 However, Germany had been Christian for over a thousand years, and Hitler recognized the practical reality of the political significance of the Churches in Germany and determined that any moves against the churches must be made in stages.In the words of Paul Berben, "positive Christianity" therefore came to be advocated as a "term that could be overlaid with any interpretation required, depending on the circumstances" and the party declared itself for religious freedom provided this liberty did not "endanger the State or clash with the views of the 'Germanic Race'".The historian Derek Hastings has written about the Catholic roots in the nationalistic, and disaffected Catholic circles of Munich, of the explicit endorsement of 'positive Christianity' in the Nazi party program.