What is Christian Identity?
The most dangerous religion in America.
Part of the "Christian Patriot" movement.
Religion of the Aryan Nations, Tom Metzger, The Order, The Freemen, and The Posse Comitatus.
Growing:
- 1986-3,000-4,000; 1995- 30,000 or more; some estimate as many as 100 churches and 250,000 followers in the United States.
Notes:
Nativistic movements arise when a culture undergoes drastic or
what is perceived to be drastic change; it is a synthesis of
traditional beliefs with newly introduced ones. Christian Identity
(abbreviated to CI) has elements of nativism although it is
also cult-like in some aspects and has some beliefs in common
with religious fundamentalists.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL at http://www.adl.org)
estimates there are as many as 441 militia groups with 10,000 to
40,000 members operating nationwide. Some, but not all, of these
espouse CI belief systems. Other small splinter groups like the
Freemen and some militia group leaders have known associations
with CI like Mark Korneke of the Michigan Militia and the Trochman
brothers of MOM, the Militia of Montana.
Followers of CI advocate race war; they see the ZOG
(Zionist Occupied Government-they believe that Jews control the
US government) and the media (controlled by the Jews) as the enemy.
They have a detailed set of eschatological beliefs tied to
numerological interpretations of the book of Revelations.
They are virulently anti-communist and may have been or are also
members of the John Birch Society. They support white supremacy
and fear black pride; they consider media coverage of non-Aryan
groups a Jewish-Communist plot and think that black politicians
are the pawns of Jews. They exhibit an extreme variation of
patriotism that glorifies the founding fathers as divinely
inspired- thus believing that white Christians are the chosen
people. In the words of Chip Berlet, "Identity combines the
worst aspects of Hiterlian racial theories, the Spanish
Inquisition, and the Crusades." (Berlet, 1997)