← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Stigmata
Thread ID: 17640 | Posts: 34 | Started: 2005-04-04
2005-04-04 14:29 | User Profile
[img]http://christianactionforisrael.org/images/judeo-christian.gif[/img] Why Christianity is Good for America
by Ben Shapiro
[font=Copperplate Gothic Bold][size=5][color=#800000][size=3][font=Arial][color=black][QUOTE] American Jews should celebrate the existence of Christmas. We should feel joy when Christmas comes around, and not just because American Christianity is tolerant. American Jews should feel joy specifically because America is a Christian country -- the dominance of tolerant Christianity means that more non-Jews are fulfilling God's plan for them.[/color][/font][/size] [font=Arial][size=3][color=black][/QUOTE] [/color][/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=3][color=black][QUOTE]American Christianity binds its adherents to most, if not all, of the Noahide Laws. Why shouldn't Jews rejoice when Christians practice their faith? Observing Christianity often means fulfilling the obligations of the righteous non-Jew. May Jews and non-Jews alike serve the Creator in the way God meant them to, and may we share the fruits of our labors both in this world and in the world to come. [/QUOTE][/color][/size] [/font]
[url="http://christianactionforisrael.org/judeochr/good.html"][font=Arial][size=1]http://christianactionforisrael.org/judeochr/good.html[/size][/font][/url] [/color][/size][/font]
2005-04-04 14:45 | User Profile
What's with this stupid quotation of yours:
[COLOR=Purple][B]"As a Jew, Paul certainly knew that of all of the people of the world the Jews, first and foremost, needed their souls saved. 'Go not...to the Gentiles...but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' demanded Christ. Paul ignored it. He went to the Greeks and the Romans and brought them his 'Christianity': a 'Christianity' with which the Roman Empire became unhinged. 'All men are equal! Brotherhood! Pacifism! No more privileges!' And the Jew triumphed."
Reality check: the [I]Western[/I] part of the Roman empire collapsed, [B]not [/B] because of Christianity, but because Herr Hitler's Germanic ancestors overran it. The [I]Eastern [/I], Byzantine part of the empire kept on existing, (preventing the Islamic invasion of Europe, btw) for another thousand years, thank you very much.
Petr
2005-04-04 15:01 | User Profile
Stigmata,
Apparently you are unclear on the concept, but as a general rule one usually has some kind of point to convey when they make a new post.
Just an FYI, if you will.
2005-04-04 15:18 | User Profile
Texas, the point he is making: [QUOTE] "Observing Christianity often means fulfilling the obligations of the righteous non-Jew."[/QUOTE]Good Christians make good Jews.
Stigmata follows this with a quote from Hitler, indicating that the values of Pauline Christianity destroyed the Roman empire.
2005-04-04 15:27 | User Profile
[QUOTE=albion]Texas, the point he is making: Good Christians make good Jews.
Stigmata follows this with a quote from Hitler, indicating that the values of Pauline Christianity destroyed the Roman empire.[/QUOTE]
Oh, I see. He's another one of those people. Should've known it wasn't anyone doing any kind of original thinking.
:yawn:
2005-04-04 15:27 | User Profile
Christianity is good for America because it gives whites a sense of community, it promotes sufficient birthrates, and it promotes limited government.
2005-04-04 17:04 | User Profile
HH,
I'll give you the first two, but how do you figure on the last point? I'm curious.
2005-04-04 17:20 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]HH,
I'll give you the first two, but how do you figure on the last point? I'm curious.[/QUOTE] My two cents:
It teaches equality under the law and that there is no duty to obey unjust governments.
2005-04-04 17:42 | User Profile
I'm puzzled by Stigmata. Maybe with time I'll know where he/she/it is coming from. :huh:
Secondly, I'm sort of curious how non-Pauline Christianity (i.e., the Jesus movement without Paul's influence) would look like according to our friend.
2005-04-04 18:27 | User Profile
[QUOTE=SteamshipTime]My two cents:
It teaches equality under the law and that there is no duty to obey unjust governments.[/QUOTE]
What about that whole "render unto Caesar" stuff? I admit that I do not know much of the current thought on, or interpretation of, that particular passage, but it seems to me to clear the way for a government of any size, as long as it does not interfere with a Christian's duty to God. Am I wrong on that?
