B. A lack of information    A second element of Mr. Walker's website, in addition to lack of objectivity, is a lack of historical information. Hitler is judged solely by his words - what actually occurred is omitted. Someone who based their understanding of the outbreak of World War II solely on Hitler's words, with no reference to what actually occurred, would be (to put it mildly) mistaken. Sometimes Hitler lied, sometimes he told the truth - his actions are the proof of his honesty or dishonesty, and Hitler's actions, and the extreme persecution of Christians under the Nazi regime, are glossed over by Mr. Walker.    An understanding of the situation of the church in Nazi Germany is nowhere in evidence in Mr. Walker's arguments.The persecution of Christians is referred to, but is dismissed as persecution of Hitler's political opponents only. It is asserted that Hitler only persecuted religious people who disagreed with him politically. Unfortunately for this argument, anyone who understands the nature of modern totalitarianism, and the nature of Hitler's government, understands that any and all disagreement with the official line is "political" opposition.    A good example of this is found in Martin Gilbert's The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. This book, by the way, is not an obscure scholarly monograph that can only be found by diligent research. It is one of the many basic and easily accessible books providing necessary information for the consideration of these topics. It tells of a pastor, Julius von Jan, who preached a sermon against the Nazi regime shortly after the Kristallnacht in November of 1938 (p.73). Prof. Conway also gives a more substantive account (Conway, pp. 375-376).    Pastor von Jan objected to the crime of the mass persecution of Jews known as the "night of broken glass." He condemned the burning of synagogues, and protested against the persecution of people because of their race. He said this injustice would bring God's punishment on Germany and quoted a bible verse: "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." He warned that the seed of hatred would bring a terrible harvest, and called for repentance. This upright and courageous man of God was attacked shortly after by a mob of hundreds of people, beaten half-conscious, and then thrown in prison.    This is the sort of "political" opposition which Hitler or Mao or Stalin could not tolerate - and there were many other instances of Nazi oppression, most of which are lost to history. Prof. Conway tells of one pastor who was sent to a concentration camp because he disagreed with a local Nazi leader who claimed "that faith arises out of blood" (p. 75). One can only claim that Hitler did not persecute the church if, like Mr. Walker, he ignores the historical record or skips lightly over it with a clever evasion, and takes Hitler's words at face value - as if Hitler were a sincere and honest man, a sort of German Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Walker does not refer to the closure of Austrian monasteries and nunneries after the Anschluss in 1938. Those treacherous monks and nuns must have been a great threat to the power of the Third Reich.    A second aspect of historical knowledge that is totally lacking from this site is the entire course of German cultural, intellectual, and philosophical development during the century and more preceding Hitler's rise to power. Those who have studied that period have found that Hitler did not appear out of nowhere. He was very much the product of his time. To say that Naziism came from the bible, as if the entire preceding century or two of German history had nothing to do with it; as if Hitler's mind was a tabula rasa until he started reading the bible and then got the idea that the Germans were the master race; as if the bible had anything to do with Germany's defeat in World War I, the depression, the threat of communism, the weaknesses of the Weimar government; to ignore the many 19th-century German thinkers who expressly rejected the myth of the son of God dying on the cross and rising from the dead, and at the same time proclaimed the most fundamental ingredients of the Holocaust - all of this is something considerably less than an informed approach to the question of Hitler's spiritual and philosophical origins.    Also lacking is an awareness of the political realities of the Third Reich. Mr. Walker asks why Hitler did not try to destroy the church. Some historical knowledge sheds some light on this. When Hitler first came to power in 1933, he was not the uncontested ruler of Germany. It took some time for him to consolidate his power. In this transitional period, excessive conflict with the church was not to his advantage, and would have considerably complicated the domestic political situation.    Mr. Walker refers to claims that Hitler was lying in his statements of support for religion and asserts that he had no reason to lie. This is a common error, to assume that Hitler was always the Fuhrer with total power - forgetting that at one time he was only a politician, even a minor politician, in need of votes; also forgetting that when he was first appointed Chancellor he had to be mindful of real limits and work within them. And why did Hitler need to lie about the reasons for the invasion of Poland? He had the power, he did not have get anyone's permission - but still he took great pains to present an appearance of legality, even inventing Polish atrocities to justify the invasion.    After getting a firm grip on all of the levers of power, Hitler's next goal was rearmament, to prepare as quickly as possible for the coming war. Here also, excessive conflicts with the churches would have served no useful purpose.    When the war began, Hitler needed the complete support of the nation, including loyal military service from people of all sorts - an all-out war with the churches would have been a distraction from the war effort.    Hitler thus had no desire for a head on conflict which would bring no benefit and cause unnecessary problems. He did realize that religious beliefs were a threat to his unquestioned and total power, and his regime saw a consistent and unwavering effort to marginalize the church, strip it of its influence, and exclude it from the public sphere.    A great deal of speculation is not necessary here. An objective study of what actually happened to the churches in the Third Reich will reveal consistent and unwavering attempts by the government to marginalize the church. Why, then, Mr. Walker asks, did Hitler want to unify the Protestant churches into one state church if he was not trying to support and help the church? For the same reason that Chairman Mao wanted to unify all of the Chinese churches in one state controlled organization - to control them more easily. By the way, the beliefs that all differences of doctrine, church organization and worship were trivial and insignificant; that Germans could all be herded by the government into one church against their will on the basis of race; that church organization is a government affair; these show complete hostility and contempt for the churches and for Christian teaching. Hitler failed here because the church alone out of all German organizations, pitiful as its overall record of submission to Hitler undoubtedly was, refused to tamely submit to Hitler's demands.    These and other things are known to those who have made a real effort to understand the church in the Third Reich. They are unknown to Mr. Walker. His site reflects zero understanding of historical and political reality, and is nothing more than anti-Christian propaganda.    Mr. Walker's lack of familiarity with the historical background is also revealed in his attempts to prove Hitler's Christianity by reproducing some of his paintings. Hitler painted a church, and a mountain view with a roadside crucifix. Clearly only a devout, bible believing Christian would paint a church or a landscape with a crucifix in it - at least according to Mr. Walker. Walter S. Frank's in-depth and well-documented analysis of Hitler reveals, however, that Hitler painted a number of other subjects, including Munich's famous beerhall, the Hofbrauhaus. He also did commercial artwork, such as posters and advertisements, and painted on commission - so some of his subjects were chosen by others. [http://www.smoter.com/hitler.htm]    Mr. Walker's arguments will seem more convincing to those with little knowledge of the subject. This applies to his reproduction in the "Nazi artifacts" section of Nazi badges and mementos that combine the cross and the swastika in various ways. A little research will reveal that in 1938 the use of the swastika alongside the cross was forbidden (Conway, p. 59). The so-called "German Christians" who revelled in such displays of devotion to the state had become a political liability and needed to be put in their place. Conway relates that one of the German Christians became so outspoken in his objections to the pagan elements in the Nazi Party that he was sent to a concentration camp. (Conway, p. 60).