Saturday, January 19, 2008

How We Arrived at 'Separation of Church and State'-

Who do we have to thank for the current mantra of 'separation of church and state?' Was it from Thomas Jefferson or from the minds of other Founding Fathers? Was it an ACLU conceived idea? Is it from the Liberals of this great country?

How about none of the above! How about Adolf Hitler!

Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of Idaho Values Alliance has a most intriguing and revealing article posted on their website concerning the origins of 'separation of church and state.' His source for this article was from "The Nazi Persecution of The Churches, 1933-45," by J.S. Conway, Basic Books, 1968.

I quote from him to wet your appetite. I will give the url at the end of this post so that you can read his amazing article.

"When Adolph Hitler took power in Germany, he recognized immediately that the major threat to his tyrannical designs would come from the church. If he could neutralize the voice of the church, he correctly reasoned, there would be no one else to stand in his way."

"Hitler crafted two slogans in particular...

“Politics do not belong in the Church.”

“The Church must be separate from the State.”

"Churches were no longer permitted to hold any meetings in public venues. They were instead locked up inside their sanctuaries, forbidden to speak their message outside the four walls of their church buildings."

"And the rest, as they say, is history."

For the rest of this insightful article, click here.

Are we destined as a nation to repeat the destruction instigated by that lunatic?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note that the quote is "Politics do not belong in the Church“ not the Church does not belong in politics. Different things entirely.

Hitler was also a Christian. Are you saying Christianity leads to evil?

"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator”
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

David said...

>anon- appreciate your comments but I believe you know what Hitler was getting at and his actions prove his points with the killing of Bonhoffer and other pastors who stood against him-

No, evil men do evil acts regardless the label they choose for themselves.

I am sorry if I misread your defending Hitler- but you and I both know there is a great difference in someone claiming to be a Christian and one who is actually having a vital, dynamic, ongoing, Spirit led relationship with Him- at least I hope you do. ;>)

Anonymous said...

oops I didn't mean to be anon - clicked wrong box last time.

Clearly Hitler was evil and the actions of his regime abhorent and indefensible.

But I wanted to illustrate that you can cherrypick Hitler's quotations to defend almost any position.

Criticising the ACLU based on the Third Reich is as senseless as claiming that the Third Reich was inspired by the American Constitution that enshrines freedom of worship. But these same quotations could be used to do exactly that.

David said...

>paul- thanks for the reply but your last statemnt has me somewhat confused- the issue is not the aclu- the quotes came from a book (The Nazi Persecution of The Churches, 1933-45) that chronicled the attack of Hitler against the church.

Just reminding people that history has a way of repeating itself; here specifically attacks against the church- regardless who is doing it.