Hitler: Christian or not?

Question

I have gotten so many Christians telling me he was an atheist and wanted to kill every Christian (Catholic or not). I also have read quotes such as:

"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter.

In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross." ---Adolf Hitler
In a speech from April 12, 1922 and published in his book My New Order

If he identified his "Lord and Saviour" and if actions are meaningless compared to faith in Jesus, then why do people say he was not a Christian?

Answer 1

If the Nazis were not Christians then why did they put "Gott Mit Uns" meaning "God is with us" on their uniform belt buckles. Hitler and the Nazis were fundamentalist Christians.

This article explains why it should matter and why people should care.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance26.html

Answer 2

It is sometimes said that Hitler was a believer in God and specifically that he was a Christian or at least was brought up as a Catholic. But of course, weren’t most Austrians, certainly in the late 19th century, nominally Catholics? Regardless of what Hitler published in his early years, his actions put himself outside the Church, in a similar manner to the way an outspoken atheist would not really be an atheist if at the same time he regularly attended church, studied the Bible, and prayed the rosary. There is a big difference between Hitler's public speeches before he came to power, and his attitude after 1935 when he saw Christianity as a threat to Nazi domination.

Answer 3

He was a Christian, but I don't like this argument, because it really doesn't matter what his religious beliefs were. He's not a representative of ANY religious belief, (or lack thereof.) He's a representative of political dogma run amok. Believers just like to say that he was atheist so that they can then say that atheism was the cause of the things that he did. That argument is about as ignorant as saying that because Hitler wore pants, anyone who wears pants is as evil as Hitler. Let's just put it this way:
Christians don't need to claim him, because while he might have *claimed* Christianity, he certainly didn't behave the way a Christian should, and therefore he has no right to call himself "Christian."
And atheists don't need to claim him, either, because even if he has no right to call himself "Christian", the definition of "atheist" is one who does not believe there is a God. And Hitler absolutely did believe in God. So he wasn't an atheist, either, by ANY stretch of the definition. "Not behaving like a Christian should" does *not* make one an atheist, and to suggest differently is ignorant.

Answer 4

To Henrich Himmler in 1941 - It seems Herr Hitler had a low opinion of Christians and Atheists.

"An educated man retains the sense of the mysteries of nature, and bows before the unknowable. An uneducated man, on the other hand, runs the risk of going over to atheism (which is a return to the state of the animal) as soon as he perceives that the state, in sheer opportunism, is making use of false ideas in the matter of religion, whilst in other fields it bases everything on pure science.

"Being weighed down by a superstitious past, men are afraid of things that can't, or can't yet be explained - that is to say, of the unknown. If anyone has needs of a metaphysical nature, I can't satisfy them with the party's program. Time will pass until the moment when science can answer all the questions.

"So it's not opportune to hurl ourselves now into a struggle with the churches. The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has something comforting about it. The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advance of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble. All that's left is to prove that in nature there's no frontier between the organic and the inorganic. When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light but worlds - perhaps inhabited worlds like ours - then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity.

"But one must continue to pay attention to another aspect of the problem. It's possible to satisfy the needs of the inner life by an intimate communion with nature., or by knowledge of the past. Only a minority, however, at the present stage of the mind's development, can feel the respect inspired by the unknown and thus satisfy the metaphysical needs of the soul. The average human being has the same needs, but can satisfy them only by elementary means. That's particularly true of women, as also of peasants who impotently watch the destruction of their crops. The person whose life tends to simplification is thirsty for belief, and he dimly clings to it with all his strength.

"Nobody has the right to deprive simple people of their childish certainties until they've acquired others that are more reasonable. Indeed it's most important that the higher belief should be well established in them before the lower belief has been removed. We must finally achieve this. But it would serve no purpose to replace an old belief by a new one that would merely fill the place left vacant by its predecessor.

"It seems to me that nothing would be more foolish than to reestablish the worship of Odin. Our old mythology had ceased to be viable when Christianity implanted itself. Nothing dies unless it is moribund. At that point the ancient world was divided between the systems of philosophy and the worship of idols. It's not desirable that the whole of humanity should be stultified - and the only way of getting rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little.

"If in the course of 1-2,000 years science arrives at the necessity of renewing its points of view, that will not mean that science is a liar. Science cannot lie, for it's always striving, according to the momentary state of knowledge, to deduce what is true. When it makes a mistake, it does so in good faith. It's Christianity which is the liar; it's in perpetual conflict with itself.

"One may ask whether the disappearance of Christianity would entail the disappearance of a belief in God. That's not to be desired. The notion of divinity gives most men the opportunity to concretize the feeling they have of supernatural realities. Why should we destroy this wonderful power they have of incarnating the feeling for the divine that is within them?"

Answer 5

Hitler's mother and father were first cousins. They were also Catholics. In order for them to be allowed to marry, they had to get special permission from the Pope. For whatever reason, the Pope gave them a dispensation and allowed them to marry. Under normal circumstances consanguinity is a serious impediment to getting married in the Catholic Church.

I don't know anything about his childhood religious upbringing or his participation in religion in adulthood. I do know that Hitler was interested in using religion to his own ends. A case in point, the swastica. This is one of the most sacred symbols in the Eastern religions. Both Hinduism and Buddhisms consider it a sacred symbol. When Hitler misappropriated the swastica to use as a secular emblem for his political party, holy men in India condemned him and warned that the misuse of the swastica would lead to his downfall and his nations destruction. They were right.

Books have been written about the Nazis and their involvement in the Occult. It is believed that Hitler tried to use the black arts to sustain his power and obtain his objectives.

We also know that Hitler actively persecuted the Catholic Church when it began to speak out against him. Several Catholic martyrs died under the Nazis. Among them St. Maximillian Kolbe and St. Theresa Benedicta (Edith Stein - a Jewish convert to Catholicism).

I believe he was Anti-Christ, just like Nero, Stalin, and many other sadistic tyrannical dictators who have committed atrocities and genocide.

His religious affiliations or beliefs are really irrelevant. He was a psychopath.

Answer 6

Why is this stupid question still being asked he came from a Jewish mother and backgrnd and supposedly a catholic father but who cares because he was a killer and not acting as a Christian , but just using the title as many do

Answer 7

Hitler was not a christian. Hitler created his own new religion along with trying to create a new race of humans through selective breeding.the dude was a nut case, other than an interest in history I don't give a crap about Hitler.

Answer 8

hi-the only way to answer this question is to agree on a definition of what is or isnt christian-by my definition a christian is a person who tries to follow the teachings of jesus-most of the supposed christians i have met dont do that so i would have to say he wasnt--but hey thats my definition-if i was asked to put hitler in a group it would come under the label of crazy---and it is amazing how many people will follow someone like that----enjoy the night

Answer 9

I think the dude was a Christan, also...who says that he wanted to kill all the Christians? I thought it was the Jews he was after....hm...new one on me...

Also...just because one lunatic was a Christian, doesn't mean all are. But the Christians (at least, this is what I think) say that he was atheist because they don't want anything bad on their already rather tarnished name...(tarnished as in, it's old, not a lot of people like it anymore, and so forth) That's my theory...don't like it...deal with it. Either way hope this helps! ^_^

Answer 10

I think that all of this pushing of Hitler back and forth between the Christians and atheists is as useless as anything I've seen in a long time. Hitler was a bloody psychopath. I can understand no one wanting to claim him, but stop shoving him at the other guy.

Answer 11

Hitler was not a Christian. Do you really think that he was a man who showed the love of Christ?

Jesus says in John 14:23-24, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My word; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."

Does it sound like Hitler kept Jesus' words?

Hitler started his own religion.