When normal people think of the Enlightenment, they think of Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Spinoza, Montesquieu, Goethe, Paine, Jefferson -- and the ideas that helped launch the American Revolution. When crazy right-wing Christians think of the Enlightenment, they apparently think of...Nazis.
Here's Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America ranting against Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx's proposal to have a "Day of Reason" alongside a "Day of Prayer." Because, obviously, thinking and reason leads to genocide, or something.
NANCE: Clearly, we need faith as a component, and its just silly to say otherwise. You know the Age of Enlightenment and Reason gave way to moral relativism. And moral relativism is what led us all the way down the dark path to the Holocaust...Dark periods of history is what we arrive at when we leave God out of the equation.
See what happens when you advance science, cast off the monarchy and separate church from state? Hitler.
Sure, it sounds crazy -- but Nance's rant is of a piece to what Rick Santorum said during the presidential campaign.
I wonder what she thinks about the Jefferson Bible?
