Bryan Fischer
Throckmorton, history, and gays in the military
By Bryan Fischer
Dr. Warren Throckmorton posted a column on his blog on Crosswalk.com yesterday which attacked me by name, and accused me of "vilifying" every homosexual everywhere by making historically accurate references to the role of homosexuality in Adolph Hitler's life and the rise of the Nazi Party. Apparently in Dr. Throckmorton believes that telling the truth, if it happens to be the truth about a politically-correct group he happens to favor, is sub-Christian.
I, of course, never said that all homosexuals are brutal and savage, and yet this is what Dr. Throckmorton accuses me of saying when he says that I "vilified an entire group of people." If he would like people to stop vilifying others, well, here's an opportunity for him to show us the way.
How Dr. Throckmorton feels about Christ vilifying the Pharisees by calling them a "brood of vipers" and sons "of your father the devil" he does not say. Perhaps if telling the unpleasant truth about folks is against the standard of Christ, he should first take the matter up with Christ rather than with me.
Throckmorton says that my assessment of Hitler's sexual preference is not based on "eyewitness" testimony. Yet German historian Lothar Machtan cites extensive documentation of Hitler's own homosexuality, including military records, memoirs of soldiers who served with Hitler, and police records from the early 1920s. If this kind of evidence is not sufficient for Throckmorton, one can only wonder what kind of evidence would be.
As far as the role of homosexuals in the rise of the Nazi Party, historians for decades — before homosexuality became such a touchy topic — were quite matter-of-fact about the truth that Hitler recruited and used homosexual thugs.
Here, for instance, are several excerpts from William Shirer's classic work, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
"But the brown-shirted S.A...many of its top leaders, beginning with its chief, Roehm, were notorious homosexual perverts." (p. 120)
"He, who was so monumentally intolerant by his very nature, was strangely tolerant of one human condition — a man's morals. No other party in Germany came near to attracting so many shady characters. As we have seen, a conglomeration of pimps, murderers, homosexuals, alcoholics and blackmailers flocked to the party as if to a natural haven. Hitler did not care as long as they were useful to him." (pp. 121-122)
"...[T]here was a demand...that the criminals and especially the perverts be expelled from the movement. This Hitler frankly refused to do." (p. 122)
"The Munich S.A. had become notorious for the homosexual habits of Lieutenant Edmund Heines and his friends..." (p. 122)
Here is historian Louis Snyder:
"What was needed, Roehm believed, was a proud and arrogant lot who could brawl, carouse, smash windows, kill and slaughter for the hell of it. Straights, in his eyes, were not as adept in such behavior as practicing homosexuals."
Here is historian Thomas Fuchs:
"The principle function of this army-like organization was beating up anyone who opposed the Nazis, and Hitler believed this was a job best undertaken by homosexuals."
Historian H.R. Knickerbocker:
"Roehm, as the head of 2,500,000 Storm Troops had surrounded himself with a staff of perverts. His chiefs, men of rank of Gruppenfuhrer or Obergruppenfuhrer, commanding units of several hundred thousand Storm Troopers, were almost without exception homosexuals. Indeed, unless a Storm Troop officer were homosexual he had no chance of advancement."
Machtan writes credibly that Roehm was murdered in 1933 not because Hitler was offended by his homosexuality but because Roehm knew of Hitler's sexual proclivities and threatened to expose him publicly.
The Nazis also trashed and burned the Sex Research Institute, headed by the effeminate homosexual Max Hirschfeld, again not because of its link to homosexuality but because the institute contained so many damning files on the sexual inclinations of leaders in the Nazi Party.
For instance, Ludwig L. Lenz was the assistant director of the institute, and explained why the institute was the "first victim which fell to the new regime."
"The answer to this is simple...We knew too much. It would be against medical principles to provide a list of the Nazi leaders and their perversions [but]...not ten percent of the men who, in 1933, took the fate of Germany into their hands, were sexually normal...Many of these personages were known to us directly through consultations; we heard about others from their comrades in the party...and of others we saw the tragic results....Our knowledge of such intimate secrets regarding members of the Nazi Party and other documentary material — we possessed about forty thousand confessions and biographical letters — was the cause of the complete and utter destruction of the Institute of Sexology."
