I must laugh, or else I will become cynical at people who want to blame Christ for evil, even when this evil is obvious at its source.
I seem to recall saying that "Christians" were involved in developing Germany's pre-WWII racial policies, not "Christ".
You can make every argument you want to blame Christians for eugenics, but you would be wrong sir.
Except, of course, that I'm not. Hitler never mentions Darwin, but he mentions God. . .a lot. If you've ever read Mein Kampf you cannot help but note how he repeatedly invokes not a scientific or evolutionary right of the strong to oppress and destroy the weak, but of a divine, God-given, superiority.
“Warning voices were raised in the 18th and 19th centuries when Liberalism began to destroy the peoples of Europe. Gobineau recognized with sure perceptiveness the danger of race mixing. H. St. Chamberlain followed him, as did many others, above all F. K. Günter, who wrote The Racial Nature of the German People.
“We owe to these Nordic scientists this revolutionary knowledge: Humanity is not equal. Just as plants and animals are of different types, so too are people. Each of these types inherits certain characteristics, which distinguish it from all other types, from all other races. Racial differences are physical, spiritual, and intellectual. The most important differences are in the spiritual and intellectual areas, in life styles. Racial science is further supported by advances in genetics. Nordic scientists probed ever deeper into the secrets of life and nature. Gregor Mendel was the first to discover the laws of genetics, opening the way to understanding one of God’s greatest secrets, the nature and continuation of life.
“Genetics tells us that characteristics are passed unaltered from generation to generation, and that spiritual and other characteristics are inherited along with physical ones. The environment can only influence what is already present in the genes. Unlike animals, a person does not have a single environment, but also lives in the cultural world of his race and people. This too determines the development of his inherited traits. His culture comes from his inheritance. Therefore, the race to which we belong determines the life we are born into, and the life we pass on.”
1943 pamphlet Der Reichsführer SS/SS-Hauptamt
Both Chamberlain and Gabineau were Christians who rejected biological evolution in addition to Darwin’s personal convictions race. In Gabineau’s case, he had developed the underpinnings of scientific racism prior to Darwin’s publication of his theories. The line from Gabineau to Nazi policy is very clear, and the line from Chamberlain’s Nordic theories directly to Hitler is undeniable.
Hitler’s particular form of racism demanded that the races be separate, something that Darwin’s explicit view of common ancestry contradicted. Which is why Hitler rejected the biological theory of evolution and instead embraced a pseudo-mystic version of some social darwinian concepts incorporated into Chamberlain’s nordic theory. Instead of embracing Darwin, the Nazi’s burned his books.
Guidelines from Die Bücherei 2:6 (1935), p. 279
6. Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism (Häckel).
(library.arizona.edu/exhibits/burnedbooks/documents.htm]When Books Burn: Lists of Banned Books, 1933-1939)
Consequently, the link between Chamberlain, a Christian who rejected Darwin’s biological theory of evolution, is quite direct and well documented.
“Chamberlain himself lived to see his ideas begin to bear fruit. Adolf Hitler, while still growing as a political figure in Germany, visited him several times (in 1923 and in 1926, together with Joseph Goebbels) at the Wagner family’s property in Bayreuth.[25] Chamberlain, paralyzed and despondent after Germany’s losses in World War I, wrote to Hitler after his first visit in 1923:
“‘Most respected and dear Hitler, … It is hardly surprising that a man like that can give peace to a poor suffering spirit! Especially when he is dedicated to the service of the fatherland. My faith in Germandom has not wavered for a moment, though my hopes were – I confess – at a low ebb. With one stroke you have transformed the state of my soul. That Germany, in the hour of her greatest need, brings forth a Hitler – that is proof of her vitality … that the magnificent Ludendorff openly supports you and your movement: What wonderful confirmation! I can now go untroubled to sleep… May God protect you!‘[25]
“Chamberlain joined the Nazi Party and contributed to its publications. Its primary journal, the Völkischer Beobachter or Racial Observer, dedicated five columns to praising him on his 70th birthday, describing The Foundations as the “gospel of the Nazi movement.”[27]
“Hitler later attended Chamberlain’s funeral in January 1927 along with several highly ranked members of the Nazi party.[28] Chamberlain’s ideas were influential in particular to Alfred Rosenberg, who became the Nazi Party’s in-house philosopher.”
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Stewart_Chamberlain%23The_impact_of_The_Foundations]Houston Stewart Chamberlain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
No other religion on the planet believe that all men are equal and free under God, and promotes liberty at the hand of the tyrant.
Are you trying to say that Christianity is a religion that holds all men are equal and free under God and promotes liberty at the hand of the tyrant? Curious that it took two thousand years and a group of mostly deists to find this new interpretation. Why was such a notion hidden from the pious prayers of so many millions who lived and died prior to the American Revolution?
My answer is that it was the cultural influence of the enlightenment that gave us such notions and, once they had taken root, we looked to Christianity for those bits and pieces which would reinforce this notion so that now, several centuries removed, we imagine that our religion formed our culture when in reality our culture has molded our religious views.
Lurker
