When I say I am an author who writes about taboo topics, I mean it. My newest book is about one of the most taboo topics–Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The reading and research I did to prepare for this was enlightening and well worth setting aside the taboo and going beyond Godwin’s law. In fact I sent a copy of my book to Mike Godwin and quote him in the book. Godwin did not write his law to stop all conversation about Hitler but to move us toward more thoughtful discussion, with the hope to prevent another holocaust.
in 2016, the 70 year German copyright expired, and so Hitler’s book is now available. When one of my Facebook theology/pastor friends, Tim Gilman, shared the article about the release of Mein Kampf, I joined the heated social media discussion. At one point I remarked, “I could right a book about this topic!” Tim replied, “You should!”. And since Tim is a designer and connected to the publishing world, his company published the book. Here are some thoughts from my new book, “Evil: Confronting Our Inner Hitler“, that I would like to share with you. I find them highly relevant to America 2016.
Four themes besides racism
It should be readily apparent to most readers that Mein Kampf is filled with racist thoughts and ideas. In my book I decide to go beyond the racism and attempt to discover what other themes drove Hitler and his rise to power. Was he purely and only a racist? We know how Hitler ended up, but how did he begin? How did a washed up wanna-be artist rise to such heights of evil?
The title Mein Kampf means “My Struggle”. I find four themes that reveal Hitler’s struggle. Hitler wrote most of his book when he was jailed for the failed Beer Hall Putsch uprising. It was a time of intense struggle.
The four themes I find in Mein Kampf are: struggle for beauty, struggle to remove oppression, struggle for national unification, and struggle to remove terror. In short, Hitler deeply desired beauty, freedom, unity and safety.
“Taking the time to read Mein Kampf is quite enlightening. The general themes of the early chapters are about Hitler’s family life, especially his struggle with his father’s will for Hitler to give up studying architecture and become a civil servant. At times Hitler sounds like a typical teenager arguing with his father about his future occupational choices. Hitler then quickly moves on to the bulk of the book where he expresses his political and pseudo-religious views of the condition of the German people, what caused their condition, and how to restore their country to greatness.” —Evil: Confronting Our Inner Hitler
Hitler – the master cult leader
To my amazement, all these themes keep weaving together. Perhaps this is just my own mind mixing the topics of Hitler, evil, cultic manipulation, religion and politics. Maybe I am crazy as some have pointed out…
As I read Mein Kampf, I find myself recalling my cult life days. I can easily imagine how educated, church-going Germans would be drawn in by Hitler’s deceptive messages meant to manipulate people into following him. Hitler’s writing uses an excess of words, with many repetitions of the same basic concepts. This is a tactic of harmful cult groups. In our campus cult, we would use many words but say very little. Propaganda was our friend. The purpose was not to educate or to enlighten, but to persuade active loyalty and obedience. —Evil: Confronting Our Inner Hitler
Thoughts on Evil
After my review of Mein Kampf, I share my thoughts on evil in general, and how to confront evil. I look to Jesus’ list of seven deadly sins. In light of what Jesus calls evil, I find that America 2016 has much to learn from Germany 1932…
In my observation, the melting pot that America once was, has solidified. The fire of inclusion of the “other” has gone out. Instead of saying to the world “Give me your huddled masses…”, we say “Go away… unless you have gold.” We have separated into diametrically opposed camps: Republican vs Democrat, conservative vs liberal, pro-life vs pro-choice, black vs white, poor vs rich—and the list goes on and on. We have forgotten how much we need each other. We have lost the sacredness of community. —Evil: Confronting Our Inner Hitler
I used to think Hitler and the Nazi’s were so very far away from my life. What does Hitler have to do with me? I thought nothing.
But I was wrong. Hitler has a direct impact on my life, and on many of us, today.
Recently, after my grandfather’s death, I decided to watch my grandfather’s video interview about World War II. My grandparents answered questions about the war. But all they wanted to talk about was their love story–how they met, how they couldn’t speak each other’s language.
Then I realized. They had met in Belguim while Hitler was alive. They experienced the horror of WWII. My grandfather drove Howitzer tanks. My grandmother’s family was attacked by the Nazi police who occupied her Belgian town.
Side note: I loved hearing my grandmother tell the story of how her mother slapped a Nazi officer! And you wonder where I get MY chutzpa!
Watching my grandparents speak about their love in the midst of Hitler’s brutal war inspired me to write my book “Evil”. It is dedicated to my grandparents, for they “defeated” Hitler by love. They “defeated” the Nazi ideology by building a loving family.
This is how you win over all dictators, oppressors and manipulators–you love your family.
Please watch these videos America! Hitler flies in his airplane on his Presidential campaign
brian, enjoyed your book, summary of hitler’s struggle/rise to power, & biblical references
This Hitler speech in your video was so creepy, cold shivers ran down my spine. Yet I recognize many similarities. Trump trying to impress people in the same way as Hitler with his aeroplane. Trump calling himself the “law and order” candidate and solving the economic crisis while proposing little in the way of detailed policies just as Hitler did (here). I also see Hitler’s seizure of power re-enacted in Turkey these days, with the majority of people cheering to the new autocrat and supporting him. Are we really doomed to repeat history?
Unless God intervenes and does a “new thing” (Isa 43:19) by his mercy and grace, we are doomed to repeat history, I think. Indeed, insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different (better) result.
