FASCISM'S HATRED OF RELIGION - (1)

One of the common attitudes all fascist regimes have possessed is that concerning religion. At first glance, it would appear that all fascist regimes have supported the religion of their peoples. But, the fascists have not been sincere in this endeavor. Their only aim is to dupe their people and religious organizations. It makes no difference to fascists whether the religion in question is Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or any other. It is sufficient that the religion is seen as enabling that society to bind together and to motivate people to work in the interests of fascism. When one examines the policies and practices of fascist dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, and even such contemporary fascists as Saddam Hussein, the true face of their enmity towards religion can be clearly seen. First of all, it is impossible for fascists to genuinely defend religion, because their character and principles are the exact opposite of the ethical foundation that religion instills in people. While the religion that God has chosen for mankind is one of peace and serenity, fascism consists of war and agitation. God commands pleasant speech, forgiveness and love, whereas fascists desire hatred and continual warfare. Therefore, fascists are not genuinely interested in seeing religion flourish, nor do they wish to see the ethics that accompany religion broadly disseminated, because, if this were to happen, then they will be unable to govern society according to their fascist ideals. For this reason, they seek to give the impression that they are committed to religion, although they also try to prevent its propagation through various measures and practices. The history of the 20th century is full of such examples.

The Nazis' Hatred of Religion

We have already examined the roots of Nazi ideology and its attitude to religion. As is shown in the examples we have considered, the Nazi ideology was perverse and opposed to all divine religions. The foundations of this ideology rest on Nietzsche's anti-religious philosophy, and Darwin's atheist theory of evolution which denies the fact of creation. The Nazis' perspective of ethics was in imitation of the pagan culture of ancient Greece and pre-Christian barbarian German tribes: Nazism was a pagan, idolatrous ideology. This fact has been expressed by many commentators on the subject. In an article titled "Darwinism and the Nazi Race Holocaust," the American researcher Jerry Bergman describes the Nazis' view of religion as such , Expunging of the Judeo-Christian doctrine of the divine origin of humans from mainline German (liberal) theology and its schools, and replacing it with Darwinism, openly contributed to the acceptance of Social Darwinism that culminated in the tragedy of the holocaust.102 Daniel Gasman, the author of The Scientific Origins of National Socialism, agrees: [Hitler] stressed and singled out the idea of biological evolution as the most forceful weapon against traditional religion and he repeatedly condemned Christianity for its opposition to the teachings of evolution. For Hitler evolution was the hallmark of modern science and culture, and he defended its veracity as tenaciously as Haeckel.103 Hitler once revealed his hatred of religion when he bluntly stated that religion is an: …organized lie [that] must be smashed. The State must remain the absolute master. When I was younger, I thought it was necessary to set about [destroying religion] …with dynamite. I've since realized there's room for a little subtlety... The final state must be… in St. Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him a few sinister old women… The young and healthy are on our side… Our peoples had previously succeeded in living all right without this religion. I have six divisions of SS men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn't prevent them from going to their death with serenity in their souls.104 As we have seen, the only notion Hitler considered necessary, on a spiritual level, was the understanding which leads people to "go to their death with serenity in their souls." This ideal was found in such pagan concepts as "the German soul," and "martial honor." He looked on divine religions, on the other hand, as beliefs that need to be "destroyed with dynamite." Hitler summed up his views on religion to his staff at a meeting at his house in Oberzalsberg: You see it's been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn't we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good?105 This was Hitler's true opinion of religion. If religion had commanded war, as with that of the Japanese, then it could be accepted in order to be used for his own ends. But Christianity taught peace, not war, and personal sacrifice instead of selfishness and rivalry. For this reason, the Nazi Party waged a continuous war against the Catholic Church. But it also tried to establish a "Christianity appropriate to Nazism."

