Contents of this Post
- Hitler deliberately misused Christian terms and references to make himself sound like a true and devoted believer in Christ –
- Well, there you have it. A new Messiah, offering to do the job successfully that Jesus nobly tried, and failed, to do.
- Do you see ways in which any of these practices have been present in America in recent years?
There are several patterns of manipulation and verbal violence – lying, fraud – that quickly stand out to me.
Hitler deliberately misused Christian terms and references to make himself sound like a true and devoted believer in Christ –
at least he would appear so to those who were not paying close attention, and unfortunately many believers and church leaders do not pay close attention to such things.
“L … said … that his feeling ‘as a man and a Christian’ prevented him from being an Anti-Semite. I say: my feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Saviour as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were … As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.”
His comments a few minutes later in the same speech carry the flavor of Christ’s concern about the “sheep without a shepherd”.
“…the mightiest thing which our Movement must create: for these widespread, seeking, and straying masses a new Faith which will not fail them in this hour of confusion, to which they can pledge themselves, on which they can build so that they may at least find once again a place which may bring calm to their hearts.”
Well, there you have it. A new Messiah, offering to do the job successfully that Jesus nobly tried, and failed, to do.
This is a brilliant capitalizing on the religious feeling in many Germans while he explicitly subverts that religious loyalty and shifts it to the nation and its lying Leader. As I said above, this often works because Christian people are not paying close attention. They sometimes seem to think it is disrespectful or unbelieving to pay close attention. They are certainly wrong about that.
- Constant lying about sub-groups of the German people, including Jews, liberals, government officials, artists, authors, and many others. I don’t mean political campaigning; I mean deliberate, vigorous, extensive, sustained deadly lying (sometimes linked with a few morsels of truth to make it go down easier).
- Constant distortion of historical events. Again, not just occasional accidental misstatement or slight exaggeration, but deliberate, extensive, public lying.
- Deliberate incitement to invasion and war on false pretenses.
- Mocking of and non-cooperation with other nations and with international agencies, and abrogation of treaties.
All these things occur and recur in his speeches. To me all these behaviors ‘and those who practice them’ are profoundly cowardly, because they flee from and camouflage reality instead of dealing with it intelligently and effectively. But that’s beside the point, and it makes these evil behaviors no less effective or deadly. Whether he actually said it or not, his Nazis certainly practiced this concept: If you make the lies big enough, and say them often enough and loud enough, the people will believe and act on them.
Now the unpleasant question:
Do you see ways in which any of these practices have been present in America in recent years?
(See prior posts regarding Hitler and the Nazis.)
* Quotations are from The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, ed. N H Baynes, Oxford University Press 1942, Howard Fertig Inc. 1969, p19 – 21
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If the Jesus of the religous right ever came he would in many ways be worse than Hitler. Hitler would have been more mercifull to the Jews and everyone else than the Jesus of the Christians. Hitler gassed his enemies but he never promised a lake of eternal fire for all who oppose him. Ask yourself what’s worse. Being gassed which kills you in ten to fifteen minutes, or burning eternaly in a firy pit. Hitler burned the bodies of Jews after they were gassed and DEAD but the Jesus of Pat Robertson will send us all to place where we burn alive! Until the end of time! If the Jews thought Hitler was bad they should relax because Hitler was only the orderve, they haven’t even had the meal yet for when Jesus returns they have a lake of eternal fire to look foward to!
I’m not neccisarily against Zionism as a faith but we all know that The christians will continue to finacialy and militarily back Israel untill their “savior” comes back and on that day all the Jews better Heil Jesus they will be throne into a lake of fire never to be retreived. Isn’t that nice. I’ts the least Jesus can do to show the Jews how much he loves them and is sorry for not preventing the Holocaust.
If God could liberate the ancient hebrews from Egypt with power strong enough to part a sea, and turn a river to blood, surly he could have liberated the camps before the Holocaust occured–but I guess that wasn’t apart of God divine plan, and who are we to be so arrogant to think we should mess up his plans?
Christian Fundamentalists need to back off. They should stop running their mouths about stuf they don’t understand whether it’s about Jewsh history or The Eternal Creator of Worlds which if exists, is unknown, or so advanced that we coudn’t percive it at our present state of development. The god of The Fundementalist Christians is invented and is not the God even of the Jews. Their were many Pagan Gods in the Mediteranian that were born of virgins, rose from the dead and sacrificed themself. Rome took that story and applied it to Jesus because that was the story that the people of Rome coud recognize–as is the opposite of a Jewish revolutionary.
And thats why the jews will never truly give in to the Christians because we no who you are, who you were, and where you came from and how you became what you are in the present day.
The Jews do not rcognize the pagan Jesus of the Christians. Some Jews might recognize the Jewsh Rabbi named Yeshua Benyoseff but not the pagan He-sus-Christ or God in the flesh. The Eternal Creator Of Worlds could not and would not take the body of a human being. That dosen’t mean that a human being can not have a relationship with and gain an understanding of the spirit of the eternal and divine. But according to Judasm God dosent take phiscal form period because it’s a spiritual being not a phiscal one. So lets all hope that we don’t get sacrificed to the Lesser God of The Fundamentalists of any faith
Is Visitor in the crowd of radical Christians who think it’s just fine to vilify the Middle Eastern people in their “hate blogs”?
You radical/progressives. There you go again. Using Hitler in the same frame with Mr. Bush. You will find many “hate blogs” from the Middle East and in America doing the exactly as you are.
Same old, same old…
What you have written is so very necessary. Here’s why I see it that way: I am praying for the US church every day. One significant lie dogging us is that of a pre-trib rapture. Fact is, there are a lot of Christians on earth for whom it would not be “pre-trib,” because they face excruciating tribulation and persecution right now. The idea that U.S. Christians are too good for tribulation is, in fact, a gross narcissistic condition infecting the church, which is the breeding ground for the fascism you identify. This is, plainly, arrogance. Two, in the absense of that “pre-trib rapture” we must look plainly at the fact that we are headed for the very vortex of the crucible. The highest ground has the greatest potential for a deep fall, and here we stand. I pray for the church because our church leaders have cozied up to top political brass and deceived many. At what point Christians in the US face tribulation, how then can we stand fast in the Lord, if we feel the Lord dealt treacherously?
The cure? Read Jesus’ words. For those who don’t know, in most Bibles they are the ones printed in red. It should take a good reader about two hours, although the Spirit of God will probably konk you out with the need to meditate. Read His words every day. Then a person will see how really little His message has in common with political leaders. I pray this happens.
Thank you so much for this website.
There was some insightful criticism of this article when I posted it over at dkos. But I still think the points are important to make. Here’s how I responded to some of those comments:
Lots of good thinking here. Thank you to all.
History does not repeat itself in the details or the personalities or the exact sequences. But evil is still evil, humans are still humans, and Hitler represents to our minds a massive and almost-contemporary evil in a civilized and “Christian” nation. So he is not to my mind a useless point of reference.
This (US) government has access to the greatest powers for warmaking and oppression the world has ever seen. And from what we already know of them they are willing and likely to use them — unless, as some of us hope, they are just monumentally incompetent. But that also is a sobering thought.
“It is not pleasant to study the face of evil, but it seems good [to review] its common habits, intentions, and techniques. I’ve been browsing again in the speeches of Adolf Hitler*. There are several patterns of manipulation and verbal violence that quickly stand out to me.”