The short answer is no. Though many will point to the fact that he was technically a part of the Catholic church, the Pope told the Queen[1] that Hitler, in fact, was opposed to God. And you can’t get much more authoritative on Catholic matters than the Pope, right?
Wednesday, I posted a blog entry about Christians and those opposed to Christianity (specifically Atheists, the new evangelical kind) and the claim that is usually made that “religion” (read: “Christianity) causes wars, suffering, death, etc… In that post I stated that Hitler was not a Christian. This, almost universally when I’ve spoken with Atheists, is met with something like “Hitler was a professed Christian…” or perhaps “he was a Catholic until the day he died.”
This brings up something I alluded to in my former post… what makes someone “Christian?” Well, I suppose that’s up to whoever is asking the question. For me, what makes someone a Christian is one who not only acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord, but also makes an attempt to live accordingly. (i.e. “by their fruit you shall know them” Matt 7)
So the question is, does Hitler meet this criteria? I say no.
- He never claimed to Be Christian. Perhaps he had claimed to be Catholic, but that doesn’t mean he was a Christian. Someone need not be Catholic to be Christian, and visa versa.
- The Pope says that Hitler’s actions were that of “a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society”[1]
- There’s no question that his life was in obvious opposition to Jesus’ teaching in Matt. 5 & Luke 6 (see Wed. blog post).
- Not only did he oppose Jesus, he is recorded as being vehemently opposed to the Christian faith as a sickness in the world:
These are quotes from Adolf Hitler. A translation of the “Bormann-Vermerke” (Borrman endorsements)[2]. A collection of notes by Martin Bormann, Hitler’s personal secretary during the war.
They are published in the original German in Adolf Hitler, Monologe I’m Führerhauptquartier 1941-1944. published by Orbis Verlag, Hamburg
Night of 11th-12th July, 1941:
National Socialism and religion cannot exist together…. The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity…. Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things. (p 6 & 7)
10th October, 1941, midday:
Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure. (p 43)
14th October, 1941, midday:
The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death…. When understanding of the universe has become widespread… Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity…. Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity…. And that’s why someday its structure will collapse… the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little…. Christianity the liar…. We’ll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with theinterests of the State. (p 49-52)
19th October, 1941, night:
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.21st October, 1941, midday:
Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer…. The decisive falsification of Jesus’ doctrine was the
work of St. Paul. He gave himself to this work… for the purposes of personal exploitation…. Didn’t the world see, carried on right into
the Middle Ages, the same old system of martyrs, tortures, f******? Of old, it was in the name of Christianity. Today, it’s in the name of
Bolshevism. Yesterday the instigator was Saul: the instigator today, Mardochai. Saul was changed into St. Paul, and Mardochai into Karl
Marx. By exterminating this pest, we shall do humanity a service of which our soldiers can have no idea. (p 63-65)13th December, 1941, midnight:
Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery… When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the
drug of Christianity. Let’s be the only people who are immunized against the disease. (p 118 & 119)14th December, 1941, midday:
Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I don’t believe the
thing’s possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself… Pure Christianity– the Christianity of the catacombs– is concerned
with translating Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism,
under a tinsel of metaphysics. (p 119 & 120)9th April, 1942, dinner:
There is something very unhealthy about Christianity (p 339)
27th February, 1942, midday:
It would always be disagreeable for me to go down to posterity as a man who made concessions in this field. I realize that man, in his imperfection, can commit innumerable errors– but to devote myself deliberately to errors, that is something I cannot do. I shall never come personally to terms with the Christian lie. Our epoch in the next 200 years will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity…. My regret will have been that I couldn’t… behold [it].”
(p 278)
- Even if you want to continue to call Hitler a Christian… it was certainly not his Christianity which caused his actions.
- And if you still want to call Hitler a Christian, you’ve also got to categorize him as one who was opposed to Christianity. And that’s the point of my prior post, Christianity is different and most of the war/violence in the modern world comes from Atheists and those opposed to Christianity… take your pick, I think he was both, but at the least, he was opposed to Christianity.
How about you, what do you think? Was Hitler a Christian?
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[1] Papal Visit 2010: Pope’s Holyroodhouse speech
[2] “Hitler’s Secret Conversations 1941-1944” Farrer, Straus and Young, Inc. 1953 (in Britain “Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944” also Oxford
University Press paperback in the US).