2005-04-04 18:34 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]HH,
I'll give you the first two, but how do you figure on the last point? I'm curious.[/QUOTE]
My general observation is that the less Christian a man is, the more he looks to the State to be his master. I see a relationship between the growth of government in America and the decline of Christianity.
2005-04-04 18:54 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]What about that whole "render unto Caesar" stuff? I admit that I do not know much of the current thought on, or interpretation of, that particular passage, but it seems to me to clear the way for a government of any size, as long as it does not interfere with a Christian's duty to God. Am I wrong on that?[/QUOTE] The statement needs to be read in context. Christ's statement was a clever play on words, meant to disarm and baffle the Sadducees who asked it, hoping that His response would justify an arrest by the Roman authorities for treason. If you think about it, there is a qualitative difference between "the things that are Caesar's" and the "things that are God's."
The statements in 1 Peter 2 provide further context. In a fallen world, there has to be an arbiter on force, and so governments are instituted to punish evildoers and to praise the good. When government does not do this, it is not worthy of obedience. Thus, all the members of the early Church were subject to imprisonment and execution as lawbreakers.
I would also point out that much of what government does is simply theft, which is in violation of God's laws.
2005-04-04 18:57 | User Profile
[QUOTE=SteamshipTime]My two cents:
It teaches equality under the law and that there is no duty to obey unjust governments.[/QUOTE] There is also the traditional Catholic teaching of subsidiarity, which encourages localism and distributed decision-making.
2005-04-04 19:00 | User Profile
Thanks to both.
I remember that phrase used in conjunction with obeying laws in one of Michael Pierce's columns about the Puerto Rican Day parade in NYC in which a host of women were groped/assaulted while the cops did nothing. Pierce stated that he would not have stood by, even if unarmed by law and "render unto Caesar" was his rationale for obeying the law in regards to carrying weapons.
2005-04-04 23:29 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]Oh, I see. He's another one of those people. Should've known it wasn't anyone doing any kind of original thinking.
:yawn:[/QUOTE] Yep. Blame poor old Hitler for everything... :hitler:
2005-04-05 04:42 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]What about that whole "render unto Caesar" stuff?[/QUOTE]
Everyone wants smaller government, at least when it comes to themselves being subjected to government. They only want bigger government for you. Someone who will render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's is someone who is not going to want bigger government for you because he appreciates that he will also be subject to that government.
2005-04-05 06:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]What about that whole "render unto Caesar" stuff? [/QUOTE]
You may find the following helpful, MST: (it's a pdf file)
[url=http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/chandst.pdf]Render unto Caesar…and unto God: A Lutheran View of Church and State[/url]
A Report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod September 1995
2005-04-05 12:52 | User Profile
Except for instances when government interferes with religious practices such as prayer, worship, etc., Christianity teaches submission to governmental authority. For example:
Romans 13:1-6
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
The above is obviously false, of course. There have egregious instances of rulers being a "terror to good works" throughout recorded history, and everyone here knows it. And belief in the divine inspiration of passages such as the above was the source of the ridiculous "Divine Right of Kings" superstition under which countless people needlessly suffered during the Dark Ages. "Disobey your earthly masters and you'll go to hell." How convenient for the so-called "authorities."
Paul asks: "Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?" The answer is NO, I won't be afraid of "the power." Screw "the power," screw rulers, and screw anyone else who thinks he has some right to my unquestioning obedience.
2005-04-05 13:23 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]Stigmata,
Apparently you are unclear on the concept, but as a general rule one usually has some kind of point to convey when they make a new post.
Just an FYI, if you will.[/QUOTE]The point was obvious, but "as a general rule" I'll elaborate: when a Jew says something is good for America it's a pretty safe bet he means it is good for the Jews. Why would he believe Christianity in America is good for the Jews? Hmmm. Perhaps because it serves Jewish interests: Anti-racism. Support for massive non-white immigration. Support for civil rights. Pro-Zionism. Holohoax "remembrance" cum guilt. Indeed, Christianity seems to be the very universalistic morality in which the particularist Jew thrives. So the question is, if this Jew's implication is right and Christianity is good for the Jews, can Christianity simultaneoulsy be good for the White race the Jew is destroying???
