Rasp
Senior Editor
The Encyclopedia of Religion and War
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is an influential religious faith among while supremacists. However, it is not organized as a denomination and has no central institutions. This makes Identity a community with unclear boundaries, knit together by beliefs that have a family resemblance to one another. Its significance lies in its emphasis on a history-ending, apocalyptic race war. This commitment to struggle exists within a racial theology.
The beliefs most commonly associated with Christian Identity are the following: (1) persons of northwestern European ancestry are considered the direct, biological descendants of the biblical tribes of Israel; (2) Jews are regarded as the offspring, through Cain, of a sexual liaison between Eve and Satan; and (3) the present is believed to be at or near the end-times, which will feature a final battle between "Israelites" (i.e., "Aryans", or white northern Europeans) on the one hand, and Jews and non-whites on the other. These doctrines have been used as a justification for attacks on non-Aryans and, in the most sweeping Identity scenarios, as a divine imperative for race war.
History
The immediate origins of Christian Identity lie in the British-Israel (or Anglo-Israel) movement, which developed in Great Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and subsequently spread to other parts of the English-speaking world, including the United States. British-Israelism asserted that the inhabitants of the British Isles as well as descendants of northwestern Europeans in general were direct offspring of the "ten lost tribes of Israel." The tribes, they believed, had wandered north and west to eventually populate Great Britain and adjacent areas. British-Israelism was initially well disposed toward the Jewish people, whom they saw as literal relatives. Nonetheless, twentieth-century British-Israelism became increasingly anti-Semitic, particularly in the United States and Western Canada.
Christian Identity began to emerge as a distinct religious tendency in America after World War II. Its separation from British-Israelism, however, was never complete. Some American groups continued to advance a highly anti-Semitic Anglo-Israelism, adding only a belief in the satanic ancestry of Jews. Christian Identity's initial nucleus was made up of three preachers in Southern California: Bertrand Comparet, William Potter Gale, and Wesley Swift. All were closely associated with the anti-Semitic political organizer Gerald L K. Smith.
Identity gradually spread from its West Coast beginnings, but, like British-lsraelism, it never developed a denominational structure. Consequently, it appeared in many variants, including not only varying religious styles but also different styles of right-wing estremism. These have included neo-Nazi groups, such as Aryan Nations; some Ku Klux Klan organizations; and local paramilitary groups, such as elements of the Posse Comitatus and militias. Hence Identity now overlaps upon many other styles of extremist organization. Right-wing extremists who do not consider themselves Identity believers may consequently work with Identity followers and absorb some Identity beliefs.
While Identity may be found throughout the country, it has been weakest in the Northeast and historically strongest in the Ozarks, southern Appalachians, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest. More recently, clusters have emerged in southern Ohio and central Pennsylvania. Because of its fragmented character, all estimates of total size have been guesses based upon such factors as the known size of some groups, the number of groups, and periodicals and websites. These estimates generally cover a substantial range—from about 10,000 to 160,000—but even the upper limits suggest a movement that remains extremely small. Its influence, however, has been greater than its size might suggest.
Political Activities
The political orientations of Christian Identity adherents have ranged from complete withdrawal from American society to violent engagement with it. Withdrawal has taken the form of survivalism, i.e., the cultivation of a lifestyle marked by both physical withdrawal and self-sufficiency. Those who adopt such a lifestyle have sometimes done so both as individual families and as small communities.
Communal separation has had varied political consequences. In some cases, such as that of Pastor Dan Gayman's Church of Israel in Schell, Missouri, it has been accomplished with minimum friction with the authorities. In other cases, however, the separation has been accompanied by conflict. A case in point was that of the Freemen of Montana, who were predominantly Identity followers and whose compound near Jordan, Montana, was the scene of a standoff with the FBI in 1996. The most militarized such community was Zarephath-Horeb in the Arkansas Ozarks, organized by a group called the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord, led by James Ellison. Ellison's communal settlement included sophisticated military training, automatic weapons, electrically controlled minefields, and preparations for chemical warfare—all in anticipation of apocalyptic chaos. Although the organization as such never attacked outsiders, individual members committed or attempted murders, sabotage, and arson. Large-scale violence was averted when the community surrendered to a federal taskforce in 1985.
