We might be in danger of not understanding the difference between Christendom and Christianity.
The prevailing system and worldview in western Europe in the 20th century was Christendom. Pick a random date, and a man goes to the hospital in England, and as he checks in he fills out a form, and ticks the box that says he is a Christian.
He might be no such thing. Never went to church. Never believed. In every aspect of his life he might be irreligious, but there was a time in history (pre Jedi option on forms!) when he would identify as a Christian because he was an Englishman, and a good Englishman was a Christian.
This sort of worldview intertwined in numerous facets of society. I remember Primary School back in the day in England. We sang Christian hymns at assembly. Even in high school the headmaster might have read an excerpt from the Christian scriptures, and so on.
This was a secular school, not a church school or anything like that. (Granted, I know all this has changed now, and we are multicultural, etc. No need for anyone to make that point).
The point I am making is that for most of the 20th Century, Western Europe had a prevailing worldview in keeping with Christendom.
It massively strains credibility to attach any kind of logic to Hitler. He was batshit. He also changed his religious views through his life, starting as a catholic, describing himself as a Christian in Mein Kampf, before later in his political career being increasingly influenced by pantheism and Nordic mythology, and he even tried to promote a new version of Christianity called âPositive Christianityâ, reworking a lot of the doctrine to be sympathetic to his personal ideology, recasting Jesus as an Aryan Warrior etc. He was a bit all over the place.
But nevertheless, he was never, ever an atheist. He dislike atheism and believed in a god right until the end.
Not sure about that. Itâs only last year that I had to phone school to complain because they sent my 5 year old son a worksheet about how Jesus drove the demons out of a hysterical woman.
I also remember the time that my eldest came home stating that if peopleâs bodies donât work properly they are being punished by god. As my brother in law is a wheelchair user, this is a big problem for us.
This was from getting a vicar in to talk to the kids and giving him free reign to spout utter nonsense.
Itâs not a terrible school, but they are a bit lazy at times.
My view on RE in schools is that it is fine to educate the kids on what the major world religions teach, in an informative way, and not going into the periphery of things. The overarching thing should be in order to promote understanding of how different people might see the world.
Still, RE is a ânice to haveâ sort of subject to round out an early education, but obviously the kids need to learn maths, English, science, languages, history, geography, and so on and so forth.
Sorry did I just read above âHitler was a Christianâ
This thread is getting silly.
Hitler may have been a Christian from the point of view that he lived in a âChristian countryâ but to even suggest Hitler was a Christian just because he proclaimed to be carrying out Gods work is ludicrous
Hitlers religious views were a confused mess, but he made a number of proclamations about the role of Christianity in German Life, that leave little doubt that he was a Christian, and even where he clashed with the church he believed he was acting as a Christian.
Even if you want to argue he had a twisted view of Christianity, and he wasnât really a Christian, you canât argue he was a deeply religious man and certainly not an atheist.