A Catholic website for the modern reader
Third Reich
In the Image of...
31/08/20 15:36 Filed in: Image of God | Humanity
More than one religious tradition holds that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God. Although not specifically cited, that is the reason that the Declaration of Independence states “all men (sic) are created equal.”
But how can all people be created in God’s image if we look so different? Why are all people not white? After all, God is an old white man with a long white beard. A little less jolly than Santa Claus, but clearly more loving and joyful. Of course that concept sounds silly. It should. But it is at the heart of white supremacy.
From the halls of the Third Reich to South African Apartheid to the Trump White House, white people rule (d), sometimes even corrupting the Sacred Scriptures to support their air of superiority. In fact, if the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC were painted any other color, it is unlikely that Trump would have ever run for President. The Pink House, The Black House, certainly the Blue House, even the Red House would not have been so appealing. But back to that "image of God" thing.
It is commonly held that simply the process of being created, results in another image of God. But I wonder. Should we not first determine what makes someone human? After all, we do not claim that any of the other animals are created in God's image. Only humans. So it is a fair question and it is not too difficult to look backward and conclude that some of the most notorious people in history were not really human. I’m not speaking of imperfections or even sinfulness. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. But consider.
Would anyone really argue that Adolf Hitler was human? Not only did he drag the world into unimaginable war for the sake of his own ego, he implemented the Final Solution resulting in the murder of six million Jews.
Hitler’s counterpart in the Soviet Union was Joseph Stalin, a man whose rise to power would shame Machiavelli. That ascent was was both manipulative and lacking in loyalty—at least on Stalin’s part. His exercise of power was directly responsible for the death of some 20 million Soviet citizens. Despite his brilliance, Stalin’s disregard for human life makes it difficult to assign him the designation of “human."
Farther to the East was Mao Zedong. Like his predecessors in Germany and Russia, he brooked no opposition. His supposed acceptance of criticism lasted only a few months, long enough to identify and then persecute some 500,000 plus intellectuals. His vision for a post-agricultural, industrialized China, a world power on equal footing with Russia and the United States, resulted in the death of more than fifty million Chinese.
Each of the men mentioned above lacked compassion. They were ruthless and vindictive. Indeed they were devoid of basic humanity. An argument can rightly be made that they were not created in the image of God.
There are many imitators on today’s world scene. Most of them, however, lack the oratorical skill of a Hitler, the intellectual rigor of a Stalin or the world vision of a Mao. But what they all have in common are insatiable egos, a distortion of reality and, most importantly, a lack of humanity. Whether that person is a Putin or a Kim or a Maduro or a Trump. Yes, sad as it is, we must include the current American president.
What kind of human being would rip children, some as young as toddlers, from their parents and hold them in cages? Well, a Hitler would. What kind of human being would dismiss nearly 200,000 preventable deaths, all the result of his own incompetence, with the phrase “It is what it is?” Well, a Stalin would. What kind of human being would stoke racial violence and threaten democracy? Well, a Mao would. And Trump has done all that without oratorical skill, intellectual rigor, and clearly without a social vision.
This is not an exercise in curiosity. There is an election coming up and democracy is at stake. When we cast our ballots we must ask ourselves what kind of president we want. Trump has an out of control ego; he is ruthless and vindictive; he demands loyalty but offers none; he embraces evil as long as that evil likes him; he claims to support law and order but praises lawless violence—if the perpetrators like him. Trump has no appreciable intellect and no integrity. Hell, Trump has no humanity.
Anyone who has the slightest flicker of faith must confront the reality that Donald J. Trump was not created in the image and likeness of God. That seems to narrow our choice this year.
But how can all people be created in God’s image if we look so different? Why are all people not white? After all, God is an old white man with a long white beard. A little less jolly than Santa Claus, but clearly more loving and joyful. Of course that concept sounds silly. It should. But it is at the heart of white supremacy.
From the halls of the Third Reich to South African Apartheid to the Trump White House, white people rule (d), sometimes even corrupting the Sacred Scriptures to support their air of superiority. In fact, if the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC were painted any other color, it is unlikely that Trump would have ever run for President. The Pink House, The Black House, certainly the Blue House, even the Red House would not have been so appealing. But back to that "image of God" thing.
It is commonly held that simply the process of being created, results in another image of God. But I wonder. Should we not first determine what makes someone human? After all, we do not claim that any of the other animals are created in God's image. Only humans. So it is a fair question and it is not too difficult to look backward and conclude that some of the most notorious people in history were not really human. I’m not speaking of imperfections or even sinfulness. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. But consider.
