Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H30223, Ludwig Müller
On May 14, 1933, Ludwig Müller (June 23, 1883 in Gütersloh, Westphalia – July 31, 1945 in Berlin) was a German who headed the German Christians (German: Deutsche Christen) and was imposed by the Nazi government as Landesbischof (bishop) of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (6 July 1933) and Reich’s Bishop (28 June 1933) of the German Evangelical Church (German: Deutsche Evangelische Kirche). a prominent member in the ranks of the German Christian Movement became the principle Bishop of the Evangelical German Reich Church. Most Protestant pastors and Roman Catholic clergy allied themselves with the Nazi party and their anti-Semitic views got published in the Protestant press even before Hitler’s election into power. The Protestant press influenced millions of its readers with the most prominent being the Sonntagsblatter, and the weekly Sunday newspapers. These weekly papers dwelled on religious piety and preached how they thought of Jews as “the natural enemies of the Christian-national tradition” following Martin Luther’s lead in calling for the extermination of the Jews. [Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah (1996). Hitler’s willing executioners : ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House; the original is under the title Briefe an Goldhagen / eingeleitet und beantwortet. Berlin : Siedler, c1997.] As far as anyone knows, there had never occurred any visible or vocal church protest against the anti-Semitism of the Nazi party before it came into power. (Die Juden in Deutschland 1933-1945, herausgegeben von Wolfgang Benz, Verlag C.H. Beck, Munich 1989, part VI, pages 499-544, Der November- pogrom 1938. The second sentence of this chapter begins: “Der Novem- berpogrom, als “Reichkristallnacht” im Umgangstonverniedlicht…” (The Novemberpogrom was “prettified” in the vernacular as crystal night.”) pastors openly welcomed the Nazi’s believing that the reintroduction of government by Christian authorities, affirmed St. Paul that “the power that be are ordained by God.” (Romans 13:1). Under the continuing influence of the Lutheran Court Preacher Adolf Stocker, the Protestants, led by Lutheran clergy and their bishops believed that the future of German Lutheranism lay in obliterating the Jewish background of Christianity, and creating a national religion based on the traditions of German Christianity. They repeatedly stressed Luther’s anti-Semitic statements that no Jew deserved life.
Dibelius, in the middle, with Makarios III (right), president of Cyprus, and Prelate Tukowsky (left)
One of the “moral” pastors of the nation,Friedrich Karl Otto Dibelius was a German bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, declared in a letter after April 1933, that he has been “always an antisemite.” Dibelius had expressed that he wanted the Jews to die out peaceably, bloodlessly (what a guy!) Wolfgang Gerlach, a German Evangelical pastor and historian of the Christian churches during the Nazi period, observed Bishop Dibelius’ anti-Semitic sentiments as “well-nigh representative of German Christendom” in the beginning of 1933. [Goldhagen, pp.108-9].
Martin Luther - spiritual ancestor to Adolf Hitler
Bishop Martin Sasse of Thuringia, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Martin Luther’s anti-Semitic vitriol shortly after Kristallnacht(the first openly public attacks against the Jews by the Nazis). He applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day: “On November 10, 1938, on Luther’s birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany… of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews.” [Goldhagen p.111] He also edited a brochure for his ministers at the end of November 1938 titled, “Martin Luther and the Jews: do Away with Them!” He was not one to mince words, but detailed the evil that was behind Lutheran theology and Luther’s own foul mouth that spat hatred more than love, for Luther was like Ratliff Sr: totaly unfamiliar with any concept of compassion, concern, or generosity of spirit, and totally void of knowledge of 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.
