EthicsDaily.com carries the story today of Richard Land’s apology to the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for using Nazi references to characterize the health-care reform debate.
According to EthicsDaily.com today, “During a Sept. 26 gathering of the Christian Coalition of Florida, Land criticized Democratic health-care reform efforts by claiming that the Democrats were attempting to do ‘precisely what the Nazis did.’ He also compared Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, who is a health-care advisor to Obama, to German SS officer Josef Mengele. Mengele was a doctor who was called the ‘Angel of Death’ because of his human experimentations during the Holocaust.”
Richard Land has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988.
I wrote about this misuse of Nazi references on this blog two days ago. It’s refreshing to see someone who has used such a reference apologize for the inappropriate reference to the horrific Holocaust experience. Nothing in modern human history is comparable to the state-designed, supported, and implemented genocide of Jews and other groups, including Gypsies and homosexuals, by the Nazi regime.
As the Anti-Defamation League statement suggests, “Such comparisons diminish the history and the memory of the 6 million Jews and 5 million others who died at the hands of the Nazis and insults those who fought bravely against Hitler.”
Perhaps others will learn from Land’s experience and think twice before invoking images of the Holocaust to describe petty partisan squabbles.
ChuckWarnock.com 