The Second Awakening of Christa Klages Page #2

- They need it badly.

- How much is it, anyway?

We haven't counted it.

It's not for us.

I don't want to see it.

It's wrong, and need

doesn't make it right.

Don't tell us what's

right and wrong.

Just send the money.

Or do you want those kids

end up in a home?

Ask Werner

what that's like!

Leave my life story

out of this, okay?

Are you going to do it?

Of course I'm not.

Think about it a minute.

It'd take me years

to raise that much.

Even privately?

Christa, the church

is like a corporation.

I'm only an employee.

I have to account

for every cent.

The only thing I can do

is turn the money over

to the police and plead immunity.

I'd advise you to do it

for the children's sake.

- There must be other ways.

- Thanks for the sermon.

I should never

have listened to Wolf.

Wolf was convinced

you'd help us.

You got him involved in this?

That poor, naive kid?

You don't know him.

You always led him around

by the nose.

So did you!

Don't you realize what you've done

to him and yourselves?

It was his decision.

He was sick of people

telling him to have patience.

People like you!

I want you to be gone

by the time I get back.

- You're not leaving here.

- I have to go to service.

- He could report us.

- He won't.

It would be

the smartest thing.

Dear Congregation,

must prayer be

a meaningless ritual

without hope

of being heard?

Or worse, an alibi

for not acting,

a way to avoid

true involvement?

Instead of doing good,

do we turn to prayer?

This alternative

is made clear

in the famous scene

in 'Mother Courage'

where the peasants pray,

and Kathrin sounds

the alarm on her drum.

In 1636

the Protestant city Halle

was besieged by the Kaiser's troops

and was in great danger.

Mother Courage,

her daughter Kathrin,

who could not speak,

and a group of peasants

await the catastrophe.

It's night.

The town and its people are asleep

and know nothing.

A peasant woman tells Kathrin:

"Pray, poor child, pray."

We cannot stop

the bloodshed.

You cannot speak,

but you can pray.

But Kathrin climbs up on the roof

of a house with her drum,

and begins to beat it,

waking the town.

An approaching soldier

sees her and shoots her dead.

Her prayer is an act,

and she pays for it

with her life.

What is Brecht telling us?

On the one hand,

the old woman

who prays to a God

who doesn't exist

and cannot save the town.

On the other - Kathrin,

who instead of praying

beats her drum

and saves the city.

But isn't this a contradiction

Christians can resolve?

Can't we rely on the words

of St. Augustine, who said:

'He who knows how to pray right

knows how to live right?'

For Christians know

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