Title page of Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies. Wittenberg, 1543
Bishop Martin Sasse, a “devout Lutheran”, quoted extensively from Luther’s book “On the Jews and their lies” (Luther, Martin (1543). Von den Jüden und jren Lügen; in modern spelling Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, a 65,000-word antisemitic treatise that led to a Lutheran Church led pogrom againt the Jews which other “non-official” churches celebrated. Martin Luther wrote advice the Hitler and men like Hitler who would come after Hitler’s suicide: “First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly_and I myself was unaware of it_will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.” (A complete English translation is at: http://www.awitness.org/books/luther/on_jews_and_their_lies_p2.html; cp. Wollenberg, Jorg, ed. (1996), The German Public and the Persecution of the Jews 1933-1945: No One Participated, No One Knew (Chapter: When the Witnesses Were Silent, The Confessing Church and the Jews, by Wolfgang Gerlach), Humanities Press, New Jersey; p. 73] but this was in keeping with Martin Luther. In Mein Kampf, Hitler listed Martin Luther as one of the greatest reformers, and the Protestants of Germany were delighted, and demanded that more than the Jews be erased from the planet, but in the name of a “terrifying, wrathful God demanding sacrifice” that the “Homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses [and other] low life” be denied all rights under the law” and killed expeditiously.
Self-proclaimed "Reverend" Keith Ratliff, Sr. in Des Moines, IA 2011
Today, in the State of Iowa (USA), there is another pastor who is even more ignorant of scripture of his Bible, and follows in the steps of the Protestant pastors who not only endorsed but supported in regular sermons the destruction of Jewish synagogues, the arrest, incarceration, and execution of Jews, homosexuals, White Russians, Polish Roman Catholics, “Romas” or “Gypsies” from Romania (their original origin was Egypt), and others: Keith Ratliff, Sr., Pastor of the Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church located in Des Moines, Iowa, who for some unexplained reason is the head of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP. Obviously ignorant of Matthew 7:1 (μη κρινετε ινα μη κριθητε), and most assuredly has ignored Act 10:24 (τη δε επαυριον εισηλθεν εις την καισαρειαν ο δε κορνηλιος ην προσδοκων αυτους συγκαλεσαμενος τους συγγενεις αυτου και τους αναγκαιους φιλους), on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, Ratliff boomed out as if preaching to a college of Nazis, that homosexuals in Iowa had no civil rights and implied they had no human rights. He claims that civil rights are for Black people–ignoring that many Blacks are gay (http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TMDDS032AEM27OJ8J). Ratliff has ignored deliberately all of the essays on civil rights written by Black leaders in the USA (http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/civilrts.html; there are numerous biblical passages that do call for basic civil rights for all people: Genesis 9:6: שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם בָּאָדָם דָּמֹו יִשָּׁפֵךְ כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֶת־הָאָדָם׃, Exodus 22:21: וְגֵר לֹא־תֹונֶה וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃ ; Leviticus 19:33-34 on the treatment of immigrants: וְכִי־יָגוּר אִתְּךָ גֵּר בְּאַרְצְכֶם לֹא תֹונוּ אֹתֹו׃ כְּאֶזְרָח םִכֶּם יִהְיֶה לָכֶם הַגֵּר הַגָּר אִתְּכֶם וְאָהַבְתָּ לֹו כָּמֹוךָ כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם׃ ; Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 15:7-8 on providing for the poor, Leviticus 25:39-41 for the release of indentured servants after fifty years, and all people are equal: Proverbs 22:2 etc., but Ratliff never mentions those passages in his double-barreled attack on those he does not approve of because of some characteristic of which he is in fear, especially of Galatians 5:1: τη ελευθερια ημας χριστος ηλευθερωσεν στηκετε ουν και μη παλιν ζυγω δουλειας ενεχεσθε). Ratliff Sr. barked: “Deviant behavior is not the same as being denied your right to vote,” and calling any parallel between the African-American civil rights movement and the gay civil rights movement an “insult.” His message was as clear as that of Martin Luther’s An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation (1520). (Cp. http://nbjc.org/news/the-nbjc-comes-to-iowa.html)
Keith Ratliff Sr. (Des Moines, IA 2011)
Ratliff Sr. has no education nor a degree in Bible or Theology, but earned a Bachelor’s degree from Simpson College in History/Education and a Master’s degree from Drake University in Religious Leadership (definitely ignoring any religious training in compassion). He was a Senior Engineering Analyst at John Deere Des Moines Works for thirty-three years (http://maplestreetmbc.org/pastor.html) as most Baptist pastors are self-called and most hold jobs outside of their church. Few of Ratliff’s claims to “greatness” can be substantiated, yet this alleged associate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (the son of Michael King (December 19, 1899 – November 11, 1984), condemned any idea that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael Luther King, Jr (January 15, 1929 – assassinated on April 4, 1968); he later had his name changed to Martin. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King Jr. family; last official portrait of the entire family taken in the Study of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA (USA)
The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. At the age of 35, Martin Luther King was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize; he gave the prize money, $54,123, to further the civil rights movement in the USA), would have supported gay rights or civil same-sex marriage (http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=7832&MediaType=1&Category=26). Ratliff Sr. rejects the credo of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), whose mission clearly states, “is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.”
