NEW YORK (ABP) — The head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has apologized for comparing Democratic health-care proposals to policies of Nazi Germany.
ERLC President Richard Land reportedly told a Christian Coalition of Florida banquet in Orlando Sept. 26 — the night before the high Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur — that Democratic leaders were advocating reform that will result in rationing of health care. Such policies, he said, were driven by the same ideology that fueled the Holocaust.
"I want to put it to you bluntly," Land said, according to the Florida Baptist Witness. "What they are attempting to do in health care, particularly in treating the elderly, is not something like what the Nazis did. It is precisely what the Nazis did."
Land went on to bestow an imaginary "Dr. Josef Mengele Award" on Ezekiel Emanuel, a doctor who is the president's chief health-care adviser.
Opponents of the president's plan have accused Emanuel, a medical ethicist and brother of the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, of supporting euthanasia and rationing of health care. Mengele was a mastermind of Nazi genocide whose medical experiments at death camps earned him the nickname "The Angel of Death."
The Anti-Defamation League called on Land to apologize and refrain from similar comments in the future.
"While we understand there are deep convictions and passions regarding the healthcare reform, whatever one's views are, the Nazi comparison is inappropriate, insensitive and unjustified," ADL National Director Abraham Foxman told Land in an Oct. 9 letter. "As a Holocaust survivor, I take particular offense."
Foxman, who was born in Poland in 1940 and escaped the Holocaust under protection of his Polish Catholic nanny, said such comparisons "diminish the history and the memory of the 6 million Jews and 5 million others who died at the hands of the Nazis and insults those who fought bravely against Hitler."
Land responded Oct. 14 saying it was never his intention to "equate the Obama administration's health-care reform proposals with anything related to the Holocaust."
"Now that I have had the opportunity to speak with you personally and reflect on my words, I deeply regret the reference to Dr. Josef Mengele," Land wrote. "I was using hyperbole for effect and never intended to actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele. I will certainly refrain from making such references in the future. I apologize to everyone who found such references hurtful."
Land also voiced strong support for the State of Israel and expressed "grave concerns" about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust.
Foxman welcomed Land's apology in a press release Oct. 15. "We hope that this episode will serve as a teachable moment that will help to improve understanding about Jewish history, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and that the use of Nazi analogies will cease," the Jewish leader said.
The Anti-Defamation League has voiced concern about increasingly common statements comparing efforts to reform health care with Nazi euthanasia programs.
Following criticism from Democrats, the National Republican Congressional Committee recently removed a Twitter feed linking to a video parody dubbing a 2004 Hitler biopic with subtitles. In them, the Nazi dictator bemoans having been duped by Obama's promise for universal coverage and rants, "At least I still have Pelosi on my side."
In August, talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh compared President Obama's health-care logo to a swastika.
Conservative Fox News personality Glenn Beck has invoked the Holocaust several times, most recently comparing the Obama administration's treatment of the network to Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Holocaust imagery hasn't been confined to one party. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) compared the current health-care system in the United States to a "holocaust." His comments came in response to demands that he apologize for summarizing the Republican health-care strategy as, "Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly."
Grayson, who is Jewish, later said he didn't mean to minimize the Holocaust and regretted the choice of words.
David Harris, president of the National Jewish Council, told The Huffington Post there have been roughly 50 instances in the past few months where either a media personality or politician manufactured a Nazi analogy or Holocaust reference to make a point.
The Baptist Center for Ethics' website EthicsDaily.com reported Oct. 7 that it contacted Land for reaction to criticism of his Sept. 26 comment and received an e-mail response saying, "The analogy is apt, and I stand by it."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.