Hitler Youth and Sunday School - What's the difference?

[TomUK]

:)

Came across this question earlier today and was intrigued to see what your thoughts were.

[Willtor]

I'm not altogether clear on how they're similar, actually (aside from "they both involve children"). It sounds like somebody just being contrary. Typically, when somebody online makes a comparison between a certain idea or institution and Naziism one cites Godwin's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law) and moves on.

[MintyAngel]

What a strange question :scratch:

Sunday School = teaching children about the Lord and Jesus Christ and how to be nice to their fellow man, Hitler Youth = poor children that were made to follow the teachings of someone that allowed the murder of millions of innocent people and was totally bonkers.

I can honestly say that I would never have connected the two :doh:

Minty. xx

[pmcleanj]

Well, that certainly is a thread title that should give participation on the board a needed kick-restart.

I think I can see where the proposer of this question is coming from: Hitler's Youth was a medium for indoctrinating children into a strong irrational belief. Presuming that Christianity is an irrational belief (and all faith-founded belief has a degree of irrationality) (or at least that Sunday School doesn't make any attempt to employ the rational basis for Christianity in its efforts to engage children in the faith), and presuming that the goal of Sunday School is that indoctrination, a parallel could indeed be drawn.

And, alas, I have observed Sunday School classrooms and read some rather heavy-handed curricular materials, that did indeed purport to provide children with a narrow range of ideas and a set of pat answers to equally pat questions. Needless to say, I avoided those materials. The Sunday School my children have been involved in has always been intergenerational and always included questioners and seekers, so it has ranged pretty widely over textual criticism, explorations of heterodoxy, and comparative theology. But which style of Sunday School is really the norm?

[karen freeinchristman]

The difference is in the person of Hitler versus the person of Christ, obviously! :idea:

I can understand atheists or agnostics considering Sunday School to be manipulation of children. I also think that of things like 'Jesus Camp' and other extreme forms of Christian indoctrination of wrong ideas. We also see this negative kind of coercion in cults that claim to be Christian.

The question is, how can we become better at proclaiming the true gospel of Christ to children and to the world?

[norbie]

I fully agree with our Dear Lady from Canada, but like to ad an other, I think very important point which most people outside Austria and Germany don't know: both are on Sunday and this was Hitler's "trick": he never went open against any church - but ALL is functions, including Hitlers youth were at the same time as the church service. Quite interesting.

[karen freeinchristman]

I fully agree with our Dear Lady from Canada, but like to ad an other, I think very important point which most people outside Austria and Germany don't know: both are on Sunday and this was Hitler's "trick": he never went open against any church - but ALL is functions, including Hitlers youth were at the same time as the church service. Quite interesting.
That IS interesting!

[norbie]

The question is, how can we become better at proclaiming the true gospel of Christ to children and to the world?

By living it daily, on their fruit of labour, you will recognice them.
I believe we should EXACTLY teach the 4 gospels - there is no room in them for "now time have changed - we are in the 21 century". When we compare Jesus teaching with the acts, we will find that Jesus words fits perfect in our century.

[JasonV]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/Hitler_youth_knife_reproduction.jpg/300px-Hitler_youth_knife_reproduction.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth_Knife&h=203&w=300&sz=10&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=cAVMuGE0-1Gn2M:&tbnh=78&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhitler%2Byouth%2Bknife%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DGThey don't hand out really cool knives to the kids in Sunday School.

http://armysurplus1.net/catalog/images/bdk305.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/Hitler_youth_knife_reproduction.jpg/300px-Hitler_youth_knife_reproduction.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth_Knife&h=203&w=300&sz=10&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=cAVMuGE0-1Gn2M:&tbnh=78&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhitler%2Byouth%2Bknife%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG