A Nazi concentration camp entry form. A category for Christian clergy (Geistliche) is included alongside other "undesirables, including Jews.
"What about Hitler, wasn't he a Christian?"
This question is asked of us in various ways, sometimes by Westerners who tend to view all religion monolithically and negatively, other times by anti-Christian bigots, and most frequently by Muslims who think they've discovered an advantageous way of trivializing the violence produced by Islamic radicals. The fatigued logic of each is that Christianity must be responsible for the crimes of Hitler, since Germany is a demographically Christian country.
This thin reasoning seems to take root only in the mind of shallow thinkers, or those whose anti-Christian bias overshadows critical objectivity, since it is both logically inconsistent and historically inaccurate.
It's true that Germany is a Christian country, in the same way that every nation on the planet is identified with some form of religion, irrespective of whether a majority of those living within its borders actually strive to live a life that is congruent with the teachings of the faith. This hardly bestows religious sanction on the actions of every citizen or elected official.
Indeed, the leadership and direction of a country is very often at odds with its nominal religion. When the Syrian dictator, Hafez al-Assad, slaughtered thousands of religious fundamentalists in 1982, he did it for the very secular purpose of retaining power. Saddam Hussein has engaged in brutal acts of torture against political dissidents - and their families. Like all Arab leaders at one time or another, both men hid behind the cloak of Islam when it suited their conveniences. (A 2003 interview with Saddam, in which the barbaric Hussein invoked the "will of Allah" several times in disingenuous fashion, was particularly repugnant to this writer).
So, the fact that Hitler occasionally referenced Christianity is not necessarily a sign of personal religious fervor (nor is it an indication of religious sanction). There is no compelling reason to believe it to be anything more than the same cynical ploy used by most leaders to appeal to the deepest passions of their people at critical moments regardless of the inconsistency that their national goals may have with religious teachings.
For honest inquirers then, the fundamental question becomes: What motivated Hitler, and were his actions justified by Christian teachings?
These questions are rarely explored by those who make allegations of a "Christian Holocaust" in hit-and-run fashion. Part of this is because people simply prefer to believe what they prefer to believe. There is no point in discovering whether a belief is right or wrong as long as it serves a personal interest or provides comfort (ironically, the very charge made by critics of religion). But another reason is the seductive appeal that useful clichés (no matter how hollow) often have against intellectual inquiry, which requires greater effort to pursue.
As an example of the perils of this sort of mental laziness, TROP often notes that the same people who write to us alleging that the Nazis were a 'Christian' army in World War II are also prone to accuse the Americans of being a 'Christian' army in Iraq. Perhaps they are dimly aware that the Americans destroyed the Nazi war machine in 1945 (and liberated the concentration camps), but their bulb never seems to burns bright enough to illuminate the contradiction.
"What about Hitler, wasn't he a Christian?"
This question is asked of us in various ways, sometimes by Westerners who tend to view all religion monolithically and negatively, other times by anti-Christian bigots, and most frequently by Muslims who think they've discovered an advantageous way of trivializing the violence produced by Islamic radicals. The fatigued logic of each is that Christianity must be responsible for the crimes of Hitler, since Germany is a demographically Christian country.
This thin reasoning seems to take root only in the mind of shallow thinkers, or those whose anti-Christian bias overshadows critical objectivity, since it is both logically inconsistent and historically inaccurate.
It's true that Germany is a Christian country, in the same way that every nation on the planet is identified with some form of religion, irrespective of whether a majority of those living within its borders actually strive to live a life that is congruent with the teachings of the faith. This hardly bestows religious sanction on the actions of every citizen or elected official.
Indeed, the leadership and direction of a country is very often at odds with its nominal religion. When the Syrian dictator, Hafez al-Assad, slaughtered thousands of religious fundamentalists in 1982, he did it for the very secular purpose of retaining power. Saddam Hussein has engaged in brutal acts of torture against political dissidents - and their families. Like all Arab leaders at one time or another, both men hid behind the cloak of Islam when it suited their conveniences. (A 2003 interview with Saddam, in which the barbaric Hussein invoked the "will of Allah" several times in disingenuous fashion, was particularly repugnant to this writer).
So, the fact that Hitler occasionally referenced Christianity is not necessarily a sign of personal religious fervor (nor is it an indication of religious sanction). There is no compelling reason to believe it to be anything more than the same cynical ploy used by most leaders to appeal to the deepest passions of their people at critical moments regardless of the inconsistency that their national goals may have with religious teachings.
For honest inquirers then, the fundamental question becomes: What motivated Hitler, and were his actions justified by Christian teachings?
These questions are rarely explored by those who make allegations of a "Christian Holocaust" in hit-and-run fashion. Part of this is because people simply prefer to believe what they prefer to believe. There is no point in discovering whether a belief is right or wrong as long as it serves a personal interest or provides comfort (ironically, the very charge made by critics of religion). But another reason is the seductive appeal that useful clichés (no matter how hollow) often have against intellectual inquiry, which requires greater effort to pursue.
