Scalia says sep of church & state "didn't protect Jews in WWII"

[Carolab]

Posted: 1/04/05
Scalia: Church-state separation
didn't protect Jews in Holocaust
By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The man who may be the next chief justice of the United States reportedly gave a speech in which he suggested church-state separation did nothing to prevent the Holocaust.

At a conference in November on religious freedom, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia offered a lengthy critique of the idea that the framers of the Constitution supported strict separation between church and state. According to accounts of the speech from the Associated Press and the Jerusalem Post, he then pointed to episodes of American history that he said proved the government has always supported religion.

"There is something wrong with the principle of neutrality (toward religion by government)," Scalia said, according to the Jerusalem newspaper. The kind of neutrality the framers intended, he continued, "is not neutrality between religiousness and non-religiousness; it is between denominations of religion."

Scalia contrasted that with the reticence of modern-day European leaders to discuss God or religion in public life. "You will not hear the word 'God' cross the lips of a French premier or an Italian head of state," Scalia said. "But that has never been the American way."

The AP story noted that, in response to an audience member's question about church-state separation, Scalia said the following: "Did it turn out that, by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America? I don't think so."

The Jerusalem Post reported a slightly different version of Scalia's response: "Do you think it's going to make Jews safer? It didn't prove that way in Europe."

MORE:
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[arcane1]

1. Scalia is a fucking idiot

[maxsolomon]

4. Scalia is the next chief justice

get used to idiocy.

good thing i can fake christianity! choose your denomination, atheist running dog!

[ecstatic]

20. It boggles the mind that a judge in the highest court of our nation

Could be so short sighted. His statement were pure lunacy--even for a right winger. This is the type of rhetoric I'd expect from Ann Coulter or something.

[NC_Nurse]

2. That man's head is so far up his ass

there's no hope of retrieving it!
I can't believe this ass-clown is sitting on the Supreme Court....it boggles the mind!

[purduejake]

3. Sounds like a BIG lie to me.

Sounds like he's using tactics from Hitler's books!

[shraby]

5. I think Scalia is getting senile.

[purduejake]

11. I think he's always been a creep.

[TrustingDog]

17. how old is this fucker?

[ecstatic]

21. That's a good possibility

I think that is what happened to Zell Miller as well. Even the Republicans noticed that---which explains why Bush didn't offer him a cabinet post. :nopity:

[RhodaGrits]

6. Adolph Hitler and Justice Scalia - much in common:

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press-- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years."
— Adolf Hitler


"Let us pray in this hour that nothing can divide us, and that God will help us against the Devil! Almighty Lord, bless our fight!"
-- Adolph Hitler to the SA in 1930.

“The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life.” — Adolph Hitler , Proclamation to the German nation at Berlin, February 1, 1933

[saltpoint]

7. My objection to what has been posted here --

-- about Scalia is that it is far too charitable.

[Spinzonner]

8. Apparently Scalia isn't even familiar with the dictionary

or I guess he just acknowledges the definitions he likes:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=religion&r=67


1. a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
b. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

Note that his version of religion - ie Theism - is only one of the possibilities. Atheism or any of many other permutations are apparently not admitted to his intellectual world. Apparently Scalia is a religious bigot.

Now he has a responsibility to recuse himself from any church-state issues before the court on the basis of his demonstarted prejudice.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Earlier thread about this..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1121007

Discusses Thom Hartmann's great article that shows how Hitler did NOT separate Church and state, in fact his lack of separation of Chruch and state was identical to that Bush/Scalia would like to see.
Hitler considered himself chosen by god as well........

[Lexingtonian]

10. It would have helped Elizabeth Dyer and Marmaduke Stephenson

Frickin' ahistorical dipshit, Tony is.

[blue neen]

12. Scalia is SUCH AN ASS!

The men most responsible for drafting our foundational documents (including the Constitution that Ass-Scalia is SUPPOSED to interpret and uphold) embraced Enlightenment teachings.

These men included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton. The Enlightenment embraced the idea of freedom of conscience as both a political and a philosophical virtue. It stressed freedom FROM the dictates of organized religion.

What the hell kind of f*cked-up philosophy is Scalia using?

I can't stand it.

[kodi]

13. and blacks were safer in paris france than paris texas. his point being?

scalia is a bullying sophist bore who thinks that philosophy is defined by adjectives, not verbs.

[Lefty48197]

14. The Jews in America didn't get gassed did they?

I mean, I guess the separation of Church and State worked. Germany should have tried it.

[JunkYardDogg]

15. What About the Vatican Helping Nazis Escape to Argentina?

'Nuff Said

[LynnTheDem]

16. Scalia is correct; separation of church & state didn't protect the Jews...

coz in Hitler's Germany, there was no separation of church & state.

'How to tell the truth while lying your frigging ass off'

[Guaranteed]

18. Well the LACK of separation sure as HELL killed a lot of people during

the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades and in Rome and in the present-day Middle East and THROUGHOUT Europe's history, in fact, and even in our own New England before our country was born.

So SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU UNAMERICAN PIECE OF SHIT.

[ecstatic]

19. Religion didn't help victims of the Salem Witch Trials

or the Spanish Inquisition... now did it? You don't have to be Christian to know the difference between right and wrong. The golden rule to live by is: Do onto others what you would want done onto you... Well, something like that :-)