Saturday, November 14, 2015

Did Nazis (and Hitler) Practice Christianity?


I just read this article:

http://atheism.about.com/od/adolfhitlernazigermany/p/NaziChristian.htm

It made me really sad. The author's views are incredibly clear.  The obvious goal of that article is to represent Christianity as evil and violent.  If the author has to use extreme interpretations or fantasy as a primary information source, he does not seem to mind. Portraying history seems to very low on his priority list. One book is cited as well as a few links to other articles on about.com, but that appears to be the extend of sources cited. Mostly the author appears to rely mostly on his own intellect to fabricate the content he produces.  He might be a great atheist, but he does a horrible disservice to reality and truth.

No True Scotsman Fallacy

The atheist author brushes aside any argument that Nazis were perhaps calling themselves Christians while actually behaving in that exact opposite way a Christian should behave. He mentions the "No True Scotsman Fallacy" in a way that seems to imply that Christians can re-interpret any actions after the fact if Christians wish to disavow them. The only problem with applying this fallacy is that it has limitations. Someone is not making a fallacious argument just because someone asserts they are.

It would appear to me that one can only fall into this fallacy if they use subjective statements to back their claim that someone is behaving in a way that is not true to their claimed beliefs. Christianity does not make that mistake. We have a guide which is the final authority on what is and is not "proper" behavior for a Christian.  The bible has been around for almost two thousand years and is the standard by which all human behavior can be categorized as either Christ like or not.

Some key things to point out from the Bible:

Jesus never instructed his followers to kill, attack, or hurt anyone.
Jesus was a Jew and being a Christian means wanting to be more like Jesus. You cannot advocate hating and killing all Jews and be a true Christian.


Did All Christian's Support the Nazis?

The atheist article implies that the majority of protestants supported the Nazis because it was consistent with their faith. This is a very false statement.

I suggest you start your reading here:

Nazis planned to exterminate Christianity - creation.com
http://creation.com/nazis-planned-to-exterminate-christianity

quote from that article:
"As early as 1937, Protestant churches issued a manifesto objecting to Nazi policies, and the Nazis retaliated by arresting 700 pastors."


Suggested Books

If you really interested in known more about the Christian church during Nazi Germany (and about how Christians should view governments today), then I suggest you try these books:

God & Government: Charles W. Colson: 9780310277644: AmazonSmile: Books
http://smile.amazon.com/God-Government-Charles-W-Colson/dp/0310277647

When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany: Erwin W. Lutzer: 9780802446565: AmazonSmile: Books
http://smile.amazon.com/When-Nation-Forgets-God-Lessons/dp/0802446566/


Why should I read a book from a Christian author? Won't I see similar bias to the atheism article?

This is a reasonable question, but I think you will find, in general, that Christian authors try very hard to represent reality.  There are always bad apples that identify with a larger group that give the larger group a bad name.  This concept appears to entirely slip past the atheist author of the Nazi article.


Here are some things to consider about a Christian author vs. an Atheist author:

- Telling the truth is a primary tenant of the Christian faith. Christians believe that lying is a sin and has real consequences.

- Atheists have no such framework to discourage lying.  In fact not just atheists, but our culture as whole seems to accepting lying more and more.

- You will see in these books that the Christian author will at times criticize choices made by the Church or by certain Christians. This is because the goal is not to portray Christians as perfect, but to convey some other idea or truth the reader could benefit from.