JetLag wrote:
I don't believe that Hitler was a Christian, but I also don't believe that he was an atheist. I think Hitler was a very devious politician, and devious polities are well known for sprinkling their public comments with a lot of right-sounding words to win people over to their worldview. Here are a couple examples of Hitler's "right-sounding words":
"I think I can assure you that there is no one in Germany who will not with all his heart approve any honest attempt at an improvement of relations between Germany and France. My own feelings force me to take the same attitude... The German people has the solemn intention of living in peace and friendship with all civilized nations and powers..." Hitler to the French fascist Hervé and published in the Nazi Völkischer Beobachter on October 26, 1930.
"Amongst the accusations which are directed against Germany in the so called democracies is the charge that the National Socialist State is hostile to religion. In answer to that charge I should like to make before the German people the following solemn declaration: 1. No one in Germany has in the past been persecuted because of his religious views, nor will anyone in the future be so persecuted..." Hitler said in a speech in the Reichstag on 30 Jan. 1939.
Many of Hitler's private conversations were taken down by his secretary and published in a book called Hitler's Table Talk. Here are just a few of the statements that Hitler made during some of his conversations about Christianity:
"So it's not opportune to hurl ourselves now into a struggle with the Churches. The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death." - Hitler October 14, 1941.
"The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity." - Hitler- October 19, 1941.
"Christianity is an invention of sick brains," - Hitler, 13 December 1941.
I think a distinction has to be made between the institution of Christianity, the churches and their theological viewpoints, and the teachings of Jesus himself. Hitler certainly did criticise the Churches, but he never once said a bad word about Jesus, speaking always of him in admiring terms. I think this quote illustrates the distinction in his mind:
Table Talk p76.
Quote:
Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism the destroyer. Nevertheless, the Galilean, who later was called Christ, intended something quite different. He must be regarded as a popular leader who took up His position against Jewry. Galilee was a colony where the Romans had probably installed Gallic legionaries, and it's certain that Jesus was not a Jew. The Jews, by the way, regarded Him as the son of a whore-- of a whore and a Roman soldier.
The decisive falsification of Jesus's doctrine was the work of St. Paul. He gave himself to this work with subtlety and for purposes of personal exploitation. For the Galiean's object was to liberate His country from Jewish oppression. He set Himself against Jewish capitalism, and that's why the Jews liquidated Him.
To Hitler, Christianity represented a view in
opposition to what Jesus taught, and that Jesus did not intend for Christianity to end up the way it did. It would be quite natural, then, that considering himself to be someone who truly understood Christ's message that he would privately direct considerable venom towards those he considered to have deliberately corrupted it. To him, 'Christianity' simply meant "a corrupted, Bolshevised version of Jesus's teachings". His views were pretty similar to other religious reformers, such as Luther (who he admired), who also was well known for accusing the Catholic Church of corrupting Jesus's message. He was a Christian in the strictest sense (i.e. someone who believes the supernatural claims about Jesus and considers his teachings to be of merit), even though he might have considered the label 'Christian' to be tainted by the association of the 'falsifiers' of Jesus's doctrine, and to only refer to them.
02 Oct 2009, 9:42 am
