journal 7: HITLER WAS A CHRISTIAN.1OF6.1.26.7

Journal 7: HITLER WAS A CHRISTIAN, PART 1 OF 6


1.26.7
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Hitler Was A Christian, Part 1 Of 6

Hitler Was a Christian
The Holocaust was caused by Christian fundamentalism:
http://www.evilbible.com/hitler_was_christian.htm
History is currently being distorted by the millions of Christians who lie to have us believe that the Holocaust was not a Christian deed. Through subterfuge and concealment, many of today’s Church leaders and faithful Christians have camouflaged the Christianity of Adolf Hitler and have attempted to mark him an atheist, a pagan cult worshipper, or a false Christian in order to place his misdeeds on those with out Jesus. However, from the earliest formation of the Nazi party and throughout the period of conquest and 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.
Considering that Christianity has thus far been incapable of producing an unbiased, educated follower which speaks the truth, (I haven’t encountered any), I have been forced to dispel the myth by writing this essay. It is not until I bring up his speeches, my personal info on the Nazi regime and their tactics that a Christian will begin to question what their clergy told them. (I am the offspring of a German soldier. My Opa served under Hitler in WW2 and my father was raised during the time of the Nazi regime. This is important information to take into consideration for I am privy to some info that most Americans do not know. It is common for American media and education institutions to lie to their citizens concerning Nazi Germany.) So, 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.

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.
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)
h) 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 implement 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

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.

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 race. The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession...”
b) The Nazi regime started a youth movement which preached its agenda to impressionable children. Hitler backed up the notion that all people need faith and religious education: “By helping to raise man above the level of bestial vegetation, faith contributes in reality to the securing and safeguarding of his existence. Take away from present-day mankind its education-based, religious- dogmatic principles-- or, practically speaking, ethical-moral principles-- by abolishing this religious education, but without replacing it by an equivalent, and the result will be a grave shock to the foundations of their existence.” – Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
c) The Nazi regime began to control schools insisting that Christianity was taught.
d) The Nazi regime included anti-Semitic Christian writings in textbooks and they were not removed from Christian doctrines until 1961.
e) The Nazi regime having full blown power over the people began to forcibly convert all its military.
f) The Nazi regime forced the German soldiers to wear religious symbols such as the swastika and they placed religious sayings on military gear. An example here is this German army belt buckle (I believe my Opa had one) which reads “Gott Mit Uns”. For those of you who do not speak German it is translated as “God With Us”.
g) The German troops were often forced to get sprinkled with holy water and listen to a sermon by a Catholic priest before going out on a maneuver.
h) The Nazis created a secret service called the “SS Reich” that would act as spies on the dealings of other citizens. If anyone was suspected of heresy (Going not only against the Socialist party but CHURCH DOCTRINE) they would be prosecuted.

Quotes from Hitler:
Hitler’s speeches and proclamations, even more clearly, reveal his faith and feelings toward a Christianized Germany. Nazism presents an embarrassment to Christianity and demonstrates the danger of their faith So they try to pin him on other theistic views. The following words from Hitler show his disdain for atheism, and pagan cults, and reveal the strength of his Christian feelings:
“National Socialism is not a cult-movement-- a movement for worship; it is exclusively a ‘volkic’ political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship... We will not allow mystically- minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else-- in any case something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our programme there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will-- not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord… Our worship is exclusively the cultivation of the natural, and for that reason, because natural, therefore God-willed. Our humility is the unconditional submission before the divine laws of existence so far as they are known to us men.” -Adolf Hitler, in Nuremberg on 6 Sept.1938. [Christians have always accused Hitler of believing in pagan cult mythology. What is written here clearly expresses his stand against cults.]
“We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” -Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933 [This statement clearly refutes modern Christians who claim Hitler as favoring atheism. Hitler wanted to form a society in which ALL people worshipped Jesus and considered any questioning of such to be heresy. The Holocaust was like a modern inquisition, killing all who did not accept Jesus. Though more Jews were killed then any other it should be noted that MANY ARYAN pagans and atheists were murdered for their non-belief in Christ.]
Here Hitler uses the Bible and his Christianity in order to attack the Jews and uphold his anti-Semitism:
"My feelings 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 were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow my self to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows . For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people." –Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)
"Christianity could not content itself with building up its own altar; it was absolutely forced to undertake the destruction of the heathen altars. Only from this fanatical intolerance could its apodictic faith take form; this intolerance is, in fact, its absolute presupposition." -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (It is quite obvious here that Hitler is referring to destructing the Judaism alters on which Christianity was founded.)
"The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew." -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (The idea of the devil and the Jew came out of medieval anti-Jewish beliefs based on interpretations from the Bible. Martin Luther, and teachers after him, continued this “tradition” up until the 20th century.)
