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Whether Hitler was a "real christian," or an atheist, or a twisted secular "humanist," is irrelevant.
The relevant fact is that he set up a cult of his own, a cult of personality, the central tenet of which was unquestioning loyalty to "the party," AKA, the cult, AKA, the embodiment of the cult, Adolf Hitler.
Calling Hitler secular just because he wasn't Christian is every bit as nonsensical as calling David Koresh secular, because he wasn't part of any recognized religion. Hitler was a God-figure. He WAS the religion, along with the NAZI party itself.
He even had his own bible, Mein Kampf. Every good German was expected to have a copy, and expected to have read it.
Mao and Stalin similarly used blind adherence to dogma, and unquestioning belief in authority, to elevate themselves to Godhood, to become not only the political, but the spiritual heads of China and Russia.
Secularism is the opposite of blind adherence to dogma. Example:
"Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life."
Secularism is associated with truth and fact-based reasoning, with reasoning based on observation, and scientific study. Secularism rejects faith. That's the essential difference between a secularist, and a religionist.
Put another way, just because a non-Christian such as Hitler killed a bunch of people, it doesn't make him a secular mass murderer. He was just another kind of religious nut.
