While admitting that “persecution” in America today is nothing like what Christians in the Middle East are facing, Santorum warned that Christians in the U.S. must nevertheless remain vigilant because the sort of deadly persecution faced by Christians around the world does not just happen overnight. The slide toward wholesale persecution is a process, Santorum said, pointing to Nazi Germany to argue that just as the Jews in that country found it “unfathomable” that anything like the Holocaust could ever happen, so too does it seem unfathomable that anything like that could ever happen in America…. “If we continue down this path, things are not going to get better,” Santorum said, “and the chance of something really bad beginning to happen, where your faith is really constrained, or your lives are really in danger becomes a possibility down the road”
How can you tell when a Christian is grasping at straws in their efforts to justify their narrow-minded bigotry and intolerance? Well, when they introduce Nazi Germany into the equation, you can rest assured they know they’re in desperate straits. Invoking Godwin’s Law is a great to deflect attention from your weak, indefensible argument, because…Nazi Germany!! You see? How can you possibly hope to conduct a debate on a reasonably intellectual plane when your adversary plays the “Because…Nazi Germany!!” card?
Under normal circumstances, I’d write about Rick Santorum at about the same time I’d post a live stream of my upcoming colonoscopy. He’s a zealot, a fool, and his authoritarian lust for power is exceeded only by his hyper-Christian hypocrisy. That said, his latest descent into religiosity is pure comedy genius, and he’s a walking, talking exercise in self-parody.
The idea that America persecutes Christians is as laughable as it is overcooked. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: You can’t convincingly claim persecution when 80% of Americans self-identify as Christian. If Santorum truly believes that America is sliding towards wholesale persecution, he’s even dumber than I’d suspected…and I didn’t think it was possible to set that bar any lower. Truth be told, Santorum isn’t stupid…but it’s a role he plays convincingly in his never-ending quest to assume a leading role in turning America into a functional theocracy.
So, if you’re going to claim that America persecutes Christians and that this country is sliding down the slippery slope to becoming just like Nazi Germany, how about a little perspective in the way of a history lesson?
German Nazis considered themselves Christians, and Adolf Hitler considered himself to be doing the Lord’s works. In short, Nazi Germany was Christian and German Nazis were Christians. German churches were closely integrated with, and overseen by, the Nazi regime. In fact, German Nazis considered the implementation of Nazism and implementation of a Christian agenda to be one and the same.
So, that’s EXACTLY like what Barack Obama is doing, eh? Slow your roll there, Sparky- for you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free…though you’re not going to be happy about that. Not at all.
In a speech celebrating Germany’s exit from the League of Nations, Hitler again maintained that the Third Reich was actively implementing a Christian agenda: “Along with the fight for a purer morality we have taken upon ourselves the struggle against the decomposition of our religion. We have therefore taken up the struggle against the Godless movement, and not just with a few theoretical declarations; we have stamped it out. And above all we have dragged the priests out of the lowlands of the political party struggle and have brought them back into the church.”
This declaration was quite consistent with Hitler’s speeches earlier in the year and also with the basic attitude he laid out — privately as well as publicly — in the “time of struggle.” Insisting that Nazism as a state would not distinguish between Protestant and Catholic, he recognized only a common supra-Christian faith. True to his promise, Hitler defended Christianity against the “Godless” movement, outlawing the Socialist and the Communist parties very early after the Seizure of Power.
Nazi philosophy held that there was no separation of Church and State; they were one and the same, each playing different roles but with the same endgame: total and complete control over the words, thoughts, and deeds of Germans and their subjects. The “failure” to accede to the creation of a brutal authoritarian dictatorship is not persecution; it’s standing up to religious tyranny.
Has Santorum and his ilk forgotten that this country was founded by those fleeing religious persecution in England??
Despite what the American Taliban would have us believe, we are NOT sliding down the slippery slope to persecuting Christians. Nor is the separation of Church and State a threat to religious freedom- quite the opposite, actually. That separation ensures that Americans of all faiths are guaranteed the right to live and worship (or not) as they see fit. Rick Santorum’s America would be a Christian dictatorship in which freedom and democracy would extend only so far as necessary to ensure the primary of Conservative Old Testament rule.
To think that this country would ever begin to resemble Nazi Germany is as breathlessly hyperbolic as it is historically inaccurate. Equating the regime of a twice democratically elected President with the tyrannical regime of a zealot and despot responsible for the deaths of millions isn’t a defensible argument. No matter how much authoritarian “Christians” like Santorum claim to be persecuted because they’re not allowed to force their narrow, ignorant, fear-based agenda on ALL Americans…that’s not persecution. You don’t get to claim being the aggrieved party because you’re not given free reign to implement your unconstitutional, anti-democratic agenda.
For Rick Santorum and the rest of the American Taliban, it’s not about Christianity, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s about power and control…and if you want to start comparing things to Nazi Germany, THAT would be a much better, and far more accurate, place to start.
