Dirk Willems was arrested in his hometown of Asperen, Netherlands in 1569. His crime – choosing to be re-baptized as a devoted follower of Christ and hosting worship services in his home – was completely unacceptable to the religious and governmental leaders of his day. The young Dutchman was carted off to a palace that had been converted into a prison to stand trial alongside other religious “troublemakers.”
Torture
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- BeliefsChoicesDeathFaithHeresyLord's SupperMartyrPainPersecutionReformationSufferingTorture
Interrogating Anne
by davidrsmithby davidrsmithAnne Askew didn’t raise a family. She never made large sums of money. She couldn’t even claim a solid reputation as her own. Instead, she was burned at the stake for crimes she committed against the state.
As ludicrous as it may sound, most of those crimes revolved around her understanding of the Lord’s Supper.
- CatholicChrist's ExampleDeathExecutionHolocaustLegacyPersecutionPriestPrisonerSacrificialSaveSelflessTortureViolenceWarWorld War II
Sparing Francis
by davidrsmithby davidrsmithFather Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish-born priest who affected the lives of thousands around the world through a ministry he founded within the Roman Catholic Church. But his real legacy centers on a selfless act for one man named Francis…at a place called Auschwitz.
- AfricaDeathForgivenessGenocideGuiltyHateHolocaustKillMurderPersecutionRacismSufferingTortureUnforgivenessViolenceWar
Finding Forgiveness in Rwanda
by davidrsmithby davidrsmithImmaculée Ilibagiza could hear the killers calling her name. For weeks, she and seven other women silently hid in a tiny shower, trying to escape the holocaust raging through their native Rwanda. The genocide had already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
For days on end, she wondered if she would survive…or die like the rest of her family.
- BaptismChristlikeDeathFaithfulForgivenessHeresyJudgeMartyrPainPersecutionPrayerReformationRepentSufferingTortureViolence
The Final Prayer of Michael Sattler
by davidrsmithby davidrsmithThe Reformation created many mighty saints inside the Christian faith: John Calvin, Martin Luther, and Ulrich Zwingli, just to name a few. Sadly, the important work of the Reformation also cost many saints their lives.
Michael Sattler was one of those men.
- AbuseCriticismFearGovernmentInfluenceInjusticeLeadershipPoliticiansTaking a StandTaking ActionTortureWarWorld War II
Speak Up…I Dare You!
by davidrsmithby davidrsmithIn 1956, just three years after the death of Joseph Stalin, perhaps Russia’s most tyrannical leader, Nikita Khrushchev, the new prime ministry of Russia, gave an address to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party.
What was said – and not said – that day, left an indelible mark on everyone in the room.
- DeathEvilFree WillHateHolocaustInjusticeLostPrisonerSoldierTortureWarWorld War II
Lost to Buchenwald
by davidrsmithby davidrsmithAnthony DeLucca had been lost before, but on April 12, 1945, when he and an Army buddy got lost in the woods outside of Weimar, Germany, what they found would shake them to their core and call into question everything they believed about God and mankind.