"With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people." -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (It is common in war for one race to rape another so that they can “defile” the race and assimilate their own. Hitler speaks about this very tactic here.)
“The best characterization is provided by the product of this religious education, the Jew himself. His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine. Of course, the latter made no secret of his attitude toward the Jewish people, and when necessary he even took the whip to drive from the temple of the Lord this adversary of all humanity, who then as always saw in religion nothing but an instrument for his business existence. In return, Christ was nailed to the cross, while our present- day party Christians debase themselves to begging for Jewish votes at elections and later try to arrange political swindles with atheistic Jewish parties-- and this against their own nation.”–Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
"…the fall of man in paradise has always been followed by his expulsion." -Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (See Genesis Chapter 3 where humankind is cast from Eden for their sins. Hitler compares this to the need to exterminate the Jews for their sin against Christ.)
“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” –Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
“The anti-Semitism of the new movement [Christian Social movement] was based on religious ideas instead of racial knowledge.” –Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (This quote is very interesting for it disperses the idea that Hitler raged war due to being an Aryan supremacist. He states quite clearly that he has a problem with Jews for their belief not race. That is why many German Jews died in WW2 regardless of their Aryan nationality.)
“Only in the steady and constant application of force lies the very first prerequisite for success. This persistence, however, can always and only arise from a definite spiritual conviction. Any violence which does not spring from a firm, spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain.” –Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (Here Hitler is admitting that his war against the Jews were so successful because of his strong Christian Spirituality.)
Quotes from Other Nazis about Hitler and Religion:
"Around 1937, when Hitler heard that at the instigation of the party and the SS vast numbers of his followers had left the church because it was obstinately opposing his plans, he nevertheless ordered his chief associates, above all Goering and Gobbels, to remain members of the church. He too would remain a member of the Catholic Church, he said, although he had no real attachment to it. And in fact he remained in the church until his suicide." (Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer page 95-96)
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Jesus and Hitler
The classic case for separation of church and state
© Bryan Zepp Jamieson7/4/06http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Religous/jesusnhitler.htm
http://zeppscommentaries.com/Religious/jesusnhitler.htm
Der Spiegel magazine had a piece last spring about a 70 year old church in Berlin that was in need of some renovation and financing. Nothing too extraordinary about that, except that this was Germany’s only remaining “Nazi-era church.”The piece, by David Crossland, described the “Martin Luther Memorial Church” in vivid terms, noting the black Iron Cross chandelier, and that “The pulpit has a wooden carving of a muscular Jesus leading a helmeted Wehrmacht soldier and surrounded by an Aryan family. The baptismal font is guarded by a wooden statue of a stormtrooper from Adolf Hitler's paramilitary Sturmabteilung (SA) unit clutching his cap.”I bet the “muscular Jesus” looked very Aryan, much like the blond-haired and blue-eyed image the Mormons claim to be the true image of Jesus, with little about him to suggest that his mother was Jewish. The church isn’t unchanged since the war. The bells, according to Crossland, were melted down for the war effort, and the swasticas removed after the war when the symbol was declared illegal. The resident Dean of the parish, Isolde Böhm, isn’t unreservedly enthusiastic about his church’s legacy, and Crossland quotes him as saying, “When you hold sermons in this church your words clash with the symbols around you. It's hard work talking about human dignity when you're constantly aware that your surroundings evoke a system that trampled on dignity. Sometimes I had the feeling that the symbols overpowered the words.” Despite that, Böhm wants to see the church preserved, both for its historic interest, and as a warning to future generations of what happens when political madness and religious belief combine. Just as well they removed the swasticas. They don’t really convey a message of peace, love and compassion, do they?That many German Christians – and their churches – in the 1930s were locked in an enthusiastic embrace with Hitler and the Nazi party is no secret, of course. Hitler represents a failure of German Christianity as much as it represents a failure of German culture and the German people themselves. But Hitler recognized that by embracing Christianity and making it his own, he could easily alleviate moral qualms that his vicious policies might incur in the German people. Thus, he deftly equated loyalty to him and his party not only with patriotism, but with godliness. Saying “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator; by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord.” made him, not a hater and a murderer, but a mere