Christian author and commentator Eric Metaxas has just concluded a speaking tour in Australia under a storm of criticism, after he compared the modern church’s accommodation of  same-sex ‘marriage’ with the passive German church in 1930s Nazi Germany. The charge: He compared gay activists to Nazis. Metaxas pushes back in the interview clip below.

Metaxas is a contributor to The Stream, regular commentator on BreakPoint, the host of The Eric Metaxas Show and Socrates in the City, and The New York Times bestselling author of Amazing Grace and Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Spy.

Bonhoeffer focuses on the German theologian’s courageous stand against Nazism and contrasts his activism with the feckless response of the German church of his day, which wilted in the face of Hitler’s National Socialism, bowing to Nazi pressure to adopt drastically unchristian values.

In the video Metaxas emphasizes that what he is comparing is the alarming trajectories of the cultures of two educated and sophisticated nations — pre-war Germany and the modern US, and in particular, the response of the church in each case to government pressure to compromise its doctrine and stop its public criticism of government-promoted policies that it cannot accept in good conscience.

The firestorm has been covered by newspapers in Australia and the UK, and several Australian luminaries have defended Metaxas, including the Federal Treasurer of Australia, Scott Morrison, and Australian Christian Lobby leader, Lyle Shelton.