ZGram - 10/11/2003 - Prisoner of Conscience Letter # 11

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

October 11, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

My aim, as I stated before, is to present to my readers the real 
Ernst Zündel - as in the fifties' television show - remember? - 
called "Will the real so-and-so please stand up?"  I try to vary the 
themes and topics of Ernst's letters so that my readers get a good 
variety of samples of how he thinks and who he is - not the 
attention-seeking buffoon of unsubstantiated claims such as the 
Führer UFOs of yore, not the "failed reformer with smelly followers 
who can fit in a telephone booth", as B'nai Brith Canada tried hard 
to pigeon-hole him for decades, and - alternately! - certainly not 
the fire-spewing "White supremacist"  or even "terrorist" in this 
latest shameful government lampooning effort, wasting bushels of 
Canadian taxpayers' dollars to peg him as a "security risk" - to the 
hoots of the rest of the world! 

Ernst Zündel is, quite simply, an unpretentious, self-taught man of 
considerable inner depth and genuine curiosity across vast fields of 
human endeavors, with a keen interest in politics and, I believe, 
immense instinctive powers of prediction.  No wonder that "they" fear 
him and think he needs to be kept caged!  What if some people who 
could make a difference might find out what is in store for 
evil-doers of this world?

Here he writes again to an American, a former army chaplain, Dr. 
Robert Countess, with whom he likes to test the various religious 
ponds and rivers, as he puts it, of the contemporary political 
landscape. 

[START]

Dear Robert and Elda -

I was out of pre-stamped envelopes due to a bureaucratic mix-up, it 
seems - thus my silence.  I am far more restricted, telephone-wise, 
than I was in Thorold.  I have not been able to find out yet why 
there are such stringent security restrictions, but I will.  Trust me 
- I will find out!

Robert, I need your help in a religious matter.  In the government's 
voluminous dirt file and accusations against me, "Christian Identity" 
and "Aryan Nations" organizations have come up repeatedly.  Many of 
the ministers and pastors seem to have sooner or later been involved 
in crimes of violence, usually with guns involved, many times 
robberies, hold-ups, shoot-outs with law enforcement personnel or 
even amongst themselves.  I need to find out what the difference is 
between orthodox, mainstream Christianity and these gun-toting 
Christians.

There seems to be a lot of talk about an "Adamic" race, kind of like 
the root stock of a "master race", and all or most of the other races 
are - what?  Evil seed?  I do not want to read endless, fanatical, 
hairsplitting texts and tracts in my prison cell.  My eyes quickly 
glaze over at that whole topic.  I actually have a visceral dislike 
to have to delve into all that, but I must, in order to be able to 
defend myself. Whenever I touched the topic in the past, even 
tangentially, I invariably lost supporters who felt I betrayed them, 
belittled their religion, even committed blasphemy.  When it comes to 
religion, I was always very tolerant, because I agree with the tenet 
that religion, next to sex, is one of the most private and intimate 
parts of a person's life.

I heard you say in Niagara Falls, quoting some Biblical passages, 
that "Š before God, there is no Jew or Gentile, Black or White, etc. 
- that we are all the same in His eyes."  Can you quote me some of 
those passages or give me the sources?  I have a Gideon Bible.  How 
can Christian Identity people get around that kind of passage, which 
I dimly remember from my Seventh Day Adventist time and from some 
Jehovah's Witnesses like Felderer, who always had colored girl 
friends and wives?

Most Christian denominations have jettisoned any color barriers 40-50 
years ago except for the Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa, 
which changed only in the 1980s, along with the reluctant Mormons. 
So if you can help me understand this vexing topic and also help me 
navigate the minefield if this Inter-Christian schism, I would be 
grateful to you.

I cannot afford, and do not want to get involved in some poisonous, 
totally non-productive religious dispute with any of my helpers and 
followers, who come from arch-conservative, Le Fevre (?) type 
Catholics all the way to British Israelites in Canada, Australia or 
England and every sect in-between.  I simply like to know the claimed 
Biblical sources people trot out to justify violent behavior, or why 
these Christian Identity preachers attract such a violent following, 
in America especially.  I have not encountered any of that kind of 
behavior in Europe's turbulent history in the last 100 years! 
Earlier, there was Jan Hus etc. - but I am interested in the here and 
now. 

Dr. Goebbels, no slouch when it came to understand the political 
scene of his day, referred to the followers of Luddendorff as 
"Sektierer und Querulanten" - "sects and quarrelers".  But there were 
no Aryan Nations gun-toting compounds, no Silent Brotherhood bank 
robbers etc.  I want to clear this up once and for all in my own mind 
and soul.  My stay in jail allows me the luxury and especially the 
time to clear up these loose strands in my mind, which have been 
troubling me whenever I interviewed one of these people or was 
interviewed by people like Pastor Pete Peters, all of whom seemed 
like upright, decent people when I talked to them.  Now I am 
presented with news stories, clippings and articles in studies by 
academics with phrases that make my hair stand up! 

This is my fourth prison this time around.  Before that, I was in 
Toronto's Don Jail, in two prisons in Germany and, briefly, in 
Austria for several hours only.  The people I met in these places 
were certainly not in there for being dissidents! 

In Blount County, they moved me from high security to the more 
general population - still in lock-up - where I was able to conduct 
lengthy interviews with prisoners who, to a man, were hardened 
criminals:  manipulative, living volcanoes ready to blow at the first 
opportunity.  They were walking, talking, unstable time bombs, ready 
to kill once they got out.  Many of them were repeat offenders - 
alcoholics, drug users, assault crimes because of violent tempers, 
driving without a license etc.  I did not meet a single man who saw 
the error of his ways and realized that his problems were 
personality-related and, thus, self-inflicted. 

A Canadian psychologist, Dr. Robert Hare, has written a book entitled 
"People without Conscience", which deals with the mental, emotional, 
and spiritual state of Canadian prison populations.  Dr. Hare spent 
over 40 years in the prison service.  He details the case histories 
of all kinds of horrible psychopaths - serial rapists, mass 
murderers, in short, the worst specimen of humanity. You could do me 
a big favor. I interviewed Butler and Pete Peters.  I believe they, 
like Col. Mohr, had a Prison Outreach Ministry, trying to "save" or 
"convert" prisoners inside.  Write to these three people and simply 
ask them:  Was their prison outreach program a success?  How many 
decent men did they rescue from a life of crime?  How many went back 
to prison - and, of course, over how many years?  I would appreciate 
this information and help. 

I always enjoyed our conversations and your enlightening exposés of 
old Greek terms - what they mean, where some of these concepts came 
from.  We must have more of those when I get out of here and, 
hopefully, will be back on top of our mountain in Tennessee.

All the best,

Ernst Zündel

[END]