Rebel Priest Fr Peter Kennedy’s Last St Mary’s Mass

by | Apr 21, 2009 | Brisbane, Podcast, Video

On 19 April, 2009, rebel Catholic priest Peter Kennedy said his last mass at St Mary’s Church in Brisbane, then he and his congregation stood up, marched out of the church, down the street, and into their new premises, where they are calling themselves “St Mary’s In Exile”.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4240286&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Rebel Priest Fr Peter Kennedy’s Last St Mary’s Mass from Cameron Reilly on Vimeo.

G’Day World #342 – Dr Craig Johnson on Hitler

by | Sep 10, 2008 | Christianity, Podcast

I had the very great pleasure of hanging out with Pastor Dr Craig Johnson in Paris back in July. We had a terrific time, including some very great laughs walking through the Louvre. Craig is an Evangelical Protestant clergyman. He is the founder and Pastor of Bethel Christian Fellowship in Agoura Hills, California.  He is  currently the host of two weekly television programs: Another Cable Show about God and The Veritas Forum, and he has authored three books: Nehushtan: The Enemy of Revival; The Alexander Code: Alexander the Great and the Hidden Prophecies of the Bible; and Tardemah: The Deep Sleep that Awakens Your Dreams. He has degrees in Theology and Philosophy.

While in Paris, we talked a great deal about Hitler and the roots of Antisemitism, something Craig happens to know quite a lot about.

So, following on from this blog post I did recently, we chatted today about the roots of Hitler’s worldview and whether or not Hitler and the Nazi’s were Christians. I, of course, take the position that Hitler and the National Socialist Party were Christians – Craig argues they were not.

My main references are:

This list of quotes from Hitler’s speeches and writings in which he professes his Christian beliefs here.

The official National Socialist Party Platform which states:

“24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.”

I think Hitler was just trying to bring Matthew 13:49-50 to life:

13:49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
13:50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

After all, didn’t he build furnaces of fire?

Craig references a book called “Hitler’s Table Talk”, which is a series of statements Hitler said in private meetings, which were apparently recorded and transcribed. You can download a copy of “Hitler’s Table Talk” here. But you should first read this analysis of the book’s English translation which claims that the English version has been deliberately translated to sound much more anti-Christian than the original German. Also read this post which explores the credibility of the men who discovered and translated the document. The bottom line seems to be that Hitler definitely believed in Jesus but thought the version of Christianity developed by Paul of Tarsus was akin to Communism. Hitler also believed he was following in Jesus’ footsteps by attacking the Jews. So the question is – does that make him a Christian or not?

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Adolf Hitler Was A Christian

by | Aug 22, 2008 | Atheism, Christianity, religion

In the comments on my post about the Australian pastor who conned thousands of Christians into believing he had cancer, Matt wrote:

I would highly suggest for you, and any one else interested to read the book The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions by self-professed secular Jew and mathematics/philosophies teacher David Berlinski.
This tells the story of a Jew who was forced to dig his own grave prior to being shot by a German soldier. Prior to being shot, the old Jewish man advised the German that “God is watching what you are doing”. The Jewish gentleman pointed what i think is the real problem with atheism. If you have the time please check the book out.

Matt, I just read the review you linked to but obviously not the book yet. For the benefits of others, the end of that story about the Nazi and the Jew is:

“If there is no God to watch what you are doing, then why should you be circumspect in your behavior? Certainly the Germans at Auschwitz, who gassed Samuel Goldfein, did not believe that God was watching them. As Berlinski points out, that is the real problem with atheism.”

I’m going to point out a couple of flaws in that quote.

First of all – the Nazi regime was Christian! Adolf Hitler was a Christian. In Mein Kampf he wrote:

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

In a speech in 1922, he said:

“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.”

Hitler could not have come into power without the support of the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany at the time. So, for a start, the reviewer of the book is ignorant.

Read more about Hitler and his Christianity here.

Now, let’s address the other suggestion from the reviewer which, I assume comes from the book.

Personally, I find the concept that humans who don’t believe in imaginary beings will become murderers to be completely asinine and offensive to the extreme.

Perhaps religious people believe that they personally would become murderers without their imaginary god keeping them in check. Many of us, however, are quite comfortable trying hard to be decent human beings without having to imagine some kind of sky bully keeping an eye on us. We try to do good things because being good is a end in itself. It doesn’t require some kind of supernatural pay-off. Now, I’m certainly not perfect. I’m made lots of mistakes in my life and hurt people, but never intentionally. I’ve been an atheist since I was 8 years old and I have no desire to kill or rape or steal.

I will also point out that in the history of the human race over the last 2000 years, Christians have been responsible for way more violence than atheists. I wrote a post about this some time ago.

So this sky bully concept doesn’t seem to keep Christians from committing regular atrocities. I’ll point out that the USA seems to consider itself a Christian nation (at least that’s what I hear from time to time) and they are the most violent country on the planet at the moment, actively invading other countries and waging economic warfare on many others.

I would go so far as to say that, not only does religion not curb violence, it BREEDS violence. The core tenant of all religious belief is “those that don’t believe what we believe deserve eternity in hell”. That is the most intolerant and violent philosophy I can imagine.

Atheism, on the other hand, doesn’t have a code that preaches violence.

So… what say you to that?

Mother Teresa was a fake

by | Sep 4, 2007 | Atheism, Podcast, science vs religion

While recording a new episode of the Advaita Show podcast today, my co-host Steve mentioned the recent book that has been published with Mother Teresa’s letters to her spiritual mentors which point out what a big bloody faker she was.

Check it:

Yet no sooner did Teresa start her work in the slums of Calcutta than she began to feel the intense absence of Jesus—a state that lasted until her death, according to her letters.

“The paradox is that for her to be a light, she was to be in darkness,” Kolodiejchuk said.

In a letter estimated to be from 1961, Teresa wrote: “Darkness is such that I really do not see – neither with my mind nor with my reason – the place of God in my soul is blank “There is no God in me” when the pain of longing is so great” I just long & long for God.  The torture and pain I can’t explain.”

And this:

“Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love—and now become as the most hated one. You have thrown away as unwanted unloved So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them  because of the blasphemy If there be a God please forgive me I am told that God loves me, and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.

Note: “If there be a God…”

And this:

The whole time smiling sisters and people pass such remarks they think my faith, trust and love are filling my very being. … Could they but know and how my cheerfulness is the cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery, she wrote.

What a big bloody faker. All the time pretending she was spiritually “with it”, and yet underneath she was a mess.

But… I hear you say… what does it matter? Look at the good she did?

Did she? By lying? By faking? By pretending? By letting the world believe her good works were inspired by her belief when really she was devoid of belief?

Imagine, instead, how much good she might have done had she had the courage to be honest and forthright about her lack of belief, and yet had continued to do her good works regardless??

We’ve seen it before – the bigger the poseur, the bigger the fake. Remember that lesson kids.