I invite your attention to post #171 and the following:
September 1933: German Protestant deacons meet in Hamburg to celebrate the centennial of their association. A Protestant pastor addresses his comrades in a speech entitled Deaconry as attack: "All this is Protestant deaconry: Service and fight. We greet you all as the SA of Jesus Christ and the SS of the Church, you brave ... [fighters] of need, misery, despair and dereliction." [KS57] After the war the swastika was removed from most of the photographs of the meeting. Only a few survived unaltered, such as this one.
November 15, 1933: More than a thousand Lutheran nuns, meet under the swastika. The Bishop of Berlin in his speech: "Permit me to compare our sisters with the SA!" (a paramilitary Nazi troop). (Though it may be coincidental, even the layout of this meeting, at least on this photograph, seems to resemble a huge swastika.
And what are we to think of seeing priests giving the Heil Hitler sign????? You can let your imigination run wild or maybe Baptist minister Francis Bellamy can shed some light on your question.
At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute -- right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” At the words, “to my Flag,” the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side. – quoted from The Youth’s Companion, 65 (1892): 446–447.
That salute wasn't invented or used exclusively by the Nazis.