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Agnosticism, Anberlin, Apocalyptica, Atheism, Christianity, Church, Deceived, Deception, Depraved, Depravity, Elie Wiesel, Faith, Gay Rights, God, Homosexuality, Insiders, Jesus, Life, Night, Non-Belief, Outsiders, Prayer, Religion, Religious, Society, World
Concentration camps. Their utterance brings to mind images most of us will never have to visualize, never have tattooed on our arms for life, never have to be haunted by for the rest of our lives. If you’ve ever read Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, the travesty of Nazi concentration camps is so indiscriminately revealed, one could, or should never wish it upon anyone. The farthest extreme of human incivility was witnessed in those Nazi camps, but even in America, we built our own internment camps for Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Although, the American government, to my knowledge, never utilized gas chambers and cremation ovens to kills 6 million Japanese-Americans, I’m sure the conditions in those internment camps were nothing to feature on Home and Garden Television. History poised to happened poisoned again.
To one North Carolina pastor, a hybrid concentration-interment camp would do America good. It would be one thing for him to say internment camps, but to specifically say concentration camps speaks volumes of comparison. To the modern psyche, concentration camps bring to mind the travesties of WWII Nazi Germany. Semantics out the question, the meaning and practice of concentration camps is devastating to any progress from discrimination against a people group, whether based on gender, religion, race or otherwise. I regret that I don’t have access to the entire sermon or video, because I never feel that two minutes of anything does justice to the whole. This is a modern case of a church leader, literally preaching to people who will not question him or challenge him–like the Catholic priests of old reciting Latin scriptures to their illiterate church-goers–he recites what those sitting in the pews will not question or care to disagree. Like the lyrics of one of my favorite songs, Depraved, “Or you depraved or are you deceived?”
However, every story has another angle. From this sound-byte (what I could call it at best), calls for the pastors resignation will occur, death threats will occur, a protest against the church is already scheduled. Can’t we see what we’re doing to ourselves? Like war, hatred just drives and pushes never ending patterns. I don’t condone the pastors words, nor do I condone the raw, emotional reaction against the church. In many cases the reactions against such statements are the same or worse than the original statements. We have to see where this will go, but let’s take a breather, think about this and work from both sides to prevent history that is poised and poisoned to happen again. History is full of deception and depravity, evidenced in so many aspects from politics to religion. Patterns are repeated because of the depravity that comes from the deception, but seeking transparency and truth, practicing patience and restraint and thoughtfully living, we won’t have to bear witness to such ridiculous comments.