While most Identity believers appear to live in ways that do not bring them into conflict with the authorities, the exceptions have occurred among those who believe in the inevitability of a war between "Aryan Israelites" on one side and Jews and non-whites on the other. While some survivalists believe such a war will eventually take place, others in Identity have felt compelled to try to set the struggle off through deliberate violent acts. The most dramatic case was that of "The Order" (also called "The Silent Brotherhood" or "Bruders Schweigen") which, in the mid-1980s, engaged in a brief insurgency against the federal government consisting largely of a series of bank robberies and one murder. While only about half the organization's members were Identity believers, those who were saw such an undertaking as consistent with their religious commitments.
Since the late 1940s, more vigorous government intelligence gathering and prosecutions have reduced the propensity of Identity followers to engage in violence. However, since an unknown number of Identity believers are members of paramilitary groups, it is extremely difficult to determine the degree of Identity influence in these organizations.
The 1990s presented particularly acute challenges to Christian Identity. By this decade, the leadership generation that had assumed its roles in the 1950s and 1960s had died or was on the verge of retirement. The 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building greatly increased public concern about right-wing terrorism. Although it was never clear whether Timothy McVeigh had significant Christian Identity associations, the bombing made the anti-government subculture a major public concern for the first time. Partly in response to these stresses, the label Christian Identity itself has fallen out of favor within the movement (indeed, there were always Identity figures who used other terms, such as Kingdom Message).
Beliefs
Because of their conviction that they are the biological descendants of the biblical Israelites, Identity believers think of themselves as God's elect, the instruments for the fulfillment of His will on earth. British-Israelism held a similar view, but tended to identify nations, especially Great Britain and the United States, as the divine agents. Identity has been much more overtly racial, imputing to whites a special status in the divine scheme and implicitly or explicitly devaluing non-whites.
A theology of anti-Semitism lies at the heart of Christian Identity, for whom Jews are essentially non-white. More significantly, they see Jews as impostors, masquerading as Israelite descendants. The most fully developed version of this theology—found in such Identity writers as Wesley Swift, Witham Potter Gale, and Dan Gayman—is its so-called two-seed theology. According to the two-seed theory, Adam and Eve were the parents of Abel and Seth, but not of Cain. Cain's parents were supposedly Eve and Satan, Satan having seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden. Identity regards the Jews as the literal, biological descendants of Satan, through Cain. Hence they posit a continuing state of war between the white seed line of Adam and the diabolical seed line of Cain. Identity theology assumes blacks and other non-whites have resulted from separate creations in which Adam and Eve were not involved.
Identity Millennialism
Christian Identity followers believe the war between the seed lines is reaching its climax. This leads to an end-time scenario conceived in terms of race war (again, based upon Identity's view of Jews as racially non-white). Again, this view of history has been used to support both radical withdrawal and violent engagement. It can be used to justify survivalism, in which Identity believers seek separation in order to avoid the dangers of conflict in the last days; and it can be used to justify violent attacks on Jews, non-whites, and governmental authority, on the grounds that Satanic forces are poised to destroy God's people.
These differing orientations toward the end-times can he better understood in terms of Identity's relationship to broader millenarian currents in American society. While Identity is sometimes considered part of Christian fundamentalism, it in fact is quite different. The relationship between Christian Identity and Protestant Fundamentalism has generally been one of mutual hostility. That is because they differ radically about two important theological issues: the role of the Jewish people and the doctrine of the Rapture.
The great majority of Protestant Fundamentalists accept the millenarian system devised in the late nineteenth century by John Nelson Darby called dispensational premillennialism. It was Darby's contention that Christ's Second Coming would precede the millennium, but that the Second Coming could not take place until biblical prophecies concerning the Jewish people were fulfilled. There was no sign of this in Darby's time, and he and other dispensationalists believed the "prophetic clock" had stopped for an indefinite period. However, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 persuaded many fundamentalists that the prophetic clock was now ticking, and that consequently the world was moving rapidly toward the final events of history.
Darby believed these events would include a seven-year period of conflict and persecution, known as the Tribulation, the final half of which would be dominated by the figure of the Antichrist. However, dispensationalists have held that the saved would not have to endure the rigors of the Tribulation, because they would be raptured. That is, they would be taken up into heaven at the beginning of the Tribulation, be with Christ for the seven years, and then return with him at the time of the battle of Armageddon.