instrument of the lord’s will. “Loyalty and responsibility toward the people and the Fatherland are most deeply anchored in the Christian faith.” ensured that it was ok for ordinary German citizens to become instruments of that same will.Christianity didn’t cause Hitler’s ascendency and the moral collapse of German culture, but the nature of organized religion – any organized religion – certainly enabled it. Any group of humans can be swayed and led by demagoguery, but religion is particularly susceptible because of the strong constraints that religion necessarily has against challenging authoritarian pronouncements. It’s much easier to oppose a poisonous politician than it is to oppose a politician who, according to both himself and the authorities of your own church, is carrying out the will of god. Can it happen here? Of course! Some people – myself included – believe it is happening right now. And yes, it could be as evil. Read the writings of Ann Coulter, and any place she uses the word “liberal”, replace it with the word “Jew” and see if you can tell any difference between her and Adolf Hitler. Ann Coulter, in her latest book, characterizes all liberals as being “Godless”. Presumably godless means evil, and therefore, it’s ok to kill them. You may have noticed that while elected Republicans aren’t waving her book in the air and cheering, they aren’t lining up to condemn it, either. Attacking Coulter would be like attacking Jesus because the people Ann doesn’t like are godless. The religious right has always been a threat to American freedom. Clear back in the early 1950s, Robert Heinlein postulated that America would fall – in the year 2000 – to a repressive police state that carried religious and state symbols side by side, a merging of the two. Bertrand Russell considered it necessary to divide the two because politics was the art of the possible, with ever-malleable truths, whereas religious was the art of what is, with unchanging truths. Each would badly corrupt the other if merged.But it predates Heinlein by over 150 years. The founding fathers saw the implicit threat religious fervor presented to freedom, and took the strongest steps they could to avoid it. Most people know of the most frequently cited example of this. That would be the First Amendment – Jefferson’s “wall of separation”. What most people don’t know is that there is one sentence in the Constitution that, by its very wording, is not subject to the mechanisms available for amending the rest of the Constitution. The founders realized that America would change, and outgrow the original document, and that the document would need to be flexible to adapt to those changes. With one exception. There was one standard that the founders held that should never change, and that would be the need to keep religion and state carefully apart. So, on a nearly unamimous vote, they agreed to Madison’s wording in the penultimate sentence in the Constitution: “[...]No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” What did Madison have in mind? The following quotes of his are illustrative:“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Govt (sic) will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”“It was the Universal opinion of the Century preceding the last, that Civil Government could not stand without the prop of a religious establishment; and that the Christian religion itself, would perish if not supported by the legal provision for its clergy. The experience of Virginia conspiciously corroboates the disproof of both opinions. The Civil Government, tho' bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the TOTAL SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH FROM THE STATE.”Madison didn’t just want no law saying only Episcopalians could run for office; he wanted a system whereby a candidate for office should not reveal what, if any, religious beliefs he held! The founders, by a huge margin, agreed with him. Even those who didn’t like it agreed to the necessity. The Reverend Isaac Backus wrote, “And let the history of all nations be searched, from that day to this, and it will appear that the imposing of religious tests hath been the greatest engine of tyranny in the world. And I rejoice to see so many gentlemen who are now giving in the rights of conscience, in this great and important matter.”It’s fashionable among the religious right to say that America was meant to be a Christian country, and that the founders didn’t want government without Jesus. That is utterly false. They had seen what a government “with Jesus” was like, and after 300 years of carnage in Europe, they wanted no part of it. And they created a nation that was noticeably freer of pogroms and religious persecution than any in history.The religious right also like to pretend that patriotism is valid only if it includes a higher power. I would like to invite them to go and visit Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin, and gaze around and see what a blending of patriotism and godliness leads to. Not “could lead to” – “WILL lead to.” The founders knew that. That’s why the “religious test” clause, uniquely, contains the word “ever”. And that’s why, on this holiday of American Independence, it’s so important to remember that one of America’s greatest strengths and greatest glories has been, and hopefully always will be a strong separation of church and state.
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http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/books/faith_under_fire/trapped-hitler.htm
Trapped in Hitler's Hell
by Anita Dittman with Jan Markell
This wonderful book can be ordered through Lighthouse Trails, 2005
Chapter 1: A New Era.— “Heil Hitler!”
