Whoa. MSNBC must have lost its mind today when author/guest compared President Obama’s encroachment of religious liberty to the first steps taken by the Nazis in Germany.
Something tells me that this is the last time “Bonhoeffer” author Eric Metaxas gets on the air on MSNBC. Especially because the truth hurts.
Breitbart reports:
“I met the president. I gave him a copy of my book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which he said he’s going to read,” Metaxas said during the interview. “In that book, you read about what happened to an amazingly great country called Germany…”
“In the beginning, it always starts really, really small. We need to understand as Americans — if we do not see this as a bright line in the sand — if you’re not a Catholic, if you use contraception — doesn’t matter. Because eventually, this kind of government overreach will affect you.”
Check out the vid. Poor Chris Jansing was so shocked that I believe it melted her brain because she doesn’t really react in shock.
But what does she ask about when she’s told the Obama administration is following the example of Nazis? She asks how Democrats acting like Nazis may hand Republicans a political issue. Because that’s the important question.
February 8, 2012 at 3:37 am
Let me understand this. And correct me if I'm wrong…The Churches don't have in their insurances things they object to, BUT, the companies they run are forced to have contraception etc. Am I missing something?
Should any company the Church decides to run, School, daycare, adoption agency, ambulance service, Paint supply, Tow truck, all have this exception?
The CHURCH gets the exemption, the companies don't. Seems like someone is making a false line in the sand.
February 8, 2012 at 4:23 am
Amazingly great? Tell it to Poland. From 1750 until World War I, German policies in Poland were the second most brutal human rights abuses in all of Europe, exceeded only by the very worst atrocities the English committed against the Irish.
That's like, if China committed genocide against, say, the Uyghurs, after 200 years of keeping up their current practices in Tibet, and historians all acted as if genocide and human rights abuses completely came out of nowhere for an "amazingly great" country called China.
Sorry, but the only major difference between Nazi ideology and the previous 200 years of German Imperial ideology was the Nazis were egalitarian, as long as you were Teutonic.
February 8, 2012 at 4:49 am
Anonymous, what do you think the "Church" is? The Church established hospitals and universities among other things. When the federal government tells an employer he must pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs, the federal government has overstepped its bounds. The 1st Amendment specifically says Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The free exercise of religion does not simply mean going to church on Sunday. It means living your life according to your faith.
The Constitution was written specifically to LIMIT the power of the federal government. Remember the historical context in which our Founders lived. They knew tyranny. Domestic power was to rest with the states and with individuals. The federal government could handle things like interstate commerce and international policies. The federal government has only 18 authorized duties in the Constitution. All else is supposed to be handled by states and individuals. These days, the federal government treats states as branch offices and citizens as subjects.
February 8, 2012 at 12:29 pm
The fact that sterilization, contraception and abortaficients treat the human person as objects without immortal souls whom God has CREATED equal(The Declaration of Independence)does not give the federal government authentic authority to treat its constituents as property. Ignoring our pursuit of Happiness and our constitutional posterity, the Obama administration has invented crises after crises to seize power and inflate itself into a grotesque form of totalitarianism…and there is more to come. This is just the beginning.
February 8, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Metaxas owned that interview, I saw it. I was amazed that an objective view was getting presented on MSNBC. Jansing will probably be flogged for allowing it to happen.
February 8, 2012 at 2:25 pm
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
February 8, 2012 at 4:08 pm
… and Metaxas is a practicing Episcopalian, not a Catholic!
I'm sure the fervently Pro-Choice Episcopal cabal that run this pathetic and rapidly declining "denomination" will set up 're-education' classes immediately for Mr. Metaxas.
-disgusted Episcopalian
February 8, 2012 at 4:14 pm
The ADL ain't going to be happy when they see this one.
February 8, 2012 at 5:03 pm
After the Right to Life was taken and now the Right to Liberty is under fire…NO ONE will be free from the possibility that one day "they" will come for you! You will be old, or sick, or disabled and not worth the money to maintain.
And the killing of the unborn which the tax dollars support to the tune of a million dollars a day….well, killing them now is cheaper than doing it later.
What is our country coming to? Stand up, citiznes! We must put a stop to this or risk auschwitzes in our own country.
February 8, 2012 at 6:05 pm
@Linda,
The will of man is being violated by Right to choose and Right to die. How does the government presume to know what the next second will bring? Church and state are two legs of Liberty Walking. Obama has deformed the state and is using the state to defeat the church. Obamacare is not health and it is not care. Obamacare is a cudgel to beat citizens into submission to a totalitarian form of existence.
February 8, 2012 at 8:10 pm
"Should any company the Church decides to run, School, daycare, adoption agency, ambulance service, Paint supply, Tow truck, all have this exception?"
Absolutely. Because the mandate is morally wrong, and no one should be forced to do what is morally wrong. There really shouldn't be a mandate that applies to anyone. But if there will be one, then it certainly shouldn't override people's right to live their religion.
February 8, 2012 at 8:48 pm
Employers who provide health insurance subsidize part of the cost of health insurance. That means the employer PAYS part of the cost. To require the hospitals and schools to include these services will require the hospital or school to PAY FOR birth control or sterilization, etc.
