We know that atheistic inspired Communism (an EVIL Political ideology) is openly Hostile towards Christianity.....But what of the other more paganistic inspired Nazism (an EVIL Political ideology)?
"Germany, like the rest of Europe, was primarily Christian when the
HITLER
Hitler’s mother was a devout Catholic.
His father considered religion a scam.
Though Hitler was impressed and inspired by the hierarchical.jpg)
structure of the Catholic Church, he grew to view its spiritual teachings, Redlich wrote, with an “impotent rage” because of the church’s “formidable power, which he was unable to replace by what he called science and reason.”
Though Hitler was impressed and inspired by the hierarchical
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William Jennings Bryan, the great American statesman and Christian spokesman, had learned -"that it was Darwinism that was at the basis of that damnable doctrine that might makes right that had spread over Gernany."
In a memorandum submitted to Hitler on June 4, 1936, the German Evangelical Church questioned whether the Chancellor was trying "to dechristianize the German people." (Hitler had little place in his heart for a religion that worshiped a Jew.)
Of even more significance is the statement: " When, within the compass of the National Socialist view of life, an anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian that binds him to hatred of the Jew, the Christian injunction to love one's neighbor still stands, for him, opposed to it."
Bullock, in describing Hitler as a “rationalist and materialist,” quotes him in a wartime conversation with aides as saying:
In a memorandum submitted to Hitler on June 4, 1936, the German Evangelical Church questioned whether the Chancellor was trying "to dechristianize the German people." (Hitler had little place in his heart for a religion that worshiped a Jew.)
Of even more significance is the statement: " When, within the compass of the National Socialist view of life, an anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian that binds him to hatred of the Jew, the Christian injunction to love one's neighbor still stands, for him, opposed to it."
Bullock, in describing Hitler as a “rationalist and materialist,” quotes him in a wartime conversation with aides as saying:
"The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science ... Gradually the myths crumble. All that is left to prove that nature there is no frontier between the organic and inorganic. When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light, but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity."
By 1942, Hitler vowed, according to Bullock, to “root out and destroy the influence of the Christian Churches,” describing them as “the evil that is gnawing our vitals.....I can’t at present give them the answer they’ve been asking for,” Hitler said. “The time will come when I’ll settle my account with them. They’ll hear from me all right.” But first, he had to finish off the Jews.
HIMMLER
Himmler, like Hitler, was raised Catholic and remained so at least until 1924, when he began to doubt Christianity.
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Around this time, Himmler also became "increasingly preoccupied with works that,in his views, dealt with occult phenomena in a serious 'scholarly' way."
Himmler's personal beliefs were transformed by Teutonic and Germanic myths, which supported the superiority of the German
race, and many occult ideas.
Himmler's personal beliefs were transformed by Teutonic and Germanic myths, which supported the superiority of the German
race, and many occult ideas.
He was obsessed with the idea that Germans were superior to all other races by blood right. Himmler became "violently anti-Catholic and anti-Christian,substituting for the faith... those particular superstitions...that suited his Germanic prejudice."
He desired Germany to be restored to its theological roots, free of Christianity. Christianity directly opposed Himmler's "demographic revolution" and, as a result, needed to be eliminated by any means necessary. These beliefs became the policy of Himmler's SS and would result in the SS distancing itself from and openly attacking the Church. Overall, Himmler was prepared to purify Germany of Christianity by using the security institutions of the state.
CATHOLICS--Friend or Foe?
As Catholics had a single, central leader in the Pope, infiltrating and taking control of the religion was extremely difficult.
CATHOLICS--Friend or Foe?
As Catholics had a single, central leader in the Pope, infiltrating and taking control of the religion was extremely difficult.
Instead, Hitler opted for a policy of conciliation towards Catholics..jpg)
In July 1933, the Nazis signed a Concordat with the Vatican.
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*The Concordat agreed that the Nazis would not interfere in the Catholic Church.
*In return, the Vatican would diplomatically recognize the Nazi regime.
The Nazis soon broke their Concordat with the Vatican.
The Nazis soon broke their Concordat with the Vatican.
The Ministry for Church Affairs was established in 1935 with a range of anti-religious policies aimed at undermining the influence of religion on the German people.'
"The Catholic Church need not imagine that we are going to create martyrs,'' Robert Wagner, the Nazi Gauleiter of Baden, said in a speech, according to the O.S.S. study. ''We shall not give the church that satisfaction. She shall have not martyrs, but criminals.''
