What is the church doing to counter the racist influence of the ‘Christian Identity’ movement?
Watchdog organizations say a pseudo-Christian movement has laid the groundwork for an ideological merger of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups in the United States.
Basic to this pseudo-Christian movement, known as the Identity Churches or Christian Identity, is the doctrine of the superiority of the white race. Claiming biblical support for their beliefs, Identity preachers teach that blacks, Jews, and other nonwhite groups occupy the same spiritual level as animals; that Aryan whites are God’s chosen people; and that Jesus was not really a Jew. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (ADL) and the Center for Democratic Renewal say a number of extremist groups, including the Aryan Nations, Posse Comitatus, the Christian Defense League, and some segments of the Klan are promoting such ideas.
At a January rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, more than 300 members of the White Patriot Party (WPP) and other Klan-related groups marched in military attire and stood at attention while speakers called for the return of “white power.” Speakers denounced Jews and Communists, and condemned abortion. They also promised to restore organized prayer and Bible reading to public schools. At least one of the marchers carried a Bible. When asked about it, he said he was a member of a Christian Identity church.
Last year a Whiteville, North Carolina, newspaper, The News Reporter, published a response by WPP leader Glenn Miller to charges that his group was inciting violence against blacks. “We are white Christian soldiers standing against crime, evil and corruption,” Miller wrote. “Our King and leader is God Almighty, and our doctrine is the Holy Bible. God is on our side.…”
The Order, another group with indirect ties to the Christian Identity movement, has pursued a more violent course. Late last year, ten members of the group were convicted on federal racketeering charges involving two murders, robberies, counterfeiting, weapons violations, and arson. Prosecutors said the defendants conspired to bring about a racist revolution.
Klanwatch, a Montgomery, Alabama—based monitoring organization, has traced the Order’s beginnings to radical elements of the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group headed by Richard Butler. Butler is also pastor of an Identity church called the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. Every July, representatives of white-supremacist groups gather at Butler’s Hayden Lake, Idaho, compound to hear speakers and receive paramilitary training.
In a telephone interview, Butler said the Christian Identity movement is gaining members, most of whom had been active in other churches. While declining to provide membership figures, Butler estimated that two to three million Americans have been exposed to Identity beliefs. He said people are drawn to Identity churches because traditional churches are not offering solutions to such social problems as the decline in public education and the disintegration of families.
Identity churches teach that the white race is superior. Butler said Identity beliefs are based “100 percent” on the Bible, but he rejected the “born-again” concept of Christian conversion. “We [white people] are Christians in the sense that we are born [physically],” he said.
Butler called television evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “anti-Christian ministers,” criticizing their efforts to reach all races with the gospel. Other Identity leaders, such as Jock Mohr, founder of the Mississippi-based Crusade for Christ and Country, and Robert Miles, pastor of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ the Savior in Cohoctah, Michigan, have attacked conservative Christian leaders and representatives of the Religious Right for supporting the nation of Israel.
The Center for Democratic Renewal is producing a study detailing historical, theological, and organizational aspects of the Christian Identity movement. The ADL published a report on the subject in 1983. Both studies cite Anglo-Israelism, a movement that developed in Great Britain in the mid-nineteenth century, as the forerunner of Christian Identity. Anglo-Israelism teaches that Northern Europeans are descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel and that they, not the Jews, are to inherit God’s promised blessings. The late Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, helped popularize Anglo-Israelism in the United States. Although Armstrong’s organization does not advocate racism or violence, it does claim a special birthright for the nations of Great Britain and the United States.
A Christian Response
Christians have been slow to respond to the threats posed by white-supremacist ideology. Bill Stanton, director of Klanwatch, characterizes church response as “generally feeble at the parish level.” His perception is reinforced by Billy Melvin, executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals, and David Wilkinson, director of news and information services for the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Both say they know of no organized opposition within their constituencies to white-supremacist groups.
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However, the farm crisis has spurred some mainline denominations and ecumenical groups to confront the spread of racist propaganda in rural areas. The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, the Iowa Church Forum, and the National Council of Churches have passed resolutions condemning extremist groups’ philosophies and actions. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has passed resolutions condemning racist groups, and the denomination has donated funds to the Center for Democratic Renewal.
Local church efforts, while slow to develop, have often presented the most effective responses to hate groups. Lyn Wells, director of the Center for Democratic Renewal, described church reaction in Cedartown, Georgia, to the racially motivated murder of two Mexican workers.
“It took a couple of years for the white Christian ministerial community to speak out, and several more years for them to act,” Wells said. “More than 1,000 citizens signed a declaration of oneness and held a Good Friday service to denounce violence and bigotry.”
Since then, racial tensions have cooled. At the initiative of a Catholic priest, the town formed a human-relations commission that includes representatives from the black, white, and Hispanic communities.
Pastors in other towns have rallied community opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. When the annual Christmas parade was cancelled last year in Commerce, Georgia, in order to bar Klan participation, a group of local clergy invited a black Baptist pastor to speak at an alternative celebration. In Statesville, North Carolina, a group of church, business, and civic leaders drafted a resolution denouncing the Klan’s “dehumanizing principles and intimidating tactics” in that community. The resolution was later adopted by area United Methodist and Presbyterian governing bodies.
In the Northwest, citizens concerned about activities of the Aryan Nations banded together in 1981 to form the Interstate Task Force on Human Relations. Headed by John Olson, executive director of the Spokane (Wash.) Christian Coalition, the task force sponsors educational programs in churches, community organizations, and schools.
“The fact that white supremacists justify their beliefs by their Christian faith should disturb us all,” Olson said. “We who are Christian and white are the ones who ought to be at the forefront of those who oppose racial and religious hatred.”
By Eva Stimson.
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