By Bob Allen
Two Baptist thinkers describe President Obama’s requirement that religious organizations include contraception in their employees’ health-care coverage as what some term a “Niemoeller moment” reminiscent of the slippery-slope devaluation of human rights that occurred in Nazi Germany.
When Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson and Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George co-authored a manifesto three years ago called the Manhattan Declaration, they predicted a time would come when Christians would have to face the prospect of civil disobedience — being forced to choose between obeying God or man.
“Certainly for the Catholics and for many of us evangelicals, that time is already upon us,” the two wrote in an open letter to evangelical Christians published online by Christianity Today.
“We do not exaggerate when we say that this is the greatest threat to religious freedom in our lifetime,” Colson and George wrote. “We cannot help but think of the words attributed to German pastor Martin Niemoeller, reflecting on the Nazi terror: ‘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.’”