Christian Identity totally rejects this scenario. Since it believes Jews to be satanic impostors, it does not believe that biblical prophecies concerning Israel refer to them. Indeed, it believes such prophecies refer to Aryans. Thus, Identity adherents believe the support shown by Christian fundamentalists for the state of Israel signifies that the Christian community has been duped or co-opted by Jews. Identity also rejects the doctrine of the Rapture as a major theological error. It does not believe the faithful will be lifted off the earth. Instead, the saved (again themselves) will have to live through the harrowing events of the Tribulation. This belief has significantly reinforced separatist tendencies, since a survivalist lifestyle is deemed to be not merely a way of escaping a society regarded as sinful, but also a way of protecting themselves against what they see as the dangers to come. It also fuels paramilitary tendencies, for they believe that during the Tribulation, public order will breakdown or the government will become the enemy of believers. Consequently, they see guns as an essential means of defense against encircling enemies.
Identity on the Wane
Throughout the roughly fifty years of its history, Christian Identity has shown itself capable of rapid and unpredictable changes. Because its constituent groups operate independently of one another, individual pastors and political organizers have been free to develop their own interpretations and programs. By closely interweaving anti-Semitism and racism with millennial expectation, Christian Identity has provided a theological rationalization for racial and religious conflict and inequality. Its assertion that these positions have a divine mandate has given Identity an influence in extremist circles far beyond its relatively small number of adherents.
That influence began to wane in the late 1990s and early 2000s, along with a more general decline of the extreme right. Perhaps the best-known Identity group, Aryan Nations, was torn by a leadership struggle. Dan Gayman faced a breach in his congregation. The militia groups that had multiplied in the early 1990s began to fragment and contract. Symbolic of the right's crisis was the sudden death in 2002 of William Pierce, leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Although Pierce made no secret of his disdain for Christian Identity, his novel, The Turner Diaries, which described a successful racist uprising, was widely admired in Identity circles.
Further Reading
Aho, J. (1990). The politics of righteousness: Idaho Christian patriotism. Seattle, University of Washington Press.
Barkun, M. (1997). Millenarians and violence: The case of the Christian identity movement. In T. Robbins & S.J. Palmer (Eds.), Millenium, messiahs, and mayhem: Contemporary apocalyptic movements (pp. 247-260), New York: Routledge.
Barkun, M. (1997). Religion and the racist right: The origins of the Christian identity movement (Rev. ed). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Jeansonne, G. (1988). Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of hate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Kaplan. J. (1997). Radical religion in America: Millenarian movements from the far right to the children of Noah. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
MacDonald. A. (1980). The Turner diaries (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Alliance.
Robins, R. A., & Post, J. M. (1997). Political paranoia: The psychopolitics of hatred. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is an influential religious faith among while supremacists. However, it is not organized as a denomination and has no central institutions. This makes Identity a community with unclear boundaries, knit together by beliefs that have a family resemblance to one another. Its significance lies in its emphasis on a history-ending, apocalyptic race war. This commitment to struggle exists within a racial theology.
The beliefs most commonly associated with Christian Identity are the following: (1) persons of northwestern European ancestry are considered the direct, biological descendants of the biblical tribes of Israel; (2) Jews are regarded as the offspring, through Cain, of a sexual liaison between Eve and Satan; and (3) the present is believed to be at or near the end-times, which will feature a final battle between "Israelites" (i.e., "Aryans", or white northern Europeans) on the one hand, and Jews and non-whites on the other. These doctrines have been used as a justification for attacks on non-Aryans and, in the most sweeping Identity scenarios, as a divine imperative for race war.
History
The immediate origins of Christian Identity lie in the British-Israel (or Anglo-Israel) movement, which developed in Great Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and subsequently spread to other parts of the English-speaking world, including the United States. British-Israelism asserted that the inhabitants of the British Isles as well as descendants of northwestern Europeans in general were direct offspring of the "ten lost tribes of Israel." The tribes, they believed, had wandered north and west to eventually populate Great Britain and adjacent areas. British-Israelism was initially well disposed toward the Jewish people, whom they saw as literal relatives. Nonetheless, twentieth-century British-Israelism became increasingly anti-Semitic, particularly in the United States and Western Canada.
Christian Identity began to emerge as a distinct religious tendency in America after World War II. Its separation from British-Israelism, however, was never complete. Some American groups continued to advance a highly anti-Semitic Anglo-Israelism, adding only a belief in the satanic ancestry of Jews. Christian Identity's initial nucleus was made up of three preachers in Southern California: Bertrand Comparet, William Potter Gale, and Wesley Swift. All were closely associated with the anti-Semitic political organizer Gerald L K. Smith.
Identity gradually spread from its West Coast beginnings, but, like British-lsraelism, it never developed a denominational structure. Consequently, it appeared in many variants, including not only varying religious styles but also different styles of right-wing estremism. These have included neo-Nazi groups, such as Aryan Nations; some Ku Klux Klan organizations; and local paramilitary groups, such as elements of the Posse Comitatus and militias. Hence Identity now overlaps upon many other styles of extremist organization. Right-wing extremists who do not consider themselves Identity believers may consequently work with Identity followers and absorb some Identity beliefs.
