Was Hitler a Christian?

[Voegelin]

By Dinesh D'Souza
Monday, November 5, 2007

Embarrassed at the murderous legacy of atheist Communist regimes in the twentieth century, leading atheists seek to even the score with believers by portraying Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime as theist and specifically Christian. Atheist websites routinely claim that Hitler was a Christian because he was born Catholic, he never publicly renounced his Catholicism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf, “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Atheist writer Sam Harris writes that since “the Holocaust marked the culmination of…two hundred years of Christian fulminating against the Jews,” therefore “knowingly or not, the Nazis were agents of religion.”

How persuasive are these claims? . . .

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/DineshDSouza/2007/11/05/was_hitler_a_christian

 

[Steezie]

And the point of posting something that we already know the answer to be "No" was....what exactly?

You cant even post links that get facts right. Hitler was neither Christian nor Atheist.

 

[NPH]

This is all such a false dilemma. I'm sure some other atheist will pop in with how the Soviet Union and communist China replaced religion with worship of the State/Leader so they're not really atheist, but I don't even think that is necessary.

Who cares that those nations were lead by atheists or even espoused an atheist viewpoint to it's citizenry. Atheism is simply a lack of belief in gods. It's not a philosophy or any kind of coherent moral/ethical system. It's a lack of belief in gods. So what does it even matter that they were essentially atheist in their leadership. It means nothing as atheism does not suggest any particular way of living or ruling.

But religions do. That is why scrutinizing the actions of religious leaders has merit. The basis of their religion will have a claim that they will/should behave in a certain way and we can examine if they do indeed behave in the manner specified.

So was Hitler christian or atheist? Doesn't really matter, does it. If he were an atheist then big deal. It means nothing. If he were a christian then that would just make him yet another in a tremendously long and sordid list of christian leadership that absolutely failed to live up to the claims of christianity. Drop of water in the ocean, doesn't make much difference

 

[ReverendDG]

By Dinesh D'Souza
Monday, November 5, 2007

Embarrassed at the murderous legacy of atheist Communist regimes in the twentieth century, leading atheists seek to even the score with believers by portraying Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime as theist and specifically Christian. Atheist websites routinely claim that Hitler was a Christian because he was born Catholic, he never publicly renounced his Catholicism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf, “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Atheist writer Sam Harris writes that since “the Holocaust marked the culmination of…two hundred years of Christian fulminating against the Jews,” therefore “knowingly or not, the Nazis were agents of religion.”

How persuasive are these claims? . . .

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/DineshDSouza/2007/11/05/was_hitler_a_christian

well there was a wide spread dislike for jews in germany, and germany was pretty much broken by world war 1. All hitler did was fan the anger from world war 1 and twist it into blaming a group that didn't feel such a brunt of the damage, namely the jews
the fact is the bible blames the jews for jesus's death, and the catholics built up a huge resentment towards the jewish people by preforming the passion plays that for the most part pushed the belief that the jews killed jesus.
and after hmm 800? years, there was a lot of hate in the cultures of europe for the jews.
all hitler did was exploit what was there. he along with the vast majority of christians believed the jews killed jesus, drank the blood of christians(blood libel) and other twisted beliefs. its no wonder he thought it was his duty to kill them

 

[Verv]

Hitler did not really believe in religion like us. Wikipedia has a quote of him in private saying that he would like Germany to have a religion that served a purpose for furthering the nation, even saying he was envious of the Japanese shintoism.

It is clear he put no real stock in religion and rather wanted to use it as a tool to manipulate people.

Fundamentally, in the great tradition of the other 20th century butchers, an atheist.

 

[Madcoil]

Hitler was a vegetarian... VEGANS ARE NAZIS! STALIN DID 911!

 

[Verv]

Hitler was a vegetarian... VEGANS ARE NAZIS! STALIN DID 911!

And he was a very bold liberal Socialist. He took away all of the private schools and essentially created an egalitarian learning environment.

Hitler, in Mein Kampf, stated the best system which he believes could ever be in place is fundamentally a meritocracy with equal playing ground for everybody (well, every Aryan ) to come to terms.

Hitler bemoaned in the book how he was deprived of such opportunity as he was never in such a position and also deplored the notion that the Jews controlled banking and created a sort of financial and intellectual monopoly he wanted to break through nationalization and exiling (later, murder). Nationalization is one of the most fundamental tenants of socialism.

 

[Phred]

From what I can tell Hitler thought he was a Christian. But more important than that are the millions of Germans who were good Catholics and from whom came the SS and the Army. From these came the guards that forced the Jews to work without food, and later, when they could no longer do any useful work... these are the good Christians who shoved their fellow human beings into the showers.

Sure, you can't blame religion for the travesties committed... but it didn't help either. Does it matter if Hitler was a Christian? How many could he have killed by himself?

