"Christian" means "A follower of Christ"
So how would Christ have behaved if he lived in Germany in 1939?
Would he have cried: "Heil Hitler" as a greeting and joined the German Army if conscripted?
Or would he have refused, and ended up in a Concentration camp?
If we can decide on that, then we can analyse which religion was Christian in WW2.
Firstly, Christian doesn't mean just "follower of Christ", in English it means someone who adheres to the Christian religion, in Greek
Christianos means Follower of Christ. However, this is incomplete as "
ianos" indicates possession or ownership, like with a slave. Thus it is better translated as an "Adherent of Christ", this is partly because adherence is far stronger than followership, which conveys the stronger meaning of the Greek.
Secondly, your above point is a moot whataboutism for several reasons. If only for
this or this
guy or more generally the Kirchenkampf, kinda invalidates the idea that only Jehovah's resisted, and ignores the fact that the Catholic Church itself was responsible for the slowing down of Aktion T4, and part of the reason for the total secrecy of the Death Camps. The example itself makes little sense, what part of conscription is voluntary, and considering the fact that most Churches have accepted the idea of adhering to secular principles when they aren't totally out of line. Which considering the fact that the Churches feared communism as much if not more than everyone else, is kind of necessary, i.e. we need the Germans to defeat the worse enemy.
Thirdly, you act like Christian is this zero sum game, where people are more or less Christian based on their actions. Very few actual Christians would adhere to this idea, everyone is flawed and everyone fails it is in human nature. No more simple is just an easy cut off. Do you believe in certain things yes, then you are a Christian, if not then no you aren't a Christian.
To answer your question, I consider a religion to be Christian if they believe Jesus to be the Christ and Messiah, to believe that he died for their sins and if they actively try to live by Jesus' teachings. I put no stock in whether they consider "God" to be a singular being (i.e. Jehovah) or a Trinity. Neither do I care if they subscribe to any particular creed issued by man.
I mean okay thats an incredibly general definition, I mean Islam is just "died for their sins" away from being applicable under this. It kind of works as a definition however the issue becomes about the "teachings" I mean for one thing Jehovah's don't even fit that, using just the Bible John 8:58, where Jesus directly quotes God in the Old testament, and uses the "I am", there by indicating that he is God.
Maybe that Trinity thing got them mixed up with the Jews in the Nazis mind? Jews don't believe God is a Trinity either do they?
Okay, this is strangely insulting to Nazis, in implying they can't understand what a Jew is.
Sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're saying. Do you mean that the Confessing Church was the resistor against Nazism, whereas the German Evangelical Church was the Nazi puppet?
The Confessing Church was the movement to oppose the Nazis, and the GEC was the Puppet, sorry if I worded that poorly. Martin Niemoller was in the Confessing Church.
Anyway, to return to the focus of the thread, what impact do you think the absence of JWs would have on the various Christian denominations' attitudes towards Nazism?
I don't really think it would have much of an effect. JW's are by any reasonable measure a cult, and as a result of this their contact with outsiders is limited at best. This means that they might serve as a Boogeyman, but really without any great strength, or size, behind them they weren't feared. As a result they did little to influence the mainstream, and the mainstream did little to them. As a result, while some people cheered on the persecution, most were mainly apathetic, and saw them at best as fellow travellers to Communism.