Abusing the Holocaust
Yes, this post has nothing to do with TTC...and yes, I'm about to rant....
It seems that everyone (I mean this somewhat loosely) is racing to find a way to twist the holocaust to their advantage these days. The word itself has been used in so many contexts that it's become almost meaningless (Ein Tisch ist Ein Tisch after all? A little nod to anyone who went through a lit crit class...god, I miss English sometimes.)
I was watching NOW on PBS. They were examining the efforts of the religious right (RR) to gain a hold in Ohio through the gov race. As part of the show they interviewed a RR leader, pastor Russell Johnson, who said the following:
You know, in Germany, many of the churches were positioned next to railroad tracks. And as Sunday mornings, the trains were making their way towards Auschwitz, the Jewish families would cry out to the churches for help. It became so disruptive that the German churches, many of them decided they would start singing during the rail times.
And if the people cried louder, they sang their songs louder. It's not enough for people in the pews to sing louder songs while a culture is going on a direction away from God.
AHEM????
If it's not enough to sing louder songs to ignore the Jews, what do you do...clap your hands as well? This man is only using the horror of the Holocaust to further his political agenda, an agenda that would lead to oppression and discrimination, an agenda that relies on the creation of the other. It is the creation of the other, of a sub-class that leads to dehumanization of a group in society. It is dehumanization that leads to genocide.
I can't even wrap my mind around how this man is managing to make the murder of the Jewish people into an event that represents our society not allowing specific sects of Christianity to dominate all other religious points of view. What he is supporting is much closer to Hitler's fascism then it is to the experience of Jewish families crying out for help.
Everyone wants a piece of the Holocaust these days. It's become a social commodity, currency to prove oppression. If you can make your cause as severe as systematic mass murder, you've hit the jackpot of political collateral.
/end rant...discuss if you want to
posted by Sacha @ 7:57 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Ah yes, this is of course perfectly in line with the sixth commandment:
"Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt sing louder while others do that for you."
Or of course the golden rule:
""Do not do onto others what you don’t want done onto you. Sing louder while they are sent to their deaths."
Or
"Love thy neighbour, except for when they call out for help out of fear of death and disrupt the service."
*rolls eyes*
Many of those churchgoers can perhaps be excused for truly not knowing better. For being brainwashed in a time that mass media was first exploited for such a purpose. But to say these things in this day and age...that's pathetic.
That man is by no means a christian; he's a dangerous hypocrit. There is no excuse for his feigned ignorance, nor for his inhumanity. I do hope the Ohio people will not want to be represented by someone like that.
Um, all I can say is, yes.
and that sadly it's not a new phenomenon.
I actually have many, many things to say on this subject, but I'll limit my comment to this: as a Jew I'm very sensitive to it and it makes me very very very unhappy and very very very embarrassed. So, you know, I apologize on our behalf for all that.
and I'd kind of prefer, honestly, if the humiliation and murder of some other group of people could be trotted out once in a while. So there.
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