Hitler, Neocons & Fundies
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Scary Fundies Mark III: Ominous Quotes from Infamous Christians
In my travels about the Web I stumbled across a chilling assemblage of excerpts from speeches and writing by Adolf Hitler and various right-wing Americans, mostly Fundamentalists. The implied challenge was to distinguish what Hitler said from what the Fundies did; and I've since noticed a variation on this list titled "Who Said It: Hitler—or Falwell?".
I cannot possibly improve upon the selection of quotes, for much work has obviously been expended collecting them, and so many brain cells sacrificed by exposure to lethal insipiness. Nonetheless, a comment to the 'blog entry I cited above, asking for references, received a rather snotty reply: "You should be able to copy and paste them into google [sic] and come up with sources." As a scientist, I get rankled when authors refuse to cite sources for important, and especially controversial, information. These quotes are plenty provocative to make excellent ammunition against ignorant Fundamentalists, utterly naïve to world history, convinced that Hitler was an athiest despite a complete lack of evidence for such an assertion except for a vague feeling that a "real Christian" wouldn't commit atrocities of the magnitude of Hitler's. (Paging Vlad the Impaler....) Consequently, I felt it worth investing the time to find reputable sources, as no Fundie would accept any of the quotes without a citation. (Most Fundies wouldn't even with a citation, but clear-thinking individuals with even a modicum of respect for evidence-based reasoning might find in them food for thought.) And since it wouldn't do to waste such effort, I wish to make my research available to the world at large. Searching out these various passages was a harrowing and draining experience, for it exposed me to far more incoherent, hateful and bigoted rambling by overprivileged cretins who claim to speak for one who allegedly died in the service of peace and love.
One can argue that Hitler cynically exploited religion to further his Reich, and I would not disagree; but that does not make him an atheist. Nonetheless, I would argue that Hitler's personal beliefs are beside the point. Hitler's religious fulminations beg the question of what evil designs these American right-wing lunatics might be surreptitiously advancing via their flatulent thunderings from the pulpit.
Below, then, is a sample of disturbing quotations, annotated to the best of my ability, from Adolf Hitler and a smattering of evangelical Rightists. You might not know all the cads and scoundrels quoted here. I certainly did not, so I added description where I felt it necessary. I also slightly modified one or two of Hitler's quotes to match the translation cited. (Several editions of Mein Kampf are referenced. I plan to read Mein Kampf sometime in the near future, and while I'm reading I'll clean up the citations with uniformity in mind.)
At the bottom of the list are some sources of additional outrageous quotes of the evangelical Right, if you find yourself consumed with morbid fascination and struck by a masochistic streak. Excerpts are arranged by subject, as in the original.
A Fighting Faith
"My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Saviour as a fighter." Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered in Munich, 12 April 1922 (also see Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, vol. 1, pp. 19-20, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942)
"[Jimmy Carter's] message of peace and reconciliation under almost all circumstances is simply incompatible with Christian teachings as I interpret them.. This 'turn the other cheek' business is all well and good but it's not what Jesus fought and died for. What we need to do is take the battle to the Muslim heathens and do unto them before they do unto us." Jerry Falwell, in a radio interview, 4 March 2002
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country." Randall Terry, head of Operation Rescue, in the Fort Wayne, Indiana News-Sentinel, 16 August 1993
"We are engaged in a social, political, and cultural war. There's a lot of talk in America about pluralism. But the bottom line is somebody's values will prevail. And the winner gets the right to teach our children what to believe." Gary Bauer, former head of the Family Research Council, attributed (source unknown)
"Nothing short of a great Civil War of Values rages today throughout North America. Two sides with vastly differing and incompatible world views are locked in a bitter conflict that permeates every level of society." James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, Children at Risk, pp. 19-20, Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990
"Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity." Sen. Joseph McCarthy, in a speech delivered in West Wheeling, Virginia, 9 February 1950
Public Education
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.... We need believing people." Adolf Hitler, speech given during negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933, 26 April 1933
"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved!, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers [Editor's Note: BWAAhaha!], 1979
"The Christian community has a golden opportunity to train an army of dedicated teachers who can invade the public school classrooms and use them to influence the nation for Christ." D. James Kennedy, founder of Coral Ridge Ministries, Education: Public Problems and Private Solutions, Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Coral Ridge Ministries, 1993
"We're going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools of America." Pat Buchanan, 1996 presidential candidate, addressing an anti-gay rally in Des Moines, Iowa, 11 February 1996
"The public education movement has also been an anti-Christian movement...." Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, 27 September 1993
"Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction." Adolf Hitler, quoted in H. Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction: Hitler Speaks, p. 42, New York: Putnam’s, 1940
No Atheists Allowed
"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 delivered in Berlin, 24 October 1933
"The Constitution of the United States...is a marvelous document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society." Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, 30 December 1981
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God." George H. W. Bush, in an interview with reporter Robert I. Sherman, 27 August 1987
"When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. 'What do you mean?' the media challenged me. 'You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, 'Yes, they are.'" Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p. 218, Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991
Fighting Immorality
"We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit…, We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press.... We want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess...." Adolf Hitler, in a speech given to the Reichstag, March 1936, from M. Hakeem, The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, pp. 871-872, London: Oxford University Press, 1942
"How much more forcefully can I say it? The time has come, and it is long overdue, when Christians and conservatives and all men and women who believe in the birthright of freedom must rise up and reclaim America for Jesus Christ." D. James Kennedy with Jim Nelson Black, Character & Destiny: A Nation in Search of its Own Soul, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1997
"Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. 1, Chapter 10
"We're fighting against humanism, we're fighting against liberalism... we are fighting against all the systems of Satan that are destroying our nation today... our battle is with Satan himself." Jerry Falwell, attributed (source unknown)
Fatherland Homeland Security
"Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus." John Ashcroft, in a commencement address given at Bob Jones University, 8 May, 1999
"This country belongs to God.... He's the One who brought the United States of America into existence. He had a special purpose for it.... He raised it up, and it's not going to be taken away from Him." Kenneth Copeland, televangelist, "Getting a Grip on America," Believer's Voice, April 1990, pp. 2-3.
