Dear Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke and Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne:
Having been in the Baptist Ministry now for 40 years, the last 30 of which I pastored Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and during which time in those 1,560 Sundays we never had one Sunday that we did not see at least one Sinner Saved and one saved sinner follow the Lord in Believer's Baptism, I write you as kindly, but as frankly, as I can!
Both of our two youngest sons, Tom and Paul, have spent a combined total of 30 years as missionaries - one in Ivory Coast and one in the Philippines! Tom now is my Pastor, and I am Pastor Emeritus. Windsor Hills Baptist Church is the sending church for 154 missionaries, and we support 470 missionaries (including the 154) worldwide.
I say none of that to Boast, for had I really put my act together, I should have done more for the Lord. The day after tomorrow, I face Open Heart Surgery to replace my aorta valve.
However, I could not let pass your criticism of Israeli counters toward Islamic Jihadist Terrorism while you were recently visiting as you call it "the Ramallah ghetto" in Israel!
To liken your visit to death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland, Sir, stating, "This is something that is done to animals, not to people," is, with all due respect, Sir, the height of fatuous absurdness!
Sir, to show you I am not bigoted against Catholics, many, many, many times in Pulpits around the world and here in Oklahoma City, and to hundreds of Catholic individuals, I have stated, "I've never known a Baptist who could tie the shoes of Dr. Tom Dooley, whom I met in Laos!" If you are not familiar with him, you ought to look up his accomplishments among the hill people of Laos!
But, for a moment, bear with me, and let us visit those Nazi Death Camps in Poland.
SS Lt. Kurt Gerstein, who worked in SS medical service, for example, testified to a Swedish diplomat while the war was ongoing what he had seen at Belzec on August 19, 1942. The camp was still using carbon monoxide from a Gasoline engine to do in the Hebrews.
Let me Quote Lt. Gerstein: "I was proudly shown 45 train cars stuffed with 6,700 Jews. [That is 148 Hated Jews per small Nazi freight, 8 x 18.] They were marched naked into the gas chambers. [The diesel engines were unable to be started for 2 hours and 49 minutes - Gerstein's stopwatch recorded it all - all crowded in 4 times 45 cubic meters.] After the engine started, another 25 minutes elapsed, most were dead, then after 7 more minutes, 32 total, all were dead.
"Sonderkommandos hammered out gold teeth, bridges, and crowns. In the midst of them stood Nazi Captain Wirth, in his element, showing me a large can full of gold teeth, saying, 'See for yourself the weight of that gold!' You can't imagine what we find every day, dollars, diamonds, gold."
Now, Sir, let me ask you candidly, "Did you in Ramallah see such goings-on? Did you see anywhere near the number of 600,000 Jews killed, as in Belzec by Carbon Monoxide?"
Another question: "The writer has personally visited Belzec! Have you?" And, I was in Ramallah two weeks ago this coming Sunday!
Or, might I mention Chelmno? Under the command of Hauptsturmfuhrer Herbert Lange, Jews transported to Chelmno were forced naked into vans, doors were closed and latched, and the motors started. A hose carried carbon monoxide into the van. It usually only required 15 minutes to murder all the Jews in the van!
The driver then drove the bodies to pre-dug graves in the forest where Jewish folks were forced to unload the bodies into the graves.
Another Question: Did you see in Ramallah such goings-on? Did you see anywhere near the number of 320,000 Jews killed in Chelmno? Have you been to Chelmno? I have!
Or, might I mention Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the most notorious "forced labor death camp"?! Of course, I know that you, being German, are familiar with the first sign the Jews saw on entering Auschwitz I, "Arbeit Mach Frei," promoting the false hope that hard work would free you!
Auschwitz I had the camp, administration building, kitchen, infirmary, guard room, one gas chamber, and crematoriums, the Gestapo camp, medical experiment center, and gallows. Barracks housed the Criminals in the camp. These barracks held the "court rooms" where the prisoners were "tried" and sentenced to death. In the Southwest corner of the camp, these sentenced to death Jews were lined up against the wall and shot. Auschwitz I was surrounded by double barbed wire electric fences and nine watch towers.
Mengele (I will not dignify him by calling his first name - a Bible name, not German) did his famous human guinea pig experiments there - his favorite being on twins, then dwarfs, and Gypsies for Hypothermia - seeing how long they lived as their core body temperatures fell!
