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I would add the observation that the Nazism could not be, by any student of history or religion, considered a Christian sect.

It was built on a foundation of paganism utterly hostile to Christianity. Hitler and other leaders expressed only antipathy for the Church. It would be a tool to be used and destroyed. The National Socialist machine coopted many clergymen and churches in Germany, but only by corrupting doctrinal truth. The Confessing Church movement gave testimony in the Barmen Declaration of Faith to the antichristian tendencies of Nazism and sealed that testimony in many cases with their blood.

Nazism and its expressions, such as the SS, were thoroughly steeped in paganism old and new, not Christianity.

"I would add the observation that the Nazism could not be, by any student of history or religion, considered a Christian sect."

I beg to differ, as National Socialism was rooted in Christianity. Lutheranism, predominately, and as you said, corrupted. Terribly corrupted, in fact, and with many of the worst aspects of several forms of paganism grafted in, while the best features were supressed. If you were to ask the Catholics, so is Anglicanism, with perhaps some truth to it. If you ask the Anglicans, so was puritanism, for that matter, and also with some truth to it. In every age and time there have been some who stood for what they thought of as purity, and goodness, who were not good examples of what they claimed to support. The Nazis are very firmly among those. There are some Muslims who bear strong resemblence to the Nazis. Your church has had it's share, too. We've had them in my church, as well. My point was, and is, that all groups have some who actually follow their own teachings, and some who twist and rend them, for some advantage in this world. No human group is perfect.

Some of the aspects of Islam that non-Muslims find most outrageous are those that are adopted from Christianity and Judaism, and then changed. One could properly say warped, if you are a true believer in either of those religions, rather than Islam. Christ was a prophet, not the Son of God, as I know him to be, and from your screen-name, expect you to believe as well. Abraham was to sacrifice Ishmael, rather than Isaac, for the Jews. Lots of others, as well. What the Nazis did was warp some Christian teachings, and shred some others.

Much of modern Christianity is steeped in paganism for that matter. Christmas trees, Yule logs, just to name a couple. There is nothing wrong with adapting local custom to a new purpose, as long as you aren't totally violating the tenets of your faith. What the Nazis did was a total violation of the Christian faith, but it was BASED in that faith, too. Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, ending the need for blood sacrifices. The Holocaust could be considered a reintroduction of blood sacrifice for purposes I am certain Christ would not have approved of. I am a student of history, for that matter, and consider myself a serious student. Nazism could be considered a Christian sect. It was so terrible an example of what can go wrong in a sect as to cause some to deny it, but the facts still stand.

I'm a Mormon, now. My stepdad, a Baptist minister, felt about Mormons much the way you seem to feel about Nazis. They couldn't possibly be Christians. And as far as the Nazis are concered, I'd have to agree that they aren't, but that doesn't mean that they can't be considered such by some.

Are you familiar with John Chivington? He was a Methodist minister who became a Colonel in the US Army.He was a hero in the Civil War. He's also the one who led the massacre at Sand Creek. Not a good example of a Christian. Neither was Hitler. It is possible to say Hitler wasn't a Christian. There are rumors that he was Jewish, or part Jewish. Kind of hard to tell, at this late date. Chivington WAS a Christian. Something happened to him to cause him to forget what he once believed. Both are good examples of what can happen when someone who should know better forgets what they are supposed to be doing.