Catholic schools were gradually shut. As the regime intensified its oppressive policies in the late 1930s, members of the Catholic Clergy were killed and imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime. Johannes Neuhäusler is just one example of a Catholic priest who was imprisoned at the hands of the Nazis.
PROTESTANTS-- Replace with a "New" Church
While conservatives, the Christian churches ''could not be reconciled
"The Catholic Church need not imagine that we are going to create martyrs,'' Robert Wagner, the Nazi Gauleiter of Baden, said in a speech, according to the O.S.S. study. ''We shall not give the church that satisfaction. She shall have not martyrs, but criminals.''
Catholic schools were gradually shut. As the regime intensified its oppressive policies in the late 1930s, members of the Catholic Clergy were killed and imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime. Johannes Neuhäusler is just one example of a Catholic priest who was imprisoned at the hands of the Nazis.
PROTESTANTS-- Replace with a "New" Church
While conservatives, the Christian churches ''could not be reconciled
--with the principle of racism,
--with a foreign policy of unlimited aggressive warfare,
--or with a domestic policy involving the complete subservience of Church to State.''
Given that these were the fundamental underpinnings of the Nazi
regime, 'conflict was inevitable.....the Nazis simply lied and made deals with the churches while planning a ''slow and cautious policy of gradual encroachment'' to eliminate Christianity.
Nazis’, with the support of the German Christians, established the Reich Church under the leadership of Ludwig Müller in 1933. The Reich Church aimed to be a new national church which advocated a form of Nazi Christianity.
Nazis’, with the support of the German Christians, established the Reich Church under the leadership of Ludwig Müller in 1933. The Reich Church aimed to be a new national church which advocated a form of Nazi Christianity.
*By January of 1934, Müller was vowing to purge Protestant churches of all “Jewish influence,” including removing the Old Testament from their Bible because it is based on the Hebrew bible.
Protestants in Germany differed not only in their religious practices but also in their political views.
Protestants in Germany differed not only in their religious practices but also in their political views.
A few openly opposed the Nazis, while others saw themselves as neutral. Still others actively supported Nazism, calling themselves “storm troopers of Jesus Christ.”
However, not everyone was willing to accept this new church. In 1934, the Confessing Church was founded by Martin Niemöller. The Confessing Church openly opposed the Nazi regime, and stressed the church’s autonomy from political interference. Also, the members of the Confessing Church opposed the German Christian movement’s changes to the Bible. Many of the pastors from the Confessing Church, such as Niemöller, were imprisoned in concentration camps for their views.
One member of the Confessing Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, did resist the actions of the Nazis more broadly. In April 1933, he professed sympathy for Jewish victims of Nazism and argued that National Socialism and Christianity were incompatible. He later became an important symbol of resistance to Nazi Germany and was executed for his role in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1945.
The German Christian movement (Reich Church) made significant changes to German Protestantism to bring it in line with Nazi racial ideology.
However, not everyone was willing to accept this new church. In 1934, the Confessing Church was founded by Martin Niemöller. The Confessing Church openly opposed the Nazi regime, and stressed the church’s autonomy from political interference. Also, the members of the Confessing Church opposed the German Christian movement’s changes to the Bible. Many of the pastors from the Confessing Church, such as Niemöller, were imprisoned in concentration camps for their views.
One member of the Confessing Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, did resist the actions of the Nazis more broadly. In April 1933, he professed sympathy for Jewish victims of Nazism and argued that National Socialism and Christianity were incompatible. He later became an important symbol of resistance to Nazi Germany and was executed for his role in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1945.
The German Christian movement (Reich Church) made significant changes to German Protestantism to bring it in line with Nazi racial ideology.
*Instead of classifying people as Christians or Jews based on their faith, as the Protestants had always done, German Christians began to classify people by racial heritage, as the Nazis did.
Nazi street mobs, often in the company of the Gestapo, routinely stormed offices in Protestant and Catholic churches where clergymen were seen as lax in their support of the regime.
Influence of "Liberal" theology
*By 1930, Liberal Protestant church leaders in Germany had come to believe that the Jewish people, like their Bible, had served their
purpose and therefore the Jewish roots of Christianity were to be denied as well: "We must emphasize with all decisiveness that
Christianity did not grow out of Judaism but developed in opposition to Judaism. When we speak of Christianity and Judaism today, the two in their most fundamental essence stand in glaring contrast to one another. There is no bond between them, rather the sharpest opposition." (Reich Bishop Ludwig Muller, 1934).
