"When the dictators and the opportunists are gone, the cross will still stand before us and something in us will say, 'That is the real thing.'"
About this Quote
Sockman’s line is built like a piece of moral architecture: temporary power collapses, a single symbol remains. By pairing “dictators” with “opportunists,” he refuses to let history off the hook with the easy villain narrative. Tyrants are obvious; opportunists are the crowd of joiners, careerists, and silent accommodators who make tyranny workable. The sentence quietly indicts both, suggesting that political evil is not only imposed from above but enabled from the sidelines.
The cross functions here less as denominational branding than as a stubborn, inconvenient reference point. Sockman wagers that once the propaganda posters come down and the strongmen die, we will still be confronted by a sign of suffering that cannot be spun into a victory parade. The cross is not a throne; it’s an execution device. Calling it “the real thing” is a deliberate reversal of what regimes promise: spectacle, certainty, a clean story where the righteous win. The cross insists on a messier truth - innocence harmed, love expressed through loss, meaning purchased at a cost.
The subtext is pastoral but also political. Writing and preaching through the mid-century shadow of fascism and war, Sockman is arguing for a moral continuity that outlasts regimes and fads. He locates authority not in charisma, party, or “winning,” but in a conscience-level recognition: “something in us” that responds when coercion is gone. It’s a claim about the durability of moral perception - and a warning that what feels expedient in the moment will look thin once the moment passes.
The cross functions here less as denominational branding than as a stubborn, inconvenient reference point. Sockman wagers that once the propaganda posters come down and the strongmen die, we will still be confronted by a sign of suffering that cannot be spun into a victory parade. The cross is not a throne; it’s an execution device. Calling it “the real thing” is a deliberate reversal of what regimes promise: spectacle, certainty, a clean story where the righteous win. The cross insists on a messier truth - innocence harmed, love expressed through loss, meaning purchased at a cost.
The subtext is pastoral but also political. Writing and preaching through the mid-century shadow of fascism and war, Sockman is arguing for a moral continuity that outlasts regimes and fads. He locates authority not in charisma, party, or “winning,” but in a conscience-level recognition: “something in us” that responds when coercion is gone. It’s a claim about the durability of moral perception - and a warning that what feels expedient in the moment will look thin once the moment passes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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