2005-04-05 14:07 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Stigmata]The point was obvious, but "as a general rule" I'll elaborate: when a Jew says something is good for America it's a pretty safe bet he means it is good for the Jews. Why would he believe Christianity in America is good for the Jews? Hmmm. Perhaps because it serves Jewish interests: Anti-racism. Support for massive non-white immigration. Support for civil rights. Pro-Zionism. Holohoax "remembrance" cum guilt. Indeed, Christianity seems to be the very universalistic morality in which the particularist Jew thrives. So the question is, if this Jew's implication is right and Christianity is good for the Jews, can Christianity simultaneoulsy be good for the White race the Jew is destroying???[/QUOTE]
Lord only knows how sick to death I am of you idiot loudmouth nazi atheist trolls. All ten to twenty of you are the most miserable, misanthropic people I have ever come across in my thirty five years of life. If I had one wish it would be that each of you would forever lose internet access, that way I know I'd never, ever come across your petty, infantile and above all stupid ideas in real life.
Get lost, squirrel.
2005-04-05 14:09 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Angler] The above is obviously false, of course. There have egregious instances of rulers being a "terror to good works" throughout recorded history, and everyone here knows it. True, but that has to be balanced against the instances of rulers enabling peace and prosperity, as well. Rulers are just men, after all, and they can be either good or bad.
[QUOTE=Angler]And belief in the divine inspiration of passages such as the above was the source of the ridiculous "Divine Right of Kings" superstition under which countless people needlessly suffered during the Dark Ages. "Disobey your earthly masters and you'll go to hell." How convenient for the so-called "authorities."[/QUOTE]Surely you know that the 'Divine Right of Kings' was based at least as much on Celtic and Germanic traditions as upon Christianity? And which 'countless' people are you referring to? And what about the 'countless people [who have] needlessly suffered' since the demise of the concept of the 'Divine Right of Kings'? You sound like you have an axe to grind.
2005-04-05 14:57 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]You may find the following helpful, MST: (it's a pdf file)
[url=http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/chandst.pdf]Render unto Caesarââ¬Â¦and unto God: A Lutheran View of Church and State[/url]
A Report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of The Lutheran Churchââ¬âMissouri Synod September 1995[/QUOTE]
Thanks, Tex. Downloaded it for later reading.
2005-04-05 15:11 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]Lord only knows how sick to death I am of you idiot loudmouth nazi atheist trolls. All ten to twenty of you are the most miserable, misanthropic people I have ever come across in my thirty five years of life. If I had one wish it would be that each of you would forever lose internet access, that way I know I'd never, ever come across your petty, infantile and above all stupid ideas in real life.
Get lost, squirrel.[/QUOTE]
But don't hold back, Tex.
Tell us what you really think! :clap:
2005-04-05 19:53 | User Profile
I used to think like Stigmata until I really spent some time studying the question. I've changed my mind on Christianity. I believe, and the evidence shows, that Christianity is compatible with anti-Semitism, racialism, and National Socialism.
If any one cares I can expand.
2005-04-05 23:24 | User Profile
[QUOTE=friedrich braun]If any one cares I can expand.[/QUOTE]Yes, go ahead ... I'm listening. :blink:
2005-04-06 11:45 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]Lord only knows how sick to death I am of you idiot loudmouth nazi atheist trolls. All ten to twenty of you are the most miserable, misanthropic people I have ever come across in my thirty five years of life. If I had one wish it would be that each of you would forever lose internet access, that way I know I'd never, ever come across your petty, infantile and above all stupid ideas in real life.
Get lost, squirrel.[/QUOTE]Not very Christian of you. Maybe you're still in a bad mood since the Schindler/Schiavo vegetable was put down.
2005-04-06 12:07 | User Profile
[QUOTE=friedrich braun]I used to think like Stigmata until I really spent some time studying the question. I've changed my mind on Christianity. I believe, and the evidence shows, that Christianity is compatible with anti-Semitism, racialism, and National Socialism.
