It's Always the Nazis. I Hate Nazis.

Those of us who are atheists are familiar with how ‘Godwin’s Law‘ allows Christian fundamentalists and other imbecilic religious people to link us to Adolph Hitler in some of the most amusing ways, but mostly because they’re too stupid to realize Hitler was (and still is, according to the Catholic Church) a rather zealous Christian whose entire campaign to wipe out the Jews and those pesky homosexuals was based almost entirely on Christian doctrine.

--Al Stefanelli, atheist blogger

I used to think that Jerry Coyne penned the dumbest anti-Christian blog screeds. But I think that distinction now rests in the capable hands of Al Stefanelli. The torch has been passed. Although it takes a certain evil genius to pull a Godwin (the mother of all Godwins, in fact) while ridiculing people for pulling Godwins. Well played, Al, well played. I have blogged about Nazism and Christianity several times. I hate to do it again, but it's the topic that never dies. Here is a rehash.

The Godwinners on atheist sites often argue this way:

1. Those Nazis who claim to be Christian (as Hitler did) are therefore Christian. All it takes is the claim. And any modern Christian who argues that Hitler was not a true Christian is guilty of the "True Scotsman" fallacy.
2. As a corollary it is sometimes argued that Stalin was a Christian, because he attended a seminary. And if that doesn’t count, then surely he was the deity of the religion Stalinism. But no matter what, he was not an atheist. Impossible. But I digress.

Point one is specious. One can co-opt the teachings of anything (evolution, Christianity, Islam, Heavy-Metal Rock) to justify heinous acts. Even if you insist that Hitler claiming to be a Christian makes him just as much of a Christian as, say, Thomas Aquinas, there is a little bit of history you'll have to explain to support your contention. Rutgers University (that hotbed of fundamentalist Christianity) has a "Nuremberg" project where they are investigating Nazi documents. One major part of the Nazi Master plan, it turns out, was "The Persecution of the Christian Churches." You can find some of this here. 

The editor of the project, Julie Mandel, quoted in the Phildelphia Inquirer, Jan. 9, 2002:

A lot of people will say, 'I didn’t realize that they were trying to convert Christians to a Nazi philosophy.' … They wanted to eliminate the Jews altogether, but they were also looking to eliminate Christianity.

And from a 1945 OSS report: Important leaders of the National Socialist party would have liked to meet this situation [church influence] by complete extirpation of Christianity and the substitution of a purely racial religion Source: Christianity Today blog 01.09.2002

Yeah them Nazis, they sure were true Christians. Because they said so, and we have to take them at their word. Al Stefanelli insists.