The author and journalist Frederick Clarkson has taken the conversation about Eric Metaxas and the HHS
Mandate in a different direction by interpreting a speech by Metaxas
differently than I did. Here is the paragraph from Metaxas’ speech at the
Catholic Information Center in DC:
“This HHS mandate” situation
he said “is so oddly similar to where Bonhoeffer found himself” early in the
Nazi era. “If we don’t fight now,” Metaxas warned,
“if we don’t really use all our bullets now, we will have no
fight five years from now. It’ll be over. This it. We’ve got to die on this
hill. Most people say, oh no, this isn’t serious enough. Its just this little
issue. But it’s the millimeter... its that line that we cross. I’m sorry to say
that I see these parallels. I really wish I didn’t.”
Fred ties this revolutionary
language into a broader context of conservative rhetoric that invites violence. I am not sure that I
agree with him. I interpreted Metaxas to be speaking metaphorically in the
paragraph sited. However, I wonder if I have viewed the quote that way because
I was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. It would certainly fit
with Metaxas’ focus on Bonhoeffer, the man who attempted to assassinate Hitler,
to view his call to bullets and “die on this hill” literally, but I don’t think
that was his intent. I still think I was right to interpret his language as a call to skip nuance, fight verbally with every last extreme language possible, and leave the careful language for after the "crisis". What I can say is that Metaxas’ lack of clarity in using
this kind of language is troubling.
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