None of them knew that Hitler closely followed the anti-Semitic teachings of none other than Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, but this isn't surprising since they didn't know about Martin Luther's extreme anti-Semitism either, even though he wrote a book titled "On Jews and their Lies".
Do you love your father? Do you love your mother?
Prove it.
This is why atheism is a religion. The atheist says that there is no God but can't provide proof. Neither can other religions. That means I have to take faith in your declaration. Just as I would have to take your answer in faith that you love your mother and father. You won't be able to prove it to me. You will have to provide me information and I have two choices and those choices are based solely on faith.
Actions can prove whether one loves their parents. Easy. All the atheist has to do is to point out biblical contradictions and mistakes in the bible;
the christian has already ruled out every other religion; once the atheist disproves that last religion, atheism is what's left.
Would Christians put the founders of their religion in ovens and try to genocide them? Why would they do that knowing it would destroy their church? It makes no sense.
So, they did it for centuries anyway. The witch hunts that they had made no sense either, but that didn't stop them.
Admittedly it was a twisted form of christianity, but it was not atheism, as Martin Luther was himself a christian.
from JK:
Hitler was the godless man. He was godless because of the godless acts he embraced. Hitler and his leadership cells dismissed religious institutions because they propelled civilization backwards in the view of the efficient fascist nation-state. There is no room for God in the totalitarian state.
Wrong. Explain these:
1). It's well known that Hitler allowed the destruction of Jewish synagogues and Temples.
But if for one moment you still harbor the thought that Hitler was against Christianity, then ask yourself why he never ordered the destruction of Catholic or Protestant churches? Why did he not prevent his Nazis from worshiping in Christian churches, but instead encouraged it? And why did he spend so much time in trying to strengthen and unite the religion into one Christian Reich Church?
http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitlerchristian.htm
(and again, check this guy's sources)
2).Protestantism constituted the major religion in Germany during the early1930s.
Until Hitler attempted to establish a German Reich Church, there existed no such thing as an official German Protestant Church. The Nazi party made a call for all German Protestants to unite in the hour of national need [Holt, p.168-9]. The Christian Evangelical Church would receive the dignity due it within a National Socialist State (Nazism) based on positive Christianity ("Positive Christianity" was stated in point twenty-four of the Nazi Programme, their version of a constitution), and whom Martin Luther served as their spiritual patron.
Most German Protestants followed Luther (who they knew hated Jews) and believed in the sanctity of the secular authority and the supremacy of the authority over all religious organizations. To Luther, the head of the temporal state should also be head of "the church visible." [McGovern, p.650] On May 14, 1933, Ludwig Muller, a prominent member in the ranks of the German Christian Movement became the principle Bishop of the Evangelical German Reich Church.
Of course the thought of a state controlled national church could mean loss of control by the pastors of the Church. Naturally many pastors became concerned; some protested quietly to themselves and others, openly, by forming the Confessing Church. Nevertheless, most pastors allied themselves with the Nazi party and their anti-Semitic views got published in the Protestant press even before Hitler's election into power. The Protestant press influenced millions of its readers with the most prominent being the Sonntagsblatter, and the weekly Sunday newspapers. These weekly papers dwelled on religious piety and preached how they thought of Jews as "the natural enemies of the Christian-national tradition." [Goldhagen, 1996] As far as anyone knows, there had never occurred any visible or vocal church protest against the anti-Semitism of the Nazi party before it came into power. Considering that the majority of Germans at that time held anti-Semitic feelings (no doubt due mainly to religious preachings and propaganda), this should not surprise anyone. As many have pointed out, the religious rhetoric influenced Hitler during his youth.
--
--McGovern, William Montgomery, From Luther to Hitler: The History of Fascist-Nazi Political Philosophy, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1941
from JK:
This is why American Christians are under attack. As America becomes more of a matriarchal totalitarian state, religion will most certainly be under attack. A dangerous time, indeed.
Uh huh. Then all those popes in the past, and Martin Luther who wrote "On the Jews and Their Lies" were all godless? And where in hell did you get the idea that america is becoming "matriarchal"?!? Once shred of evidence, please!
from JK:
Really? That is some claim. Show me one documented moment in history where Hitler even claimed to be a follower of Lutherism. If Hitler followed anything he would have talked about it. Show me one documented page where Hitler praises Luther.
"To them belong, not only the truly great statesmen, but all other great reformers as well. Beside Frederick the Great stands Martin Luther as well as Richard Wagner."
-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
http://www.stormfront.org/books/mein_kampf/mkv1ch08.html
Odd, when I give you other Hitler quotes, that go against your views, you just dismiss them, saying that he was lying. Why do all of a sudden, his words become good now?
Hitler himself wasn't a "follower" but others like Julius Streicher were, and admitted in in Nuremberg. (see a previous post).
What you are basically saying, as other here have done so in this thread, is that we are supposed to take Hitler's word for it as a politician when he says he is on "God's mission". Is that the first time in history we are supposed to believe what a politician says, or does that standard just apply to Hitler because it is important for everyone to toss him into a Christian pile? (a historical unreality).
Hitler was a catholic christian, not a protestant. Those two haven't gotten along very well, you know.
And again, you don't seem to catch something. Even if Hitler was lying about being a christian,
why would he suck up to christians so much while he was ranting about the jews in his "Mein Kampf" book? If christians were so "againt nazism" as you put it, you'd have thought that hitler would avoid being anti-semitic when he was courting christians. Also, if you'd bother to check
any of the sources I gave, you'd find that they
admit that christianity was partly responsible. NOTE: those were christian and jewish sources, not atheist books I listed!
BTW, here's some evidence that Hitler was
not lying, as someone saw his private notes:
Just as revealingly, not only did Hitler present his religious beliefs in his speeches, but his own private notes reveal how he was influenced by the Bible before he came into power. In one of his notes, he describes the Bible as the monumental history of mankind and used the old testament race laws as the foundation for his views against the Jews, which later turned into the Nazi Nuremberg race laws [Maser, p.282]
One point made by Christians aims to destroy Hitler's acclaimed Christianity by pointing out that his actions where not Christian-like. Therefore, so the hypothesis goes, he could not have been a "true" Christian because he caused "evil" deeds. But again, the Bible does not define Christianity in terms of deeds. Yet it was through his very deeds that he confessed his work for the Lord:
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
-Hitler (Mein Kampf)
Hitler's work of the Lord only agrees with Biblical scripture:
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
-Colossians 3:17
Hitler not only believed in Jesus (which alone would make him a Chrisitan) but his work against the Jews came straight from Christian reasoning just as had many Christian saints of the past.
In another point, Christians show that Hitler imprisoned priests and nuns, some of them dying in concentration camps; therefore he must be anti-Christian, so the reasoning goes. But the Nazis imprisoned people of many faiths, including a few Nazis who stood in his way. But, these people were condemned for their political views against the government, not for their religious beliefs.
Although Hitler may have been deluded and blinded by belief, he was brutally honest in his fanaticism and beliefs. Nowhere do we find him denouncing Jesus; nothing in the record shows him expressing hatred toward Christians for their beliefs; not at anytime does he destroy Christian churches or attempt to eliminate the Christian religion. Although he had political problems with the hierarchy of the churches, he spent inordinate amount of time attempting to unite the Churches into one German Reich Church and spoke for establishing what he called real Christianity. His reach for uniting Christianity brought conflict within the denominations and created political divisions. It came from this that Hitler sometimes spoke against Christianity as a power structure, but never against Christianity as a belief system.
Maser, Werner, (translated by Arnold Pomerans) "Hitler's Letters and Notes," Harper & Row, 1974
