Should we fear fascism more from Christians or from secular leftists?

Two posts by Jewish author Jonah Goldberg from National Review supply us with the facts to set the record straight.

Let’s start with the first post, where Goldberg looks at the actions of the fascist Adolf Hitler.

1) Hitler wanted Christianity removed from the public square

Like the engineers of that proverbial railway bridge, the Nazis worked relentlessly to replace the nuts and bolts of traditional Christianity with a new political religion. The shrewdest way to accomplish this was to co-opt Christianity via the Gleichschaltung while at the same time shrinking traditional religion’s role in civil society.

2) Hitler banned the giving of donations to churches

Hitler banned religious charity, crippling the churches’ role as a counterweight to the state. Clergy were put on government salary, hence subjected to state authority. “The parsons will be made to dig their own graves,” Hitler cackled. “They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes.”

3) Hitler replaced Christian celebrations with celebrations of the state

Following the Jacobin example, the Nazis replaced the traditional Christian calendar. The new year began on January 30 with the Day of the Seizure of Power. Each November the streets of central Munich were dedicated to a Nazi Passion play depicting Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. The martyrdom of Horst Wessel and his “old fighters” replaced Jesus and the apostles. Plays and official histories were rewritten to glorify pagan Aryans bravely fighting against Christianizing foreign armies. Anticipating some feminist pseudo history, witches became martyrs to the bloodthirsty oppression of Christianity.

4) Hitler favored the complete elimination of Christianity

When some Protestant bishops visited the Fuhrer to register complaints, Hitler’s rage got the better of him. “Christianity will disappear from Germany just as it has done in Russia . . . The German race has existed without Christianity for thousands of years . . . and will continue after Christianity has disappeared . . . We must get used to the teachings of blood and race.”

5) Hitler favored the removal of mandatory prayers in schools

In 1935 mandatory prayer in school was abolished…

6) Hitler favored the banning of Christmas carols and nativity plays

…and in 1938 carols and Nativity plays were banned entirely.

7) Hitler abolished religious instruction for children

By 1941 religious instruction for children fourteen years and up had been abolished altogether….

And now the second post.

8) Hitler opposed the ideas of universal truth and objective moral absolutes

…Just as the Nazi attack on Christianity was part of a larger war on the idea of universal truth, whole postmodern cosmologies have been created to prove that traditional religious morality is a scam, that there are no fixed truths or “natural” categories, and that all knowledge is socially constructed.

Practically everything this man believed was 100% anti-Christian. But he fits in fine on the secular left. In fact, if you read out this list of actions to the groups who represent the secular left, I have no doubt that they would get to their feet and applaud the squashing of religious liberty and religious expression in the public square.

Conclusion

Adolf Hitler was a man influenced by two big ideas: evolution and socialism. His party was the national SOCIALIST party. Like the secular leftists in our own time, he was not a proponent of small government and individual rights, like religious liberty. He wanted to force his own values onto businesses and individuals that had a different allegiance, such as Christianity. He favored a strong role for the state in interfering with the free market and telling private business owners what to do. He was in favor of regulating the family so that the state could have a bigger influence on children. He did not like the idea that Christian parents would teach their children Christianity, instead of the doctrines that he favored. His ideas are 100% incompatible with Christianity and with capitalism, as well. Christians value individual rights and freedoms, small government and the autonomy of the family against the state. The differences are clear and significant.

4 thoughts on “Should we fear fascism more from Christians or from secular leftists?”

  1. Should we fear fascism more from Christians or from secular leftists?

    I don’t see where you gave any examples of Christian fascism. In fact you showed that Christianity is incompatible with fascism. Historically whenever church leaders acted in ways that are consistent with fascism they also acted in ways that are inconsistent with biblical Christianity.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. But, WK, the new New A-theist line is that Hitler was a Christian?!? :-)

        “Not many Germans lost much sleep over the arrests of a few thousand pastors and priests… the Nazi regime intended to eventually destroy Christianity in Germany…As Bormann…said publicly in 1941, ‘National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable.’… 13. The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany…18. The National Church will clear away from its altars all crucifixes, Bibles, and pictures of saints. 19. On the altars there must be nothing but Mein Kampf…the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals, and chapels…and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika.” The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 240.

        Like

Leave a comment