Posted on 08/12/2011 9:18:54 AM PDT by fishtank
The Christian Nazi myth refuted
A review of: The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity by Bruce Walker
Outskirts Press, Parker, CO, 2009
by Lita Cosner
Many anti-Christians turn to the Nazis for an example of the sort of evil that can be committed in the name of Christ. The myth that the Nazis were Christian is so common that many Christians cannot adequately answer it. If the Nazis had been Christian in name, all this would have proved is that not all who claim to act in Christ’s name are consistent with His teachings. But far from being Christians, the Nazis were opposed to Christianity and sought to stamp it out.
In less than 100 pages, Bruce Walker, in The Swastika Against the Cross, sets out to document the Nazi’s opposition to Christianity using sources that were mainly written before and during the Second World War. As Walker points out, “The authors of these books had no idea how history would unfold; they did not know that the world would be plunged into a global war or that six million Jews would be exterminated in horrific fashion” (Introduction).
(More at link.)
The Journal of Creation just bumped this back to the top of their website.
Ping regarding Michael Savage’s comments about the Swedish killer.
PS, I like Savage, and I started the Savage daily thread, but for now, I don’t him to have the most ‘accurate’ views on issues that involve spiritual issues.
“PS, I like Savage, and I started the Savage daily thread, but for now, I don’t _expect_ him to have the most ‘accurate’ views on issues that involve spiritual issues.”
Lots of connections to Islam. Also for further study; I just finished the new biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There was part of the German church that supported Hitler. Great confusion about what is truly Christian and that makes it more difficult to argue with the leftists. Also just watched The Soviet Story that equates the Soviet Communists with the Nazis in ideology and tactics.
I’m with you, Fishtank. I love Savage to pieces, and his political analysis is spot-on. His theological analysis misses the mark.
So many Christians went to concentration camps because of their opposition to the Reich!. < /sarcasm>
...and then there were real Christians like Bonhoeffer whose conscience wouldn't let him stay safely in America
.. but return to Germany where he was arrested and killed for speaking out against the regime of Hitler...
.. or Corrie ten Boom and family and countless others who risked their lives to defend & aid and hide Jewish families.
The real Christians.
The Nazis were intent on eventually exterminating all Christian Poles. Auschwitz was originally built to house and exterminate Polish political prisoners.
..so many Christians did go to concentration camps because of their opposition to the Reich.....
..so many pastors were killed for preaching the Gospel in Germany.....
...if you haven't read The Hiding Place...you should.
..so many Christians did go to concentration camps because of their opposition to the Reich.....
..so many pastors were killed for preaching the Gospel in Germany.....
...if you haven't read The Hiding Place...you should.
I've read Mein Kampf (God was it a painful read, too), Trevor-Roper's Hitler's Table Talk and Toland and Fest's biographies of Hitler. From these and many other sources it is clear that Hitler despised Christianity almost as much as Judaism and tolerated it ONLY because it was the traditional religion of the German masses. For that reason he sometimes used religious language in his speeches, especially when he appeared before very conservative audiences or when he was speaking in Catholic Bavaria outside of Munich. Hitler was himself agnostic to the point of simply not caring, having utterly rejected Catholicism in his youth. Per Trevor-Roper, his eventual goal was to destroy the church and replace it with an entirely synthetic cult focused on Blood, Soil, the State and the Leader. Such a controversial change had to wait for the present generation of Germans to die out, but in this goal Hitler was pragmatic and patient. But you can see the shape of what was to come in the madcap quasi-pagan rituals of the SS leaders.
But although some German Christians took a stand against Naziism (Bishop Graf von Galen, and the Jehovah's Witnesses are notable examples), the vast majority appear to have found a way to reconcile Jesus with the Fuhrer.
“...the vast majority appear to have found a way to reconcile Jesus with the Fuhrer.”
Hmmm.
Sounds MUCH too familiar ..........
Hitler was nothing but a pagen. His whole regime was deep into the occult. People always say the nazis were christian. It is a lie.
Hitler was not initially recognized as a monster, but merely the latest in a long line of political strongmen going back at least to Bismarck. He even seemed to many to be a breath of fresh air as he swept away the chaos, alienation and social disintegration of the Weimar era. If Christians have a failing it is that we are quick to mistake domestic tranquillity and order for goodness. Alas, Hitler was not in the remotest sense good, but by the time most German Christians knew it, it was death to speak out. Those that dared dissapeared and the rest silently went about their business in fear and resignation. From my comfy chair seventy years hence I am unwilling to judge them. I like to imagine I would have had the courage to stand against the tyrant, but who knows?
The left has no idea what “real Christian” means.
More than 2,300 Catholic clergy including six bishops were murdered in the prisons and camps of German-occupied Poland.
Germany was a Catholic country, so obviously there were “Christian” Nazis. But it had NOTHING to do with Christianity. It’s the same as blaming Timothy McVeigh being a “Christian” as a reason behind his bombing. McVeigh may have been raised in a traditional Christian home, but he was a committed atheist. Unlike the Nazis who DID have that pagan statist “religion” based on the “worship” of a charismatic leader. Like Castro, Chavez, Mao, and Stalin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.