Here's how I would explain it:
Imagine that, 300 years from now, a Nazi regime takes over the Western world. They vigorously persecute everyone who isn't a Nazi, until they've stamped out all other belief systems, except for a few hidden remnants. They build giant temples around holy relics like the knucklebone of Goebbels, the Holy Prepuce of Hitler, and so on. Another 1700 years pass, and, after valiant struggles and sacrifice for religious liberty and freedom of inquiry, the regime has moderated quite a bit.
Nonetheless, Nazism is still just assumed by almost everyone to represent the epitome of the good. It's very common to see swastika jewelry and decorations, television commentators demand that Hitler be put back in Walpurgisnacht, many people proudly stick U-boat images on their cars, and so on. And if you should, in shock and disgust, ask anyone, "But...but the
genocide! How can you people worship someone as abominable as Hitler?!" you get the following sorts of answers:
Fundamentalist Nazis: "We know that the existence of morality requires a Moral Fuhrer. If there was no Hitler, there could be no morality! Why don't you just run around killing people and marrying gays at random, since you don't believe in Hitler? Now, since Hitler is our Moral Fuhrer, and he willed that genocide happen, it must, by definition, be good. The Jews were just such incredibly wicked people that there was no other choice but to exterminate them. But Hitler
loved them, and he shot himself for your sins! How can you turn your back on him?!"
Moderate Nazis: "Well, you have to remember that Hitler lived in a very different time, a very different sitz-im-leben than we now have. Within the context of his times, the Holocaust was not the worst atrocity, or even abnormal. Just look at Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or for that matter, the ancient American liquidation of the native peoples. But Hitler did bring a nation hope, and raise a people from the rubble of collapse to accomplish great things, like advancements in rocketry and jet propulsion."
Liberal Nazis: "Oh, the 'Holocaust' didn't actually
happen, goodness no! It's just an allegory for getting rid of the parts of ourselves that hold us back. Here, let me cite this passage from
Mein Kampf arguing for workers' rights in the workplace, or this plank of the Nazi platform guaranteeing old age pensions.
[1] See?
True Nazism is all about compassion and building a society that works for everyone!"
Then somebody comes along and asks you, "What has made so many people resent Nazism with such a burning hatred?"
Now, before anyone trots out Godwin's Law, I do not think that applies here. The comparison is apt. The Bible celebrates genocides carried out on the orders of its god. The killers, men like Moses, Joshua, and David, are its greatest heroes. Read through the Books of Kings or Chronicles. Notice how the "good" kings, the ones that please Yahweh, are the ones who exterminate everyone with a different religion or point of view. The kings who "did evil in the sight of the Lord" are the ones who instituted religious freedom.
Nor does Jesus change anything for the better. First, he firmly adheres to the validity and righteousness of the Mosaic Covenant and laws. Second, he made it infinitely worse by declaring that Yahweh is not finished with you when he's done killing you off, no:
his concentration camp ovens roar with flame for all eternity, burning billions of people alive, forever. All those Jews Hitler killed: that's right, they're twisting in Hell's flames as we speak and will continue to do so forever. Trillions of trillions of trillions of years from now, their suffering will still be only just beginning--because they failed to grovel before Jesus in the One, True, Particular Specific Way, whatever that is.
And furthermore, the Book of Revelation tells us that genocide on an unprecedented scale, slaughtering the vast majority of Earth's entire population, is Yahweh's plan for the
future. And then we are told that
this represents the epitome of all morality, that
we have no ethics and ought to be regarded with suspicion, and that society ought to be run in accordance with the moral principles of people who sanction genocide and torture. So yeah: we resent it.
