Talkin' Church and State Blues

I was all set to direct you to an article in the New York Times on how "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan got the approval to be a single, but then I came across this tidbit. Apparently November 23 of this year the man most likely to be our next Chief Justice argued that separation of Church and State led to the Holocaust.

The Associated Press reported on November 23, 2004, "In the synagogue that is home to America's oldest Jewish congregation, he [Scalia] noted that in Europe, religion-neutral leaders almost never publicly use the word 'God.'"

"Did it turn out that," Scalia asked rhetorically, "by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America?" He then answered himself, saying, "I don't think so."

Scalia has an extraordinary way of not letting facts confound his arguments, but this time he's gone completely over the top by suggesting that a separation of church and state facilitated the Holocaust. If his comments had gotten wider coverage (they were only noted in one small AP article, and one in the Jerusalem Post), they may have brought America's largest religious communities - both Christian and Jewish - into the streets.

Interestingly ahistorical perspective. Of course Jews were persecuted for centuries with the full approval and encouragement of the various European Christian denominations. Some would argue that the Holocaust was just the next step in that line. Certainly it didn't come out of nowhere.