Yesterday I wrote about prisoners and gangs...
My friend, David L., a working-class family man with children of his own, serves God by helping prisoners with their spiritual needs.
David has been doing volunteer work as a Christian at the New Castle prison for many years. Recently, he was awarded the position as a "volunteer chaplain." This allows him to work and function just like a regular paid chaplain, but without collecting a salary.
In a recent letter, David told me about the various gangs at New Castle. The one with the most members, he wrote, is the Aryan Brotherhood. This particular gang has a ruthless and fear-generating reputation in jails and correctional facilities throughout the United States, especially in the west and Midwest. Thousands of inmates are, today, members of this organization. Many more are probably "wannabe" members.
As a Jew, I find it especially troublesome that an Aryan gang, which primarily espouses the teachings and beliefs set forth by Germany's long deceased dictator, Adolf Hitler, would flourish in this day and age.
Hitler, meanwhile, took his own life in 1945 while he was trapped inside a cold Berlin bunker. He was surrounded and about to be captured by Allied troops. He committed suicide rather than having to face justice for his war crimes.
To the members of the Aryan Brotherhood, however, Hitler is still very much alive. Not physically, of course, but in spirit. They worship him and revere his ideals.
Even though Adolph Hitler is dead, it is of no surprise to me, that someone like him would become a hero in the minds of those who join the Aryan Brotherhood, or to other individuals who belong to different Neo-Nazi groups. They see Hitler, I believe, as a rebel and a fighter, and as a strong leader. In their eyes, he was able to control millions of people. Hitler compelled a nation to do his bidding, even to commit acts of mass murder and genocide. What a handy, albeit pathetic, role model for men with bitter hearts who stew in perpetual anger.
I pity those who follow Hitler. I am convinced that God has something better for each one of them. To me, Hitler is not just a corpse in a grave. His soul is in Hell. Even at this moment his soul is in a place of torment where he awaits what the Bible calls the "great white throne." This is the place of final judgment where God will open His books and call into account every Christian rejecting sinner who refused God's wonderful gift of salvation. And after this will be, for these same individuals, an inescapable "Lake of Fire" (Revelation 20:11-15).
I think, too, that if these deluded and misled members of the Aryan Brotherhood could have the opportunity to see Adolf Hitler as he is at this moment, a tormented soul who's screaming and begging for something as simple as a drop of water, they would then see their "god" for what he really is: a miserable, cowardly, and eternally doomed man.
Adolf Hitler was a loser. His followers, if they do not repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ and what the Lord did for them on the cross of Calvary, will eventually meet the same fate as Hitler. How tragic. How needless.
D.B.
David has been doing volunteer work as a Christian at the New Castle prison for many years. Recently, he was awarded the position as a "volunteer chaplain." This allows him to work and function just like a regular paid chaplain, but without collecting a salary.
In a recent letter, David told me about the various gangs at New Castle. The one with the most members, he wrote, is the Aryan Brotherhood. This particular gang has a ruthless and fear-generating reputation in jails and correctional facilities throughout the United States, especially in the west and Midwest. Thousands of inmates are, today, members of this organization. Many more are probably "wannabe" members.
As a Jew, I find it especially troublesome that an Aryan gang, which primarily espouses the teachings and beliefs set forth by Germany's long deceased dictator, Adolf Hitler, would flourish in this day and age.
Hitler, meanwhile, took his own life in 1945 while he was trapped inside a cold Berlin bunker. He was surrounded and about to be captured by Allied troops. He committed suicide rather than having to face justice for his war crimes.
To the members of the Aryan Brotherhood, however, Hitler is still very much alive. Not physically, of course, but in spirit. They worship him and revere his ideals.
Even though Adolph Hitler is dead, it is of no surprise to me, that someone like him would become a hero in the minds of those who join the Aryan Brotherhood, or to other individuals who belong to different Neo-Nazi groups. They see Hitler, I believe, as a rebel and a fighter, and as a strong leader. In their eyes, he was able to control millions of people. Hitler compelled a nation to do his bidding, even to commit acts of mass murder and genocide. What a handy, albeit pathetic, role model for men with bitter hearts who stew in perpetual anger.
I pity those who follow Hitler. I am convinced that God has something better for each one of them. To me, Hitler is not just a corpse in a grave. His soul is in Hell. Even at this moment his soul is in a place of torment where he awaits what the Bible calls the "great white throne." This is the place of final judgment where God will open His books and call into account every Christian rejecting sinner who refused God's wonderful gift of salvation. And after this will be, for these same individuals, an inescapable "Lake of Fire" (Revelation 20:11-15).
I think, too, that if these deluded and misled members of the Aryan Brotherhood could have the opportunity to see Adolf Hitler as he is at this moment, a tormented soul who's screaming and begging for something as simple as a drop of water, they would then see their "god" for what he really is: a miserable, cowardly, and eternally doomed man.
Adolf Hitler was a loser. His followers, if they do not repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ and what the Lord did for them on the cross of Calvary, will eventually meet the same fate as Hitler. How tragic. How needless.
D.B.