If any one cares I can expand.[/QUOTE]MIT BRENNENDER SORGE [size=3]ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI ON THE CHURCH AND THE GERMAN REICH[/size]
[QUOTE]Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community - however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things - whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds. [/QUOTE][QUOTE]None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are "as a drop of a bucket" (Isaiah xI, 15). [/QUOTE][size=3]Given at the Vatican on Passion Sunday, March 14, 1937. [/size][font=Times][size=3] [center]PIUS XI [/size][/font][/center]
[url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge_en.html"]http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge_en.html[/url]
2005-04-06 12:22 | User Profile
[QUOTE]StigmataWhoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community - however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things - whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.[/QUOTE] Well quoth.
Christianity is very pro-nationalism, because nationalism is an integral part of God's plan of salvation (e.g. Articles 56-58 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church).
But at the same time Christianity insists that nationalism is good when it is seen as part of this broader plan of salvation for all of mankind.
The Nazis took German nationalism - a good in and of itself - and placed it above all other values. "Germany over all" was their slogan.
The Nazis thus committed the classic sin - they took a good created thing and elevated it above its proper station, in effect turning it into an idol.
This is what the Holy Father was saying, and he's absolutely right about this.
Christianity is radically pro-nationalist (although you'd never guess it by listening to most churchmen nowadays), but it insists that only God - and not Germany or any other nation - is above all.
Christianity is fundamentally at odds with Nazism.
2005-04-06 13:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE=friedrich braun]I used to think like Stigmata until I really spent some time studying the question. I've changed my mind on Christianity. I believe, and the evidence shows, that Christianity is compatible with anti-Semitism, racialism, and National Socialism.
If any one cares I can expand.[/QUOTE] I'm interested, please go on. God knows there are too many emasculated girly-men, with conventionally positive views on Negroes and Jews, masquerading as Christians already.
2005-04-06 16:50 | User Profile
You Shall Know them by their Fruits
Those with even a modest knowledge of the brutal history of the Third Reich know that the Nazis put into practice all of Martin Luther's recommendations against the Jews, and more. They burned their synagogues in honor of the "positive Christianity" Adolf Hitler claimed to stand for; they seized and burned their houses; they took public delight in destroying the sacred and precious Torahs and Talmuds of the Jews; they separated life and limb from the rabbis; they certainly abolished safe travel for the Jews ââ¬â the only travel they had was a one-way trip on cattle cars; they took every bit of their wealth away from them ââ¬â even the filings in their teeth and the hair on their heads; and the ones the Nazis didn't kill immediately they put to demeaning and destroying slave labor. All this they were justified in doing, according to Martin Luther, with prayer and the fear of God.
If subsequent generations of Christians (who have lionized Martin Luther as a man of God) have chosen not to see the direct connection between Protestant anti-Semitism and Martin Luther, the Nazis certainly did. They understood what Martin Luther meant. Julius Striecher, one of the most notorious anti-Semites even in the perverse world of the Third Reich, used Martin Luther's seven recommendations in his defense at the Nuremberg Trials. He even took as the motto for his newspaper, Der Sturmer (the Nazi hate paper) a direct quote of Martin Luther, Die Juden sind unser Ungluck, or, The Jews are our misfortune.[For a sample cover, see the Time-Life World War II series, At the Center of the Web (1989).]
In the World but Not of It?
Make no mistake about it: In spite of being a devoutly Christian nation, the Germans were under no illusions as to what Adolf Hitler's intentions were towards the Jews. He had told them a thousand times. Many of the tens of thousands of Protestant and Catholic clergy openly supported Hitler. The rest stayed in the passive state they had always maintained. William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich understood how they came to be in this condition: [QUOTE]in his [Martin Luther's] utterances about the Jews, Luther employed a coarseness, brutality, and language unequaled in German history until the Nazi time. The influence of this towering figure extended down through the generations in Germany, especially among the Protestants ... In no country with the exception of Czarist Russia did the clergy become by tradition so completely servile to the political authority of the State. [/QUOTE]["The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, A History of Nazi Germany," by William L. Shirer, page 327 of the 1962 paperback edition.]
