Baptist Official Apologizes for Comparing Health-Care Overhaul to Nazism

ATLANTA (AP) -- A key Southern Baptist official has apologized for comparing proposals to overhaul the nation's health care system with Nazism.




Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also apologized for bestowing a "Josef Mengele Award" on President Barack Obama's chief health care adviser.



He said in a letter dated Wednesday that he did not intend to "actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele."



The Anti-Defamation League had criticized Land's remarks, calling them "inappropriate, insensitive and unjustified."




(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)