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By Larry Jones
“Rick Warren Cites Hitler Youth as Model for Christian Dedication” reads the headline on a recent piece on the internet by Bruce Wilson, a prominent religious right watcher and journalist. It contains part of a video, shown below, of the conclusion of a one-hour speech Warren delivered on April 17, 2005 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim next to Disneyland. The histrionics were worthy of a new Disney ride.
Warren called on the 30,000 crowd of believers to follow Jesus with the fanatical dedication which the Hitler Youth showed when they were asked to spell out with their bodies "Hitler, we are yours." Then Warren asked his followers to hold up signs saying “Whatever it Takes,” and totally devote their lives to conquering the world for Christ. This was an extreme form of the old time altar call as it asked people to make a thoughtless commitment to a chauvinistic goal. And it underscores the thoroughly reactionary program of Warren, in the service of not German, but U.S. imperialism.
The fundamentalist preacher also said that, like the writer of the biblical Psalm 72, he wanted God to make him more important so the peoples of the world would follow him. He probably meant such verses as “May his foes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.” But he may have overlooked the psalmist’s wish for a leader who would “give deliverance to the needy and crush the oppressor.” Far from wanting to liberate the people of the world from oppressors, Warren is using his organizations and his preaching to extend and deepen the chains of oppression, degradation, and ignorance.
Warren, who prayed at Barack Obama’s inauguration, spent a portion of his speech also praising the organizing ways of V.I. Lenin and Mao Tse-tung, but characterizing their efforts as like unto Hitler’s. In fact, Lenin and Mao represented a completely opposed ideology, and completely opposed methods of inspiring and organizing people. Hitler relied on a frenzied, unthinking devotion to the completely reactionary and murderous cause of German imperialism; Lenin and Mao represented a liberating cause of conscious revolutionary struggle by people to rid the world of all forms of oppression, and the reactionary thinking that reinforces that oppression. This conflating of fascist and communist leadership by Warren is at best either grossly ignorant or totally dishonest, but in reality it is a vile attack on two great leaders who still have much to teach us about how to actually change the world for a better future with a view toward the liberation of all humankind.
Here’s Bruce Wilson’s link to the video. Watch it with discerning eyes and ears.
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