Republican House members on Thursday took turns blasting the public affairs director for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board for comparing them to Hitler for failing to move so-called religious liberty legislation.

In an update written for the Christian Index last week, Mike Griffin, who is also the Baptists’ lobbyist at the Capitol, wrote : “We must not let the government do to us what Hitler did to the pastors and churches of his day. He got them to accept this protection from government action if they would agree to stay out of government. He basically said, you take care of the church and leave government to me. Pastors, this is happening before our eyes today.”

That language, a copy of which was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was later removed from the post, but not before it was passed around by lawmakers in the past 24 hours.