarities between today’s American Church and the German Church of the 1930s. Echoing the German martyr’s prophetic call, he exhorts his fellow Christians to repent of their silence in the face of evil.”

We asked Eric Metaxas about his new book, Letter to the American Church. 

Question:  Eric, you are a renowned author on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Your new book, Letter to The American Church covers similarities between the silence of Germany during the time of Hitler and the state of the current American Christian. What do you consider to be the most dangerous similarities between the American church today and the German church prior to the Holocaust? 

I’m afraid that all of them are equally dangerous. If the German church could somehow have seen the nightmare that would result from their silence — all the way to the Death Camps and the gassing of millions of Jews and others — I am sure they would never have been so silent. They would have risked everything to avoid the horrors that lay ahead. So the question is whether we in the United States can believe that similar horrors will result from our own silence at this time. The issues might be different, but the dark spiritual powers behind them are the same. We have a short window in which to speak out on all of the issues before us, and I’ve written this book as a plea to those in the American church who might be able to hear God’s warning. 

Question: A quote you list on your website reads “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. God will not hold us guiltless.”  What evils come to mind the most when making this statement and what measures do you think the American church can take to fight against an ever-growing anti-Godly agenda?

The globalist and culturally-Marxist agenda — often twisted together with what are called “woke” view of the world — touch everything, so the issues are various and many. At the heart of it all is whether we will live as a free people, with freedom of speech and freedom of religion, or will bow to the secular elites, who do not only have radically different views of things but who wish to impose those views and deprive us of our God-given freedoms and rights. Fear of speaking on any issue — and silence on any issue -- makes it more difficult to speak on every issue. Whether vaccine mandates or transgender madness or open borders or election transparency or any of the other things that we are facing, it is the church’s obligation to speak out. Bonhoeffer said that the Church is the conscience of the state, so we have a special obligation to speak out for everyone. 

Question:  What prompted you to write this book? Evil has always encroached on the lives of people around the world and silence in the face of wrongdoing has been an unwelcome reality defining some aspects of American life for centuries. Was there a pivotal moment that provoked you to write about this issue? 

I think the willingness of so many churches to bow to local and state governments with regard to the Covid pandemic was an initial red flag. That churches would shut down in the beginning made sense, because no one knew what was happening, exactly, nor what was at stake. But when it became increasingly obvious that many governors and mayors had particular contempt for church-goers — and allowed strip clubs and liquor stores and casinos and other places to be open -- that ought to have been enough to cause everyone to fight against these things. But so many were silent and compliant, which made things more difficult for those who did speak out and insist on staying open. I also thought the attempt to silence all dissent on the vaccines and on the mysterious outcome of the 2020 election was particularly horrifying. In America we ought to know better than to allow our elected leaders to get away with such things.

Question:  In today’s environment, churches are asked not to bring politics into the pulpit. Many churches try to avoid politics altogether due to the pressure of losing their tax status or being attacked in other ways. What would you like to tell those churches distancing themselves from political conversations with their congregations? 

As I explain in my book, this is a dramatic misunderstanding of what the founders intended, and a dramatic misunderstanding of religious liberty and of America itself. Any issues of truth ought to be addressed from the pulpit. When it comes to the issue of slavery, or to the issue of bowing to the atheist Nazi regime, we know that being silent — in the name of avoiding “politics” — would be nothing but fear. We have an obligation to God to speak out on all issues, and not allow others to bully us into silence.

Click here to learn more about Eric Metaxas

Click here to learn more about Eric's October 16 event at Grace Woodlands Church