As an example of the perils of this sort of mental laziness, TROP often notes that the same people who write to us alleging that the Nazis were a 'Christian' army in World War II are also prone to accuse the Americans of being a 'Christian' army in Iraq. Perhaps they are dimly aware that the Americans destroyed the Nazi war machine in 1945 (and liberated the concentration camps), but their bulb never seems to burns bright enough to illuminate the contradiction.
Muslims who write often forget that Hitler was well received in the Islamic world, where his legacy of killing Jews for the sake of killing Jews is still alive and well. And, although Mein Kamph certainly provides the philosophical underpinnings of the slaughter that followed, it doesn't actually order the killing of Jews in the way that the Qur'an bluntly commands the physical slaying of non-Muslims.
Fortunately, for those who wish to dig beneath the surface, it doesn't take much to discover that, rather than being motivated by Christianity, Hitler was very much a Nazi. His entire philosophy was built around German nationalism and Aryan supremacy, which were the fundamental planks of his National Socialist Party. In his own words: "One is either a Christian or a German. You can't be both."
Indeed, the Christian faith is based on the New Testament, which can easily be used to justify pacifism, but not mass murder. There are no open-ended passages commanding the murder of those who reject the founder or directing a worldly conquest by the sword as there are in the Qur'an. Instead, believers are told to "turn the other cheek," "bless them that curse you," and warned that "those who live by the sword shall die by the sword."
World War II was hardly a scheme to spread Christianity (or Lutheranism, since Hitler invaded other "Christian countries" for the most part). The war was the result of a quest for political and economic power by the Germans and the Japanese - the same motives that drive most wars. Even the Nazi act of killing Jews was purely racial, as Hitler made very clear in Mein Kampf by insisting that Jews were a race and not a religion.
Those who followed Christian teachings in Nazi Germany wound up in concentrations camps. In fact, during WWII, the largest community of Christian clerics in Europe was to be found in these death camps - surpassing even the Vatican in strength of numbers. The Nazis listed 'Geistliche' (pastors, priests and clergymen) alongside 'Juden' and 'Homosexueller' on concentration camp entry forms to define prisoner type.
Although the Protestant and Catholic traditions in Germany limited the Fuehrer's public comments about religion (and also made necessary the elaborate measures taken to keep the existence of gas chambers concealed from the German public) he was quite candid in his personal observations. "It is through the peasantry that we will really be able to destroy Christianity, because there is in them a true religion rooted in nature and blood."
It's easy to isolate a few statements of political convenience made by Hitler, particularly if one has an ulterior agenda, but a man is revealed by what he does and Hitler's deeds prove that he was very much a pagan whose vision of the future did not include a role for token Christianity.
When the Nazis stormed Poland in 1939, the Christian clergy were hunted almost as relentlessly as were the Jews. By 1940 only 3% remained in their parishes. Thousands were slaughtered, along with fellow church workers and nuns. Those who remained were strictly forbidden to evangelize, own property, or preach uncensored from the New Testament. In other words, they lived very much like dhimmis do under Islam.
Fortunately, for those who wish to dig beneath the surface, it doesn't take much to discover that, rather than being motivated by Christianity, Hitler was very much a Nazi. His entire philosophy was built around German nationalism and Aryan supremacy, which were the fundamental planks of his National Socialist Party. In his own words: "One is either a Christian or a German. You can't be both."
Indeed, the Christian faith is based on the New Testament, which can easily be used to justify pacifism, but not mass murder. There are no open-ended passages commanding the murder of those who reject the founder or directing a worldly conquest by the sword as there are in the Qur'an. Instead, believers are told to "turn the other cheek," "bless them that curse you," and warned that "those who live by the sword shall die by the sword."
World War II was hardly a scheme to spread Christianity (or Lutheranism, since Hitler invaded other "Christian countries" for the most part). The war was the result of a quest for political and economic power by the Germans and the Japanese - the same motives that drive most wars. Even the Nazi act of killing Jews was purely racial, as Hitler made very clear in Mein Kampf by insisting that Jews were a race and not a religion.
Those who followed Christian teachings in Nazi Germany wound up in concentrations camps. In fact, during WWII, the largest community of Christian clerics in Europe was to be found in these death camps - surpassing even the Vatican in strength of numbers. The Nazis listed 'Geistliche' (pastors, priests and clergymen) alongside 'Juden' and 'Homosexueller' on concentration camp entry forms to define prisoner type.
Although the Protestant and Catholic traditions in Germany limited the Fuehrer's public comments about religion (and also made necessary the elaborate measures taken to keep the existence of gas chambers concealed from the German public) he was quite candid in his personal observations. "It is through the peasantry that we will really be able to destroy Christianity, because there is in them a true religion rooted in nature and blood."
