It turns out the information I relied on last month indicating that Jerry Falwell would deliver the invocation at the Republican National Convention was incorrect. That’s the good news. The bad news is his replacement has an offensive record of her own.
As Atrios noted over the weekend, Sheri Dew, a Mormon church official in Salt Lake City, has been tapped for the honor of delivering the opening convention invocation. Like Falwell, however, Dew really hates gays.
This escalating situation reminds me of a statement of a World War II journalist by the name of Dorothy Thompson who wrote for the Saturday Evening Post in Europe during the pre-World War II years when Hitler was building up his armies and starting to take ground. In an address she delivered in Toronto in 1941 she said this: “Before this epic is over, every living human being will have chosen. Every living human being will have lined up with Hitler or against him. Every living human being either will have opposed this onslaught or supported it, for if he tries to make no choice that in itself will be a choice. If he takes no side, he is on Hitler’s side. If he does not act, that is an act — for Hitler.”
May I take the liberty of reading this statement again and changing just a few words, applying it to what I fear we face today? “Before this era is over, every living human being will have chosen. Every living human being will have lined up in support of the family or against it. Every living human being will have either opposed the onslaught against the family or supported it, for if he tries to make no choice that in itself will be a choice. If we do not act in behalf of the family, that is itself an act of opposition to the family.”
At first it may seem a bit extreme to imply a comparison between the atrocities of Hitler and what is happening in terms of contemporary threats against the family — but maybe not.
So the Republicans have tapped a lay church leader to deliver their invocation who equates gay marriage with supporting Hitler. No word as to whether Dick Cheney and Dew will be debating the merits of such an argument at the convention.
By the way, there are a handful of other interesting characters delivering invocations at this year’s GOP convention. More later.