I was a first-grader in Breslau, Germany.... It was 1933, and the Nazi fires were only kindling sparks. In time, they would erupt into a holocaust in which millions would be consumed by its hate, its lies, and its unfounded prejudices. Already I couldn't come home after school without suffering a stoning or a beating. particularly the little German boys, swollen with Aryan pride and propaganda that told them to stamp out inferiors, delighted in ganging up on me. [12]
And this was just the beginning of what would be a twelve-year nightmare -- twelve years of waiting for a knock on the door from the Gestapo; for a loved one to be dragged away by the hair or the beard to points unknown; for a boxcar ride, to be jammed in with hundreds of frightened, weeping people on their way to a death camp; or for a merciful bullet to end it all. [12-13] Among those unfortunate Jews I was to be one of the few with a real home. I would come to know Jesus who was to offer peace inthe midst of the turmoil. After all, wasn’t He the Prince of Peace? My mother, Hilde, was one of thirteen children born into an Orthodox Jewish home in Germany. Since they were a pitifully poor family, they could not afford to send Mother to a Jewish school. Public schools always taught religion, so Mother, along with other poor Jewish children, had to hear about Jesus of Nazareth. The name of Jesus was an offense to most Jews. Under the banner of the cross, millions of Jews had died throughout history. Yet something within Mother was awakened whenever she read about Jesus in her textbooks. She couldn’t deny the tug at her heart as she studied His life, while Judaism left a spiritual vacuum this Man from Galilee beckoned to fill. She did not dare utter her curiosity aloud, yet she found herself saying quietly, “Maybe Jesus is the God I’ve been looking for.” [12-13]
But at nineteen she, like so many other searching young people, gave in to the lure of a cult: theosophy, which is similar to Hinduism and teaches reincarnation. Christ was placed on the same level as Buddha and Muhammad, and she could worship a multitude of equal gods. She renounced her Judaism and ran from Jesus. But the day was fast approaching when Mother would call upon the name of Yeshua (“Jesus”) for mercy, protection, deliverance, and, most important of all, salvation. Father was an Aryan German and a devout atheist. He was active in Germany’s Social Democratic Party, Hitler’s arch rival... [13]
* * *
With all the religious options I had as a six-year-old, it is incredible that I could discern that Jesus truly was God. I did not believe in the rituals of Judaism or Catholicism, or Father’s ardent atheism, or Mother’s wavering practice of theosophy. The Spirit of God touched a little girl; in a few years I would take up my cross and follow Him.
...at the time all that mattered was that I felt safe with Him. I knew He understood me, and I was sure He heard me when I talked to Him. He would become my best Friend even before He became my Lord and Savior.
Adolf Hitler came to power because the confused and; senile President Hindenburg permitted it. In the early 1930s, Germany was in the throes of the economic depression that had begun on Wall Street in October 1929. The depression’s effects had been felt in Germany almost immediately; by 1933 nearly one third of the country was unemployed.
During the 1930 elections, the Nazis made the most noise because they were violently anti-communist and had the backing of wealthy German industrialists. ... By 1932, the Nazis had become even stronger as they rallied around the leadership of Adolf Hitler. With his staff, Hitler traveled to every village and hamlet to gain votes, his unemployment bandwagon gaining so much support that the Nazis more than doubled their parliament seats....[15]
Clearly, the law and Hitler were one. Later in the year, all other political parties were forbidden in Germany. The newly established secret police, the Gestapo, were given complete freedom to be ruthless, which would epitomize its character during the next twelve years in Germany.....
Hitler... enrolled a bodyguard of forty thousand men. A particularly sadistic group of men who were a law unto themselves, this organization was called Schutzstaffel (literally, “protective rank”)—abbreviated to SS. ... Overnight they rose from beer hall patrons to men with power, and that power went to their heads. Both Hitler and his SS men wanted a law to do without the law, and they soon had it.
The Gestapo were all members of the SS. Their duties were similar to those of the SS, and they were equally corrupt and power hungry. They all moved ahead by force, taking over government buildings, hoisting the swastika flag everywhere, and arresting any government official who opposed Hitler. President Hindenburg went along with everything except the persecution of the Jews. He even signed a decree in 1933, which freed all Nazis from prisons.
Every Nazi opponent or suspicious individual would be exterminated or driven out of the country. The lucky ones made it to safety, though they were few. Everything associated with the Jews would be the brunt of a particularly vicious attack, starting slowly in 1933 and culminating in an attempt at genocide or race annihilation.
Hitler even had the Reichstag building burned to the ground in 1933 because it reminded him of a synagogue. In the spring, a boycott was ordered against Jewish businesses and professions to force them to pay large indemnities to maintain their bare existence....[17]
* * *
It was difficult for me as a child to understand Hitler, this demagogue whose picture was everywhere—in our classroom, on street banners, and, later, even defiling church altars. Each morning my teacher, Fräulein (Miss) Kinzel, would pray toward the picture of Hitler. Her words still ring in my ears: ‘Dear God, protect our dear leader. Make him strong. Let us all learn to love him. May he have many years of glorious reign.” All of us had to fold our hands and bow our heads. Then we had to raise our arm in the proper Hell Hitler manner and sing the German national anthem with great gusto. Failure to follow this nationalistic ritual meant a beating or being turned over to the Gestapo. ...
A birthday card arrived from Father on my seventh birthday, after we hadn’t heard from him for more than a year. He explained that he had been sentenced to jail because of his involvement in the Social Democratic Party. ... Now he was accusing Mother of betraying his whereabouts, but we had no idea to where he had disappeared. He was free now, but the Nazis had ordered him to divorce Mother because she was Jewish. [19]
"You must take every precaution," Mother continued. "Keep to yourselves and never utter anything against the Nazis. Don’t trust anyone. Do you hear?” We nodded our understanding.... That winter most of our non-Jewish friends told us they could no longer associate with us. ... [21]
My lonely heart ached for Mother’s company.... Mother dragged herself home after dark and spent the evening repairing our worn-out, hand-me-down clothing. Mother and I talked about God a lot...
