A recently elected West Texas state senator on Tuesday compared what he called a “spiritual battle” against religion in the United States to the Holocaust.
Charles Perry made the comparison after being sworn in on Tuesday following his victory earlier this month in a special election to replace a retiring state senator, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
In his inaugural speech, Perry said a recent trip to a concentration camp in Germany made him draw a comparison between what he believes are efforts by the government to pass laws against religion and the killing of Jews during the Holocaust.
“There were 10,000 people that were paraded into a medical office [at the concentration camp in Germany] under the guise of a physical. As they stood with their back against the wall, they were executed with a bullet through the throat. Before they left, 10,000 people met their fate that way,” Perry said.
“Is it not the same than when our government continues to perpetuate laws that lead citizens away from God?"
I would like to answer that last question for State Senator Perry.
Um no, it is NOT the same.
It is not only not the same but it quite literally could NOT be any different.
This is a country where a full 83% of the people self identify as Christians. They overwhelmingly dominate local, state, and federal government, and many of our laws reflect the influence of Christianity and the Bible on this nation.
So no there is NOTHING similar about Christians in America, and the Jews who suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany before and during World War 2.
Now if he wants to compare the Nazis to the Fundamentalist Christians in this country, well that is another conversation altogether.
What an asshole!! But don't you start with the Naxu comparisons!! The Nazis murdered 12 million (6 million Jews).
ReplyDeleteBurned them, shot them, gassed them. Entire families. Children!
My father had a tattoo stamped on his arm with his "number" like an animal ready for slaughter. He was 14 when he entered the camp with his parents, sister and brother. They all died but him. He managed to survive but weighed 85 pounds upon his release at age 18. His whole life he suffered from extreme pain because his skeleton didn't develop properly.
I love you Gryphen and read here every morning, but you insult the survivors and those killed when you compare ANYONE to the Naxis. The Christians actions are disturbing, but they do not in any way compare to the Naxis!!!! And when you use that a analogy, you are as bad as the conservatives that call the President and liberals Naxis.
I don't think you have a clue how insulting your comment is to survivors of the Holocaust. And why is a smart man like yourself stooping to the level of the disgusting far right wingers?? You want to convince people how frightening the fundamentalists are? Then do it in an intelligent way without ANY Nazi comparisons or you are as bad as they are,
I think that Gryph fears that American conservative christians could become as extreme as the Nazis. And I happen to agree with him.
DeleteI worry about that, too.
DeleteAnd this Texas jerk has the audacity to make such a pronouncement right before Yom Kippur--the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, starting Friday night--makes it even more galling.
It has never, even happened that atheists (like Gryphen) and Jews (like me and the other Biscuitbarrels) have rampaged through largely Christian-occupied communities and smashed the windows and set fires to businesses and houses of worship. This happened in November 1938. It was called Kristallnacht: Night of the Broken Glass.
I was not the only person to call the recent Palin brawl Bristolnacht, but I won't any longer. Because what happened during and after 1938 was So. Much. Worse even than that.
I agree with 7:14.
DeleteChristians love to feel persecuted. It makes them feel special. It's their version of humblebragging. And I agree with your comparison of Nazis to Fundamental Christians in this country. They want to take over the government (hence the quiverfull movement, i.e. cranking out as very many kids as they possibly can) and institute the harshest old testament based rule, with them in charge. Under such a rule, everyone who did not strictly adhere to and perform their belief system would be toast. We all know that, or should.
ReplyDeleteAgree with the persecution complex. For example, faux Christians Sarah Palin and mini-me Bristol love to play the victim for their faith...actually they play the victim about anything and everything!
DeleteMr. Charles Perry: In addition to the fact that your remark is callous and ignorant, and that you yourself imagine that you're a VICTIM by belonging to the majority religion in America, please understand that there is a vast difference between humans killed mercilessly because of their ethnic and/or religious heritage, and
ReplyDeletethe fact that you're alive, fully-fed, free and able, without any punishment by anyone, allowed to state stupid proclamations as you do with no consequence.
No consequences for you at all, except that I hope you lose in the next election so that someone with a brain and a heart can represent your district.
Millions have been slaughtered in the name of Christianity. Yes, ISIS is a threat and what they are currently doing mirrors the Crusades.
ReplyDeleteTexas has more than its fair share of a**holes.
ReplyDelete“Obama’s agenda is not based on the Bible,” Santorum said. “Iran is dangerous because it’s a theocracy,” warned Cruz. It doesn’t take a clinical psychologist to detect the cognitive dissonance that the combined statements display.
DeleteHis statement is nearly the opposite of reality here .
ReplyDeleteI observe extreme black and white thinking that if everyone or the government is not all for you and doing what polarized thinking people do that they then perceive everyone else is all against them.
Hence, the black and white thinking people twist things to extremes void of any shades of grey . They are self deceived that the right to chose (dessert or not) or pray before lunch at school (or not), consideration of a variety of religious winter holidays is not dictating any one can not but respect and freedom to worship and celebrate in freedom.