Did you, Sir, see in Ramallah such goings-on? Any Arab guinea pig experiments? Any Arab twin Experiments? Any Arab Dwarfs being experimented on? How about shivering Gypsies? Did Mengele happen to be there? Have you been there? I have!
Auschwitz II and Auschwitz III, one commanded by Rudolf Hoess, became great to your German buddies because of their extermination and elimination of the Hated Jews.
Did you, Sir, see in Ramallah such Auschwitz II and III exterminations and eliminations of Arabs? Did Rudolf happen to be hanging around amidst the Hebrews doing their supposed thing on Ramallah? Have you been to Auschwitz II and III? I have been to both!
Auschwitz I, II, and III nailed 1,400,000 hated Jews. How many Arabs do you suppose the Hebrews have nailed in Ramallah (in death camps, mind you, not as Islamic Jihadists)?
Have you been to Sobibor on the Bug River (and it is)? I have! In Ramallah, did you see something equivalent to Sobibor's five gas chambers, where, under SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Franz Reichleitner, over 250,000 hated Jews died from Poland, Nazi occupied areas of the Soviet Union, Slovakia, Bohemia, Moravia, France, and Holland?! (Our song leader, Adrian Van Manen's family came after WWII to America from Holland!)
Let us move on to Treblinka! Have you been there? I have! It is located between Siedlce (where I had a very bad incident with Soviet KGB on May 2, 1960, after Francis Gary Powers was shot down) and Malkinia, 62 miles northeast of Warsaw. Treblinka was the death camp under command of Franz Stangl, 40 SS officers and 150 Ukrainian guards, where the killing process was very similar to already mentioned Belzec and Sobibor, and extensive use of the Sonderkommandos, removing teeth, dentures, and other valuables, then transporting the dead Jews to mass graves.
After the war, Stangl fled to Brazil, where he prospered 'til 1967, when he was arrested. I was 27 then. I remembered Treblinka. Stangl only got a Life sentence for the deaths of 700,000 hated Jews. I remember thinking then, even as a Christian, "Let me in the room with him for 15 seconds and I'll send him out to meet his maker!" I am sure you pious Catholic priests do not think such things!
Or Majdanek, where 1,380,000 died from gas, exposure, beatings, epidemics, starvation, and bitter, hard work! Where did those Jews come from? Mostly from your beloved Germany, and a few from the Netherlands! 17,000 of them were shot as the Soviets closed in!
Have you been there? Did you see similarities of 1,380,000 dead Arabs in Ramallah? I have been to both Ramallah, as I said, two weeks ago this coming Sunday, and in the early 1960's to Majdanek. Pardon my French, Sir, but you are full of B...S...! (My Baptist Brethren who read this will nail me for this!)
How about Stutthof near Danzig! Only 65,000 hated Jews were Zyklon-B gassed there! Have you been there? It is not too far from You! I have been there. It made the least of all the impressions on my "unsaved mind" back then as a hell-deserving sinner before I met THE LORD JESUS CHRIST as my Saviour.
It seems like I missed some place or two, but 4,600,000 Hebrew Souls, the Covenanted People, whom you Roman Catholics throughout your sordid history have always hated, died there in Poland, which you equate to Ramallah.
Your remarks certainly do not surprise this writer who takes the Bible literally, meaning that Everlasting Covenant God Almighty made with Abraham is still in effect, regardless of what all your popes have decreed.
To Ahmadinejad, Abbas, Nasrallah, Assad, the Saudis, and Musharraf, there is a phrase very similar to that which Lenin used to describe your antics the other day in Ramallah! Those Jihadists are excited about your tactics.
Unfortunately, those who have operated under the "guise" of Christendom throughout the History of Christianity have hurt our cause, just as you did the other day!
It is useful idiots! As one who has seen all you have referred to in Poland, and near Danzig, you, Sir, are completely out of touch with Reality. Be careful, for there are nut houses all around looking for folks like you to lock up - permanently!
A tough Letter! A Rough Letter! But a frank and truthful letter!
JIM VINEYARD - PASTOR EMERITUS
P.S. Maybe we ought visit the Roman Catholic Inquisitions in England, Europe, and Spain for further reminders of what Ramallah is like!
After really contemplating what you birds had to say in Ramallah, I am tickled to death that 3 of my older brothers fought you folks for the freedom of God's Covenanted People!