"No True Christian" fallacy

What the hell is it with Christians today? I've had one, Miles Militis, attack my appearance because he's a vile little Facebook bully with a severely objectionable personality, he also 'called me out' with the offer of meeting me in a gym's boxing ring (seriously, this is a Christian!?) then I ventured onto Twitter to find that @ImH0me, whom I have mentioned on my blog before, seemingly doesn't understand what the “No True Scotsman” fallacy is, or to what it applies, and also doesn't understand what “Leave me alone” means. Maybe it's the heat … or rampant stupidity.

ImH0me is trying to distance the actions of the likes of Hitler from Christianity because a Christian wouldn't act that way. That is a “No True Scotsman”, but not according to them.

They tweeted:

"No True Scotsman" originated from a Scottish man who is so proud of being a Scotsman who thinks scottish race behaves morally.

It is about racial pride that led to racial bias or prejudice. It's a fallacy b/c moral behaviour has nothing to do w/ your race

Moral behaviour has a lot to do w/ what a man believes inside his head that no one can know b/c no one is inside other's head.

I tried explaining that the No True Scotsman doesn't apply only to race, but to no avail.

No one can know what a man really believes inside his head. He can only be defined by his deeds. So, your equation is dead wrong

So, don't judge Hitler as Christian just b/c he said so. He miurdered not only his enemies but millions of his innocent citizens

Where to start? Maybe a quick explanation of what the “No True Scotsman” fallacy is.

The term was coined by Antony Flew, who used the example of a Scotsman seeing reports of a sex attack happening in Brighton and stating that no Scotsman would do such a thing. When another report comes of an even worse crime committed by a man from Aberdeen he exclaims that “no true Scotsman would do such a thing.”

The fallacy being that you cannot exclude somebody from a group purely because they do not conform to your personal criteria for that group. ImH0me is making the mistake of asserting it only applies to race, not morality etc, and is also trying to exclude Hitler from Christianity purely because Hitler didn't act as ImH0me believes a “true Christian” would act.

Hitler was a psychopath, I don't think anybody would doubt he was one of the most evil men in history. He was also a Catholic. One only has to look to his writings to see the many references to God, continuing Christ's work, glorifying Him and of Heaven, even referring to himself “As a true Christian”. Nobody is stating he was a good example of a Christian, though a look through history doesn't do much to confirm that – Crusades, witch-hunts, Inquisition and so forth have resulted in the torture and murder of millions of innocent people. Indeed, both Hitler and those around him mention Martin Luther, a leading figure in the founding of Protestantism, as being an influence – and if you read Martin Luther's views on how to treat Jews it is little short of a blueprint for the Holocaust. Short of mentioning gas chambers you'd think he'd been a member of the Nazi High Command!

So whilst Hitler wasn't a good Christian or Catholic, there appears little doubt that he believed in God, Christ, doing His work and so forth. So how does he not qualify to be a Christian?

Recently, the world was shocked by the mass murder in Oslo, committed by Anders Behring Breivik. Again, Christians were quick to distance themselves from him, denying his Christianity, even though his writings clearly demonstrate his belief in God, Christ and – tellingly – his hatred for another religion, Islam. Was he a good Christian? No, obviously not. Was he a Christian at all? In all probability, going by the evidence, yes!

There-in lies the point; When does a Christian stop being a Christian? If they earnestly believe in God, Heaven and redemption through Christ then, by definition, they must be a Christian, even if it manifests in them committing wholesale genocide in His name. They're just not a 'good' Christian. Trying to claim they aren't Christians is to claim to know what is in their head regarding their belief, which is clearly not possible, so we are left with what they state publicly.

Perhaps it's time we coined a new term, the “No True Christian”?

Oh, and ImH0me, I said on Twitter that I would explain more succinctly what “Leave me alone” means. I think the best way to put it is this – fuck off :)