Throckmorton calls the link between homosexuality and the Nazis "tired and discredited." It seems more likely that Throckmorton and other propagandists for the radical homosexual agenda are themselves the ones who are tired of trying to discredit plain historical truth. It can be an exhausting thing to dedicate yourself to denying what is obvious to the objective observer. Being a Flat Earther, for instance, will just plain wear you out.
Of course, one may accept everything I've suggested about the Nazis and claim it has no relevance for today and the issue of gays in the military. I would respectfully and vigorously disagree.
According to Scripture, homosexual conduct is "contrary to nature" and "shameless" and those who engage in it "receiv(e) in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Romans 1:26, 27)
If the Scriptures are true, then we should expect to see some evidence of the shamelessness of homosexual behavior and the damaging consequences that flow from it. I would suggest that, when it comes to homosexuals in the military, Hitler and his Storm Troopers are Exhibit A.
Crusaders for open homosexual service point to the nations which allow gays to serve without experiencing major upheaval (yet), and argue that therefore history is on their side. Fine. If they can refer to homosexuality and military history, then so can we.
Even here, of course, contemporary history may well be on our side. Retired Marine General John Sheehan testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 18 of this year that, based on his actual experience as NATO commander, allowing gays to serve openly in the military does in fact cause problems with unit cohesion and morale.
In his estimation, the efforts of European armies to include open homosexuals in their ranks, and the social engineering that accompanies it, has made their armies less prepared for war. Speaking specifically of the army of the Netherlands, he said that admitting homosexuals into its ranks was one of the things that "led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war," and resulted in an "under-strength" and "poorly led" battalion which was no match for the Serbian army. As a result, 8,000 Muslims were marched off to brutal deaths, which represented, according to Gen. Sheehan, "the largest massacre in Europe since World War II."
Perhaps Dr. Throckmorton would like to explain to our Muslim friends exactly why no one has anything to fear from the normalization of homosexuality in the military.
Dr. Throckmorton is, of course, welcome to argue against Scripture and history if he chooses to. For myself, I would rather take my stand on truth, both of the biblical and historical kind.
---
For Dr. Throckmorton's column:
Bryan Fischer and the Nazis — Crosswalk.com
© Bryan Fischer
June 2, 2010
Dr. Warren Throckmorton posted a column on his blog on Crosswalk.com yesterday which attacked me by name, and accused me of "vilifying" every homosexual everywhere by making historically accurate references to the role of homosexuality in Adolph Hitler's life and the rise of the Nazi Party. Apparently in Dr. Throckmorton believes that telling the truth, if it happens to be the truth about a politically-correct group he happens to favor, is sub-Christian.
I, of course, never said that all homosexuals are brutal and savage, and yet this is what Dr. Throckmorton accuses me of saying when he says that I "vilified an entire group of people." If he would like people to stop vilifying others, well, here's an opportunity for him to show us the way.
How Dr. Throckmorton feels about Christ vilifying the Pharisees by calling them a "brood of vipers" and sons "of your father the devil" he does not say. Perhaps if telling the unpleasant truth about folks is against the standard of Christ, he should first take the matter up with Christ rather than with me.
Throckmorton says that my assessment of Hitler's sexual preference is not based on "eyewitness" testimony. Yet German historian Lothar Machtan cites extensive documentation of Hitler's own homosexuality, including military records, memoirs of soldiers who served with Hitler, and police records from the early 1920s. If this kind of evidence is not sufficient for Throckmorton, one can only wonder what kind of evidence would be.
As far as the role of homosexuals in the rise of the Nazi Party, historians for decades — before homosexuality became such a touchy topic — were quite matter-of-fact about the truth that Hitler recruited and used homosexual thugs.
Here, for instance, are several excerpts from William Shirer's classic work, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."
"But the brown-shirted S.A...many of its top leaders, beginning with its chief, Roehm, were notorious homosexual perverts." (p. 120)
"He, who was so monumentally intolerant by his very nature, was strangely tolerant of one human condition — a man's morals. No other party in Germany came near to attracting so many shady characters. As we have seen, a conglomeration of pimps, murderers, homosexuals, alcoholics and blackmailers flocked to the party as if to a natural haven. Hitler did not care as long as they were useful to him." (pp. 121-122)
"...[T]here was a demand...that the criminals and especially the perverts be expelled from the movement. This Hitler frankly refused to do." (p. 122)
"The Munich S.A. had become notorious for the homosexual habits of Lieutenant Edmund Heines and his friends..." (p. 122)
Here is historian Louis Snyder:
"What was needed, Roehm believed, was a proud and arrogant lot who could brawl, carouse, smash windows, kill and slaughter for the hell of it. Straights, in his eyes, were not as adept in such behavior as practicing homosexuals."