Alfred Rosenberg, publisher of Der Stürmer, (the weekly Nazi newspaper most notorious for its antisemitic cartoons) was the link between nineteenth-century Liberal Protestantism and Hitler’s twentieth-century Aryan agenda.
Nazi street mobs, often in the company of the Gestapo, routinely stormed offices in Protestant and Catholic churches where clergymen were seen as lax in their support of the regime.
Influence of "Liberal" theology
*By 1930, Liberal Protestant church leaders in Germany had come to believe that the Jewish people, like their Bible, had served their
Christianity did not grow out of Judaism but developed in opposition to Judaism. When we speak of Christianity and Judaism today, the two in their most fundamental essence stand in glaring contrast to one another. There is no bond between them, rather the sharpest opposition." (Reich Bishop Ludwig Muller, 1934).
Alfred Rosenberg, publisher of Der Stürmer, (the weekly Nazi newspaper most notorious for its antisemitic cartoons) was the link between nineteenth-century Liberal Protestantism and Hitler’s twentieth-century Aryan agenda.
Doris Bergen, professor of history at Notre Dame explains:
"Alfred Rosenberg dubbed the Old Testament a collection of “stories of pimps and cattle traders”; but the high school religion teacher and German Christian agitator Reinhold Krause earned sustained applause in November 1933, when he repeated that phrase at a rally of twenty thousand people."
It was in this setting that Liberal Protestant pastors founded the German Christian Movement in 1932. They wanted to create a “Reich” or “state” church that all German Protestant Christians would rally around; their symbol was a Christian cross with a swastika in the middle.
They did not hold to a high view of Scripture; conversely they were devoted to eradicating Old Testament readings from their worship services and they even altered the New Testament so as to excise references to the Jewish people or worse, demonize them.
Response of "Conservative" Theologians
In 1934, theologically conservative pastors and theologians founded
the Confessing Church, a movement broad enough to include
Lutheran, Reformed and United churches of Germany. Committed to resisting the downward tide of the German Christian Movement, their theological underpinnings can be found in the Barmen Declaration written largely by Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth. This statement not only affirmed the key doctrines of the Christian faith, but also served as a protest against the Liberal Protestant Church that embraced Hitler’s ideology. The declaration repudiated any other doctrine as false that made the church “an organ of the State” or that gave religious status to “ruling powers.”
These theologians were devoted to belief in the inspiration and authority of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. They were opposed to Hitler and his perversion of the Scriptures.
Re-Written "Bible"?
During the Third Reich, German theologians redefined Jesus as an
Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life.
With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans.
STAINED GLASS WINDOWS of Hitler in Churches
German historian Michael Kuderna ....His most recent book is about Hitler images in churches..jpg)
In the course of his research, he found five images of Hitler that predate 1945 and nine that date to after 1945.
Response of "Conservative" Theologians
In 1934, theologically conservative pastors and theologians founded
Lutheran, Reformed and United churches of Germany. Committed to resisting the downward tide of the German Christian Movement, their theological underpinnings can be found in the Barmen Declaration written largely by Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth. This statement not only affirmed the key doctrines of the Christian faith, but also served as a protest against the Liberal Protestant Church that embraced Hitler’s ideology. The declaration repudiated any other doctrine as false that made the church “an organ of the State” or that gave religious status to “ruling powers.”
These theologians were devoted to belief in the inspiration and authority of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. They were opposed to Hitler and his perversion of the Scriptures.
Re-Written "Bible"?
During the Third Reich, German theologians redefined Jesus as an
With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans.
STAINED GLASS WINDOWS of Hitler in Churches
German historian Michael Kuderna ....His most recent book is about Hitler images in churches.
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With the early images, it can be difficult to prove they really show the dictator, but the later images clearly show Hitler, for instance as an executioner, or a villain burning in hell.
"After the war, depicting Hitler in churches was no longer as problematic as before 1945, when people feared retribution," the historian explains.
TheHolocaustExplained /FacingHistory/NYT/DW/WP/ChristopherTatara/StanMeyer/ICR
"After the war, depicting Hitler in churches was no longer as problematic as before 1945, when people feared retribution," the historian explains.
TheHolocaustExplained /FacingHistory/NYT/DW/WP/ChristopherTatara/StanMeyer/ICR
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