HITLER'S CHRISTIAN LIBERALISM DROVE HIM TO MASTERMIND THE HOLOCAUST

"Today Christians ... stand at the head of [this country]... I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity .. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit ... We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press - in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past ... years."

- Adolf Hitler as quoted in The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pg. 871-872.

In 1944 Hitler said, “I may not be a light of the Church, a pulpiteer, but deep down I am a pious man, and believe that whoever fights bravely in defense of the natural laws framed by God and never capitulates will never be deserted by the lawgiver, but will, in the end receive the blessings of Providence." Catholic must leave their Church for its role in what happened to the Jews under the Nazis. And as it happened once it will happen again. It indeed has. Think of the role of priests and nuns in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The pope never apologised for their role but ignored it.

Hitler after surviving a bomb attack which was down to Stauffenberg said, "I regard this as confirmation of the task imposed on me by Providence." He goes as far as to say that it is not God giving him the job so much as God forcing him to do it. That is very strong and a pure assertion of pure faith. It has to be admitted that the amount of coincidences that were in Hitler's favour were truly astounding. He simply should not have ended up with all the power he got. The Bible teaches that rulers are put in place by God and Jesus even told Pilate that he would not be on trial before him only God had set it up. See John 19:10, 11. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

What about the aftermath of World War 2? Let Austin Cline tell us. "After the war, the Allies tried to rely on Catholic clergy to help them in their program of de-Nazification of the government. That was a mistake — Catholic assistance to the Nazis hadn't ended when the Nazis surrendered. Catholic bishops realized that eliminating all Nazis would leave Communists and Social Democrats in charge and they concluded that that would be worse than having the Nazis in power — so they basically lied to the Allies. Unrepentant Nazis were returned to positions of authority over the German people because Catholic clergy gave them a clean bill of political and ideological health." The Church believes that half-hearted repentance is enough to get God's pardon in confession so this amounts to condoning evil while trying to keep the aroma of roses. Confession was at the heart of the Nazi problem which stands to reason when they had loads of Catholic chaplains!

Views of Hitler include that he acted in the name of Catholicism and that he acted as a religious Christian Liberal. If he did know Catholicism well enough then it is possible both are true.

We should take his word for it that he was Christian for that could easily backfire in a world where Christian countries were armed to the teeth and it could provoke the bishops to incite the countries in the name of protecting authentic Christian heritage.

OTHER EVIDENCE THAT HITLER IF NOT A CHRISTIAN WAS A LIBERAL CHRISTIAN

A liberal Christian is a label. Whether they are really Christian is another matter.

The 1920 book, My New Order by Adolf Hitler long before he could imagine any chance at changing Germany never mind controlling it shows how he felt inspired by the Bible story of Jesus vandalising the Jewish Temple (unsurprisingly). "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! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. 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 against the Jewish poison! Today, 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." This is a man who is confident that the flock tend to follow religion to some degree or another regardless of how evil or deceitful it is and especially when the target of hate and violence is another religion or a group of heretics.

Did Christianity give Hitler an excuse to persecute Jews? If it did it is still to blame for what he did for it is wrong to give the corrupt an excuse.

Hitler is not the reason faith and Jesus were so successful in setting up the Nazi regime. The people who saw, like him, that they have the power to override decency were.

Germany at the time was influenced by liberal Christians who disparaged the Jewish faith and people and what happened at Hitler's hand is a warning to those who equate liberal religion with tolerance and love. It was rife before Hitler became a household name! Hitler showed no sign of deliberately using religion to do evil with it. It looks like he took it for granted that he really was Christian and believing what Jesus wanted. Everybody agrees that ideology that forbids anybody to debate it or say it is wrong is the root of all violence. The problem is that once you give your right to think it can mean you will be good or you will be dangerous. It does not change the fact that you are making yourself blind and that is bad. It is only chance that stops you killing which is why even if you are good you are still bad at core. Your blindness is bad and you are bad. That is why it can lead to violence. If it can but doesn't that does not make it in any way praiseworthy.

Hitler knew that faith and Jesus can function as placebos or sedatives when you are trying to become a violent person because of your faith or for your faith. Because of your faith means you kill and maim and use the faith to feel okay about it. For your faith is just obeying the feeling that it is your vocation to kill and maim and obey your religion's violent commands be they implicit or explicit.

Monstrous tyrants could have been murdered by anyone for they had thousands of enemies. Yet there are cases such as Hitler where remarkable coincidences saved them. They say, “God looked after me”. They say that for they realise nothing can change the past and how you were safe in it. It is easy for them to say now that God was guarding them then. They will not be as reckless tomorrow as in the past which proves the point. Thus they have a faith response that will lead to them being safer and more careful and wiser. Faith empowers them to kill more and more. In their pride, they think God must wish to defend them while he does nothing for their next victim.

CHURCH ENDORSEMENT

The Christian leaders and spokespersons who knew Hitler during his reign of evil had extremely strong convictions as to his role as a Christian and semi-Messiah. No other tyrant ever got such adulation.

Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland, "Hitler has received his authority from God. Therefore he is a champion sent by God".

Hans Kerryl Church Leader: "A new authority has arisen as to what Christ and Christianity really are: Adolf Hitler. Hitler is the true Holy Ghost".

Thuringian Church warden: "Christ has come to us through Adolf Hitler".

Hitler Youth Leader, Baldur Von Shirach: "He who serves Germany serves God and he who serves God serves Germany."

Rhenish Group Christians: "Hitler's word is God's law, the decrees and laws which represent it possess divine authority." From the Spoil of Europe.

HITLER'S GOD

On man being a creature of peace and not a being trying to get the better of what is around him, Hitler wrote, “A lopsided education has helped to encourage that illusion. Man must realize that a fundamental law of necessity reigns throughout the whole realm of Nature and that his existence is subject to the law of eternal struggle and strife. He will then feel that there cannot be a separate law for mankind in a world in which planets and suns follow their orbits, where moons and planets trace their destined paths, where the strong are always the masters of the weak and where those subject to such laws must obey them or be destroyed.” Hitler believed God started this law and goes as far as to say it is eternal. Even after death if we live on we will be fighting and trying to outdo each other just for the sake of survival.

It is callous to argue that if Hitler say killed more people than Christianity then Christianity should be considered for obeying and following. Why? It is about the principle not the body count. And both Hitler and Christianity murdered simply because they did not respect human life.

Whatever you think about liberal Christianity, it did not help if it did not hurt.  And that is bad enough.  Liberal Christianity is still heavily drawn from real Christianity and is a hybrid.  The liberal still has enough of the real thing for it to effect harm.

Cardinal Lustinger was born Jewish. He became Catholic and was Archbishop of Paris. Of the opposing Nazi regime he said, “At the heart of the opponent’s ideology was the persecution of the chosen people, the Jewish people, because they were a messianic people. When as a child I spent time in Nazi Germany, I had understood: Nazism’s aim was more than Promethean; it was Satanic.”  Liberals tend to argue that Satan is only a symbol and is not real or has no power for human nature is too good to co-operate with him.  That is worse than a million fundamentalisms if it is not true and Satan is laughing his head off.  They are simply helping Satan destroy Jews for he needs their lies.

We conclude that faith and people of faith were behind the Hitler killing machine as much as Hitler was. This time the blood on Jesus' hands is not his own.