I have heard more than one Christian say when discussing War, Religion and Evil, “Hitler was an atheist”. He might have been, but why did every solder wear this belt buckle which said, “Gott Mit Uns” meaning God with Us ? My good friend Ark suggested I write a post on this. “To the Germans it was a rallying cry, “a Protestant as well as an Imperial motto, the expression of German religious, political and ethnic single-mindedness, or the numerous unity of altar, throne and Volk”
I was going to examine the evidence about Hitler in my next post, but I have had great references to the mindset of Hitler provided by bloggers like John Zande in the comments section here. Let’s continue to see where these comments takes us.
The Divine Spark Within 
Fascinating. I look forward to reading this one with relish!
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Hitler was a Christian, a strong advocate for the church and “a believing public,” but to suggest he killed in the name of Christianity is like saying he killed in the name of his vegetarianism.
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It is understandable that Christians would want to distance themselves from Hitler and his actions. Is it not true, though, that his Christian beliefs coupled with his strange notions about evolution led to the atrocities he committed against other races?
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Might have. Probably best to just say there was a cocktail of error going on there.
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Thanks John . wikipedia suggests you are right. Not that wikipedia is the “bible” on the subject. 🙂
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Here’s a few good quotes:
“We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” -Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933
“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow my self to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows . For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.” -Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (taken from a book called My New Order, a collection of some of the more significant speeches he made from 1922-1941 (edited by Raoul de Roussy and published by Reynal & Hitchcock).
“Christianity could not content itself with building up its own altar; it was absolutely forced to undertake the destruction of the heathen altars. Only from this fanatical intolerance could its apodictic faith take form; this intolerance is, in fact, its absolute presupposition.” -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf
“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.” -Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
“Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith…. We need believing people.”
-Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933
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Great material , John ! I might have to use some of this on some other blogsites too. I knew I could count on you ! 🙂
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There’s more, but it’s always good to have these things handy.
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Good question, Ruth. I am “winging this as I go” . I happened to mention to Ark yesterday that I have in my possession a belt buckle worn by a German soldier in WW II which has the words, “Gott Mit Uns” meaning God with Us.
He suggested I do a post on the subject of Hitler as so many Christian Apologists tend to distance themselves from people like Hitler . I can well understand why they would. I am currently discussing this issue on Debilis post on War. He is making the statement that “New Age Atheists” overwhelmingly claim the cause of most wars is religion.
I hope to answer your question yet today as we just got 3 more inches of snow and ice here in the Midwest and I’ll be staying home most of the day. 🙂
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You know conversation is going down hill when people start talking about the weather. 😉
BTW It’s pissisting down with rain down here….all day.
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You are so right ! 🙂
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Ruth, here is a link to one possibility for Hitler’s Holocaust. I will provide more later.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194194/Has-historian-finally-real-reason-Hitlers-obsessive-hatred-Jews.html
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Y’know, people are usually more complicated than the simplistic soundbites we try to boil them down to. And my question to John was by no means intended to say that I believe that was the only reason he hated the Jews. Having thought about it, what this article states is probably at least part of the story.
As is so often the case, I suspect that his hatret of the Jews came first and then he searched for a case to prop it up. Enter the invocation of God and “special evolution”.
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I agree with your conclusion and here is another article which might shed more light, Hitler’s first anti-semitic writing. http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/hitler2.html
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Hi Ken,
Here’s some ideas related to both this post as well as your last one. This is a relevant quote by Keith Parsons (I’m always impressed with his stuff), and it summarizes well my own views:
And as far as needing to go far back in history to find some nasty stuff within Christianity, we actually don’t have to go back too far, and we also can find people who Christians would have a hard time saying they were “not true Christians”. You can find a Wiki article on Martin Luther’s treatise called “On The Jews and Their Lies”. Here’s a quote from his treatise:
The wiki article says “The prevailing scholarly view since the Second World War is that the treatise exercised a major and persistent influence on Germany’s attitude toward its Jewish citizens in the centuries between the Reformation and the Holocaust”, and the treatise was displayed during Nuremberg rallies. You can find more info in the article.
Then there is also of course the witch hunts which don’t go that far back in history.
And here Is an article on Christian Terrorism which contains modern day atrocities.
Again, while I don’t believe all religion to be bad nor do I believe that all atrocities/wars are caused or even influenced by religion I do believe Parson’s quote is very relevant.
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Nice job Howie ! Great resources ! I will be using much of this in my comments on other blogs as well !
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“God”, “Christianity” and all that is often just more dressings put over the deeper causes of war. Abstractions are tools of war. “Democracy” for instance is the West’s rhetoric when talking about Ukraine and it is not the issue at all.
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Ooops, forgot to follow comments.
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“God”, “Christianity” and all that is often just more dressings put over the deeper causes of war. ”
No doubt about it.
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