The "Racist Christianity" of the Nazis

Although ultimately opposed to religion, in practice, the Nazis behaved diplomatically towards it. Their real aim was to use religious organizations as a tool to achieve their ends. Hitler was a particular enemy of the Catholic Church, which looked on all Christians as a supranational community. In its place, he intended to establish a church for Germans only, and by stages, to develop religion as a tool of German fascism. In a report entitled "The Nazi Party's Program and World View," the Nazi ideologist Gottfried Feder wrote: Surely, some day the German people also will find a form for its perception and experience of God, a form dictated by its Nordic blood. Surely, only then will the trinity of blood, faith and state be complete.106 According to this perspective, it is necessary for religion to be in harmony with the ideals of "blood and state,' in other words with the Nazis' racist ideology. In Mein Kampf, Hitler summed up how religion was to be manipulated, "Anyone who wants to win the broad masses must know the key that opens the door to their heart."107 In order to appeal to various communities, Hitler used religious terms as this "key," and sought to portray racism as a sacred ideal. Though he was a Darwinist, that is, one who denies creation by a divine being, when formulating his racist propaganda, Hitler made reference to creation, although distorting the idea, to use it as a justification for racism. For example, in Mein Kampf, he said: The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following: (a) Lowering of the level of higher race; (b) Physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness. To bring about such a development is, then, nothing else but to sin against the will of the eternal creator.108 Peoples who bastardise themselves or let themselves be bastardised, sin against the will of eternal Providence, and when their ruin is encompassed by a stronger enemy it is not an injustice done to them, but only the restoration of justice.109 Nazism's distortion of religious ideas in this manner, and its use of them to serve its own racist ideology, were to some extent effective, with the opportunistic administrators of a number of German churches playing an important role in the strategy. These hypocritical men of religion, collaborating with Hitler, helped to disseminate Nazi propaganda in several ways. In 1933, when Hitler had only recently come to power, the president of the Union of Catholic Germans, Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, said in a speech on November 2, 1933, "The kind Lord has blessed Germany by giving it in times of deep distress a leader who will lead it, through all distresses and weaknesses, through all crisis and moment of danger, with the sure instinct of the statesman into a happy future."110 Some others had also praised Hitler as someone who was specially chosen to rescue Germany from its historical misfortune and lead it to a bright future. While the Nazis were duping some churches to collaborate with them, they tried to intimidate others through pressure and fear. In 1932, the Protestant clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave a sermon in Berlin on the subject of "the truth." He praised the importance of love as opposed to a racist system based on hatred. He was condemned to death by the Nazis because of this subversive attitude. Between 1933 and 1939, a large number of Catholic priests were arrested. Erich Klausener, the leader of German Catholic Action, was killed in the purge of 1934. Catholic publications were banned. The Nazis also attacked a number of Protestant churches. However, those among the clergy who abetted the Nazi ideology were rewarded. One of these was Dr. Hans Kerrl, Hitler's Minister for Church Affairs. In an address he gave to church leaders on February 13, 1937, Dr. Kerrl openly declared Christianity a tool of Nazi ideology, "The party stands on the basis of Positive Christianity, and Positive Christianity is National Socialism... National Socialism is the doing of God's will."111 At the end of 1937 and the beginning of 1938, Protestant clergymen, submitting to Nazi terrorism, took an oath of loyalty to Hitler, and thus sealed the surrender of the religious establishment. Hitler thereby enforced his domination over all spheres of life. Even the church was in his hands. But his real goal was to do away with all divine religions, and take Germany fully into paganism. In a secret decree dated June 1941, Nazis' aim of destroying religion was described in this way: More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs, the pastors... Never again must an influence on leadership of the people be yielded to the churches. This influence must be broken completely and finally. Only the Reich government, and by its direction the Party, its components, and attached units, have a right to leadership of the people.112

