Republican legislators took offense when a Georgia Baptist Convention official compared them to Hitler for failing to move forward with a bill intended to bolster religious freedom protections.
Mike Griffin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Republican House members blasting Mike Griffin, senior pastor of Liberty Baptist Church of Hartwell, Ga., named two years ago public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Convention.
“We must not let the government do to us what Hitler did to the pastors and churches of his day,” Griffin said, describing his opposition to the Pastor Protection Act in a Christian Index article dated March 4. The bill passed out of the Senate with an amendment that critics say would allow discrimination against lesbians and gays.
“He got them to accept his protection from government action if they would agree to stay out of government,” Griffin wrote in a paragraph later removed from the online version. “He basically said, you take care of the church and leave government to me. Pastors, this is happening before our eyes today!”
Griffin posted March 10 on Twitter that his statement “was simply a warning of the historical dangers of the church not standing up for Religious Liberty.”
In another tweet he quoted Martin Niemöller, a German Protestant pastor and Hitler foe who commented famously about his seven years in Nazi concentration camps:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.