Patrick Henry College grad David Sessions just published the entire text of the lecture on Scribd.
Read the entire lecture for yourself. A common complaint that PHC dissenters hear is that we’re “taking things out of context” or being “uncharitable.” In what real-world context do PHC Professor Stephen Baskerville’s comments about “homosexual activists” being “integral” to the rise of Nazism make any sort of sense? Baskerville barely provides any context within the text of the lecture, resorting instead to badly-sourced paranoid propaganda.
Suggesting that gay activists enjoyed power in the NSDAP precisely because they were gay is outrageous. If homosexuality was a ticket to political power within the NSDAP, why were 100,000 gay men arrested for homosexuality in Nazi Germany? About 50,000 of those served prison sentences, an estimated 5,000-15,000 went to concentration camps, and an unknown number went to mental hospitals.
I assume Baskerville can look these facts up for himself. But instead, he chooses to ignore history so that he can make bogus connections between queer activism and Nazism. Not only does he fail to back up these claims with any sort of credible evidence, but comparing people he disagrees with to Nazis is the worst sort of intellectual laziness.
The Faith & Reason lecture is advertised as being the scholarly event of the semester. Who approved this lecture? Because there were no dissenting voices on the panel following the lecture, should we assume that this is now the official position of Patrick Henry College? PHC leaders, please feel free to respond in the comments.
September 15, 2013 at 3:21 am
Who else was on the panel?
September 15, 2013 at 3:21 am
Spinney, Mitchell, Kucks, and Sillars.
September 15, 2013 at 9:39 pm
As curious as I am to read the context, I managed to successfully skip enough faith and reason lectures as a student. This seems like a clever ploy to trick me into reading the text of one voluntarily. NOT TODAY, PHC!
September 16, 2013 at 1:38 pm
You should really make an exception here, Ben. It’s stunning.
September 16, 2013 at 11:41 pm
PLEASE tell me Mitchell & Sillars disagreed with some of this ….. I had a lot of respect for them back in the day, and even though I’d disagree with them on many things now, I’d hope they wouldn’t stoop to THIS level. 😦
September 19, 2013 at 2:52 pm
To style homosexuals as a particular group of Nazi terror (akin to Jews or gypsies) is complete nonsense from the historical point of view. The Nazis just kept in place the same laws against homosexuality that had been in force in the Weimar Republic and/or prior tro WWI.
The only particularity was that the Nazis used the issue of homosexuality systematically to decredibilize their opponents (such as the Catholic Church).
September 20, 2013 at 9:21 pm
Check your facts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_triangle
What is true, disgustingly enough, is that the gay victims of the holocaust were the only group to my knowledge to *not* be released after the end of the war. Instead, they were returned to prison. And, to add insult to injury, the courts ruled that their time in the concentration camps did not count towards their overall prison sentences.
September 24, 2013 at 11:04 am
Wikipedia = facts??????
September 20, 2013 at 2:34 pm
Did not you know that once just closeted homosexuals vehemently criticize others for being gay, (especially in very conservative societies).
Please illustrate yourselves a bit, by reading “Pink Swastika”!
September 20, 2013 at 9:29 pm
The Pink Swastika has been thoroughly debunked in the historical community. The kernel of truth is Ernst Röhm and the SA, who were homosexual by way of extreme misogyny (women were worthless for everything, even sex). They aided in the persecution of any effeminate gay men the Nazis could round up, before eventually getting executed by Hitler. So yeah, not exactly “gay activists.”