What about Hitler? Neo-Kook leftists won't like this.

"What about Hitler, wasn't he a Christian?"

This question is asked of us in various ways, sometimes by Westerners who tend
to view all religion monolithically and negatively, other times by
anti-Christian bigots, and most frequently by Muslims who think they've
discovered an advantageous way of trivializing the violence produced by
Islamic radicals. The fatigued logic of each is that Christianity must be
responsible for the crimes of Hitler, since Germany is a demographically
Christian country.

The veneer-thin reasoning in support of the argument seems to take root only
in the mind of shallow thinkers, or those whose anti-Christian bias eschews
critical examination. An extreme dearth of objectivity is critical to this
argument, since any measure of such shows it to be both logically inconsistent
and historically inaccurate.

It's true that Germany is a Christian country, in the same way that every
nation on the planet is identified with some form of religion, irrespective of
whether a majority of those living within its borders actually strive to live
a life that is congruent with the teachings of the faith. This hardly bestows
religious sanction on the actions of every citizen or elected official.

Indeed, the leadership and direction of a country is very often at odds with
its nominal religion. When the Syrian dictator, Hafez al-Assad, slaughtered
thousands of religious fundamentalists in 1982, he did it for the very secular
purpose of retaining power. Saddam Hussein has engaged in brutal acts of
torture against political dissidents - and their families. Yet, like all Arab
leaders at one time or another, both men hid behind the cloak of Islam when it
suited their conveniences. (A 2003 interview with Saddam, in which the
barbarian invoked the "will of Allah" several times in disingenuous fashion,
was particularly repugnant to this writer).

So, the fact that Hitler occasionally referenced Christianity is not
necessarily a sign of personal religious fervor (nor is it an indication of
religious sanction). There is no compelling reason to believe it to be
anything more than the same cynical ploy used ubiquitously by all leaders to
appeal to the deepest passions of their people (particularly in times of war)
regardless of the inconsistency that their national goals may have with
religious teachings.

For honest inquirers then, the fundamental question becomes: What motivated
Hitler, and were his actions justified by Christian teachings?

These questions are rarely explored by those who make allegations of a
"Christian Holocaust" in hit-and-run fashion. Part of this is because people
simply prefer to believe what they prefer to believe. There is no point in
discovering whether a belief is right or wrong as long as it serves a personal
interest or provides comfort (ironically, the very charge made by critics of
religion). But another reason is the seductive appeal that useful clichés (no
matter how hollow) often have against intellectual inquiry, which requires
more effort to pursue.

As an example of the perils of this sort of mental laziness, TROP often notes
that the same people who write to us alleging that the Nazis were a Christian
army in World War II are also prone to accuse the Americans of being a
Christian army in Iraq. Perhaps they are dimly aware that the Americans
destroyed the Nazi war machine in 1945 (and liberated the concentration
camps), but the bulb never really burns bright enough to illuminate the
contradiction for them. Muslims who write often forget that Hitler was well
received in the Islamic world, where his legacy of killing Jews for the sake
of killing Jews is still alive and well.

Fortunately, for those who wish to dig beneath the surface, it doesn't take
much to discover that, rather than being motivated by Christianity, Hitler was
very much a Nazi. His entire philosophy was built around German nationalism
and Aryan supremacy, which were the fundamental planks of his National
Socialist Party. In his own words: "One is either a Christian or a German.
You can't be both."

Indeed, the Christian faith is based on the New Testament, which can easily be
used to justify pacifism, but not mass murder. There are no open-ended
passages about slaying those who reject the Prophet or conquering the world by
the sword as there are in the Qur'an. Instead, believers are told to "turn
the other cheek," "bless them that curse you," and warned that "those who live
by the sword shall die by the sword."

World War II was hardly a scheme to spread Christianity (or Lutheranism, since
Hitler invaded other "Christian countries" for the most part). The war was
the result of a quest for political and economic power by the Germans and the
Japanese, the same motives that drive most wars. Even the Nazi act of killing
Jews was purely racial, as Hitler made very clear in Mein Kampf by insisting
that Jews were a race and not a religion.

Those who followed Christian teachings in Nazi Germany wound up in
concentrations camps. In fact, during WWII, the largest community of Christian
clerics in Europe was to be found in these death camps - surpassing even the
Vatican in strength of numbers.

Although the strong Protestant and Catholic traditions in Germany limited the
Fuehrer's public comments about religion (and also made necessary the
elaborate measures taken to keep the existence of gas chambers concealed from
the German public) he was quite candid in his personal observations. "It is
through the peasantry that we will really be able to destroy Christianity,
because there is in them a true religion rooted in nature and blood."

It's easy to isolate a few statements of political convenience made by Hitler,
particularly if one has an ulterior agenda, but a man is revealed by what he
does and Hitler's deeds prove that he was very much a pagan whose vision of
the future did not include a role for token Christianity.

When the Nazis stormed Poland in 1939, the Christian clergy were hunted as
relentlessly as the Jews. By 1940 only 3% remained in their parishes.
Thousands were slaughtered, along with fellow church workers and nuns. Those
who remained were strictly forbidden to evangelize, own property, or preach
uncensored from the New Testament. In other words, they lived very much like
dhimmis do under Islam.

The contempt that Nazis had for Christians was not softened by the fact that
nearly all of those Europeans involved in sheltering Jews were strong
believers, who acted according to Christian teachings. Jesus was a very
gentle man who never hurt anyone and strongly disapproved of violence. (By
contrast, Muhammad was a military leader who conducted raids on caravans,
supervised mass slaughter and even advised his fighting men on how to rape
women captured in battle).

Given that Christianity neither motivated Hitler, nor justified his actions,
and Christians and Jews were amply represented among his victims, particularly
those who lived consistently with the teachings of their faith, it is
certainly puzzling that anyone should want to suppose otherwise. After all,
what's really gained by believing a lie? When does false comfort become more
appealing than existential truth?

Regrettably, these are fat and lazy times (intellectually speaking). Although
the information age offers an unprecedented opportunity to balance worldview
with fact, many choose instead to apply a filter that allows only those
opinions and aphorisms that fit a pre-developed paradigm.

Is a U.S. post office shooting a 'Christian crime' because the killer was born
a Presbyterian? If a mentally deranged individual shoots up a mosque in Yemen
before turning the gun on himself, or if a member of the Kurdistan Workers
Party plants a bomb, is this really motivated by Islam? Who would make the
illogical assumption that any crime committed by a nominal member of a faith
must be attributed to that religion?

When Jihadis quote from the Qur'an and praise Allah as they videotape
themselves beheading an "infidel," it isn't illogical to assume that [their
understanding of] Islam is a prime motivator. This simply isn't the case when
Germany invades Poland (or when Iraq invades Kuwait).

Don't be fooled by the sleight-of-hand, or seduced by the moral superiority
held out as a reward. The historical record is clear, and the logic is sound.
Christianity neither motivated nor sanctioned Adolph Hitler and his demented
pagan dreams.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Articles/Hitler.htm
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