The True Meaning of the Nazis' Anti-Semitism

In order to understand the Nazis' religious ideas and policies, we must examine their fanatical hostility to the Jews and Judaism. The Nazis' anti-Semitism was a part of their hatred of religion. Because, according to Nazi logic, the Germans had first been a warrior-pagan society, until they had abandoned that culture with the spread of Christianity, a continuation of Judaism. The Nazis' hatred of Christianity stemmed from the fact they saw it as a "Jewish conspiracy." That the Prophet Jesus, himself of Jewish origins, should be loved and respected by the Germans, whom they considered the "master race," was an idea the Nazis found unacceptable. In the Nazis' opinion, it was not prophets of Jewish origin who should light the way for the German people, but the cruel and barbaric warriors of pagan German culture. According to the Nazi ideology, the history of the world was seen as a conflict between the "Aryan race" and the "Semites." To the Nazis, the Aryan race was the leader of Indo-European culture, and the Semites (the Jews and Arabs) the leaders of Middle Eastern culture. The fundamental characteristic of Indo-European culture was its pagan belief system. It was for this reason that the Nazis saw themselves as the inheritors of paganism. They looked on the Jews as a hostile race who had abandoned paganism and spread monotheistic belief to the rest of the world. The Pink Swastika, which discusses the Nazis' pagan ideologies, summarizes: The reason why the Nazis first attacked the Jewish people and swore to exterminate them physically and spiritually is because the teachings of the Bible, both the Torah and the New Testament, represent the foundations on which the whole system of Christian ethics rests.113 This errant belief of the Nazis can be discerned in many other fascist movements as well. Many neo-fascist groups today hold pagan beliefs which they consider "the religion of the Aryan race," and bear a particular hatred of the revealed religions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, which they describe as "Semitic myth." Similarly, based on such deviant logic, fascist groups have emerged in the Islamic world and have tried to develop a new type of anti-Semitism in the form of "anti-Arabism." However, the divine religion was not addressed solely to the Semitic races, but to everyone. Fascism, which denies the religion that God has revealed to mankind, and reveres the perverse paganism of its ancestors, is actually a great error. God mentions these errant people who turn to the "religion of their ancestors" in the Koran: When they are told, "Follow what God has sent down to you," They say, "We are following what we found our fathers doing." What, even though their fathers did not understand a thing and were not guided! (Koran, 2:170)

Fascism's Hypocritical Policy on Religion

Hitler's hypocritical policy towards religion was not a method restricted to Nazism, but is a general characteristic of fascist regimes. Religion is merely used as a tool by fascist ideologues, because they realize that they will be faced with a fierce reaction from people as a result of their cruelty and racist policies unless they disguise them in religious rhetoric. So, they distort religion to suit their own ends. They use the language and ideals of their society's religion, but when it comes to its implementation, a system very far removed from religion becomes recognizable. The strategy is merely a policy designed by fascist leaders in order to unite their people under them, because they realize that people will be prepared to make all sorts of sacrifices in the name of religion, and are willing to endure a great deal for the sake of these lofty beliefs. So, they present themselves as acting in the name of God and religion. They seek to portray a religious image of themselves by exploiting the language and symbols of faith in their slogans, and propaganda. Hypocritically though, fascists carry out the great cruelties and inhumane acts which they believe to be necessary. In essence, what fascists practice and what they preach are totally opposed. The fascists' deceptive use of religion in this way and for their own power is merely another example of the extent of their malevolence. God has this to say about those who use lies against Him: Who could do greater wrong than those who invent lies against God? Such people will be arrayed before their Lord and the witnesses will say, "Those are the ones who lied against their Lord." Yes indeed! God's curse is on the wrongdoers. (Koran, 11:18) On the other hand, those who are deceived by fascist slogans and influenced by their tactics are not to be perceived as sincere either. These people are rude and ignorant, with a poorly developed reasoning ability, who see religion merely as a legacy inherited from their ancestors. For this reason, they either fail to see or ignore the falsehood, depravity and lack of coherence by which the fascists employ religion. As we have seen in the previous pages, fascists have used religion to effect in people the belief that racism and a Darwinist outlook on the world are proper and correct. But, this strategy merely again reveals the fascists' lack of intelligence. Because, it is obvious that religion does not support racism, nor competition or a struggle for survival among people. God has revealed that the only superiority between people lies in godliness, which is dependant on devotion, love and co-operation between people, and not on competition. However, fascists are only able to deceive the most ignorant sections of society with this false appearance of religion.

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