Elohim City

Elohim City is a closed settlement of the Christian Identity Movement near Oklahoma City in Adair County , Oklahoma. The settlement was founded by the preacher Robert G. Millar in 1973 and is now run by his son David Millar.

The term "Elohim" comes from the Hebrew and means in connection with the English "City" for city as much as "God's city" or "City of God".

geography

Elohim City is located near the border with the state of Arkansas in the highlands of the Ozark Plateau . The nearest major city is Fort Smith , Arkansas, 35 miles away .

Church planter Robert G. Millar

In 1973, Robert G. Millar bought over 150 acres of land in the remote area near the Arkansas border and founded Elohim City. In 1997 the Los Angeles Times rated Robert G. Millar as one of the most important leaders of the religious right-wing Christian Identity movement. According to a former activist of the organization The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) ( German: Der Bund, the sword and the arm of the Lord ), even wrote him some members of the movement spiritual forces.

Miller migrated from Kitchener , Ontario, Canada to the United States in the 1950s . He was told by God at the time to go to a state called Oklahoma, he told the Associated Press . After initially living in Oklahoma City, he worked in a Christian camp. In 1973 he returned to Oklahoma and founded Elohim City.

As a prison chaplain, Robert G. Millar met James Ellison. Millar became Ellison's spiritual guide. Upon his release, Ellison first moved to Elohim City and married Robert Millar's granddaughter. James Ellison later founded The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord . Many CSA members settled in the founding place Elijah and also formed a community of the identity movement.

development

The development of Elohim City has been closely tied to the Millar family since it was founded. Many residents are related to the family of the founder Robert Millar. After the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, public connections between the main bomber Timothy McVeigh and Elohim City were also established. This led to a tense mood among the residents and critics of the settlement. Rumors circulated that federal authorities were preparing a raid and that residents of Elohim City would point their guns at overflying planes. In the early 1990s, ATF agent Carol Howe lived in the community; she later testified about Elohim City's links with the Oklahoma City Bombing.

After the death of Robert G. Millar in May 2001, his son David Millar took over the pastor's office and management of the settlement.

The Southern Poverty Law Center observed developments in Elohim City in its “Klanwatch” project.

Adair County's Sheriff Austin Young told writers Lee Roy Chapman and Joshua Kline about the residents of Elohim in the 2010s: "They are not violent, not resistive, not as the media portrays them."

Links to extremism

The group in Elohim City is repeatedly associated with religious and political right-wing extremism in the United States . Robert G. Millar maintained contacts with a number of groups of the Christian Identity movement, such as the disbanded " The Covenant, The Sword and The Arm of the Lord " by James Ellison. The Ellison Group's property was stormed in an ATF action on April 10, 1985 and Elliot was arrested. Millar alleged that Israel was implicated in Elliot's arrest through the Mossad .

Robert G. Millar was closely connected with a number of leaders of the extreme right and played an important role in the identity movement himself. He was closely associated with Mark Thomas, former leader of the Aryan Nation in Pennsylvania . He was also friends with the identity preachers and representatives of violent white supremacists Cheyne and Chevie Kehoe.

From the mid-1980s, members of the criminal gang Aryan Republican Army found refuge in Elohim City.

Around 1990, the German Andreas Strassmeier came to Elohim City and lived there until 1995. According to his own statements, S. worked as the “head of security” in the settlement. His main task was to protect the community from the infiltration of provocateurs, he told Der Spiegel in an interview in 1997. The community was afraid of American federal authorities "who wanted to suppress those of different faiths and freedom-lovers." The connections to the assassin of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 are unclear. The main bomber Timothy McVeigh had contact with S. and the community of Elohim City.

Residents

Elohim City residents who later made headlines were:

• James Ellison, leader of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
• Carol Howe, ATF informant
• Chevie Kehoe, a White Supremacyist and convicted murderer
• Dennis Mahon, a former Imperial Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan of Oklahoma and an organizer of the White Aryan Resistance
• Andreas Strassmeir, German immigrant, head of Elohim City Security

swell

1. ^ Ney York Times: A Vision of an Apocalypse: The Religion of the Far Right. May 22, 1995, accessed January 6, 2016 [1]
2. ^ The Kansas City Star: Little has changed in Elohim City, including the beliefs of the residents. Retrieved January 6, 2016 [2]
3. ↑ Los Angeles Times: Elohim City on Extremists' Underground Railroad. 1997. Quote: Millar is the most powerful person in the Christian Identity movement, said Kerry Noble, a former CSA leader…, viewed January 18, 2016 [3]
4. ↑ Kerry Noble: Tabernacle of Hate: Seduction into Right-Wing Extremism, 2nd, Syracuse University Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-8156-3248-1 .
5. ^ Mark S. Hamm: Terrorism As Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond. Page 169 ff, viewed January 18, 2016 [4]
6. ↑ Thois Land Press, viewed January 18, 2016 [5]
7. ↑ Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1997, accessed January 6, 2016 [6]
8. ^ Ney York Times: A Vision of an Apocalypse: The Religion of the Far Right. May 22, 1995, accessed January 6, 2016 [7]
9. ↑ Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1997, accessed January 6, 2016 [8]
10. ↑ Der Spiegel: I am a rebel June 2, 1997 Retrieved January 6, 2016 [9]
11. ↑ Deborah Hastings: Elohim City on Extremists' Underground Railroad . In: Los Angeles Times , February 23, 1997. Retrieved September 4, 2013. 
12. ^ Douglas O. Linder: The Oklahoma City Bombing & The Trial of Timothy McVeigh . 2006. Archived from the original on February 27, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
13. ↑ Q&A: What really happened: The official version, the conspiracy theories and the evidence surrounding the Oklahoma bombing . In: Conspiracy Files . BBC News. March 2, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
14. ^ Elohim City - Extremism in America. ADL.org. Anti-Defamation League. Dec. 31, 2011.
15. ^ Elohim City - Extremism in America ". ADL.org. Anti-Defamation League. Dec. 31, 2011 ( Memento from November 18, 2016 in the web archive archive.today ).
16. ^ Elohim City - Extremism in America. ADL.org. Anti-Defamation League. Dec. 31, 2011.

Coordinates: 35 ° 38 ′ 30 "  N , 94 ° 30 ′ 52"  W.