The Most Insane Christians

[Doubting Thomas]

I followed the Christian Identity movement (studied, not practiced) back in the 90's when right-wing militia groups were going strong. It's the ideology most of them follow, mainly that Jews are the result of an unholy union between Eve and Satan, all non-white people are soulless "mud people," and white Europeans are the true people of Israel. As listening to shortwave is one of my hobbies I often ran across many Christian Identity preachers, like "Pastor" Peter J. Peters for instance. His shows were filled with hateful rants toward anyone who wasn't just like him.

While right-wing militia groups have for the most part died down, there are still plenty of them around and there are still plenty of Christian Identity people out there as well.

[Godlesspanther]

I followed the Christian Identity movement (studied, not practiced) back in the 90's when right-wing militia groups were going strong. It's the ideology most of them follow, mainly that Jews are the result of an unholy union between Eve and Satan, all non-white people are soulless "mud people," and white Europeans are the true people of Israel. As listening to shortwave is one of my hobbies I often ran across many Christian Identity preachers, like "Pastor" Peter J. Peters for instance. His shows were filled with hateful rants toward anyone who wasn't just like him.

While right-wing militia groups have for the most part died down, there are still plenty of them around and there are still plenty of Christian Identity people out there as well.

I have found that Christian Identity is kind of like an umbrella group that houses neo-Nazi, KKK, and other overtly racist groups. I also have found that they can slip below the surface and lie dormant until they resurface.

The KKK believes that different races of people were created separately by god at separate times. The idea that all of us descended from A&E requres some type of evolutionary principles to account for the diversity o human heritable traits. The KKK is so hostile toward the ToE that they accuse Ken Ham et. al. of being "evolutionists."

[ThePrimeSingularity]

I'm more worried about who is the most dangerous rather than who is more of a loon.

Jainism is pretty over-the-top, but even the most fundamental and strict Jain doesn't worry me much.

[Raven]

Christian Identity is about as wack as they get. When you get down to it, it's really not very Xtian at all. They don't get along with conservative Xtians very well because Baptists and such are looking forward to the Jews return to the Holy Land in order to fulfill end time prophecy. They've dreamed up a very racist and antisemitic world-view that helped it get a influential position back in the '80s with the racist right wing loons. Only a prolonged and aggressive effort by law enforcement, together with the demise of influential leaders who were not replaced, brought about its present decline.

Earlier I had mentioned British Israelism. They believed that the British Isles were populated by the lost 10 tribes of Israel who had been captured by the Assyrians and that they somehow after escaping ended up in the British Isles. This was a rather nutty manifestation of British Imperialism that flowered in the 19th Century. The appeal was that the British were actually God's Chosen People. Once this wacky religious cult made it's way across the Atlantic it quickly became mixed up with radical political groups. This became evident in the early 1920s, when a major Anglo-Israelite in Oregon turned out to be a leader in the Ku Klux Klan at a time when the Klan was a major power on the West Coast. It peaked in the 1930's as did lots of right wing groups because hard financial times always have their best days when things are rough. Things continued to become steadily more antisemitic and that led to the split with British Israelism, which was not all that antisemitic, and what became Christian Identity.

This happened in Southern California after WWII. Even back then LA had long been home to all sorts of fringe groups. Los Angeles was then the headquarters of Gerald L.K. Smith, the most important anti-Semitic organizer in America. All the original leaders of Identity had links to this guy. Wesley Swift, William Potter Gale, and Bertrand Comparet were the men who were the first generation. None of these guys was a preacher. Gale was a military man, and Comparet was an attorney. The three of them really cranked up the volume on the racism that had always exited in British Israelism, teaching that Genesis was only about the white race. Everybody else came later, and Jews were the offspring of Cain – the first murderer. Cain himself was the product of Satan and Eve, Adam was not his dad.

Identity has sometimes overlapped with the Klan or neo-Nazi groups. While Identity is not violent per se, various members of it have proven to be. I already mentioned the Order, or Silent Brotherhood. You also had the CSA or Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord,. a communal settlement founded in northern Arkansas in 1976 by James Ellison. Originally a born-again, evangelical community, it underwent a transformation when Ellison converted to Identity. Convinced that American society was about to crumble and that hordes of nonwhites would come marauding through the countryside, Ellison turned his rural commune into a militarized, fortified redoubt whose members not only received military training but gave it to others on the radical right. They themselves, although highly paranoid, were not violent. But there were some members who did commit violent acts.

Although Christian Identity dominated the racist right in the 1970s and 1980s, by the 1990s it was in decline. It faded because of a combination of factors, including more aggressive governmental action, limits to its appeal, and a growing leadership vacuum. But the KKK has always waxed and waned in popularity, as has neo nazism. Perhaps, though I hope not, Identity will as well.

edited for spelling

[Doubting Thomas]

I'm more worried about who is the most dangerous rather than who is more of a loon.

Here's a hint: Tim McVeigh subscribed to the Christian Identity movement and often read The Turner Diaries which details a civil war and takeover of the United States by a secret white supremacist group. The book also describes the detonation of a truck bomb at a government building which is probably where he got the idea.

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Although Christian Identity dominated the racist right in the 1970s and 1980s, by the 1990s it was in decline. It faded because of a combination of factors, including more aggressive governmental action, limits to its appeal, and a growing leadership vacuum.

One of the final nails in the coffin for the militia movement, if not the Identity movement, was the afore-mentioned OKC bombing. Many militia members didn't want to be associated with anyone who would indiscriminately kill Americans (including children). Other members were afraid that the government was going to do a widespread crackdown on militia groups, and instead of being steadfast in resisting the government they decided to find another hobby. While many of them might have talked big, it turns out that few really did want to take on the government.

[Raven]

Doubtin Thomas wrote: One of the final nails in the coffin for the militia movement, if not the Identity movement, was the afore-mentioned OKC bombing. Many militia members didn't want to be associated with anyone who would indiscriminately kill Americans (including children). Other members were afraid that the government was going to do a widespread crackdown on militia groups, and instead of being steadfast in resisting the government they decided to find another hobby. While many of them might have talked big, it turns out that few really did want to take on the government.

Good point.

[Godscreated]

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What type of Christians are the most insane?

I'm going to go with the reconstructionists. These goons believe that in order for Jesus to return they have to prepare society for him by creating a strict Xtian theocracy based on biblical literalism. Complete with the stoning to death of anyone who does not want to go along with their plan.

The most well-known is Gary North. He thinks that public execution by stoning is really groovy because stones don't cost anything.

He's a sick fuck.

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Well, now. You didn't leave much room for other suggestions, now did you? I was going to say Pentecostals, but what you just said is over the top.

I will now proceed to talk in tongues. rababababaseek! ashalbababab.

Now that's a tongue twister!

GC

[Minimalist]

My bet is on these crazy-assed motherfuckers.