From: kateg@durham.ac.uk   
      
   Re: Christian leadership. Advice needed on this situation (Longish)   
      
   Re: Christian leadership. Advice needed on this situation (Longish)   
      
   I need advice on the framework for an essay on Christian leadership.   
   Please see and comment on the draft below. TIA   
      
   Hitler Was a Christian   
      
   The Holocaust was caused by Christian fundamentalism:   
      
   From the earliest formation of the Nazi party and throughout the   
   period of conquest and NS growth, Hitler expressed his Christian   
   support to the German citizenry and soldiers. Those who would make   
   Hitler an atheist should turn their eyes to history books before they   
   address their pews and chat rooms.   
      
   In presenting this information I must break it into four parts:   
      
   1) Facts about Hitler and his involvement with the Church.   
   2) How the Church was the catalyst for anti- Semitism.   
   3) Facts concerning how the Nazi regime drilled these beliefs into   
   Germanic society.   
   4) Quotes Hitler made which prove he had a disdain for   
   atheism/occultism, upheld his Christian faith, and hated Jews due to   
   his Christianity.   
      
   1) Hitler’s involvement with the Church:   
      
   a) Hitler was baptized as Roman Catholic during infancy in Austria.   
      
   b) As Hitler approached boyhood he attended a monastery school.  (On   
   his way to school young Adolf daily observed a stone arch which was   
   carved with the monastery’s coat of arms bearing a swastika.)   
      
   c) Hitler was a communicant and an altar boy in the Catholic Church.   
      
   d) As a young man he was confirmed as a "soldier of Christ."  His most   
   ardent goal at the time was to become a priest.  Hitler writes of his   
   love for the church and clergy: "I had excellent opportunity to   
   intoxicate myself with the solemn splendor of the brilliant church   
   festivals.  As was only natural, the abbot seemed to me, as the   
   village priest had once seemed to my father, the highest and most   
   desirable ideal."  -Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)   
      
   e) Hitler was NEVER excommunicated nor condemned by his church.   
   Matter of fact the Church felt he was JUST and "avenging for God" in   
   attacking the Jews for they deemed the Semites the killers of Jesus.   
      
   f) Hitler, Franco and Mussolini were given VETO power over whom the   
   pope could appoint as a bishop in Germany, Spain and Italy.  In turn   
   they surtaxed the Catholics and gave the money to the Vatican.  Hitler   
   wrote a speech in which he talks about this alliance, this is an   
   excerpt: "The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the   
   new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state   
   by the Catholic Church.  This treaty shows the whole world clearly and   
   unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism [Nazism] is   
   hostile to religion is a lie."  Adolf Hitler, 22 July 1933, writing to   
   the Nazi Party   
      
   g) Hitler worked CLOSELY with Pope Pius in converting Germanic society   
   and supporting the church.  The Church absorbed Nazi ideals and   
   preached them as part of their sermons in turn Hitler placed Catholic   
   teachings in public education.  This photo depicts Hitler with   
   Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin.  It was taken   
   On April 20, 1939, when Orsenigo celebrated Hitler’s birthday.  The   
   celebrations were initiated by Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) and became a   
   tradition.   
      
   h) Each April 20, Cardinal Bertram of Berlin was to send "warmest   
   congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the   
   dioceses in Germany with fervent prayers which the Catholics of   
   Germany are sending to heaven on their altars."  (If you would like to   
   know more about the secret dealings of Hitler and the Pope I recommend   
   you get a book titled: Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII,   
   by John Cornwell)   
      
   Due to Hitler’s involvement with the Church he began enacting   
   doctrines of the Church as law.  He outlawed all abortion, raged a   
   death war on all homosexuals, and demanded corporal punishment in   
   schools and home.  Many times Hitler addressed the church and promised   
   that Germany would impliment its teachings: "The National Socialist   
   State professes its allegiance to positive Christianity.  It will be   
   its honest endeavor to protect both the great Christian Confessions in   
   their rights, to secure them from interference with their doctrines   
   (Lehren ), and in their duties to constitute a harmony with the views   
   and the exigencies of the State of today."  Adolf Hitler, on 26 June   
   1934, to Catholic bishops to assure them that he would take action   
   against the new pagan propaganda.   
   " Providence has caused me to be Catholic, and I know therefore how to   
   handle this Church." -Adolf Hitler, reportedly to have said in Berlin   
   in 1936 on the enmity of the Catholic Church to National Socialism   
      
   2) How Christianity was the catalyst of the Holocaust:   
      
   Hitler’s anti-Semitism grew out of his Christian education.  Austria   
   and Germany were majorly Christian during his time and they held the   
   belief that Jews were an inferior status to Aryan Christians.  The   
   Christians blamed the Jews for the killing of Jesus.  Jewish hatred   
   did not actually spring from Hitler, it came from the preaching of   
   Catholic priests and Protestant ministers throughout Germany for   
   hundreds of years.  The Protestant leader, Martin Luther, himself,   
   held a livid hatred for Jews and their Jewish religion.  In his book,   
   "On the Jews and their Lies," Luther set the standard for Jewish   
   hatred in Protestant Germany up until World War 2.  Hitler expressed a   
   great admiration for Martin Luther constantly quoting his works and   
   beliefs.   
      
   Now, you must remember before Hitler rose to Chancellor of Germany the   
   country was in a deep economic depression due to the Versailles   
   treaty.  The Versailles treaty demanded that Germans made financial   
   reparations for the previous war and Germany simply was not self   
   sufficient enough in order to pay the debt. Hitler was the leader that   
   raised Germany out of the depression and brought them back to a world   
   recognized power.  Due to his annulment of the financial woes of the   
   Germanic people he became their redeemer and they anointed him as the   
   leader of the German Reich Christian Church in 1933.  This placed him   
   in power of the German Christian Socialist movement which legislates   
   their political and religious agendas. It united all denominations,   
   mainly the Protestant/Catholic and Lutheran people to instill faith in   
   a national Christianity.   
      
   3) How the Nazi Regime converted the people:   
      
   a) In the 1920s, Hitler’s German Workers’ Party (pre Nazi term)   
   adopted a "Programme" with twenty-five points (the Nazi version of a   
   constitution).  In point twenty- four, their intent clearly   
   demonstrates, from the very beginning, their stand in favor of a   
   "positive" Christianity: "We demand liberty for all religious   
   denominations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to it and   
   do not militate against the morality and moral sense of the German   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)