At the risk of stating the obvious, the above quote was made up by someone on Twitter for the purpose of humour. However the feeling persists among Christians that Hitler was an atheist.Â
The logic appears to run something like this:Â
I am a good person because I am a Christian.
Hitler was a bad person.
Therefore, Hitler cannot have been a Christian
âHitler was an Atheist.â
Letâs see what Hitler had to say about this himself.
In a speech on 12 April 1922, he said: âMy feeling 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 wereâŚâ
In Mein Kampf (1926), he said: âI consider the foundation or destruction of a religion far greater than the foundation or destruction of a state, let alone a party.â
Also from Mein Kampf:Â âBy repelling the Jews, I am doing the Lordâs work.â
In a speech made in Passau, 27 October 1928, he said: âWe tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity⌠in fact our movement is Christian.â
On 22 July 1933, he wrote in a letter to the Nazi Party:Â âThis treaty [with the Vatican] shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that Nazism is hostile to religion is a lie.â
In 1941, Hitler wrote a letter to Gerhard Engel in which he said: âI am now, as before, a Catholic and will always remain so.â
And on and on.
The Vatican certainly considered all the top Nazis as not just Roman Catholics, but observant Roman Catholics. In fact, the only Nazi who was ever excommunicated was Joseph Goebbels; not for any of his actual crimes, but for marrying a Protestant.
âHitler was just using Christianity to promote his personal agenda.â
Not like you, you mean?
âYeah, but Hitler wasnât a real Christian.â
Not like you, you mean?
âHe was lying to manipulate others into his way of thinking.â
How do I know youâre not?