Would anyone really argue that Adolf Hitler was human? Not only did he drag the world into unimaginable war for the sake of his own ego, he implemented the Final Solution resulting in the murder of six million Jews.
Hitler’s counterpart in the Soviet Union was Joseph Stalin, a man whose rise to power would shame Machiavelli. That ascent was was both manipulative and lacking in loyalty—at least on Stalin’s part. His exercise of power was directly responsible for the death of some 20 million Soviet citizens. Despite his brilliance, Stalin’s disregard for human life makes it difficult to assign him the designation of “human."
Farther to the East was Mao Zedong. Like his predecessors in Germany and Russia, he brooked no opposition. His supposed acceptance of criticism lasted only a few months, long enough to identify and then persecute some 500,000 plus intellectuals. His vision for a post-agricultural, industrialized China, a world power on equal footing with Russia and the United States, resulted in the death of more than fifty million Chinese.
Each of the men mentioned above lacked compassion. They were ruthless and vindictive. Indeed they were devoid of basic humanity. An argument can rightly be made that they were not created in the image of God.
There are many imitators on today’s world scene. Most of them, however, lack the oratorical skill of a Hitler, the intellectual rigor of a Stalin or the world vision of a Mao. But what they all have in common are insatiable egos, a distortion of reality and, most importantly, a lack of humanity. Whether that person is a Putin or a Kim or a Maduro or a Trump. Yes, sad as it is, we must include the current American president.
What kind of human being would rip children, some as young as toddlers, from their parents and hold them in cages? Well, a Hitler would. What kind of human being would dismiss nearly 200,000 preventable deaths, all the result of his own incompetence, with the phrase “It is what it is?” Well, a Stalin would. What kind of human being would stoke racial violence and threaten democracy? Well, a Mao would. And Trump has done all that without oratorical skill, intellectual rigor, and clearly without a social vision.
This is not an exercise in curiosity. There is an election coming up and democracy is at stake. When we cast our ballots we must ask ourselves what kind of president we want. Trump has an out of control ego; he is ruthless and vindictive; he demands loyalty but offers none; he embraces evil as long as that evil likes him; he claims to support law and order but praises lawless violence—if the perpetrators like him. Trump has no appreciable intellect and no integrity. Hell, Trump has no humanity.
Anyone who has the slightest flicker of faith must confront the reality that Donald J. Trump was not created in the image and likeness of God. That seems to narrow our choice this year.
The Final Solution Redux
28/02/20 08:20 Filed in: Science and Religion | Personal | Government Action | Religion and Politics | Transgender Rights | Sex
In the history of warfare, perhaps nothing was as atrocious and despicable as the Nazi plan to exterminate all Jews. It was called the Final Solution, the genocide of Jews simply because they were Jews.
We may never fully know or understand the twisted psychology that would lead someone to seek such extreme measures against another group of people. What we can identify is that the roots of such degradation lie in pure hatred.
As is often the case when society is confronted with problems, some political leaders, lacking any moral center, prop up themselves by castigating an “other.” That “other” is usually an outsider, or one who can be identified as such. It may be an immigrant, a person committed to a different religion, or a political opponent. In some cases it might even be the press. In the case of the Jews, while their religion was different from that of the Aryans, they were as much German, French, Polish, Czech, Russian, etc. as they were Jewish. This was not a people who invaded and sought to conquer a nation. They were Europeans. But they were not of the Aryan race, so they became the victims of racism. And when economic troubles befell the Third Reich, Jews were also easy scapegoats.
But such hatred and bigotry will never happen again. Unless you live in Idaho, or South Dakota or one of several other states.
A new Final Solution is being developed. It does not target Jews, but it does target “others”— transgendered individuals—a small group of people who seek only to live fulfilled and happy lives; people who are a subset of the majority; people whose only threat to anyone is in the twisted imagination of small, insecure, hateful politicians.
In Idaho, House Bill 465 would sentence doctors to up to life in prison for treating transgender kids. Like the Nazis before them, lawmakers seek to sanitize their legislation with lofty, but artificial and disingenuous rhetoric. in this case, it is a counterfeit concern for young people. These legislators claim they are preventing young people from making drastic changes to their bodies before they understand them. But their statements betray their ignorance, if not their duplicity.
Transgendered individuals do not transition for physical reasons, at least not fundamentally. They transition because their very identify is at odds with the gender they were assigned at birth. The conflict within them can only be resolved holistically by transitioning to the gender they know themselves to be. But there is a deeper truth at work here.
