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Nazism and Christianity
by Diane Vera
Copyright © 2006, 2009 by Diane Vera. All rights reserved.
Was Hitler Christian? Here's a page of quotes showing that Hitler apparently was, indeed, Christian. Others have managed to dig up quotes that would seem to show that Hitler was an atheist, a deist, a Pagan, or an occultist of some kind. Personally, I suspect that Hitler, like many political leaders, saw religion as a tool to be used for political ends, and that what he had to say about religion depended on who he was talking to at a given moment. Since the majority of Germans were Christians, it was obviously in his best interests to appeal to Christians if he wanted to attain and keep political power. It is also not clear that he was genuinely Pagan, etc., either, rather than just trying to rally different kinds of racists and Jew-haters.If today's neo-Nazis are to have even the remotest chance of attaining power, they too will need to appeal to Christians, because the majority of white people are Christian. Let us now consider the consequences of neo-Nazism's need to appeal to Christians.
What kinds of Christians would most likely be attracted to neo-Nazism? Obviously, not the more tolerant sorts. In the vast majority of cases, a Christian who tolerates people of other religions is likely also to reject racism - or at least to reject such blatant forms of racism as are espoused by the neo-Nazis, even if they may still be racist in more subtle ways.
Furthermore, racialist ideology itself is all about preserving a "cohesive people" (as even Joy of Satan founder Maxine's husband Cliff Herrington put it in one of his speeches - here's a brief audio excerpt). Preserving a "cohesive people" necessarily involves culture as well as race; and culture certainly does include religion. Hence it is only natural for many racialist ideologues to oppose religious diversity, just as they oppose racial diversity within a given region.
Many neo-Nazis and many other White Nationalists consider religious diversity to be "culturally decadent." Naturally they consider Satanism to be even more "decadent."
These same neo-Nazis and many other White Nationalists might nevertheless be willing to put aside their religious differences with other White Nationalists in the short run, for the short-term strategic purpose of being able to work together with other White Nationalists. But this doesn't mean they would continue to be religiously tolerant if/when their desired White Nation were ever to come into existence.
A Christian neo-Nazi will in most cases believe that Christianity has been a vital part of the culture of the white Western world for the past 2000 years and is therefore the religious tradition that must be preserved in the West, albeit perhaps in modified form such as Christian Identity. Hence neo-Nazi Christians will most likely favor efforts to keep the Western world Christian and will therefore reject, on principle, the very idea of religious tolerance even toward other mainstream religions, let alone toward Satanism - at least in the long run.
Thus, neo-Nazi Christians are likely to support the agenda of the Christian religious right wing. Moreover, they are likely to see the religious right wing as a good recruiting ground for neo-Nazism. (This may be one of the reasons why some neo-Nazi groups have focussed on anti-gay activism.) Hence I would expect to see more and more religiously intolerant Christians joining the neo-Nazi movement. And their prevalence will inevitably shape the agenda of the larger neo-Nazi movement itself, hardening the White Nationalist movement's already strong bias against "multiculturalism" and hence against religious diversity.
There are some other neo-Nazis who say that Christianity should be rejected because of its Jewish origins, and who argue that Christian Identity is just a silly attempt to wriggle out of recognizing Christianity's obvious Jewish origins. However, the most natural religion for these neo-Nazis to embrace isn't Satanism but Norse Reconstructionism/Heathenism. Although Norse Heathenism isn't inherently a racist religion, and although there are also plenty of Heathens who reject neo-Nazism and other forms of White Nationalism, it is only natural for a racial nationalist to want to revive the traditions of one's ancestors. Satanism, on the other hand, can't make any such racially respectable claims - not even if you happen to believe that Satan is a blond and blue-eyed humanoid (as the Joy of Satan folks believe). Thus, neo-Nazi Heathens are as likely as neo-Nazi Christians to see Satanism as "culturally decadent."
In any case, in the very unlikely event that a neo-Nazi movement were to succeed here in the U.S.A., it is several orders of magnitude more unlikely that the Heathen faction would prevail within a successful neo-Nazi movement. A successful neo-Nazi movement here in the U.S.A. would almost certainly be dominated by Christians, because the majority of white people are Christian.
It is even more unlikely that any Satanist faction would prevail. Even now, Satanists are only a tiny, despised minority among neo-Nazis and other White Nationalists. For example, on the Stormfront White Nationalist Community's discussion board, the "Theology" forum has four sub-forums: "Traditional Christianity," "Christian Identity," "Pre-Christian Indo-European Religions," and "Agnosticism/Atheism." There is no "Satanism" sub-forum. (Their "Theology" forum is no longer public, but can be found, on the Internet Archive site, for February 2008 and earlier.)
Within today's neo-Nazi movement, some Christians have been persuaded to put aside their religious differences with Pagan, atheist, and even Satanist neo-Nazis, on the grounds that race is more important. But their tolerance is only temporary. As far as I can tell, their attitude is something like, "Let's win the forthcoming race war first; then we can fight about religion."
And then, who would most likely win that hypothetical forthcoming fight about religion? Obviously, not Satanists.
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