This Week in god.... (Maddow blog)

First up from the God Machine this week is a striking new argument from a familiar religio-political figure.

Four years ago, Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress, a far-right mega-church leader in Texas, made headlines when he partnered with then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) presidential candidate and had some unkind words for rival Mitt Romney. In fact, Jeffress, perhaps more than any prominent figure, went after Romney’s faith, saying the candidate was “a member of a cult.”

This week, Jeffress made headlines again, insisting that Christians are persecuted in ways comparable to Germany’s treatment of Jews before the Holocaust. TPM reported:
“This isn’t imaginary. It’s real. And sure, it doesn’t rise to the level of having your head chopped off by ISIS in the Middle East, but it’s all the same attitude that allows for those attacks,” Jeffress said.

“I want to remind people that, you know, the Nazis weren’t able to take the Jews to the crematoriums immediately,” Jeffress said. “The German people wouldn’t have allowed for it. Instead, the Nazis had to change public opinion. They marginalized the Jewish people, disparaged them, and make them objects of contempt.”
Fox News’s Sean Hannity asked Jeffress if he believes Christians “are being marginalized the way Jews in Germany were.” Jeffress replied, “Absolutely,” adding that American Christians are “treated as objects of contempt by the media and once that happens then the taking away of further rights will be very easy.”

The fact that Jeffress believes “this isn’t imaginary” does not, in fact, make this bizarre paranoia real.

(more at link)

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-61315?cid=sm_fb_maddow