This article is in no way anti-Christianity/religious, it merely tends to show the problem of what can happen when any religion is used for
nefarious and murderous purposes.
Adolf
Hitler & Christian Nationalism:
A
popular image of the Nazis is that they were fundamentally anti-Christian while
devout Christians were anti-Nazi. The truth is that German Christians supported
the Nazis because they believed that Adolf Hitler was a gift to the German
people from God. German Christianity was a divinely sanctioned religious
movement which combined Christian doctrine and German character in a unique and
desirable manner: True Christianity was German and True German-ness was
Christian.
What
was Positive Christianity?:
The
NSDAP Party Program stated in part: “We demand freedom for all religious
confessions in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or
conflict with the customs and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The party
as such represents the standpoint of a positive Christianity, without owing
itself to a particular confession....” Positive Christianity adhered to basic
orthodox doctrines and asserted that Christianity must make a practical,
positive difference in people’s lives.
Christian
anti-Semitism:
Anti-Semitism
was an important aspect of the Nazi state, but the Nazis didn’t invent it;
instead, they drew upon centuries of Christian anti-Semitism and extensive
anti-Semitic theology in Germany’s Christian community. The Nazis believed that
Jewishness was more than just a religion, a position which was supported by
religious leaders who supplied the Nazis with baptismal and marriage records to
help identify converted Jews.
Christian
anti-Communism:
Anti-communism
was probably more fundamental to the Nazi ideology than anti-Semitism. Many
Germans were frightened of communism and saw Hitler as their Christian
salvation. The communist threat appeared very real because communists had taken
over Russia at the end of World War I and briefly took control in Bavaria. The
Nazi party was also intensely anti-socialist, in the sense that traditional
socialism was derided as atheistic and Jewish.
Christian
anti-Modernism:
Key
to understanding Nazism’s popularity with Christians is the Nazi condemnation
of everything modern. Germany after World War I was regarded as a godless,
secular, materialistic republic which betrayed all of Germany’s traditional
values and religious beliefs. Christians saw the social fabric of their
community unravelling and the Nazis promised to restore order by attacking
godlessness, homosexuality, abortion, liberalism, prostitution, pornography,
obscenity, and so forth.
Protestant
Christianity & Nazism:
It
is widely recognized that Protestants were more attracted to Nazism than
Catholics. This wasn’t true everywhere in Germany, but we can’t ignore the fact
that Protestants, not Catholics, produced a movement (German Christians)
dedicated to blending Nazi ideology and Christian doctrine. Protestant women
were especially attracted to Nazism because of its cultural conservatism and
promotion of traditional female social roles. Nazism was non-denominational,
but Protestants favored it.
Catholic
Christianity & Nazism:
Early
on, many Catholic leaders criticized Nazism; after 1933, criticism turned to
support and praise. Commonalities between Nazism and Catholics were
anti-communism, anti-atheism, and anti-secularism. Catholic churches helped
identify Jews for extermination. After the war, Catholic leaders helped former
Nazis back into power (Nazis were better than socialists). The legacy of
Catholicism from Nazi Germany is cooperation, not resistance; not a defense of
principle but a defense of social power.
Christian
Resistance to Nazism:
Too
often, Christian “resistance” was to efforts to exert greater control over
church activities. Christian churches were willing to tolerate widespread
violence against Jews, military rearmament, invasions of foreign nations,
banning labor unions, imprisonment of political dissenters, detention of people
who had committed no crimes, sterilization of the handicapped, etc. This
includes the Confessing Church. Why? Hitler was seen as someone restoring
traditional values and morality to Germany.
Christianity
in Private, Christianity in Public:
Did
Hitler and the Nazis only appeal to Christianity as a political ploy and
emphasize Christianity in public without intending to promote Christianity in
reality? There is no evidence that Hitler and top Nazis only endorsed
Christianity for public consumption. Private remarks on religion and
Christianity were the same as public remarks, indicating that they believed
what they said and intended to act as they claimed. The few Nazis who endorsed
paganism did so publicly, without official support.
Adolf
Hitler, Nazism, and the Problem of Christian Nationalism:
Traditional
evaluation of Christian complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes
focuses on the degree to which Christians allowed themselves to be used for
Nazi purposes, but this presupposes a distinction between Nazis and Christians
which didn’t exist. Christians actively supported the Nazi agenda. Most Nazis
were devout Christians and believed that Nazi philosophy was animated by
Christian doctrine.
Christians
today find it implausible that their religion could have anything in common
with Nazism, but they need to recognize that Christianity — including their own
— is always conditioned by the culture around it. For Germans at the beginning
of the 20th century, Christianity was often profoundly anti-Semitic and
nationalistic. This was the same ground which the Nazis found so fertile for
their own ideology — it would have been amazing had the two systems not found
much in common and been unable to work together.
Nazi
Christians didn’t abandon basic Christian doctrines, like the divinity of
Jesus. Their oddest religious belief was a denial of the Jewishness of Jesus,
but even today there are Christians in Germany who object when Jesus’
Jewishness is focused upon. Nazi Christians didn’t follow an idiosyncratic
version of Christianity nor was it “infected” with hate and nationalism.
Everything about Nazi Christianity already existed in German Christianity
before the Nazis came on the scene.
The
actions of Hitler and the Nazis were as “Christian” as those of people during
the Crusades or the Inquisition. Some leading Nazis preferred a neo-pagan
theistic religion over Christianity, but this was never officially endorsed by
the Nazi Party or by Adolf Hitler. Christians may not like seeing Nazism as
having anything to do with Christianity, but Germany saw itself as a
fundamentally Christian nation and millions of Christians in Germany
enthusiastically endorsed Hitler and the Nazi Party, in part because they saw
both as embodiments of German and Christian ideals.
