From Adolph Hitler\u2019s point of view, Christendom had it all wrong.<\/p>\n\n
Jesus wasn\u2019t a humble savior who suffered and died on a cross to redeem all of humanity. For Hitler, Jesus was an angry, whip-cracking messiah who was tough enough to lead Germany to victory. Hitler\u2019s Jesus looked a lot like Hitler. The Christian messiah was too Jewish.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cMy feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter,\u201d said Hitler, in one 1922 speech. \u201cIt points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by only a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned me to fight against them. In boundless love, as a Christian and as a man, I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord rose at last in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In \u201cMein Kampf,\u201d Hitler went one terrifying step further as he attacked the \u201cJewish doctrine of Marxism.\u201d He wrote: \u201cEternal Nature inexorably revenges the transgressions against her laws. Therefore, I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator: By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
What do these words mean? While historians have struggled to answer that question, one thing is certain: Anyone who uses the words \u201cHitler\u201d and \u201cChristian\u201d in the same sentence will cause controversy. The most recent flare-up centers on remarks by President Bill Clinton at the 1999 National Prayer Breakfast.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe problem is that Hitler was all over the map when he talked about religion, including Christianity,\u201d said journalist Ron Rosenbaum, author of \u201cExplaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil.\u201d \u201cWhen it was useful for him to appear Christian, in order to manipulate the masses, then he did so. But then in private comments he was much more candid about his hatred of Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The result is a maze of questions. What did Hitler mean when he said \u201cthe Lord\u201d or \u201cDivine Providence\u201d gave him spiritual visions and that an \u201cinner voice\u201d called him to redeem the German people and crush the Jews? And does the fact that Hitler called himself a Christian mean that it\u2019s proper for anyone else to call him a Christian?<\/p>\n\n
What people say about Hitler usually reveals more about their biases and beliefs than about those of Hitler, said Rosenbaum.<\/p>\n\n
Take Clinton\u2019s speech, for example. The president reminded his interfaith audience that many of the world\u2019s woes are \u201crooted in what we believe are the instructions we get from God to do things to people who are different from us.\u201d But just because people believe they\u2019re following God doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re right, he said.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI do believe that even though Adolph Hitler preached a perverted form of Christianity, God did not want him to prevail,\u201d said Clinton.<\/p>\n\n
Conservative Christians immediately cried \u201cfoul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In reality, Hitler\u2019s hate was rooted in a pseudo-scientific racism, not religious faith, said Rosenbaum. Thus, it would have been more accurate to say that Hitler preached a \u201cperverted form of Darwinism, rather than a perverted Christianity.\u201d The most logical explanation for Clinton\u2019s comments would be that he was striking back at \u201cconservative Christians and his other critics that he considers judgmental and mean-spirited,\u201d said Rosenbaum, who stressed that he also is a frequent critic of the Religious Right.<\/p>\n\n
But this is business as usual, when it comes to discussions of Hitler and religion. Christians anxious to attack the occult can cite evidence that Hitler was a neo-pagan terrorist who hated God and saw himself as a god-like messiah. Atheists and agnostics blame Hitler\u2019s actions on his Catholic boyhood. Anti-Semites welcome any evidence that Hitler may have been part Jewish. The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a Rorschach test. People see what they want to see and then they use Hitler as a way to settle arguments,\u201d said Rosenbaum. \u201cEveryone wants to be able to say that their enemies believe what Hitler believed. What we can learn from all of this is that you can\u2019t trust anything Hitler said. If you are trying to understand Hitler, the last thing you can believe are his words.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Adolph Hitler\u2019s point of view, Christendom had it all wrong. Jesus wasn\u2019t a humble savior who suffered and died on a cross to redeem all of humanity. For Hitler, Jesus was an angry, whip-cracking messiah who was tough enough to lead Germany to victory. Hitler\u2019s Jesus looked a lot like Hitler. The Christian messiah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n