”Religion
and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement” is a
classical book by Michael Barkun, originally published in 1994. An expanded
edition was brought out in 1997. The book tells the extremely complex
and convoluted story of Christian Identity, a White supremacist and
virulently anti-Semitic form of “Christianity” mostly associated with the
Neo-Nazi Aryan Nations and The Order (although the latter group probably wasn´t
Identity sensu stricto).
Barkun traces the roots of Christian Identity to
British Israelism, a philo-Semitic (sic) movement within Protestantism which
emerged during the 19th century in Britain. Through a series of
intermediary steps, American supporters of British Israelism became
increasingly more anti-Semitic until they morphed into the Christian Identity movement.
Barkun was clearly worried that this fringe of the fringe phenomenon would
somehow insinuate itself into the broader far right, conspiracist and
alternative knowledge milieux in the wake of the Ruby Ridge standoff, Waco and
the Oklahoma City bombing. I think he may have been wrong in this – today, you
hardly hear of Christian Identity anymore. Even the once successful crypto-Nazi
David Duke, who cavorted with Identity supporters back in the days, has faded
from the lime light. I guess we have other far right fads now…
What
distinguishes Christian Identity from other currents are two distinct
theological positions. First, Identity believers assert that Aryans,
Anglo-Saxons or Whites are the lost tribes of Israel. In some versions, the
remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin were racially contaminated by intermarriage
with Edomites and other alien breeds, effectively placing them outside the
Biblical Israelite fold. In other versions, Whites are the true descendants of
all Israelite tribes, both the 10 lost tribes and the two remaining tribes, whereas
Jews are really Khazars and hence have nothing to do with Biblical history
whatsoever. Thus, we are dealing with a very extreme form of replacement theology,
in which Jews are written out of their own history (and holy scripture)
altogether.
The second
idea associated with Christian Identity goes even further in anti-Semitism,
essentially claiming that Jews are the *literal* children of Satan. According
to this idea, Eve was seduced by the serpent in Eden, and the result of this
sexual liaison was Cain, who is thus half-demonic. Full humans (i.e. White
Aryans) are descended from Adam and Eve, while Jews are a “serpent seed line”
descended from Eve´s sinful transgression with the Devil himself. Blacks and
other colored races are neither human nor demonic, but simply “beasts of the
field” and lack souls altogether. However, these speculations exist in
many different versions, some of which assert that the serpent was a Black man,
others claiming that the evil seed line began with Cain who married a
Pre-Adamite woman (in this version, Cain was White while the Pre-Adamites were
colored). The bottom line in all versions is that race mixing is a sin and that
only White people are God´s direct creation.
Barkun
points out that Christian Identity has another curious trait. It´s dualism
between the good Adamites and the evil Jews (and colored races) is sometimes so
strong, that the outcome of the apocalyptic battle at the end of days is an
open question. It´s not entirely clear from some Identity narratives whether
the Whites (and God) will really carry the day, Identity belief being a kind of
spiritual “black pill”, to use contemporary Internet slang. The flip side of
this pessimism is the idea that Christian warriors might make a difference if
only they exert themselves to the maximum – which could include terrorist acts
against the U.S. federal government, seen as Jew-controlled (and therefore
Satanic). The fulfillment of the millennium is dependent on the violent actions
of God´s chosen ones…
Barkun
discusses the incredibly complicated history of this particular current, its
multiform interfaces with others on the far right (including militias and
conspiracy theorists) and the lure of the cultic milieu on these kinds of
fringe movements. The cultic milieu is the subculture where society´s “rejected
knowledge” finds a home, a milieu in which UFO believers, Theosophists or pyramidologists
might rub shoulders (and, above all, share ideas) with extreme racists, conspiracy
mongers or really weird religious sects. Christian Identity is clearly
influenced by the cultic milieu, for instance when it claims that the war in Heaven
between God and Satan was fought with interstellar spaceships, one of which
later crashed on Earth. This is obviously incorporated from UFO beliefs.
Conversely, Christian Identity itself has become part and parcel of the cultic milieu,
potentially influencing others. As already noted, Barkun feared Identity
influence on the so-called militias.
Personally,
I consider Christian Identity to be downright bizarre. It seems to be the only
religious current which isn´t right about *anything*. I´m almost tempted to
call it “not even wrong”! Where do I even begin? Genetic evidence suggests that
the Ashkenazim really are Jewish, Adam or Cain are purely mythological
characters, Whites evolved from colored people, Jesus has at least one
Canaanite (“Cainite”) in his family tree, and how the hell can demons or beasts
interbreed with humans anyway? And no, Anglo-Saxons aren´t Semitic but
Indo-European. By Identity logic, Hitler was presumably an Israelite, perhaps even
a Judahite! Atheists of Jewish extraction are said to call Christianity a
Jewish joke on the Gentiles. I suppose Aryan Nations is a Jewish joke on the
Gentiles gone awry. Or a Jewish joke on the Gentiles coming home to roost, if
you´re more critical of Jacob…
Christian
Identity is also misogynist in a near-paranoid fashion. This is obvious in the
story of how Eve was seduced by the serpent. Note: not raped but willingly
seduced. In some versions by a Black man “from the field”, in others by the
father of all Jews. Presumably, White supremacists fear that White women might
find colored people (or rich merchants?) more erotically alluring than your
average hard-working White boy. The racist stereotypes encoded in this scenario
doesn´t need further elaboration.
“Religion
and the Racist Right” can be a tedious read, due to the sheer mass of details
the author has put into it, but if the cultic milieu is your primary interest
in life, I think you have to read it anyway!
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