Okay, who do you think this quote refers to?
Some people recognized the moral perils of mixing religion and politics, but many more were seduced by it. It was the pseudo-religious transfiguration of politics that largely ensured his success, notably in Protestant areas.
Sounds a lot like our very own President. And, may I just interject, GO BUSH. But, no, it's Nazism scholar Fritz Stern discussing Hitler's rise to power in today's NY Times.
Yes, I know, I know, comparing anything to Hitler or Nazism is the surest way to end an interesting conversation. On the Internet, this is referred to as Godwin's Law:
As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
So, in essence, this item is over before it even starts. But screw that. This article is really interesting.
Stern, though he never out-and-out refers to the American Christian right as "fascist," comes pretty close to declaring the entire theocratic wing of the Republican Party Nazi-esque. Check out this quote:
The Jews in Central Europe welcomed the Russian Revolution, but it ended badly for them. The tacit alliance between the neo-cons and the Christian right is less easily understood. I can imagine a similarly disillusioning outcome.
A similarly disillusioning outcome? That ain't good.
And this is a guy who knows what he's talking about. His family fled Germany in 1938, when he was 12, for New York City. He lost both an aunt and uncle to the Holocaust.
I think every Jewish person considers how they would react if they were in Germany during the years of persecution leading up to the Final Solution. What we don't consider (or, what I've never really considered) is what we will do if things turn south here in America in our own time.
Now, I'm not saying that the Republicans are going to start exterminating Jews or anyone else any time soon (unless they're retarded and commit a crime in Texas). But with Bush in for a second term, and the armies of theocracy amassing, I'm getting worried about the country I've always called my home.
The Founding Fathers of America may well be referred to as "pseudo-religious" in some ways, in the way that religion and philosophy informed them.
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of some historical accuracy here, the Catholic Church actually signed a concordat with the Nazis to "separate" the church from having political influence. I did not read the article because it is at the NYT. So I do not know what he said. But the "pseudo-religious" nature of Nazism was paganism, not Christianity.
Example,
".... the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists."
TheRise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History
of Nazi Germany
By William L. Shirer
(Simon and Schuster) 1990 :238-40)
I can provide much of the history of that. They were against the "Jewish influence" and that is in Christiantiy too. Yet for political reasons in public speeches and the like, Christians had to be appealed to.
Other interesting history....I'd like to know what he says in that article, though.