When they all were given the choice of joining Hitler's state church or going to prison, the overwhelming majority quietly became part of the Reich Church. Becoming the religious arm of the Third Reich, the pastors, both the enthusiastic and the reluctant, had to support it, since they looked to it to define what was right and wrong. It was far too personally dangerous to let God do this through the Holy Scriptures. To do so was to say that there was a greater authority in men's lives than the Third Reich. This was treason to Hitler.
So, they righteously stood by praising their Jesus, adorning their churches with swatiskas, closing their eyes, and saying they didn't know what was going on. It is much easier to think about the heroic few like Martin Niemoller who chose the concentration camp rather than be silent in the face of such monstrous evil than the legions of 'good', hard-working, German Christians who filled up Hitler's armies, police forces, death squads, and pulpits. They did not prove able to be in the world but not of it.
2005-04-06 18:38 | User Profile
[B]I'm interested, please go on. God knows there are too many emasculated girly-men, with conventionally positive views on Negroes and Jews, masquerading as Christians already.[/B]
Briefly: European (and American) racialists and eugenicists were oftentimes very devout men, in many instances even members of the clergy. For e.g., the Protestant clergy was solidly behind Swedenââ¬â¢s advanced eugenics programme (far more advanced than what the German National Socialists introduced and the most sophisticated in Europe). Eugenics ties in nicely with notions of racial hygiene and generally speaking with European racialism. Swedish Protestant leaders justified eugenics and racialism on theological grounds. In sum, a perfect and loving God couldnââ¬â¢t possibly wish for such misbegotten, ill-conceived creatures to exist. These unfortunates were, in a sense, a foul-up, a misconstruction, a blunder, a slip-up in Godââ¬â¢s creation. The abovementioned justifications correspond with the old Catholic doctrine that mental and physical disabilities are sometimes the evil products of the parents' (and other ancestors) sinful, wicked behaviour (pre-marital intercourse or fornication, etc.).
If youââ¬â¢re interested in reading on this subject I highly recommend Dr. Richard Lynn's fascinating tome:
Eugenics: A Reassessment (Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence)
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-8621009-8950209[/url]
Additionally, Iââ¬â¢d highlight the fact that Spanish and Portuguese Catholic clergy expressed racialist sentiments in Latin America. The Indian was certainly regarded as an inferior being and the Negro slave as even inferior to the Indian. Of course, the anti-Semitism of Catholic clergy is a well documented phenomenon. For e.g., it was the an old Catholic law that demanded of Jews the wearing of distinctive clothing and a yellow star to clearly differentiate them from others. I could go onââ¬Â¦I'll just conclude by saying that I wouldn't want to be a Jew living under a Catholic theocracy.
As to National Socialism and Christianity I don't have the time now to refute albion's convenient post-War clichés, mischaracterizations, and falsehoods.
Again, if you're interested in a serious, scholarly study of the relation of Christianity and National Socialism, you could hardly do better than: The Holy Reich : Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 -- by Richard Steigmann-Gall.
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-8621009-8950209[/url]
Iââ¬â¢ll only say that German Protestant clergy supported Hitler politically (Catholic clergy somewhat less enthusiastically but without expressing any misgivings, after all the National Socialists ratified a Concordat with the Holy Father and fought Judeo-Bolshevism) and only had a problem with Hitlerââ¬â¢s plan of establishing a united Protestant Church in the Reich on the English model. (Hitler said that his efforts were akin to ââ¬Åtrying to herd cats together.ââ¬Â) This is the reason so-called confessing Protestants began to overtly oppose Hitler, and not because they had an ideological problem with him.
Personally, I feel very close spiritually and intellectually with positive Christians (who had their theological roots in liberal Protestantism)ââ¬Â¦Give me positive Christianity any day rather than either materialistic atheism or some pagan mumb-jumbo.
2005-04-06 18:51 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]Lord only knows how sick to death I am of you idiot loudmouth nazi atheist trolls. All ten to twenty of you are the most miserable, misanthropic people I have ever come across in my thirty five years of life. If I had one wish it would be that each of you would forever lose internet access, that way I know I'd never, ever come across your petty, infantile and above all stupid ideas in real life.