“Which God do you pray to, Mother?” I asked enthusiastically.
“Oh, just any God. Whichever one is listening I don’t know whose God it is—the Jews’ God or the Gentiles’ God. I don’t know if it’s Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad. You pray to Jesus if you want, if it makes you feel better.”
“Oh, Mother, it does! I just know Jesus hears me. Have you ever prayed to Jesus, Mother?”
“Once I did, I think. I don’t know, though, a lot of Jews have been killed by people bearing His name.”...
"At Christmas that year, I particularly strained to hear the carols coming from the church steeple several blocks away. The birth of Jesus had a special meaning to me for some reason. How strange to have such a friend as Jesus. We’d never met, but His presence was unmistakable.... [23]

"If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.... If they persecuted Me they will persecute you... for they do not know the One who sent Me." John 15:19-21

Chapter 2: Race Disgrace

Soon Gestapo agents dressed in plain clothes visited the church services. Nevertheless, Pastor Hornig knew who they were. We had heard that one of the leading Protestant churchmen in Germany was heading a movement to harmonize Christianity with Nazi beliefs....
"Pastor Hornig said the new Nazi church would be called the German Christian Church. Some German Protestant pastors would sell out to it, but most refused and then helped to organize the Confessional Evangelical Church, which would continue to preach the whole Bible, including the gospel of Jesus and the important role of the Jewish people in God’s eternal plan. It also would oppose having Hitler’s picture placed on church altars....
“Don’t forget to talk to Jesus about even the smallest need, Anita,” Pastor Hornig reminded me one morning after we left church. “He’s never too busy to listen, and He cares about all our problems, not just the big ones.”...
“I’ve talked to Jesus since I was six years old, Pastor,” I replied.... “Jesus is my best Friend.”
“But is He your Savior, too, Anita?” the pastor questioned as he bent over slightly, looking intently into my eyes. “Have you really asked Him into your life to be your loving Heavenly Father and the Savior for your sins?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed awkwardly. Then I replied enthusiastically, “But if I haven’t I want to do it!”
“Then just ask Him, Anita. It’s that simple. Ask Jesus to be your Savior today. Tomorrow may be too late. And He has promised eternal life to all those who receive Him. Then He will never leave you nor forsake you. He’ll always be your Comforter and Protector no matter how bad things get. Remember that, Anita, even when things worsen here in Germany, when all is black and uncertain and you feel utterly alone. If you have Jesus in your heart, He will get you through anything.” [26-27]
* * *
The next day a radio announcer said Hitler planned to shut all parochial schools because they didn’t include Nazism and they allowed Jews to attend.... Again, stern warnings were given to Germans who helped Jews in any way. Christians who helped Jews would be subject to special reprisals, including time in a concentration camp. [28]
The pastor had given each of us a Bible, and I watched Mother carry hers proudly out the door each week. If it was snowing she wrapped it carefully so that the thin pages would not get wet. ...
In spite of my ragged clothes, near-starvation rations, and all the absurdity of life in Nazi Germany, I was extremely happy. Was this the peace that Pastor Hornig had told me would result from Jesus living in my heart?... [29]
* * *
In Hitler’s opinion, the most dangerous Jews were those whose Jewishness was not obvious. They might be assimilating themselves into German society. Thus, all Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing in order to be easily identified. [37]

"...the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me." John 16:2-3

More will be added. At least one part will be included in our Christmas article.
You can ordered this book from Lighthouse Trails, 2005
Excerpts posted with permission.
Home The Changing Church Preparing for Persecution Victory in Christ
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The following six Adolf Hitler quotes are included here to show that he was in fact Christian and not, as many Christians have claimed, an atheist. For more information, see Hitler's Religious Beliefs and Fanaticism (off-site).
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)
I thank Heaven that a portion of the memories of those days still remains with me. Woods and meadows were the battlefields on which the 'conflicts' which exist everywhere in life were decided.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
...God have mercy!--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I was not in agreement with the sharp anti-Semitic tone, but from time to time I read arguments which gave me some food for thought. At all events, these occasions slowly made me acquainted with the man and the movement, which in those days guided Vienna's destinies: Dr. Karl Lueger and the Christian Social Party.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
How many of my basic principles were upset by this change in my attitude toward the Christian Social movement! My views with regard to anti-Semitism thus succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.-- Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work.--Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936
http://www.truetruths.com/COMMUNITY.htm
A COMMUNITY OF THINKERS
Whenever Zach did research, he always wanted to know what other people, especially thoughtful, intelligent people, said about the subject. Through his constant digging, he had uncovered quite a few thoughts and quotes discussing religion, many from Acharya S’s website, http://www.truthbeknown.com/, and many from http://www.infidels.org/, another excellent website.