 

[StarCannon]

Embarrassed at the murderous legacy of atheist Communist regimes in the twentieth century, leading atheists seek to even the score with believers by portraying Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime as theist and specifically Christian. Atheist websites routinely claim that Hitler was a Christian because he was born Catholic, he never publicly renounced his Catholicism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf, “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Atheist writer Sam Harris writes that since “the Holocaust marked the culmination of…two hundred years of Christian fulminating against the Jews,” therefore “knowingly or not, the Nazis were agents of religion.”

How persuasive are these claims? . . .

Not very pursuasive at all. If anyone studies Hitler, it's pretty clear that he didn't care much for religion except as a means to an end.

 

[WatersMoon110]

It does rather appear that Hitler claimed to be a Christian, as did many of his followers. However, from their actions, one can assume that they didn't much care for the teachings of Jesus, the Christ, who taught that one should love one's neighbors.

Just because a given person with a given viewpoint does something horrible doesn't make them a representative of that viewpoint. Hitler is no more a representative of all Christians than Stalin or China is a representative of all atheists.

 

[Aianna]

Hilter disliked the church, but he did think he was doing "god's work."

Of course he used religion for political reasons, but that's no proof one way or the other in whether or not he believed in a god. The fact that he spoke out against the church in his table talks doesn't mean much when he also praised Jesus in them (although his version of Jesus was quite different than the common one). He didn't like the church at all.

Do I think Hitler identified as a Christian? Yes.
Does it change anything either way? No.

 

[Fin1234]

I think the fact hitler was a totalrian fascist dictator; has more to do with his actions rather than his religon. Any good stratigist or tactition will tell you that religon, is any easy way to control the masses and justify horrible things. In order to avoid rebellion or war with another interviening country. Religon was simply a tool in his inventory; it's been used by many leaders before hitler and it's still used today. Religon has for the most part nothing to do when it comes to drawing up political agenda's. It only helps further them.

 

[elman]

By Dinesh D'Souza
Monday, November 5, 2007

Embarrassed at the murderous legacy of atheist Communist regimes in the twentieth century, leading atheists seek to even the score with believers by portraying Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime as theist and specifically Christian. Atheist websites routinely claim that Hitler was a Christian because he was born Catholic, he never publicly renounced his Catholicism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf, “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Atheist writer Sam Harris writes that since “the Holocaust marked the culmination of…two hundred years of Christian fulminating against the Jews,” therefore “knowingly or not, the Nazis were agents of religion.”

How persuasive are these claims? . . .

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/DineshDSouza/2007/11/05/was_hitler_a_christian

Did Hitler obey the command to love? Calling one self a Christian does not make one a Christian.

 

[elman]

From what I can tell Hitler thought he was a Christian. But more important than that are the millions of Germans who were good Catholics and from whom came the SS and the Army. From these came the guards that forced the Jews to work without food, and later, when they could no longer do any useful work... these are the good Christians who shoved their fellow human beings into the showers.

Sure, you can't blame religion for the travesties committed... but it didn't help either. Does it matter if Hitler was a Christian? How many could he have killed by himself?

No good Christians shoved anybody into the gas chambers.

 

[Rochir]

Of course he was Christian!

Is Osama Muslim?

 

[SweetAngeline2]

Hitler was a Catholic, so it depends on your definition of a Christian.

 

[wanderingone]

I don't particularly care if he was or he wasn't. Many call on Christ and don't care to follow his teachings, it's for God to decide if the man repented of his acts or not.

 

[jayem]

The crimes of the Nazi's can't be directly blamed on Christianity, but centuries of anti-Semitic teaching certainly created a fertile soil for Hitler's doctrines to take root. My question would be why did the Church (Catholic and Protestant) let itself be browbeaten? Yes, it may have been fatal to resist, but isn't martydom for God a Christian ideal? There were some courageous priests and ministers(Dietrich Boenhoffer is the most famous) who resisted the Nazi's, but far too many collaborated. Or assented by their inaction. Pope Pius's role is still debated, but he never brought the full force of the Church against Hitler. If the German Catholic and Lutheran churches had stood up, en mass, to Hitler's fascism and racism, I think world history might have been quite different. I thought one purpose of Christianity is to make us better people. The European church failed mightily in this regard.

 

[Fin1234]

AAHH STOP IGNORING ME!!

You guys really need to understand. The majority of you are devout and act on your beliefs.

but for the other 70% of the world, religon has f*ck all to do with actions. I'm pretty sure in the uk 20 years from now religon won't mean much at all compared to what it means today.

 

[Merlin]

It is not for us to judge a person. That is reserved for Jesus.
It is our place to judge the actions.
Hitler's actions did not glorify the LORD