Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

For the political man, the value of a religion must be estimated less by its deficiencies than
by the virtue of a visibly better substitute. As long as this appears to be lacking, what is
present can be demolished only by fools or criminals.
Not the smallest blame for the none too delectable religious conditions must be borne by
those who encumber the religious idea with too many things of a purely earthly nature and
thus often bring it into a totally unnecessary conflict with so-called exact science. In this
victory will almost always fall to the latter, though perhaps after a hard struggle, and religion
will suffer serious damage in the eyes of all those who are unable to raise themselves above a
purely superficial knowledge.
Worst of all, however, is the devastation wrought by the misuse of religious conviction for
political ends. In truth, we cannot sharply enough attack those wretched crooks who would
like to make religion an implement to perform political or rather business services for them.
These insolent liars, it is true, proclaim their creed in a stentorian voice to the whole world
for other sinners to hear; but their intention is not, if necessary, to die for it, but to live
better. For a single-political swindle, provided it brings in enough, they are willing to sell the
heart of a whole religion; for ten parliamentary mandates they would ally themselves with the
Marxistic mortal enemies of all religions-and for a minister's chair they would even enter into
marriage with the devil, unless the devil were deterred by a remnant of decency.
If in Germany before the War religious life for many had an unpleasant aftertaste, this could
be attributed to the abuse of Christianity on the-part of a so-called ' Christian ' party and the
shameless way in which they attempted to identify the Catholic faith with a political party.
This false association was a calamity which may have brought parliamentary mandates to a
number of good-for-nothings but injury to the Church.
The consequence, however, had to be borne by the whole nation, since the outcome of the
resultant slackening of religious life occurred at a time when everyone was beginning to
waver and vacillate anyway, and the traditional foundations of ethics and morality were
threatening to collapse.
This, too, created cracks and rifts in our nation which might present no danger as long as no
special strain-arose, but which inevitably became catastrophic when by the force of great
events the question of the inner solidity of the nation achieved decisive importance.
Likewise in the field of politics the observant eye could discern evils which, if not remedied or
altered within a reasonable time, could be and had to be regarded as signs of the Reich's
coming decay. The aimlessness of German domestic and foreign policy was apparent to
everyone who was not purposely blind. The regime of compromise seemed to be most in
keeping with Bismarck's conception that 'politics is an art of the possible.' But between
Bismarck and the later German chancellors there was a slight difference which made it
permissible for the former to let fall such an utterance on the nature of politics while the
same view from the mouths of his successors could not but take on an entirely different
meaning. For Bismarck with this phrase only wanted to say that for the achievement of a
definite political goal all possibilities should be utilized, or, in other words, that all
possibilities should be taken into account; in the view of his successors, however, this
utterance solemnly released them from the necessity of having any political ideas or goals
whatever. And the leadership of the Reich at this time really had no more political goals; for
the necessary foundation of a definite philosophy was lacking, as well as the necessary
clarity on the inner laws governing the development of all political life.
There were not a few who saw things blackly in this respect and flayed the planlessness and
heedlessness of the Reich's policies, and well recognized their inner weakness and
hollowness but these were only outsiders in political life; the official government authorities