Get lost, squirrel.[/QUOTE] Most of these nazi/jew/pagan/atheist types must spend a lot of time talking to squirrels---they sure are not talking to white people...:hitler:
2005-04-06 19:06 | User Profile
I'm curious to know if the American nazis who show up here know that you could count atheists in the Third Reich leadership on the fingers of one hand? Even the pagans believed in some form of the transcendent. And atheism went against the NS world-view.
2005-04-07 13:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=friedrich braun] Iââ¬â¢ll only say that German Protestant clergy supported Hitler politically (Catholic clergy somewhat less enthusiastically but without expressing any misgivings, after all the National Socialists ratified a Concordat with the Holy Father and fought Judeo-Bolshevism) and only had a problem with Hitlerââ¬â¢s plan of establishing a united Protestant Church in the Reich on the English model. (Hitler said that his efforts were akin to ââ¬Åtrying to herd cats together.ââ¬Â) This is the reason so-called confessing Protestants began to overtly oppose Hitler, and not because they had an ideological problem with him. [/QUOTE]History affirms that the Catholic Church, with Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII at her head, was in the forefront - indeed, she was often alone - in recognizing the dangers posed by the Nazi regime and in working to save as many Jewish lives as possible from the Holocaust. Pinchas Lapide, working from Yad Vashem archives, has demonstrated that the papal relief and rescue program saved 860,000 Jews - more than all other agencies combined, governmental or international. The following are contemporary quotes demonstrating the case:
Playwright Rolf Hochhuth criticized the Pointiff for his (alleged) silence, but even he admitted that, on the level of action, Piux XII generously aided the Jews to the best of his ability. Today, after a quarter-century of the arbitrary and one-sided presentation offered the public, the word 'silence' has taken on a much wider connotation. It stands also for 'indifference', 'apathy', 'inaction', and, implicitly, for anti-Semitism. ---Robert Graham, "Pius XII and the Holocaust", p. 18.
The Church and the papacy have saved Jews as much and in as far as they could save Christians...Six million of my co-religionists have been murdered by the Nazis, but there could have been many more victims, had it not been for the efficacious intervention of Pius XII. ---- Dr. Raphael Cantoni, Head, Italian Jewish Assistance Committee quoted in Pinchas Lapide, "Three Popes and the Jews", p. 133
We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of his Holiness Pope Pius XII. IN a generation afflicted by wars and discords, he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of the Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace. --- Golda Meir, cited in Lapide, p. 227.
Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I felt a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty ---Albert Einstein, 1940. Cited in Lapide, p. 251
Pius XII has spoken; Pius XII has condemned; Pius XII has acted... throughout those years of horror, when we listed to Vatican Radio and to the Pope's messages, we felt in communion with the Pope, in helping persecuted Jews and in fighting against Nazi violence. ---Fr. Michel Riquet, S.J. rescuer of six Jewish lives, and inmate of Dachau. Cited in Lapide, p. 254
When armed force ruled well-nigh omnipotent, and morality was at its lowest ebb, Pius XII commanded none of the former and could only appeal to the latter, in confronting, with bare hands, the full might of evil... Unable to cure the sickness of an entire civiliazation... the Pope, unlike many far mightier than he, alleviated, relieved, retrieved, appealed, petitioned - and saved as best he could by his own lights. Who but a prophet or a martyr could have done much more? ---Pinchas Lapide, "Three Popes and the Jews", p. 267
What cannot be questioned is the integrity, the charity, and the deep commitment to humanity of Pius XII. It is idle to speculate about what more he could have done, for unlike most of the leaders of his day, he did very much. ---Joseph Lichten, International Affairs Dept. for the Anti-Defamation of B'nai B'rith. "Piux XII and the Holocaust. A Reader" p. 31
"No, no I say to you, it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible! Through Christ and in Christ we are spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites." ---Pius XI speaking to a group of German pilgrims, September 20, 1938, quoted in Robert Martin "Spiritual Semites: Catholics and Jews during World War II", p. 18.
