Incoming!
(Granted, the writer is a Catholic, so he is generally fond of craven images ...)
Did you mean to say "graven", or are you bashing catholics with your clever little word play?
I'm not catholic myself, mind you, and as a Bapstist I know they are all going to burn in Hell, but still, we can still be nice and not bash 'em, ya know?
While I don't remember exactly where I heard the purported quotation, I am quite sure I heard it in the later '60s or early '70s.
Look, nobody is perfect.
????
Hey, that's "graven". Insult us correctly, please.
Actually, that isn't a bad idea, seeing how communists were the biggest butchers in human history. I propose a revision!
"First they came for the mass murderers, and I did not speak out because I was not a mass murderer."
this author is so far off base he's not even on the ball diamond. So Niemoeller volunteered to serve in the German Army in 39. That's interesting as he was thrown in prison on July 1, 1937 (the sixth time he had been arrested for preaching fiery sermons against the Nazis) where he remained for the next 7 years. He was finally transferred to a concentration camp and later to northern Italy where he was to be executed within 3 days of the Allies liberation.
Niemoeller publicly confronted Hitler before his arrest and by the time of his liberation was tubercular and nearly dead. And the above mentioned quote was written by his wife and delivered by Niemoeller before Congress in 1967.
This author is simply attempting to smear a brave German pastor.
I saw this as a poster on a dorm wall around 1971, so It's been around for a while.
The fact that many of us have heard it over the decades, with different variations on this or that sentence or who said it, doesn't make it's message any less true.
ping
How did this Shaw clown get access to "Best Writers"?
There are so many contradicitons within the article itself...Just so folks don't nutso there were lots of people in 1931 that thought a dtrong leader ( a Fuhrer) was a necessity for Germany. Moreover, I don't think anyone ever put this particular cleric up on a pedestal...He is not comparable to say og how about Neibhur (The Cost of Disciplieship) who as a Protestant understood exactly the nature of what Hitler was doing. Sometimes it is not so important after history has moved on to find things to complain about. What we should be looking at these days is the EVIL that is
bump
Whatever one might say about this article, Martin Niemoeller was not a Catholic. Your use of the "Fr." (Father) title in your article title wrongly suggests that he was.
The man raised his hand and say "Ho! Dog. Where are you running from?"
"That town down the way," replied the dog.
"Why?" asked the man.
"Because they are rounding up camels there - putting harnesses on them - and making them do slave labor."
"You stupid dog!" the man replied. "You're a dog and they're rounding camels. What has that to do with you?"
"Fool!" said the dog, "If no one will stand for camels, who will stand when they come for dogs?"
- An old Sufi story
What a foul, slanderous piece of propaganda! I don't see how anyone gains from such hateful musings, much less Catholics.