Benjamin Todd Jealous (President of NAACP 2011)
Ratliff’s anti-gay actions also go directly against the teachings of the NACCP’s president, and Chairman, Benjamin Todd Jealous, and Jealous’ predecessor, Julian Bond. Additionally, Dr. King’s right-hand man, Bayard Rustin, who planned the historic march on Washington, was openly-gay. Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987, he was 75 and continued to support gay and lesbian causes throughout his life) counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance and was called both the American Socrates as well as the American Ghandi, so opposed was he to violence and the hatred that spewed out of the uneducated mouths of ordained and unordained pastors, priests, rabbis and others who claimed to speak for a god of hate who had no compassion for mortals that the god’s spokesmen claimed were sinners.
Bayard Rustin (August 1963)
Rustin became an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career and openly compared the plight of gays and lesbians to the injustices experienced by Black people.
Jealous last year said, “I personally support marriage equality,” (Jealous’ transcript is here: http://www.lgbtpov.com/2010/04/naacps-benjamin-jealous-for-black-activists-gay-rights-are-personal/) and Bond has spoken publicly and eloquently in support of same-sex marriage (http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/julian-bond-naacp-chair-speaks-to-nj-senate-supporting-gay-marriage/politics/2009/12/07/5581).
Coretta Scott King speaking in Nigeria in 2003, age 75.
“Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union,” she said. “A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”). She had no difficulty in talking down the evangelical ministers in Nigeria who were demanding that the national government of Nigeria execute all homosexuals, whom they claimed, were “out to convert their children” — a claim that has been used by Ratliff, John Lively and a host of other anti-gay theological terrorists who have traveled to Nigeria and Uganda to encourage legislators to pass bills to condemn to death anyone even suspected of being gay. In each case, these USA born preachers have never read the actual scriptures nor know what the words mean (contemporary English editions do use the word “homosexual”, but that was not a word used in the ancient world when the Torah or Bible were written; the word does not even appear in popular coinage until 1892, in C.G. Chaddock’s translation of Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis, as it is from homo– (ὁμός), comb. form of Gk. homos “same” and sexualis; The noun is first recorded The first known appearance of homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet by the Austrian-born novelist Karl-Maria Kertbeny, published anonymously, arguing against a Prussian anti-sodomy law, 1912 in English, 1907 in French. See more from the American Psychological Association at http://www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/sexual-orientation.aspx).
Today the untrained, illiterate in religious literature, tracts, and scriptures, bray similar to Ratliff and Robert Vander Plaats of Iowa. They use scare tactics and the same theater as Martin Luther and Adolf Hitler to promote self-interest or (as with Senator Larry Edwin Craig (R-ID): Murphy, Patti; David Stout (2007-08-29). “Idaho Senator Says He Regrets Guilty Plea in Restroom Incident”. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/washington/29craig.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. ) to hide their own sexual frustrations and/or orientations. It is what is destroying Iowa, Nebraska, and the USA.
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