While Identity may be found throughout the country, it has been weakest in the Northeast and historically strongest in the Ozarks, southern Appalachians, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest. More recently, clusters have emerged in southern Ohio and central Pennsylvania. Because of its fragmented character, all estimates of total size have been guesses based upon such factors as the known size of some groups, the number of groups, and periodicals and websites. These estimates generally cover a substantial range—from about 10,000 to 160,000—but even the upper limits suggest a movement that remains extremely small. Its influence, however, has been greater than its size might suggest.
Political Activities
The political orientations of Christian Identity adherents have ranged from complete withdrawal from American society to violent engagement with it. Withdrawal has taken the form of survivalism, i.e., the cultivation of a lifestyle marked by both physical withdrawal and self-sufficiency. Those who adopt such a lifestyle have sometimes done so both as individual families and as small communities.
Communal separation has had varied political consequences. In some cases, such as that of Pastor Dan Gayman's Church of Israel in Schell, Missouri, it has been accomplished with minimum friction with the authorities. In other cases, however, the separation has been accompanied by conflict. A case in point was that of the Freemen of Montana, who were predominantly Identity followers and whose compound near Jordan, Montana, was the scene of a standoff with the FBI in 1996. The most militarized such community was Zarephath-Horeb in the Arkansas Ozarks, organized by a group called the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord, led by James Ellison. Ellison's communal settlement included sophisticated military training, automatic weapons, electrically controlled minefields, and preparations for chemical warfare—all in anticipation of apocalyptic chaos. Although the organization as such never attacked outsiders, individual members committed or attempted murders, sabotage, and arson. Large-scale violence was averted when the community surrendered to a federal taskforce in 1985.
While most Identity believers appear to live in ways that do not bring them into conflict with the authorities, the exceptions have occurred among those who believe in the inevitability of a war between "Aryan Israelites" on one side and Jews and non-whites on the other. While some survivalists believe such a war will eventually take place, others in Identity have felt compelled to try to set the struggle off through deliberate violent acts. The most dramatic case was that of "The Order" (also called "The Silent Brotherhood" or "Bruders Schweigen") which, in the mid-1980s, engaged in a brief insurgency against the federal government consisting largely of a series of bank robberies and one murder. While only about half the organization's members were Identity believers, those who were saw such an undertaking as consistent with their religious commitments.
Since the late 1940s, more vigorous government intelligence gathering and prosecutions have reduced the propensity of Identity followers to engage in violence. However, since an unknown number of Identity believers are members of paramilitary groups, it is extremely difficult to determine the degree of Identity influence in these organizations.
The 1990s presented particularly acute challenges to Christian Identity. By this decade, the leadership generation that had assumed its roles in the 1950s and 1960s had died or was on the verge of retirement. The 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building greatly increased public concern about right-wing terrorism. Although it was never clear whether Timothy McVeigh had significant Christian Identity associations, the bombing made the anti-government subculture a major public concern for the first time. Partly in response to these stresses, the label Christian Identity itself has fallen out of favor within the movement (indeed, there were always Identity figures who used other terms, such as Kingdom Message).
Beliefs
Because of their conviction that they are the biological descendants of the biblical Israelites, Identity believers think of themselves as God's elect, the instruments for the fulfillment of His will on earth. British-Israelism held a similar view, but tended to identify nations, especially Great Britain and the United States, as the divine agents. Identity has been much more overtly racial, imputing to whites a special status in the divine scheme and implicitly or explicitly devaluing non-whites.
A theology of anti-Semitism lies at the heart of Christian Identity, for whom Jews are essentially non-white. More significantly, they see Jews as impostors, masquerading as Israelite descendants. The most fully developed version of this theology—found in such Identity writers as Wesley Swift, Witham Potter Gale, and Dan Gayman—is its so-called two-seed theology. According to the two-seed theory, Adam and Eve were the parents of Abel and Seth, but not of Cain. Cain's parents were supposedly Eve and Satan, Satan having seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden. Identity regards the Jews as the literal, biological descendants of Satan, through Cain. Hence they posit a continuing state of war between the white seed line of Adam and the diabolical seed line of Cain. Identity theology assumes blacks and other non-whites have resulted from separate creations in which Adam and Eve were not involved.