One of the first quotes on her website that really caught his eye was one from Albert Einstein, who, by some counts, was a pretty bright guy!
Teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the archaic doctrine of a personal God, to give up the source of FEAR which has placed vast power in the hands of the clergy and priests. Such a doctrine is not only unworthy, but fatal, and has done incalculable harm to human spiritual progress.—Albert Einstein Then there was this quote from another brilliant man, the author Mark Twain:
Strange...a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; mouths golden rules and forgiveness multiplied seventy times seven and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!—Mark Twain
And from www.infidels.org, we have this quote from Thomas Edison (genius inventor):

"Religion is all bunk."-- Thomas EdisonAnd there were many, many more. Just a few of these from www.truthbeknown.com included the following:Hell is useless to sages, but necessary to the blind and brutal populace.—Polybius
...In religion, they become "holier than thou" types filled with terrible hatreds which in turn cause guilt complexes that drive them deeper into their religious frame of reference. The outlet for their scrambled emotions is to try to foist their beliefs—and their fears—onto the rest of us.—John KeelWhence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death, and religious wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose they, but the impious thing called religion and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man?—CardiffAll tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.—Thomas JeffersonIt seems to me that those who fear knowledge in favor of belief do so to pacify their own insecurity and "weakmindedness" and have no interest in establishing any relationship with reality... for their reality is founded in a group worship wherein the chant replaces thought. The hospital of religion needs to protect its code to prevent the masses from finding out that it was only a form of psychotherapy all along... Knowledge has always had a way of undoing secrets; after all, the dark ages ended when the age of enlightenment began.—Mike Conner Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. —Blaise Pascal ... Christianity is a monstrous fraud and delusion, that has desolated the earth and filled the spirit world with demons. . . . there is not a tenet, dogma, doctrine, ceremony, form or prayer, fast or feast, title of deity, form of church government, official rank or religious observance of any kind, that is not identical with some prototype to be found in one or more of the more ancient religious systems. . . . no such person, man, or God, as Jesus Christ, had anything to do with establishing the religion that has been taught in his name. . . . To get rid of the damning fact that there is no historical basis for their theological fictions, the Christian priesthood have been guilty of the heinous crime of destroying nearly all traces of the concurrent history of the first two centuries of the Christian era. What little of it they have permitted to come down to us, they have so altered and changed, as to destroy its historical value.—JM Roberts, Esq.Emotionals don't have to read, they just react on a snake's level... they strike out at whatever they perceive to be a threat or food. I sometimes think that belief-ism is a cop out which assigns its active participation in life to empowering an external authority and blindly accepting it as a know all, omnipotence wherein decisions are alleviated and unnecessary... it is a method by which a herd moves in concert.It would be wise to watch out for their fear that we do not get caught in the mindless stampede. Fanatics easily become something less than human. Here are some examples of where this happens: Genesis 6:5-9... or Deuteronomy 7:1-2 or Joshua 6:21 or Joshua 10:40-41, or Genesis 19: Genesis 19:12-26, Joshua 7:20-25, Joshua 8:24, Joshua 10:26, Joshua 10:28, Joshua 10:29, Joshua 10:31, Joshua 10:33, Joshua 10:34, Joshua 10:37, Joshua 10:38, Numbers 21:2-3, Numbers 21:33-35, Numbers 31:1-18, Deuteronomy 2:21-24, Deuteronomy 2:26-35, Judges 4:16 , Exodus 7:3, Exodus 7:13-14, Exodus 12:29-30, King 18:17-40, 2 Kings 2:23-24, Samuel 6:19, Samuel 6:6-11, Samuel 24:1-15, Chronicles 13:7-11, Chronicles 21:1-14.Or am I looking at the wrong bible?—Mike ConnerThe world, we are told, was created by a God who is both good and omnipotent. Before He created the world He foresaw all the pain and misery that it would contain; He is therefore responsible for all of it. It is useless to argue that the pain in the world is due to sin. In the first place, this is not true; it is not sin that causes rivers to overflow their banks or volcanoes to erupt. —Frederik BendzIt would seem, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. —Frederik BendzIn addition to Acharya S's website, Zach found some excellent material at http://www.infidels.org/, a collection of thoughtful words from a variety of free thinkers.
