[Update: 11:31PM]
Okay, bluntly, people: Organized churches already possessing great secular power in a nation that is veering rightward have great incentives to support those in power, and often do. I am not talking about a belief in god resulting in facism. I am not talking about the laity (though a considerable segment of the laity must at the very least not resist for it to happen). I am not talking about people with consciences (obviously). I am talking about the large organizations that, as I put it below, benefit from acting as the moral "blessing" upon the "patriotic" unifying of corporate and government interests.
This is not a radical contention people, this is part of the established history of the Western world, if not the entire world.
[Original post follows]
This is in response to a comment that was put out
waaaaay back that I didn't bother to go back and check on.
My contention was that "You're drinking the Scalito Kool-aid...
Religion was a powerful supporting force in Germany at that time, at least the rich churches."
The reply was:
There was NO mass Christian movement supporting the Nazis.
The book "Hitler's Pope" describes how the hierarchy - especially the Vatican - made deals with Hitler, but neither catholic organizations nor protestant organizations nor the christian democratic movement (an overtly religious political organization) was a part of the Nazi movement. They can all be criticized for not opposing the Nazis enough, for being silent, for being wusses. Whatever. But they were not PART of the fascist movement. Unlike in Spain.
If your documentation shows that I am mistaken, I will be happy to reconsider my understanding of the history. In the meantime, your Kool-aid remark is silly.
I should have posted this earlier, but here we go:
Hitler's statements on religion.
Hitler's history with Christianity (a lot of kool-aid here too, but the facts are basically accurate).
A little more history.
Troubling parallels with the New Right.
Some purty pictures.
"Unleashing the Patriotic Church."
And a cherry on top from the ADL.
It took me so long to revisit this because it never occured to me in my wildest nightmares that someone would so boldly and ignorantly deny this, but Scalia's comments should have been a warning. Keep in mind you bringing up mass movements when I'm focusing on the rich churches is disingenuous, to say the least, and batting at straw-man argments to put it more directly.
Also, the Kool-aid remark is not silly - forgetting the role of organized religion in facist/nationalistic movements is indeed a way to get a lot of people killed, and forgetting it in the face of overwhelming evidence is (on the scale of a population) suicidal.
It was not a flip remark, it was serious, and I will restate it in terms that you might perceive as more dignified: Ignore this link at everyone's peril.
