Was Whoopi Goldberg Right that Hitler Was a Christian?: A Historical Analysis
Whatever one thinks about the controversy over Syrian refugees and ISIS, Whoopi Goldberg’s recent comments on national television trying to convince us that Christian refugees are just as scary as Muslims disseminates an idea that circulates widely on the internet, i.e., that Hitler was a Christian. She stated, “There have been a lot of horrifying—there have been a lot of monster Christians. Hitler was a Christian.” When her interlocutors balked at this, she then defended her position by saying, “He didn’t like the Catholics, remember? So he thought of himself as a Christian person.” Goldberg apparently doesn’t understand that Catholicism is a branch of Christianity, or that Hitler—despite his opposition to Catholicism—was officially a Catholic.
If Goldberg were the only one confused about Hitler’s relationship to Christianity, we could ignore it. However, she was expressing a view that circulates widely, especially in atheist circles. Leading atheist intellectuals, such as Richard Dawkins, have insisted that Hitler was a sincere Christian. Their evidence? He said so himself in some of his speeches in the 1920s. In one famous quote circulating on dozens of atheist websites, Hitler stated (on April 12, 1922), “My Christian feeling directs me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. . . . As a Christian I do not have the duty to allow the wool to be pulled over my eyes, but I have the duty to be a fighter for the truth and for what is right. . . . As a Christian I also have a duty toward my own people (Volk).”
Strangely, those trumpeting this quotation as proof that Hitler was indeed a Christian display the attitude: Hitler said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Never does it seem to cross their minds that Hitler might be—gasp—lying for political advantage. They are as convinced of Hitler’s veracity as the naïve British Prime Minister Chamberlain was when he arrived back from the Munich Conference waving a sheet of paper with Hitler’s signature on it and proclaiming: “It is peace for our time.” In short, they gullibly swallow Hitler’s propaganda (and they blithely ignore a plethora of Hitler’s anti-Christian remarks).
Adolf was for Adolf .... if he could appear 'christian' and fool a few folks and get some more votes so be it, but at the end of the day it was all about him
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