Here is historian Thomas Fuchs:
"The principle function of this army-like organization was beating up anyone who opposed the Nazis, and Hitler believed this was a job best undertaken by homosexuals."
Historian H.R. Knickerbocker:
"Roehm, as the head of 2,500,000 Storm Troops had surrounded himself with a staff of perverts. His chiefs, men of rank of Gruppenfuhrer or Obergruppenfuhrer, commanding units of several hundred thousand Storm Troopers, were almost without exception homosexuals. Indeed, unless a Storm Troop officer were homosexual he had no chance of advancement."
Machtan writes credibly that Roehm was murdered in 1933 not because Hitler was offended by his homosexuality but because Roehm knew of Hitler's sexual proclivities and threatened to expose him publicly.
The Nazis also trashed and burned the Sex Research Institute, headed by the effeminate homosexual Max Hirschfeld, again not because of its link to homosexuality but because the institute contained so many damning files on the sexual inclinations of leaders in the Nazi Party.
For instance, Ludwig L. Lenz was the assistant director of the institute, and explained why the institute was the "first victim which fell to the new regime."
"The answer to this is simple...We knew too much. It would be against medical principles to provide a list of the Nazi leaders and their perversions [but]...not ten percent of the men who, in 1933, took the fate of Germany into their hands, were sexually normal...Many of these personages were known to us directly through consultations; we heard about others from their comrades in the party...and of others we saw the tragic results....Our knowledge of such intimate secrets regarding members of the Nazi Party and other documentary material — we possessed about forty thousand confessions and biographical letters — was the cause of the complete and utter destruction of the Institute of Sexology."
Throckmorton calls the link between homosexuality and the Nazis "tired and discredited." It seems more likely that Throckmorton and other propagandists for the radical homosexual agenda are themselves the ones who are tired of trying to discredit plain historical truth. It can be an exhausting thing to dedicate yourself to denying what is obvious to the objective observer. Being a Flat Earther, for instance, will just plain wear you out.
Of course, one may accept everything I've suggested about the Nazis and claim it has no relevance for today and the issue of gays in the military. I would respectfully and vigorously disagree.
According to Scripture, homosexual conduct is "contrary to nature" and "shameless" and those who engage in it "receiv(e) in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Romans 1:26, 27)
If the Scriptures are true, then we should expect to see some evidence of the shamelessness of homosexual behavior and the damaging consequences that flow from it. I would suggest that, when it comes to homosexuals in the military, Hitler and his Storm Troopers are Exhibit A.
Crusaders for open homosexual service point to the nations which allow gays to serve without experiencing major upheaval (yet), and argue that therefore history is on their side. Fine. If they can refer to homosexuality and military history, then so can we.
Even here, of course, contemporary history may well be on our side. Retired Marine General John Sheehan testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 18 of this year that, based on his actual experience as NATO commander, allowing gays to serve openly in the military does in fact cause problems with unit cohesion and morale.
In his estimation, the efforts of European armies to include open homosexuals in their ranks, and the social engineering that accompanies it, has made their armies less prepared for war. Speaking specifically of the army of the Netherlands, he said that admitting homosexuals into its ranks was one of the things that "led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war," and resulted in an "under-strength" and "poorly led" battalion which was no match for the Serbian army. As a result, 8,000 Muslims were marched off to brutal deaths, which represented, according to Gen. Sheehan, "the largest massacre in Europe since World War II."
Perhaps Dr. Throckmorton would like to explain to our Muslim friends exactly why no one has anything to fear from the normalization of homosexuality in the military.
Dr. Throckmorton is, of course, welcome to argue against Scripture and history if he chooses to. For myself, I would rather take my stand on truth, both of the biblical and historical kind.
---
For Dr. Throckmorton's column:
Bryan Fischer and the Nazis — Crosswalk.com
© Bryan Fischer
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