The politicians who put forth bills like Idaho’s 465 are threatened by the existence of transgender individuals. They do not comprehend the issue, because it does not fit into their narrow world view, frequently distorted by an uncritical religious view. It would be kind to suggest that they are simply small-minded. That same kindness initially could have been extended to the Third Reich. But history demonstrates that something darker was being spawned. So we must look beyond that kindness before it is too late.
The politicians who write and sponsor these bills know full well that large percentages of trans boys and trans girls attempt suicide during their lifetime. Rather than referring to these politicians as small-minded, it might be more accurate to suggest that they are reimagining the work of the Third Reich for the twenty-first century—seeking the extermination of everyone who identifies as transgender.
In South Dakota, Representative Fred Deutsch authored a similar bill. It is important to quote him here:
“I’m the son of a Holocaust survivor. I’ve had family killed in Auschwitz, and I’ve seen pictures of the bizarre medical experiments. I don’t want this to happen to our kids. And that’s what’s going on right now.”
It is pure ignorance to compare medically assisted transitioning to the experiments of the Nazis. But then, Deutsch knows that. His tangled thoughts cannot absolve him from the evil he conspires to unleash on modern America. Having tragically lost family in the Holocaust, it is deplorable that Deutsch would help reinvigorate the goals of the Nazis.
Welcome to right wing America. Welcome to the Final Solution Redux.
We may never fully know or understand the twisted psychology that would lead someone to seek such extreme measures against another group of people. What we can identify is that the roots of such degradation lie in pure hatred.
As is often the case when society is confronted with problems, some political leaders, lacking any moral center, prop up themselves by castigating an “other.” That “other” is usually an outsider, or one who can be identified as such. It may be an immigrant, a person committed to a different religion, or a political opponent. In some cases it might even be the press. In the case of the Jews, while their religion was different from that of the Aryans, they were as much German, French, Polish, Czech, Russian, etc. as they were Jewish. This was not a people who invaded and sought to conquer a nation. They were Europeans. But they were not of the Aryan race, so they became the victims of racism. And when economic troubles befell the Third Reich, Jews were also easy scapegoats.
But such hatred and bigotry will never happen again. Unless you live in Idaho, or South Dakota or one of several other states.
A new Final Solution is being developed. It does not target Jews, but it does target “others”— transgendered individuals—a small group of people who seek only to live fulfilled and happy lives; people who are a subset of the majority; people whose only threat to anyone is in the twisted imagination of small, insecure, hateful politicians.
In Idaho, House Bill 465 would sentence doctors to up to life in prison for treating transgender kids. Like the Nazis before them, lawmakers seek to sanitize their legislation with lofty, but artificial and disingenuous rhetoric. in this case, it is a counterfeit concern for young people. These legislators claim they are preventing young people from making drastic changes to their bodies before they understand them. But their statements betray their ignorance, if not their duplicity.
Transgendered individuals do not transition for physical reasons, at least not fundamentally. They transition because their very identify is at odds with the gender they were assigned at birth. The conflict within them can only be resolved holistically by transitioning to the gender they know themselves to be. But there is a deeper truth at work here.
The politicians who put forth bills like Idaho’s 465 are threatened by the existence of transgender individuals. They do not comprehend the issue, because it does not fit into their narrow world view, frequently distorted by an uncritical religious view. It would be kind to suggest that they are simply small-minded. That same kindness initially could have been extended to the Third Reich. But history demonstrates that something darker was being spawned. So we must look beyond that kindness before it is too late.
The politicians who write and sponsor these bills know full well that large percentages of trans boys and trans girls attempt suicide during their lifetime. Rather than referring to these politicians as small-minded, it might be more accurate to suggest that they are reimagining the work of the Third Reich for the twenty-first century—seeking the extermination of everyone who identifies as transgender.
In South Dakota, Representative Fred Deutsch authored a similar bill. It is important to quote him here:
“I’m the son of a Holocaust survivor. I’ve had family killed in Auschwitz, and I’ve seen pictures of the bizarre medical experiments. I don’t want this to happen to our kids. And that’s what’s going on right now.”
It is pure ignorance to compare medically assisted transitioning to the experiments of the Nazis. But then, Deutsch knows that. His tangled thoughts cannot absolve him from the evil he conspires to unleash on modern America. Having tragically lost family in the Holocaust, it is deplorable that Deutsch would help reinvigorate the goals of the Nazis.
Welcome to right wing America. Welcome to the Final Solution Redux.