Identity Millennialism
Christian Identity followers believe the war between the seed lines is reaching its climax. This leads to an end-time scenario conceived in terms of race war (again, based upon Identity's view of Jews as racially non-white). Again, this view of history has been used to support both radical withdrawal and violent engagement. It can be used to justify survivalism, in which Identity believers seek separation in order to avoid the dangers of conflict in the last days; and it can be used to justify violent attacks on Jews, non-whites, and governmental authority, on the grounds that Satanic forces are poised to destroy God's people.
These differing orientations toward the end-times can he better understood in terms of Identity's relationship to broader millenarian currents in American society. While Identity is sometimes considered part of Christian fundamentalism, it in fact is quite different. The relationship between Christian Identity and Protestant Fundamentalism has generally been one of mutual hostility. That is because they differ radically about two important theological issues: the role of the Jewish people and the doctrine of the Rapture.
The great majority of Protestant Fundamentalists accept the millenarian system devised in the late nineteenth century by John Nelson Darby called dispensational premillennialism. It was Darby's contention that Christ's Second Coming would precede the millennium, but that the Second Coming could not take place until biblical prophecies concerning the Jewish people were fulfilled. There was no sign of this in Darby's time, and he and other dispensationalists believed the "prophetic clock" had stopped for an indefinite period. However, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 persuaded many fundamentalists that the prophetic clock was now ticking, and that consequently the world was moving rapidly toward the final events of history.
Darby believed these events would include a seven-year period of conflict and persecution, known as the Tribulation, the final half of which would be dominated by the figure of the Antichrist. However, dispensationalists have held that the saved would not have to endure the rigors of the Tribulation, because they would be raptured. That is, they would be taken up into heaven at the beginning of the Tribulation, be with Christ for the seven years, and then return with him at the time of the battle of Armageddon.
Christian Identity totally rejects this scenario. Since it believes Jews to be satanic impostors, it does not believe that biblical prophecies concerning Israel refer to them. Indeed, it believes such prophecies refer to Aryans. Thus, Identity adherents believe the support shown by Christian fundamentalists for the state of Israel signifies that the Christian community has been duped or co-opted by Jews. Identity also rejects the doctrine of the Rapture as a major theological error. It does not believe the faithful will be lifted off the earth. Instead, the saved (again themselves) will have to live through the harrowing events of the Tribulation. This belief has significantly reinforced separatist tendencies, since a survivalist lifestyle is deemed to be not merely a way of escaping a society regarded as sinful, but also a way of protecting themselves against what they see as the dangers to come. It also fuels paramilitary tendencies, for they believe that during the Tribulation, public order will breakdown or the government will become the enemy of believers. Consequently, they see guns as an essential means of defense against encircling enemies.
Identity on the Wane
Throughout the roughly fifty years of its history, Christian Identity has shown itself capable of rapid and unpredictable changes. Because its constituent groups operate independently of one another, individual pastors and political organizers have been free to develop their own interpretations and programs. By closely interweaving anti-Semitism and racism with millennial expectation, Christian Identity has provided a theological rationalization for racial and religious conflict and inequality. Its assertion that these positions have a divine mandate has given Identity an influence in extremist circles far beyond its relatively small number of adherents.
That influence began to wane in the late 1990s and early 2000s, along with a more general decline of the extreme right. Perhaps the best-known Identity group, Aryan Nations, was torn by a leadership struggle. Dan Gayman faced a breach in his congregation. The militia groups that had multiplied in the early 1990s began to fragment and contract. Symbolic of the right's crisis was the sudden death in 2002 of William Pierce, leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Although Pierce made no secret of his disdain for Christian Identity, his novel, The Turner Diaries, which described a successful racist uprising, was widely admired in Identity circles.
Further Reading
Aho, J. (1990). The politics of righteousness: Idaho Christian patriotism. Seattle, University of Washington Press.
Barkun, M. (1997). Millenarians and violence: The case of the Christian identity movement. In T. Robbins & S.J. Palmer (Eds.), Millenium, messiahs, and mayhem: Contemporary apocalyptic movements (pp. 247-260), New York: Routledge.
Barkun, M. (1997). Religion and the racist right: The origins of the Christian identity movement (Rev. ed). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Jeansonne, G. (1988). Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of hate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Kaplan. J. (1997). Radical religion in America: Millenarian movements from the far right to the children of Noah. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
MacDonald. A. (1980). The Turner diaries (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Alliance.
Robins, R. A., & Post, J. M. (1997). Political paranoia: The psychopolitics of hatred. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.