I recognize the dangers of trump but those are far outweighed by decades of decimation: bishops harmed more children by hiding abuse; religious movements like ubf damaged sincere innocents; universities got rich off illegal proliferation of substances to underage; etc
the time has come for open correction, restoration of harmed
(sorry for double comment, this didn’t seem to go thru, then popped up later after recommented:)
I recognize caution about trump but I do not tolerate lost decades of insolent decimation: bishops had their chance but failed to protect children; ubf had it’s chance but failed to enlighten/encourage; presumed elite universities damaged the young; American politicians failed to protect jobs/limit the cost of living
the time has come for whatever it takes/whoever must fall, we will not fail
“As I read Mein Kampf, I find myself recalling my cult life days. I can easily imagine how educated, church-going Germans would be drawn in by Hitler’s deceptive messages meant to manipulate people into following him.”
This is what I wonder about often, how “educated, church-going Germans would be drawn in by Hitler’s deceptive messages.” It’s related to the topic we often mention on this forum, how are educated, church-going Christians drawn to cults? Many of us here have been a part of a cult. Many of us were never aware of it until much much later. But I wish that along with all our Bible Studies there had been “Defense Against the Dark Arts” classes aka “what is a cult and how to safeguard yourself against a cult” wrong.
I wish I had been taught a streetwise theology to learn how to protect myself, to keep my thinking cap on. Sometimes we make the false assumption that any person/organization that has “Christian” or “Bible” in the title is safe, but that is wrong. I am not trying to be cynical; I am trying to be real and keep my eyes open.
It reminds me of how often sexual molestation happens not from people outside of the family, but from family members or long term family friends, people that have been trusted and given access to private areas in the home.
Evil comes in forms that we don’t expect or predict and that’s what makes it all the more lethal. I really like how your book is called, “Confronting our Inner Hitler.”
May we scrutinize our Christianity to the same degree we would scrutinize Mormons or Jehovah witnesses or any other differing theology/philosophy. May we continue to ask questions and push the boundaries. Keep bringing on the taboo topics;)
This pastor meets many who visit or contact him with “active wounds caused by intrusive, heavy-handed, and aggressive pastoral leadership…” It is sad and unfortunate when Christian leaders manipulate, coerce and guilt trip their church members to do what they want, rather than serve them with humility and tears: https://www.facebook.com/kenneth.tanner/posts/10209581021659750
the problem with race is it really isn’t the issue; an astute observer notes it is merely a smokescreen for overmoneyed overprivilege; so the race card only perpetuates the inequitable benefits of those possessing far too many greenbacks, or gold bars as the case may be; so the only color issue is green or gold vs lack thereof (do not overwealthy of any race procur unjust privilege & overpoor of any race incur insufficient provision?
for religious example: sure Koreans overdispense ubf donations to deserving Koreans without accountability, but occasionally also to sufficiently longterm obedient/gameplaying nonkoreans (mark & ron this bud’s for you:), & to organizations like northwestern u which can give back student slots to Koreans
as long as races scramble over insufficient resources, the overprivileged win, hiding behind the smokescreen, laughing & frolicking, until…the Lord sends a tool against them & they suffer innumerable losses, or like the rich man in Jesus’ parable they die the very nite they failed to share/having just built bigger barns from which not one kernel crosses the great divide with them to their entitled destination of hellfire, hallelujah!
(& the needy, approved by the Lord, move in forthright to pillage the barns the Lord intended for them)
Here is a good test to see if you are still in the cult mindset, how uncomfortable a point of view contrary to your beliefs are you willing to research
It is time for people to make more claims of anti semitism without doing research but Hitler actually had a crush on a Jewish girl, married a Jewish woman (as has been supported by DNA tests) and appointed Jews to military positions. I do not believe Hitler hated all Jewish people but his derogatory remarks about Jews were about a specific group of Jews. I have even seen videos by Jewish Rabbis explaining that Hitler did not have a problem with all Jews but most of the Jews at the time were communists and those were the Jews Hitler opposed.
I believe a true sign of people being in a cult will be if they start calling me an anti Semite over this. Even if I am 100% wrong you should not be afraid to research perspectives about Hitler contrary to the common mainstream narrative unless you are still in a cult mindset. And I will even admit that I could be 100% wrong about this. But after having been in UBF I decided to be willing to research other points of view even If they would make me extremely uncomfortable.
If there are more accusations of me being anti semitic instead of researching this for yourself it will further prove my point that most ex UBF members never really left the cult mindset because there are still points of view they are afraid to research.
Regarding my previous comment I am not saying whether or not most Jews were communists in Germany during world war 2 but I have seen videos of modern Jewish Rabbis making that claim after doing holocaust research who concluded that Hitler was greatly misunderstood. I am not supporting racism against people based on Jewish ancestry simply saying this post is based on a over simplified narrative I once believed about Hitler and the German people which after forcing myself to research points of view I felt were uncomfortable is not as simple as actually presented. What Hitler did was similar to how American people treated the Japanese living in their own country which is not a simple black and white issue of racism but a gray area because of war. German people mistreating Jews was similar in motive to how American treated the Japanese out of fear that people within their own country would betray them whether or not they took things further than the Americans is beyond my knowledge but the primary motive was similar to the Americans treatment of Japanese citizens. No brainwashing to instill racism was necessary but merely the knowledge that America and Japan were at war.
Please research positions by Jewish authors that point out how this was not such a black and white issue and that explain why the German people were afraid of Jews at that time. These Jewish authors are certainly not anti semitic