"What we have to fight for...is the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the Creator." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 125 (edition uncertain—possibly the original)
"Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ—to have dominion in civil structures.... But it is dominion we are after... World conquest... And we must never settle for anything less...." George Grant, Presbyterian minister, The Changing of the Guard, pp. 50-51, Fort Worth, Texas: Dominion Press, 1987
"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost." D. James Kennedy, at the "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 18-19 April 2005
"Lord God, give us the strength that we may retain our liberty for our children and our children's children, not only for ourselves but also for the other peoples of Europe, for this is a war which we all wage, this time, not for our German people alone, it is a war for all of Europe and with it, in the long run, for all of mankind." Adolf Hitler, speech delivered in Berlin, 30 January 1942
"These perverted homosexuals absolutely hate everything that you and I and most decent, God-fearing citizens stand for. Make no mistake. These deviants seek no less than total control and influence in society, politics, our schools and in our exercise of free speech and religious freedom... If we do not act now, homosexuals will own America!" Jerry Falwell, in a fund-raising letter, 1999
"There will never be world peace until God's house and God's people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world." Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p. 227, Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991
The State and the Faith Community
"We are determined, as leaders of the nation, to fulfill as a national government the task which has been given to us, swearing fidelity only to God, our conscience, and our Volk.... This the national government will regard its first and foremost duty to restore the unity of spirit and purpose of our Volk. It will preserve and defend the foundations upon which the power of our nation rests. It will take Christianity, as the basis of our collective morality, and the family as the nucleus of our Volk and state, under its firm protection....May God Almighty take our work into his grace, give true form to our will, bless our insight, and endow us with the trust of our Volk." Adolf Hitler, 1 February 1933, addressing the nation as Chancellor for the first time, quoted in Volkischer Beobachter, 5 Aug. 1935 (cited from R. Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich)
"When the Christian majority takes over this country, there will be no satanic churches, no more free distribution of pornography, no more abortion on demand, and no more talk of rights for homosexuals. After the Christian majority takes control, pluralism (i.e., multiculturalism) will be seen as immoral and evil...." Gary Potter, journalist, quoted in S. R. Shearer, "Political Christianity"
"The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life." Adolf Hitler, in a speech given to the Reichstag, 23 March 1933
"You better believe that I want to build a Christian nation, because the only option [sic] is a pagan nation...." Randall Terry, in a speech at a banquet sponsored by the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance, 8 August 1995
"Imbued with the desire to secure for the German people the great religious, moral, and cultural values rooted in the two Christian Confessions, we have abolished the political organizations but strengthened the religious institutions." Adolf Hitler, in a speech given to the Reichstag, 30 January 1934
The Faithful in Mission
"If we remain strong and focused and tough when we need to, if we continue to speak clearly about right from wrong and defend the values—which are not American values, but God-given values—we can achieve peace." George W. Bush, Manchester, New Hampshire, 5 October 2002
"Remain strong in your faith, as you were in former years. In this faith, in its close-knit unity our people today goes straight forward on its way and no power on earth will avail to stop it." Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Coburg, 15 October 1937
"The short-term objective of this country is to find an enemy and bring them to justice before they strike us. The long-term objective is to make this world a more free and hopeful and peaceful place. I believe we'll succeed because freedom is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world." George W. Bush, Portsmouth, Ohio, 10 September 2004
"I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past, so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and our action, to our judgment and our resolution, that He will safeguard us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that He may grant us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the German people, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right, never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger." Adolf Hitler, in a speech given at Würzburg, 27 June 1937
Divine Appointment
"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, Ralph Mannheim, ed., p. 65, New York: Mariner Books, 1999
"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East." George W. Bush, to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen, as reported in the Israeli Newspaper Ha'aretz, 25 June 2003
For more of Hitler's words on Christianity, and for secondary sources for some of the above excerpts, see "Hitler's Speeches" from the Hitler Historical Museum; "Hitler's Christianity" from NoBeliefs.com; Hitler Was Christian" from EvilBible.com; and "Excerpts from Adolf Hitler's Speeches", February 1999 Newsletter, Cephas Ministry (warning: Fundie site).
Refer to: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/06/hate-sermons-from-pulpit.html
Resources for quotations by the American evangelical Right:
Jerry Falwell: Positive Atheism's Big Scary List of Jerry Falwell Quotations, by Positive Atheism
Pat Robertson: "Pat Robertson and Christian Coalition Quotes" at The Anti-Pat Robertson/Christian Coalition Site
Randall Terry: Wiki on SourceWatch, from the Center for Media & Democracy
Public schools: "Quotes about Public Schools by the Religious Right", on Holysmoke.org
General: "Know Your Enemy: Not-So-Great Minds' Quotes", on Atheist Empire; "Quotes from the American Taliban", on AdultThought
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