February 8, 2012 at 11:23 pm
I heard the speech he gave at the National Prayer Breakfast to the President and so on. Hugh Hewitt played the whole thing on his show and it was very good especially when he addressed abortion a couple of times. It was probably not as awkward as Blessed Mother Teresa's stinging rebuke at the National Prayer Breakfast to the Clintons.
His speech combined being absolutely hilarious with many good points especially when talking about Bonhoeffer.
February 9, 2012 at 1:32 am
"When the federal government tells an employer he must pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs, the federal government has overstepped its bounds."
Well, since the government hasn't said that an employer must pay for such things, then there has been no overreach — and indeed, the government has not. Just as in 28 states currently (states in which the Catholic Church has found it perfectly able to live with this regulation), the federal government has said that the insurance purchased by an employer must be full insurance — that's all. Employees have the right to use that insurance to obtain contraceptives or not; it's up to them.
The only overreaching here is by the Church, which believes it has the right to reach into the bedrooms of everyone who sweeps the floors in its hospitals or teaches classes in its universities. Soon it will be saying that it shouldn't have to pay anyone, because they might use the paycheck to purchase contraceptives — it's the exact same argument.
This "Nazi" garbage is just that — garbage.
February 9, 2012 at 2:53 am
Terry, when people can't operate according to their conscience how can they follow the tenants of their own religion? Answer me that.
February 9, 2012 at 2:58 am
Terry: "employer insurance must cover contraceptives" and "employers must pay for contraceptives" are the same sentence. Do you think insurance is something different from paying for things?
I'm just curious to know who reads you the books you review on your blog, because you are obviously not a literate person.
February 9, 2012 at 1:32 pm
remember the anointed One's speeches lately, "Freedom of WORSHIP". words mean things, Freedom of worship, not freedom of religion is a HUGE distinction, the Chicoms have freedom of worship, so did the USSR, but the religions must meet the rulers standards, much like Protestantism, ok becuase it is malleable to public opinion, so it cam be swayed, notice all the articles about "—percent of catholic women use birth control", like that change and trumps all
February 9, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Terry,
The Church is hardly 'reaching into anyone's bedroom’ here. There are things the Church finds amoral and an intrinsic evil. Just because the State is amoral it has no right to force its evil policies down anyone’s throat. You’d do well to stick to the issue. The Church isn’t telling anyone of their employees what to do in or out of the bedroom; they are simply saying that they are not going to pay for evil practices.
I suppose one option for the Church is to give those employees who wish to have these evil things a voucher/coupon to be used at their discretion. That way the employee is responsible for the way the money is used. The Church need not know how or on what the voucher is spent so the guilt rests firmly on those spending it on amoral/evil things. Providing the employee with the means to an end is not the same as providing them with the end. We are all of us personally responsible for our choices, just because someone opens a door you are not obliged to enter, and the entering is your responsibility. Obama is telling the Church It has to open the door to hell for their employees and walk hand-in-hand down into the lake of fire. The door that leads to hell is always wide open in the first place and the Church can’t close it. But the Church can give them a generic ‘ticket’ and warn them not to use it at a particularly hot door. In fact a voucher isn’t even necessary; U.S. currency has been the generic ‘ticket’ to all kinds of evil ends. So the Church could just make a deduction from everyone’s policy and give everyone the cash. I bet many would like that better anyway. I know I would because I wouldn’t use it on evil things so I’d be that much better off, not only not going down into the lake of fire but having a few extra $ in my pocket too.
As an employer myself, I don’t offer insurance for health care, but as a result I can pay my employees far better and they can reap the benefit of living a clean/healthy life and make a lot better wage. I’ve never had a single worker ask to get health insurance rather than a higher wage. They like the cash. Insurance is a scam anyway. It’s used very rarely and it costs waaaaaaayyyy too much. It prevents many perfectly healthy people from having the means to live a better life, make investments in their future and generally spur the economy. After all, this is capitalism, remember? Insurance companies turned us into a form of socialism long ago and we wonder why the economy slugs along like a sick horse. Take the ‘millstone’ from around the poor horse’s neck (letting healthy people thrive like healthy people) and you’d see this economy just and run like a race horse! Catastrophic insurance is the best way to use insurance and it’s relatively cheap. The State would have plenty of revenue to provide Medicare and all those programs they provide now, so the truly needy would still be covered. As it is now the insurance companies are giant leeches sucking the lifeblood out of all of us so nobody is able to run like they should.
I can’t help but find the irony in this whole issue, as the Church was the original provider of all health care before the reformation, as it was the provider of education. Now the State has taken both of these ‘services’ over and what a mess they’ve made of them both!
February 9, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Hey guys – the point on the Nazis is spot on. Google "First they came" and read the poem, Here is a cut and paste.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
February 9, 2012 at 4:37 pm
The government does not have the right to force anyone to violate their conscience – neither religious employers and employees, nor governmental employees, nor private employers and employees. All people have a right to exercise threir conscience freely, without having to endure discrimination, intimidation, harrassment. or penalties. Any government that sees it differently does not deserve to endure. Any people that tolerates it does not deserve to exist.