I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology.--Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, _Six_Historic_Americans_ by John E. Remsberg
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.-- Thomas Jefferson
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.--Benjamin Franklin, _Poor_Richard_, 1758
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.--James Madison,_A_Memorial_ and_Remonstrance, _2000_Years_of_Disbelief_ by James A. Haught
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.--Thomas Paine, _The_Age_of_Reason
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.--Thomas Paine
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, not by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church.--Thomas Paine, _Excerpts_from_The_Age_of_Reason:_Selected_Writings_of_Thomas_ Paine_, edited by Richard Emery Robers, NY Everybody's Vacation Publishing Co, 1945, p.342
The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.--George Washington, _2000_Years_of_Disbelief_, James A. Haught
One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.--The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968, p. 420
Religion is based . . . mainly upon fear . . . fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand . . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.--Bertrand Russell
The following six Adolf Hitler quotes are included here to show that he was in fact Christian and not, as many Christians have claimed, an atheist. For more information, see Hitler's Religious Beliefs and Fanaticism (off-site).
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)
I thank Heaven that a portion of the memories of those days still remains with me. Woods and meadows were the battlefields on which the 'conflicts' which exist everywhere in life were decided.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
...God have mercy!--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I was not in agreement with the sharp anti-Semitic tone, but from time to time I read arguments which gave me some food for thought. At all events, these occasions slowly made me acquainted with the man and the movement, which in those days guided Vienna's destinies: Dr. Karl Lueger and the Christian Social Party.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
How many of my basic principles were upset by this change in my attitude toward the Christian Social movement! My views with regard to anti-Semitism thus succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.-- Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work.--Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936
More quotes from http://www.infidels.org/include:
Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God.-- Martin Luther
…the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example…Had the holding of slaves been a moral evil, it cannot be supposed that the inspired Apostles…would have tolerated it for a moment in the Christian Church. In proving this subject justifiable by Scriptural authority [Luke 12:47], its morality is also proved; for the Divine Law never sanctions immoral actions.--Richard Furmanof the Baptist State Convention, Letter to South Carolina Governor, 1822
People who are bitter and hateful about slavery are obviously bitter and hateful against God and his word, because they reject what God says and embrace what mere humans say concerning slavery. This humanistic thinking is what the abolitionists embraced.-- Alabama State Senator Charles Davidson, citing biblical defenses of slavery, 1996
There is not one verse in the Bible inhibiting slavery, but many regulating it. It is not then, we conclude, immoral.--Rev. Alexander Campbell
Christians, it is needless to say, utterly detest each other. They slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse and cannot come to any sort of agreement in their teaching. Each sect brands its own, fills the head of its own with deceitful nonsense, and makes perfect little pigs of those it wins over to its side.-- Celsus (2nd Century C.E.)
The equal toleration of all religions...is the same as atheism.--Pope Leo XIII, "Imortale Dei"
We must not hold back in the battle for children's minds.--Church of England spokesman
Religion is a means of exploitation employed by the strong against the weak; religion is a cloak of ambition, injustice and vice.--Georges Bizet, letter to Edmond Galabert, 1866
I do further promise and declare, that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do and to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor condition and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay,strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants' heads against the wall, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race.--Pope Paul III, 1576
To affirm that the Sun...is at the centre of the universe and only rotates on its axis without going from east to west, is a very dangerous attitude and one calculated not only to arouse all Scholastic philosophers and theologians but also to injure our holy faith by contradicting the Scriptures.--Cardinal Bellermine, 17th century Church Master Collegio Romano, who imprisoned and tortured Galileo for his astronomical works
To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.--Cardinal Bellermine 1615, during the trial of GalileoIn addition to quotes from numerous thinkers and leaders listed above from http://www.infidels.org/, Zach was especially interested is some speeches and articles by the American Robert Green Ingersoll, an outspoken writer, philosopher and orator of the 1800s. Portions of Ingersoll's article, Why I Am Agnostic, include:
For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings.
*****
If we had been born in Constantinople, then most of us would have said: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." If our parents had lived on the banks of the Ganges, we would have been worshipers of Siva, longing for the heaven of Nirvana.
*****
Like the most of you, I was raised among people who knew --who were certain. They did not reason or investigate. They had no doubts. They knew that they had the truth. In their creed there was no guess -- no perhaps. They had a revelation from God. They knew the beginning of things. They knew that God commenced to create one Monday morning, four thousand and four years before Christ. They knew that in the eternity -- back of that morning, he had done nothing. They knew that it took him six days to make the earth -- all plants, all animals, all life, and all the globes that wheel in space. They knew exactly what he did each day and when he rested. They knew the origin, the cause of evil, of all crime, of all disease and death.
They not only knew the beginning, but they knew the end. They knew that life had one path and one road. They knew that the path, grass-grown and narrow, filled with thorns and nettles, infested with vipers, wet with tears, stained by bleeding feet, led to heaven, and that the road, broad and smooth, bordered with fruits and flowers, filled with laughter and song and all the happiness of human love, led straight to hell. They knew that God was doing his best to make you take the path and that the Devil used every art to keep you in the road.