"Go bury the delusive hope About His Holiness the Pope. For all he knows concerning Race Would get a schoolboy in disgrace. Old, muddle-headed, doddering, ill, His knowledge is precisely nil. And, gone in years, he can but keep His motley flock of piebald sheep; Since he regards both Blacks and Whites As children all with equal rights, As Christians all (whate'er their hues), They're 'spiritually' not but Jews. The Vatican (e'en blockheads know) With verdigris is covered so, And wants, no doubt, the fathful band Of Christians who around it stand As far as 'ghostly welfare' goes To lead 'em by the (hooked) nose. A pretty picture all men know The firm of 'Judah-Rome and Co.' And 'Old Man' e'er can tell the tale And, sure, his pity will not fail. The banner is at last unfurled: 'Chief Rabbi of the Christian world'. ---- Nazi response to Pope Pius XI's September 20, 1938 remarks as translated by J. Derek Holmes in "The Papacy in the Modern World". pp. 116-117
"Repelled by Nazi totalitarianism and racism, [Cardinal Michael von] Faulhaber contributed to the failure of Hitler's Munich putsch (1923)... During the Nazi regime he delivered his famous sermons entitled 'Juadaism, Christianity, and Germany' which emphasized the Jewish background of Christianity and pointed out that the teachings of the New Testament logically followed those of the Old... Throught his sermons until the collapse (1945) of the Third Reich, Faulhaber vigorously criticized Nazism, despite governmental opposition. Attempts on his life were made in 1934 and 1938. Working with the U.S. occupation forces, he received the West German Republic's highest award, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit" ---- Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., micropaedia, vol. IV, p. 65.
"Fearlessly, [Cardinal Faulhaber] gave his famous series of Advent sermons in 1933 in which the Nazi racial ideology, with its vicious anti-Semitism, was refuted by a scholarly - and simultaneously deeply moving - treatment of the Old Testament. Nothing could have been a more obvious challenge to the Nazis than this exhortation to meditate on the beauties of the Jewish religion and its deep inner relatinoship to Christianity. The Nazis recognized this challenge and prohibited the printed and distribution of the sermons. In addition, they made it obvious that they were watching those who attended the sermons; yet the crowds were so great that loudspeakers had to be installed in two neighboring churches. The courage of their cardinal was, throughout the Hiterl period, a source of inspiration for the people of his archdiocese." ---Mary Alice Gallin, "German Resistance to Hitler: Ethical and Religious Factors", p. 210
"Hitler did not succeed in suppressing all vestiges of personal courage...there exist opponents of Hitler whose strength of sul and integrity is so great that, notwithstanding the calumnies with which the Nazis have tried to smear them, the Germans know that these men risk their lives and liberty...for these men are churchmen. Their every sermon and every pastoral letter is a political event in the Germany of today and no word of them is ever lost...[the German Catholic bishops] whose utternaces are a remarkably frank denunciation of Nazi treatment of the Jews and conquered people and their contempt for individual rights...to all practical intents and purposes Catholic oppostiion to Nazism has been much mor important and articulate than Protestant opposition... The uncomfortable truth is that neither Liberal bourgeoisie nor Labour has bred any anti-Nazi opponents who enjoy even a percentage of the veneration enjoyed by Faulhaber, archbishop of Munich... As a matter of fact, the Nazis have met their only major domestic defeat in their effort to destroy the Christian faith. In the midst of the debris of trade unions, Freemasons, lodges, and of the Socialist and Communist parties which have fallen before Hitelr as if they were papier-mache, organized Christianity still stands." ---Countess Waldeck, Jewish refugee, as quoted in Sir Arnold Lunn's "Is the Catholic Church Anti-Social?" p. 31.
"If we have been rescued; if Jews are still alive in Rome, come with us and thank the Pope in the Vatican." ---Jewish refugee quoted in Lapide, p. 131. In 1944, Rabbi Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, and one of the foremost Old Testament scholars in the world, converted to Catholicism, along with his entire family. Rabbi Zolli took the name Eugenio in honor of the man who had demonstrated, by his example, the love of God on earth - the former Eugenio Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII. This spiritual journey is described in "Why I Became a Catholic." Eugenio Zolli died in poverty in 1956.
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