It's easy to isolate a few statements of political convenience made by Hitler, particularly if one has an ulterior agenda, but a man is revealed by what he does and Hitler's deeds prove that he was very much a pagan whose vision of the future did not include a role for token Christianity.
When the Nazis stormed Poland in 1939, the Christian clergy were hunted almost as relentlessly as were the Jews. By 1940 only 3% remained in their parishes. Thousands were slaughtered, along with fellow church workers and nuns. Those who remained were strictly forbidden to evangelize, own property, or preach uncensored from the New Testament. In other words, they lived very much like dhimmis do under Islam.
To his closest advisors, Hitler reviled Christianity, calling in an "invention of the Jew," a product of "sick brains" and "gutless." He also referred to it as "the worst of the regressions that mankind can every have undergone." (see Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace?)
The contempt that Nazis had for Christians was not softened by the fact that nearly all of those Europeans involved in sheltering Jews were strong believers who acted according to Christian teachings. Jesus was a very gentle man who never hurt anyone and strongly disapproved of violence.
By contrast, Muhammad was a military leader who conducted raids on caravans, supervised mass slaughter - of Jews - and even advised his fighting men on how to rape women captured in battle. For this reason, perhaps, Hitler openly admired Islam, even saying that that it would have been a more appropriate choice for Nazism, given its propensity for violence: "The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity."
Given that Christianity neither motivated Hitler nor justified his actions, and that Christians and Jews were amply represented among his victims (particularly those who lived consistently with the teachings of their faith), it is certainly puzzling that anyone should want to suppose otherwise. After all, what's really gained by believing a lie? When does false comfort become more appealing than existential truth?
Regrettably, these are fat and lazy times (intellectually speaking). Although the information age offers an unprecedented opportunity to balance worldview with fact, many choose instead to apply a paradigm that filters out unpleasant truth, allowing the subject to wallow in opinions and aphorisms that are tailored to preconceptions.
Is a U.S. Post Office shooting a 'Christian crime' because the killer was born a Presbyterian? If a mentally deranged individual shoots up a mosque in Yemen before turning the gun on himself, or if a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party plants a bomb, is this really motivated by Islam? Who would make the irrational assumption that any crime committed by a nominal member of a faith must be attributed to that religion?
Given that Christianity neither motivated Hitler nor justified his actions, and that Christians and Jews were amply represented among his victims (particularly those who lived consistently with the teachings of their faith), it is certainly puzzling that anyone should want to suppose otherwise. After all, what's really gained by believing a lie? When does false comfort become more appealing than existential truth?
Regrettably, these are fat and lazy times (intellectually speaking). Although the information age offers an unprecedented opportunity to balance worldview with fact, many choose instead to apply a paradigm that filters out unpleasant truth, allowing the subject to wallow in opinions and aphorisms that are tailored to preconceptions.
Is a U.S. Post Office shooting a 'Christian crime' because the killer was born a Presbyterian? If a mentally deranged individual shoots up a mosque in Yemen before turning the gun on himself, or if a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party plants a bomb, is this really motivated by Islam? Who would make the irrational assumption that any crime committed by a nominal member of a faith must be attributed to that religion?
Ironically, those who try to hold Christianity responsible for Hitler rely on the same bigoted logic that fuels anti-Semitism - the idea that an entire religion or race is to blame for the actions of a nominal member of the identity group.
In this case the teachings of Christianity directly contradict the the crimes of the Nazis. Jesus loved Jews and surrounded himself with them. Unlike Muhammad, he never advocated violence.
Hitler was not a religious man. The nominal religion of the vast majority of people that he killed was Christian. There is no evidence that he had any interest in imitating Christ or spreading religion, and there is every reason to believe exactly the opposite.
By contrast, Islamic terrorists quote from the Qur'an and praise Allah as they videotape themselves beheading an "infidel." Serving Islam is clearly their prime motivator. This simply wasn't the case when Germany invaded Poland (or even when Iraq invaded Kuwait).
Don't be fooled by the sleight-of-hand, or seduced by the moral superiority held out as a reward. The historical record is clear, and the logic is sound. Christianity neither motivated nor sanctioned Adolph Hitler and his demented pagan dreams.
Additional Note:
Over the years, many Christian leaders have offered apologies to the Jewish people for the Holocaust. This is not necessarily a case of misplaced responsibility on their part. Hitler may not have been a product of Christianity, but the Christians of that time obviously did not do everything that they should have to stop him. Even if they didn't know of the gas chambers, there should have been far stronger opposition to his explicit anti-Semitism.
Second Note:
Since posting this article, several people have reminded us that Hitler was known to have bemoaned the fact that Germany was a Christian rather than Muslim nation, since it made it made his genocidal campaign against Jews that much harder.
Third Note:
Interestingly, the Qur'an of Medina (that part of it which was composed in Muhammad's later years) devotes more text toward hatred of the Jews than does Mein Kampf (10.6% to 6.8% according to CSPI).
TROP is not a religious site, but we enjoy dispelling the myths that often come our way.
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