The weather was threatening at Florida State, and so I selected a different (drier) location to preach that proved to be quite a good decision. My voice carried well and a large crowd gathered. During the first hour, I answered good and thoughtful questions about the existence of God and how our Bible was assembled and preserved throughout history.
However, after about an hour, a gang of homosexuals showed up waving the rainbow flag and carrying their banner advertising "FSU PRIDE." Evidently thinking the whole world revolves around them and their issues, they continually interrupted with questions involving "gay marriage" and other gay issues - mostly political questions. I wasn't really interested in going there and tried to stay on target, but they insisted that I must "be exposed" as the hateful bigot I am.
I spent some time answering their basic questions and explaining that, while I don't personally have a political agenda, nevertheless, I do not need to abandon my Christian faith simply because I enter a voting booth. After awhile, one of the group leaders stepped forward and wanted to challenge me on some specific comments that I was reported to have said.
"It is reported that you have said ‘Hitler didn't go far enough.' Is that true and, if so, what did you mean by saying that?" The crowd got very quiet, but when I did not immediately deny the statement, a number of hecklers - evidently like sharks smelling blood in the water - screamed loudly demanding an explanation for my "anti-Semitism."
And, so, when asked, "Did you say, ‘Hitler did not go far enough'?" I had to answer, "Well... yes, ...and no."
Again, the hecklers pounced. "Either you said it or you didn't. Did you say ‘Hitler didn't go far enough'?"
"Well, as I said, yes, I did say those words," I explained. "But that's not really what I meant."
Thinking I was in a trap from which there was no escape, my opponents asked me to explain just what I could possibly have meant by this inflammatory statement. I offered them the same explanation I've been giving for years. Here it is:
Back in the mid-90's, I was preaching at Texas A & M University. A young lady named Lisa Foxx (who happened to be Jewish) was arguing with me concerning the issue of abortion. She was "pro-choice" - in favor of unrestricted abortion rights; I was pro-life - claiming that abortion is murder and, therefore, wrong and should be illegal.
Lisa made her arguments and I provided a thoughtful pro-life response to each of her points. Generally speaking, I stood for the sanctity of human life (the belief that all human life is a gift from God in whose image we are made and, therefore, should always be protected). We debated what should be done in the case of rape, incest, underage pregnancy and danger to the mother's life. Finally, Lisa, somewhat exasperated, blurted out, "What if a woman just doesn't want to have a baby?"
I now felt we had gotten to the real issue - is all life worth protecting even if it is inconvenient? I responded to Lisa with these words, "Have we gotten to the place where we kill people simply because they are ‘unwanted'? Wasn't that Hitler's problem - that he killed people he didn't want? What do you think - Hitler didn't go far enough?" After this obviously rhetorical question, I continued to make my point that all life is sacred and to be cherished and that Hitler went too far when he determined that even one life was "unwanted." Lisa, on the other hand, argued that an "unwanted fetus" had no basic right to live. But that's not the way it was "reported" in the newspaper.
Several days after I left town, Lisa wrote an article to The Battalion (the Texas A & M newspaper) claiming that I had told her, a Jewish student, to her face that "Hitler did not go far enough." The following year, the paper reported that "Short allegedly told a Jewish student that Hitler did not go far enough" and the following year a columnist wrote that the university should not allow me on campus since I make such controversial statements as "Hitler did not go far enough."
Of course, I said no such thing. Lisa bore false witness against me and shoddy newspaper editors who never checked their facts allowed this false witness to become "proof" that I am anti-Semitic. (Note: the next year, Lisa was out at the preaching and acknowledged publicly that my accounting of this story was accurate, but that since she was Jewish, it was still wrong of me to use Hitler and the Holocaust to prove my point.)
The following year, after I threatened legal action for this slander, The Battalion allowed me to place a rebuttal in the newspaper and agreed to no longer print this false allegation (and, to their credit, they have abided by this promise since then). However, the damage was already done. The statement was now on the Internet. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League picked up on it, ran a story about it and was not in the least interested when I contacted them to share my side of what really happened. People who don't like me had it posted on Wikipedia (along with other false or misleading accusations against me).
But God can turn a curse into a blessing. The FSU Pride group didn't have much to say after hearing my explanation of the Hitler statement and ended up respectfully listening to me for hours. Besides, I don't think anyone who actually gives some time to read what I write or hear what I say believes there is any way I would really say such a hateful thing.
And, a note for Lisa in case she ever reads this blog:
She had begun the interaction that day by saying, "I'm a Jew. Am I going to burn in hell?"
"I certainly hope not," I said. "That's why I'm here today to tell you how to get to heaven."
"But, I'm a Jew. Am I going to burn in hell?" she persisted.
"Jesus came to save us from our sins. I certainly hope you come to Jesus and let Him save you."
"But, I'm a Jew. Jews don't believe in Jesus," she said.
"Most Jews may not believe in Jesus, but a lot do. You can believe in Jesus. He loves you; He died for your sins; He is your sacrificial Lamb. I hope you come to Him for salvation."
"I am a Jew. I do not believe in Jesus and I never will. Am I going to burn in hell?"
She was putting me on the spot, but I was not going to back down from the truth in the Bible. "No one goes to hell for being a Jew. People go to hell for rejecting Christ. Therefore, if you persist in rejecting Christ throughout your entire life, then, yes, you will burn in hell."
And, after seeing how she has deliberately broken the ninth commandment to not bear false witness against her neighbor and the intentional way in which she has maliciously sought to destroy the reputation and good name of another human being, burning in hell sounds like a just sentence. But her sins, like mine, though many, can be forgiven. I can only hope that Lisa turns to Jesus for the forgiveness she desperately needs.
