Quath,
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters -- yes, even his own life -- he cannot be my disciple."
You know the importance of taking things in context, so let's look at that statement which gets expanded in the following verses:
Luke 14:25-35:
25 Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 "
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 "
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down
and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 "Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, `This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down
and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 "Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 "
So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. 34 "Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? 35 "It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Jesus is not literally talking about hating one's own family and own life, that runs counter to everything else he states in the gospels. The context of Luke 14:26 supports this since Jesus is talking about counting the cost of being a disciple - that one must be willing to give up everything to follow him. This is shown in the following:
Matt. 22:36-40, '36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, " `YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."'
While one is to love one's neighbor as one's self, which includes family, love and devotion to God supercedes that. One is to leave family only if it is necessary in following the will of God. But one is not to literally hate one's family.
Hitler appears to me to be parly Christian and partly something else. I think he likes the idea that God is racist that supports one race against all their neighbors as told by the OT. So he picked and chose his religion.
I am curious if you happen to know of any stats showing the percentage of "Christian" (those who claim to be) population in Germany at the time of Hitler's rise to power and those who actually supported him.
I also must admit ignorance of German history regarding Hitler's party platform prior to and during his attempts at world conquest and annihilation of the Jews. Did what he tell his supporters change or did he always make known his hate for Jews (I'm assuming that his plans for world domination were kept under wraps)?
The point I wanted to make here is that no one can be partly a Christian and partly something else; one is either completely Christian or completely something else. Perhaps you meant in the views he propagated instead of his actual religious beliefs.
The main point is that no one can be a Christian and do what Hitler did. As I stated above, like a good politician, he used propaganda and rhetoric very well.
What I am saying is that he appealed to all the German Christians to join him in his war.
That partially answers the above, and I agree, but this doesn't make him a Christian, nor all of those who supported him.
So German Christians gave him the power to wage war agains the rest of Christian Europe.
Again, we should look for some stats, although I am inclined to believe that a large portion of the population claimed to be Christian.
Why are Christians so easily led into war? I think it is because of the Bible.
I think it's because they're human. True, the Bible does say to obey one's rulers, but that is not to supercede what is morally right. And I think we agree that genocide and world domination through war isn't morally right.
Perhaps it is because one can be convinced that "they" are "evil" and "we" are "good," therefore, we must eradicate the evil. But this seems to go beyond religious beliefs.
If a leader says "God told me to go to our neighbor and kill them" do you believe him? How do you know what God is telling him? You know God did this in the past, so why not today?
I wouldn't believe such a leader because of God's revelation in the NT. In the OT, there wasn't a way to deal with sin in the world as a whole, but he did give the Israelites a way to atone for their sins.
God also promised Abraham the territory where he walked and by the time the Israelites were large enough, the land was settled by many other unrighteous peoples who didn't care for God. One of God's ways of dealing with these other peoples was to use the Israelites to fight them. Other times, when Israel sinned, God used the unrighteous peoples to take captive the Israelites. And on it goes.
I was a way of dealing with sinful people who gave no regard to God and also a way to establish territory, a nation, for the Israelites.
Note: those are some of my quick thoughts and not necessarily correct theology.
So I have a personal stake in knowing how religion will influence my life when people who believe that genocide is sometimes morally good can determine what will happen with my country and my life.
But that happens apart from religion also, as your own example of Hitler points out. His was based on evolutionary thinking that the Aryan race was superior to all others.
