I read an interesting book review in Journal of Creation by Lita Cosner, entitled The Christian Nazi Myth Refuted. The review was of a book by Bruce Walker entitled The Swastika Against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity, which purports to refute the anti-Christian myth that Nazis were Christians and that Christianity laid the foundation for Naziism.
Cosner provided an overall positive review of the book, promoting it with a rather passionate summary of the contents. I will not summarize a summary, but I will quote one interesting section. (Page numbers listed are from Walker's book.)
It should also be interesting to watch for historical parallels in the modern era. The recent activities of the current U.S. presidential administration and Democratic congressional majority, especially with the passage of the health reform legislation, have demonstrated without reasonable doubt that the political party in power is fundamentally socialist. (The federal government's firm educational commitment to the doctrine of evolution, as well as the President's unprecedented hostility toward our Israeli allies, also makes for some interesting historical coincidences.)
Cosner provided an overall positive review of the book, promoting it with a rather passionate summary of the contents. I will not summarize a summary, but I will quote one interesting section. (Page numbers listed are from Walker's book.)
Even though Christians who professed their faith openly were subject to discrimination from the Nazis, they constituted the only true opponents the Nazis had in Germany (p. 59). The Communists, while thought to be opponents to the Nazis, partnered with them to destroy common opponents. Academia was easily corrupted; university students were among the most susceptible to Nazi propaganda (p. 62). Christians were the only ones who openly spoke out against the Nazis; Catholics and Protestants banded together to defend Christianity against the Nazi paganism which threatened to destroy them (p. 63). The Nazis recognized the unique character of their Christian opponents, saying that
I cannot recall ever having heard anything from my past professors or instructors about this kind of Nazi persecution of Christianity. I look forward to future studies on the subject."... the National Socialist leaders have found and will find that the Christian church is an embarrassment. It cannot be fashioned as readily as are cultural institutions. They will find men in whose convictions in their sphere are as unyielding as those of Hitler himself in the political realm. They have to be reckoned with" (p. 64).When the Nazis tried to "revise" the Bible to fit with Germanism and demanded that ethnically Jewish pastors be removed from the ministry, many Lutherans refused to comply because it was contrary to Christianity. Many of these pastors were removed and punished for their resistance (pp. 65-66). Many times "Jews sent to concentration camps were met there by Christians of conscience who arrived before the Jews" (p. 69). This took real courage on the part of the Christians, because, unlike the Jews, they could earn their freedom by renouncing their faith and becoming loyal to the Nazis. Christians who were too vocal about their opposition to the Nazis could expect to be tortured and killed or thrown into a concentration camp.
It should also be interesting to watch for historical parallels in the modern era. The recent activities of the current U.S. presidential administration and Democratic congressional majority, especially with the passage of the health reform legislation, have demonstrated without reasonable doubt that the political party in power is fundamentally socialist. (The federal government's firm educational commitment to the doctrine of evolution, as well as the President's unprecedented hostility toward our Israeli allies, also makes for some interesting historical coincidences.)
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