Tea Party's Glen Urquhart: Hitler Invented Church/State Separation
Delaware Tea Party candidate Glen Urquhart (yeah, same state as the anti-masturbation candidate Christine O’Donnell) told an audience that the
phrase “separation of church and state” originated from Adolph Hitler. Surprisingly, Urquhart knew about Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists but insisted the phrase was not in the letter.
Glen Urquhart is insisting that he was taken out of context and that was not really what he meant. So, to be fair, let us look at the entire context of the statement:
Glen Urquhart: “Do you know, where does this phrase ’separation of church and state’ come from? Anybody know?”
Audience member: “From the Devil.”
History teacher: “I do.”
Glen Urquhart (Pointing to audience member and laughing): “But I told you.”
History teacher: “No. I know. But I’m the history teacher. It was a letter.”
Glen Urquhart: “That is, actually, that exact phrase is not in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists. He was reassuring them the federal government wouldn’t trample on their religion. The exact phrase ’separation of Church and State’ came out of Adolph Hitler’s mouth. That’s where it comes from. So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of Church and State, ask them why they’re Nazis.”
So what does Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists say?
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
I suppose a person could say that Urquhart was technically accurate because Jefferson says “separation between church and state” and not “separation of church and state.” But even if we were to give him that technicality, it still does not detract from the asininity of the sentiment.
Perhaps Mr. Urquhart should go back to school and relearn his history. I bet the history teacher in the audience would be willing to tutor him.
So I have to ask… what in the world is going on in Delaware?
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I just came from the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce debate where I listened to Urquhart and Carney answer questions put to them by Alan Ludell.
Carney offered constructive answers and insights, demonstrating a real command of the facts and the issues.
Urquhart, in contrast was all slogans and soundbites. His message can be simply summed up as a promise to do nothing at all if elected, except say "NO" as often as possible to bring government to a standsill. He would drastically cut spending, but lacks the courage to say what he would cut.
I SAY: MY FEELING AS A CHRISTIAN POINTS ME TO MY LORD AND SAVIOUR AS A FIGHTER. IT POINTS ME TO THE MAN WHO ONCE IN LONELINESS, SURROUNDED ONLY BY A FEW FOLLOWERS, RECOGNIZED THESE JEWS FOR WHAT THEY WERE AND SUMMONED MEN TO THE FIGHT AGAINST THEM AND WHO, GOD'S TRUTH! WAS GREATEST NOT AS SUFFERER BUT AS FIGHTER. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and of adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before - the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice. And as a man I have the duty to see to it that human society does not suffer the same catastrophic collapse as did the civilization of the ancient world some two thousand years ago - a civilization which was driven to its ruin through this same Jewish people.
...where you have to respect a persons political opinions and the line where you just tell them they're an idiot? Because I'm extremely sure this guy has just blown past it.
If you read Jefferson's letter, you'll find the words "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." He says it right there! A wall of separation between church and state!
You'd have to be blindly naive or incredibly stupid to believe otherwise. How does a man even come to that conclusion that Hitler invented separation of church and state? What next? Mussolini invented freedom of the press? Attila the Hun invented non-violent resistance? Stalin invented freedom of religion?
You have to speak your truth. He is worse than stupid, he is deliberately distorting facts. He is feeding his audience wants they hear, playing on their ignorance for political gain.
The right wing conservatives like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh et al and the Tea Party loons don't care about facts because their audience does not care about facts. As long as the leaders are spewing out stuff that confirms the fears and prejudices of the audience, facts are irrelevant and can be ignored.
No one cares that Urquhart's statement is demonstrably wrong to anyone who can read english and nobody in his audience will bother to check because they all just "know" that he's right.
And it this kind of unthinking, zombie-like devotion to paranoid fantasy that leads these folks to say things like what gigo said here on this board "It boils down to, you support secularism then you are supporting Nazi ideology."
Only someone incapable - or unwilling - to really think about their views and the crap that their leaders are selling them could possibly belive that that statement - or statements like this - are even remotly true. Of course, in this country, associating your opponents with Hitler and the Nazis is well-worn tactic ususally used in desparation by people who can't reasonably argue their positions and/or are incredibly shallow in their thinking.
It is quite descriptive of a phenomena found on both sides of the political isle, but is presently most visible on the right.
It does not matter if the statement is wrong, what matters is that it fits into their preconstructed world view... reinforcing what they on the right want to be true, so it "becomes" true.
It has a whole "We have never been at war with Eurasia" vibe to it.
"The right wing conservatives like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh et al and the Tea Party loons" - I do like that phrase! Every time some plonker from the Tea Party opens their mouth we get economies of truth, factual inaccuracies, not to mention downright lies. It gets better every time! I couldn't make up some of the drivel spouted by these wallies. Shame really, a party where the pot is cracked, the cups are chipped, spoons are missing and definately no fairy cakes (I assume muffins are a bit suspect too).
He is a Tea Party candidate, what does anyone expect?
Still bitter from the first tea party. Seriously. Seriously?
Musing...
Are the ACLU and their bastard cousins, American Atheists, really Hitler? No, of course not.
Do they have virtually identical political ideas concerning religion? Yes. Sure they do.
Do they have a similar goal of eradication of a the political power of a particular religion in a particular nation? Yes, again.
Is the conclusion of that goal a means to a similar end as was Hitler's? We just do not know. They'll say "Nope." However, if they tirelessly ridicule into silence the majority of Americans to the point that being a Christian is point of shame, is it reasonable to assume and trust that that silence is their ultimate goal?
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
Solar Sanitizer, you just do not get it, do you?
I am a Christian, who passionately believes in the separation of church and state, not because I have any "Hitler-like" ambitions or HATE CHRISTIANS or anything ridiculous and monstrous as you seem to manufacture in the windtunnels of your mind. I honor the principle because it protects our right as people to worship in whatever way we choose without any pressure or interference from government. The last thing I want my government meddling in is my spiritual beliefs and practice.
If they start having a state religion and one denomination is favored over another, pretty soon there is discrimination and we have no religious freedom in this country. That was at the core of why this country was founded: to escape religious persecution and be free from tyranny over one's beliefs. That is all it is about. When a person says he or she is for the separation of church and state it does not mean he or she is not Christian. It only means he or she does not want to impose the state to that on anyone. That is a dictatorship, which is precisely what Hitler had and precisly what Hitler did practise, by the way.
SEE: http://www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm
If anyone has ANY doubt about how Hitler was NOT a proponent of separation of church and state, I recommend you take a look at this excellent page of photos and video from the u.S. Holocaust Museum and other highly creidble sources, showing Hitler praying, his troops in church, the Nazi flag flying in front of cathedrals, the priests mixing with the soldiers, Hitler believing himself to be Christ in the temple chastising the "moneychangers", the Christian military weddings,
funerals and Christmases and last, but not least,
Hitler's oath:
I swear by God
this holy oath
to the Führer of the German Reich and people.