Christian Identity Movement

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The Christian Identity Movement (English Movement of Christian Identity ) is a heterogeneous right-wing extremist social movement whose followers live mainly in the United States . Their syncretistic ideology is based on, among other things, Christian fundamentalism , anti-Semitism , racism and conspiracy theories . The Anglo-Saxon or Nordic “ race ” to which the followers belong is regarded as God's “chosen people”, to whom “the Jews ” are compared as alleged descendants and servants of Satan . Some of the associated groups and individual supporters committed acts of violence up to and including terrorism .

Emergence

The Christian Identity Movement has its roots in Anglo-Israelism , a doctrine that emerged in 19th century Great Britain that the British were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel . This philosemitic doctrine, which preached fraternal solidarity between British and Jews, came to North America with emigrants. The lawyer Howard Rand (1889-1991) and the journalist William J. Cameron of the Dearborn Independent , an anti-Semitic newspaper published by industrialist Henry Ford from 1919 to 1927 and which also printed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , taught the lesson popular in the 1920s and 1930s, but turned radically hostile to Jews . They were under the influence of the fascist clergyman and politician Gerald LK Smith (1898-1976). From their teachings, under the influence of the racist white supremacy ideology, the Christian Identity Movement was established, the first church of which was founded in 1946 by the Methodist clergyman and Ku Klux Klan member Wesley Swift (1913-1970) in California. From there, the ideology of Christian identity was spread nationwide.

Teaching

Supporters of the movement believe that Jews did not descend from Adam but arose in Eve's adultery with Satan. Since then, they would continuously conspiracies begin around the world under Satan to bring domination, and supposedly true Israelites and the "adamisch- Aryan race", namely the Anglo-Saxons track. They are thus responsible for the murder of Abel , the crucifixion of Christ , the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire , the Mongol storm and the wars of Napoleon . The end times prophesied in the Book of Revelation began in the 20th century , as shown by the supposedly Jewish-inspired Russian Revolution , the supposedly Jewish-controlled financial capitalism, the Federal Reserve System , the United Nations and the Council on Foreign Relations . The government of the United States is assumed to be in league with this supposedly Jewish-satanic conspiracy, which is why it is delegitimized as the Zionist Occupied Government . She is denied the right to collect taxes, and the identification documents she issues are called the mark of the beast .

The theology of Christian Identity is largely based on a biblical interpretation of the Holy Scriptures , especially the First Book of Moses and Revelation. In some points it deviates from the teaching of the Christian churches, namely in the Two-Seed Doctrine , according to which only part of humanity descends from Adam, while the other has Satan as an ancestor. In addition, esoteric methods such as numerology , pyramidology and a scriptural interpretation based on sound similarities play a role that are not usually used by the churches.

Dissemination and organization

Christian Identity is mainly prevalent in the United States, where an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 people are committed to this movement. However, there are also followers in South Africa , Canada , Great Britain and Ireland . The structure of the movement is very heterogeneous. In the USA there are a total of 81 churches that can be assigned to it; sometimes they are found as religious communities in American cities, sometimes they set up so-called compounds, large-scale systems in rural areas that are isolated from the outside world. Christian Identity offers religious orientation to various American right-wing extremists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan , the Aryan Nations, and the militia movement . In the last few years the movement has received a large number of right-wing radical skinheads from the white underclass.

crime

Followers of the Christian Identity ideology have repeatedly committed crimes. The organization The Order , which was close to Christian Identity, carried out robberies, bombed a theater and a synagogue, and murdered radio host Alan Berg before it was disbanded by the FBI in 1984 .

A bomb exploded there during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, killing two people and injuring 111 people. The bomb was planted by Eric Robert Rudolph , who is close to the movement. After five years on the run, he was arrested in 2003.

1999 shot dead a supporter in California one of the Philippines coming postman and wounded five Jewish children; In the Midwest , an alleged supporter shot and killed a Korean and an African-American .

additional

The 1991 documentary Blood in the face gives an insight into the world of thought of the right-wing American scene. Here an attempt is made to shed light on the interpretation of Christianity in the sense of the Christian identity movement.

literature

  • Michael Barkun : Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement ; University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC, 1994; ISBN 0-8078-4451-9
  • WL Ingram: God and Race: British-Israelism and Christian Identity ; in: T. Miller (Ed.): America's Alternative Religion ;, SUNY Press, Albany NY, 1995; Pp. 119-126
  • Jeffrey Insko: Christian Identity . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver and London 2003, Vol. 1, pp. 167 f.
  • Monika Schmidt: Christian Identity . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus . Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 5: Organizations, institutions, movements. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 99 (accessed via De Gruyter Online)
  • Leonard Zeskind: The “Christian Identity” Movement: Analyzing its Theological Rationalization for Racist and Anti-Semitic Violence . Center for Democratic Renewal, Atlanta 1986.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeffrey Insko: Christian Identity . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver and London 2003, Vol. 1, p. 167.
  2. ^ Monika Schmidt: Christian Identity . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 5: Organizations, institutions, movements. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 99 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  3. ^ Monika Schmidt: Christian Identity . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 5: Organizations, institutions, movements. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 99 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  4. ↑ Jeffrey Insko: Christian Identity . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver and London 2003, Vol. 1, p. 167.
  5. ^ Monika Schmidt: Christian Identity . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 5: Organizations, institutions, movements. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 99 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  6. ↑ Monika Schmidt: Christian Identity. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 5: Organizations, institutions, movements. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 99 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  7. ^ Monika Schmidt: Christian Identity . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 5: Organizations, institutions, movements. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 99 f. (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  8. ↑ Jeffrey Insko: Christian Identity . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver and London 2003, Vol. 1, p. 167.