Nazi Comparisons

Timothy Kincaid

June 1st, 2009

Scott Lively has earned his organization Abiding Truth Ministries an official SPLC Hate Group designation by making extreme (and bizarre) claims about gay people. Perhaps his best known is accusation that gay men were responsible for the atrocities of Hitler\’s Nazi regime. It is the subject of his book, The Pink Swastika.

Not finding fertile ground for extremist claims in the United States (and because there are too many Holocaust organizations that refute his smears), Lively finds a more favorable audience overseas. He exports his anti-gay fervor to places where political and religious establishments are welcoming of radical calls for oppression and persecution of gay people.

His latest efforts were in Uganda where, in a conference with Exodus Board Member Don Schmierer and ex-gay Caleb Brundidge, he called for harsher civil punishment of homosexuality and forced reorientation therapy. But his actions in Uganda open him up to ironic observations about who more closely compares to Nazi Germany.

Dr. Warren Throckmorton has noted some such comparisons

Scott Lively encouraged the Uganda church leaders to view the tiny gay movement in Uganda as related in some way to the same movement that propelled the Nazis to power in Germany. However, if one looks for similarities in rhetoric and policy positions, one can more readily find them by noting how the the goverment in power then in Germany and now in Uganda regarded homosexuality. InThe Pink Swastika, Lively discounts the Nazis\’ public rhetoric and policies as a means of distracting attention to the homosexuality in the ranks of Nazi leaders. What could the same rhetoric and public policy objectives mean in Uganda?

Dr. Throckmorton is not really trying to suggest that Uganda\’s actions are Nazi-like. Rather, he\’s pointing out that “those who want to make sinister linkages between Nazi Germany and gay people must be prepared to explain why more obvious similarities, such as noted here, are not indicative of equally nefarious intents.”

I suspect this logic will be lost on Lively.

Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

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