The war on Christmas is from the extreme thinking also that their freedom is opposed in twisted interpretaions
it sad that we are trying to convince some that Christians are the only faith we have in our nation. its a nation of many .. why we here in texas fear such claims is the fear factor...
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the hardcore Christian fanatics in this country are feeling the push back! Parents like myself with kids in school take a HUGE exception to their attempts to pollute science education in public schools with their superstitions and blind obedience to their perverse religious doctrine. Parents like myself are going to keep swinging really, really hard right back at 'em until they cease & desist with their horseshit to jack up our kids' education.
ReplyDelete~Canuck~
Good for you!
DeleteThis doofus has no idea what he is talking about and there are too many like him out there, which is why we keep getting this sort of stupidity inflicted on us.
ReplyDeleteM from MD
His "thinking" is the result of a piss poor education.
DeleteAND being an asshole!
There are concentration camps in 2014 Germany? The same country that just abolished college tuition fees still has concentration camps???
ReplyDelete-Oz
Oh, you are locked in a building like Anne Frank for a long time? I hope you will soon in our us prison repub.
ReplyDeleteOT:
ReplyDeleteGryph, Are you giving up hope of a police report on the Palin brawl? I hate it when they skate. grrrr
They did say it would be this week, didn't they?
DeleteWhen I was young, I thought you had to be so intelligent to be elected to office. The past few decades sure have dispelled that notion.
ReplyDeleteI get so incensed when buffoons such as Charles Perry make statements comparing Christians in America to those oppressed under the Nazi Regime.
WTF does Perry know of World History?
Victor Klemperer's journals published in two volumes kept from 1933-1945 give a chilling and accurate description of everyday life in the Third Reich.
When the Christians are forced to live in ghettos and have their pets euthanized here in the USA, then Mr Perry you will have the platform of being a victim.
This can be a dry read, but the detail is fascinating how the Nazi's killed by "a thousand stings" over the years as they degraded and dehumanized those who did not adhere to their ideology.
I'm reminded of the Christian Right here using the same tactics with their recent hate fest "The Voters Values Summit"...
http://www.amazon.com/Will-Bear-Witness-Diary-1933-1941/dp/0375753788/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412267802&sr=1-1&keywords=i+will+bear+witness+a+diary+of+the+nazi+years+1933-1941
Churches are everywhere, churches that are tax exempt! Their winter holiday is shoved in all our faces beginning a full two months from the damn day itself! These people have absolute freedom to espouse their beliefs in public as well as inviting themselves to come to my door and share their silliness, all without fear of retribution. Evidence of their religion is literally strewn about our country and our Constitution tells them they are completely free to do this, yet they feel put upon?
ReplyDeleteThe Idiocracy is here my friends and it is being led by these whiny, self-centered, non-thinking people being led by the nose by their imaginary sky fairy. Disgusting.
What you say, a religious war? Nah, that can't happen, oh wait, never mind....
ReplyDeleteAll religions are a threat to other religions, but most importantly all religions are a threat to reason.
Because Jews controlled Nazi Germany....... yah sheesh
ReplyDeleteThe Republican Party Is Becoming The New Confederacy
ReplyDelete...In other words, the Republican Party has fully adopted the South’s inferiority complex and its burning desire to avenge the perceived wrongs done against it in the Civil War and the 150 years since they got their asses kicked for trying to defend slavery. The election of a black man to the presidency of the United States was essentially the catalyst for the GOP dropping the coded language of the Southern Strategy and instead openly calling for violence, insurrection and secession. If one of those people could be elected president, then the writing was on the wall: Either the South would have to rise in the next generation or forever be buried by a wave of brown skin, tolerance for homosexuals and equality for women. Clearly an unthinkable outcome if you’re a white heterosexual conservative Christian, AKA The Republican Party.
Now that Republicans has started to abandon hiding their racism and religious fanaticism, their base is going completely insane and electing ever more unhinged politicians to “represent” them:
...This is the future of the American right wing. They’re trapped in a vicious cycle of fearmongering and rage with no clear way out. The angrier and more afraid the base gets, the crazier the people they elect are. The crazier the people they elect are, the more they feed the anger and fear of the base. This feedback loop is, of course, amplified by the conservative entertainment complex of Fox News, AM Hate Radio and the fever swamps of the right wing blogosphere which all make millions off of telling their audience exactly what they want to hear: the blacks are coming to rob your house and rape your women. Communists are coming to take your money and give it to the blacks. The Gay Agenda is coming to molest your children and turn them gay. Feminists are coming to turn your wife into a militant lesbian and cut your balls off. The United Nations is coming to take away your guns and Bibles and force you into concentration camps.
And it’s all going to happen any day now!
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/10/02/salon-the-republican-party-is-becoming-the-new-confederacy/
I think "christians" should adopt a grading system like karate. Based on how many of the commandments one has broken in the past year, one would be a 9th degree, or a 4th degree christian. And they would need sub-levels for how many times they broke each commandment, thus one could be a 4th degree, 17th level christian. Maybe even another category for how many times they've repented: 4th degree, 17th level, with 12 absolutions. That would help the rest of us figure out how much of a "true believer" one is. Amen, ahh...men, I'm in.
ReplyDelete