They knew that there was a perpetual battle waged between the great Powers of good and evil for the possession of human souls. They knew that many centuries ago God had left his throne and had been born a babe into this poor world -- that he had suffered death for the sake of man -- for the sake of saving a few. They also knew that the human heart was utterly depraved, so that man by nature was in love with wrong and hated God with all his might.
At the same time they knew that God created man in his own image and was perfectly satisfied with his work. They also knew that he had been thwarted by the Devil, who with wiles and lies had deceived the first of human kind. They knew that in consequence of that, God cursed the man and woman; the man with toil, the woman with slavery and pain, and both with death; and that he cursed the earth itself with briers and thorns, brambles and thistles. All these blessed things they knew. They knew too all that God had done to purify and elevate the race. They knew all about the Flood -- knew that God, with the exception of eight, drowned all his children -- the old and young -- the bowed patriarch and the dimpled babe -- the young man and the merry maiden -- the loving mother and the laughing child -- because his mercy endureth forever. They knew too, that he drowned the beasts and birds -- everything that walked or crawled or flew -- because his loving kindness is over all his works. They knew that God, for the purpose of civilizing his children, had devoured some with earthquakes, destroyed some with storms of fire, killed some with his lightnings, millions with famine, with pestilence, and sacrificed countless thousands upon the fields of war. They knew that it was necessary to believe these things and to love God. They knew that there could be no salvation except by faith, and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
All who doubted or denied would be lost. To live a moral and honest life -- to keep your contracts, to take care of wife and child -- to make a happy home -- to be a good citizen, a patriot, a just and thoughtful man, was simply a respectable way of going to hell.
God did not reward men for being honest, generous and brave, but for the act of faith. Without faith, all the so-called virtues were sins, and the men who practiced these virtues, without faith, deserved to suffer eternal pain.
All of these comforting and reasonable things were taught by the ministers in their pulpits -- by teachers in Sunday schools and by parents at home. The children were victims. They were assaulted in the cradle -- in their mother's arms. Then, the schoolmaster carried on the war against their natural sense, and all the books they read were filled with the same impossible truths. The poor children were helpless. The atmosphere they breathed was filled with lies -- lies that mingled with their blood.
*****
I concluded that all religions had substantially the same origin, and that in fact there has never been but one religion in the world. The twigs and leaves may differ, but the trunk is the same.
*****
There have been many sun-gods, and they seem to have been the chief deities in the ancient religions. They have been worshiped in many lands, by many nations that have passed to death and dust.
Apollo was a sun-god and he fought and conquered the serpent of night. Baldur was a sun-god. He was in love with the Dawn -- a maiden. Chrishna was a sun-god. At his birth the Ganges was thrilled from its source to the sea, and all the trees, the dead as well as the living, burst into leaf and bud and flower. Hercules was a sun-god and so was Samson, whose strength was in his hair -- that is to say, in his beams. He was shorn of his strength by Delilah, the shadow -- the darkness. Osiris, Bacchus, and Mithra, Hermes, Buddha, and Quetzalcoatl, Prometheus, Zoroaster, and Perseus, Cadom, Lao-tsze, Fo-hi, Horus and Rameses, were all sun- gods.
All of these gods had gods for fathers and their mothers were virgins. The births of nearly all were announced by stars, celebrated by celestial music, and voices declared that a blessing had come to the poor world. All of these gods were born in humble places -- in caves, under trees, in common inns, and tyrants sought to kill them all when they were babes. All of these sun-gods were born at the winter solstice -- on Christmas. Nearly all were worshiped by "wise men." All of them fasted for forty days -- all of them taught in parables -- all of them wrought miracles -- all met with a violent death, and all rose from the dead.
The history of these gods is the exact history of our Christ.
This is not a coincidence -- an accident. Christ was a sun-god. Christ was a new name for an old biography -- a survival -- the last of the sun-gods. Christ was not a man, but a myth -- not a life, but a legend.
I found that we had not only borrowed our Christ -- but that all our sacraments, symbols and ceremonies were legacies that we received from the buried past. There is nothing original in Christianity.
*****
Suppose we had a man in this country who could control the wind, the rain and lightning, and suppose we elected him to govern these things, and suppose that he allowed whole States to dry and wither, and at the same time wasted the rain in the sea. Suppose that he allowed the winds to destroy cities and to crush to shapelessness thousands of men and women, and allowed the lightnings to strike the life out of mothers and babes. What would we say? What would we think of such a savage?
And yet, according to the theologians, this is exactly the course pursued by God.
*****
Let us be true to ourselves -- true to the facts we know, and let us, above all things, preserve the veracity of our souls.
If there be gods we cannot help them, but we can assist our fellow-men. We cannot love the inconceivable, but we can love wife and child and friend.
We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine -- with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
- Robert Green Ingersoll
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Helping People Find The Truth About Religion
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