Previous | TOC | Next
The Christian Right
Dueling Eschatologies
From Red Menace to New World
Order
Anticipating the End Times
Jeremiah the Profitable Prophet
Catholic Marianist Apocalyptics
The Patriot & Armed Militia
Movements
The Far Right
How Apocalyptic and Millennialist Themes Influence Right
Wing Scapegoating and Conspiracism
by Chip Berlet
Senior Analyst Political Research Associates
This study originally appeared in the Fall 1998 issue of The
Public Eye magazine.
Revised 4/15/99
Political Research Associates
1310 Broadway Street, Suite
202
Somerville, MA 02144
617.661.9313
http://www.publiceye.org
Part Two: Apocalyptic Millennialism and Contemporary
US Right-Wing Movements
Examining the Different Sectors
As the millennium approaches, targets of apocalyptic demonization
already include Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Moslems, Freemasons, New Age
devotees, peace activists, environmentalists, feminists, abortion providers,
and gay men and lesbians. Members of groups ranging from the Trilateral
Commission to the National Education Association are suspect--not to mention
federal officials and UN troops. The person targeted as the devil's disciple
could be you, or a neighbor, or a friend.
Apocalyptic fears and millennial expectation play an important
role in three sectors of right-wing populism in which demonization, scapegoating,
and conspiracism flourish: the Christian Right; the populist right, including
survivalist, Patriot, and armed militia movements; and the far right, especially
the neonazi version of Christian Identity theology.
The Christian Right
The New Right coalition of the late 1970s "represented
a reassertion of the `fusionist' triad of moral traditionalism, economic
libertarianism, and militarist anticommunism," explained sociologist
Sara Diamond.1 It was
a coalition between secular conservatives and traditionalist Christians.
Much of the New Right's mobilization of supporters was based on promoting
a narrow, exclusionary, and northern European version of traditional Biblical
values.2 As Laura Saponara
puts it:
"The `deep structure' of New Right rhetoric
is rooted in historic and contemporary constructs of Biblical literalism
articulated through recurring, polarizing themes of good and evil, personal
salvation, evangelism, and the inevitability of apocalypse, among others."3
Clearly, some of the Christians mobilized by the New Right
felt, and still feel, they are engaged in "Spiritual Warfare" with
Satanic forces.4 The
role of Biblical apocalyptic thinking within mainstream Christian groups
is well-documented by academics such as Sara Diamond, Paul Boyer, Robert
Fuller, and Charles B. Strozier.
Open discussion of evil and Satanic forces is unremarkable
within the Christian Right, even among savvy policy analysts and lobbyists.
A 1983 booklet from the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
titled The Morality of Political Action: Biblical Foundations includes
a Bible-based defense of the practice of Christian political activists
misleading or tricking opponents as justified by the higher purpose of
the Christian struggle against evil. The author advises that while opponents
may be doing the work of the Devil, it would be wrong to publicly accuse
them of being "a card-carrying member of Satan's band," not because
it might be untrue, but because it falls under "the scope of the Lord's
command: `Judge not lest ye be judged.' "5
Still, it must be remembered that some politically-conservative
fundamentalist groups oppose this paradigm, and warn against demonization
that conflates church and state. For example, the Institute for the Study
of Religion in Politics argues that:
"...if the price of re-establishing a `public
Christian culture' in this country means that the church must ostracize
its opponents, ghettoize the adherents of other religions and cultures,
make enemies of women who choose abortion, demonize homosexuals, etc.
as it seeks to gather political power into its hands--maybe, just maybe,
the price isn't worth paying."6
Dueling Eschatologies
Within Christianity there are many competing views regarding
the millennial apocalypse; the theological study of these views is known
as eschatology. At the center of eschatological study is a debate
over theological theories of the "end time," when the
forces of evil will be vanquished and the forces of good rewarded. 7
Post-millennialists believe that Christ returns only after
a thousand years of reign and rule by Godly Christian men, and they urge
militant Christian intervention in secular society. Smaller sectors, including
preterists and a-millennialists, while still anticipating the eventual
return of Christ, believe the prophesied millennium is not a major theological
issue for Christianity, or believe it already has happened, thus de-emphasizing
the Tribulations, the Rapture, and Armageddon as practical considerations
affecting daily life.
Most Christian fundamentalists are pre-millennialists, believing
the return of Christ starts the millennial, thousand-year period of Christian
rule. For them, the year 2000 doesn't necessarily have theological meaning
or signify the End Times. More important to them is the belief in an inevitable
and final apocalyptic battle between good and evil. Pre-millennialists
believe the second coming of Jesus will occur before his thousand years
of reign and rule.
For pre-millennialists, faithful Christians may experience
no tribulations, some tribulations, or all of the tribulations. This difference
is expressed in eschatological timelines called pre-tribulationalist, mid-tribulationalist,
and post-tribulationalist. Furthermore, not all pre-millennialist Christians
believe in "the Rapture"--the temporary protective gathering
of Christians up into Heaven while the battle against evil rages on Earth
during the Tribulations. If they do believe in the Rapture, there is no
agreement on whether or not raptured Christians then return to an earth
purged of evil. The exact sequence of the Rapture, the Tribulations, and
the battle of Armageddon is also disputed.
For many decades, the primary Protestant eschatology was
a form of pre-millennialism called Dispensationalism, an interpretation
developed by theologian John Nelson Darby that outlined specific historical
epochs or dispensations that are pre-ordained by God.8 In
this timeline, Christians are raptured up to heaven before the Tribulations,
the sinful are punished, and then Christ returns for a millennium of rule
over his loyal flock. This combination of pre-tribulationist and pre-millennialist
views has sometimes encouraged a large sector of the Christian faithful
to passively await salvation while remaining aloof from sinful secular
society, while at other times an activist mode seeks to intervene in public
affairs.
For example, aloof pre-millenialist Dispensationalism gained
renewed support after the Pyrrhic victory for Christian fundamentalists
in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial. This famous Tennessee case
ruled that teaching evolution (instead of creation) was not proper in the
public schools, but the case proved a substantial public embarrassment
to fundamentalists who were widely portrayed as ignorant, backward, and
irrational.9 As a result,
many fundamentalists retreated from active participation in the electoral
and legislative arena. This lasted until an activist Cold War message that
Christians should re-engage in civic participation, encouraged by evangelical
groups such as Moral Re-armament and evangelists such as Billy Graham,
brought many Christians back into the voting booths in the 1950s. It wasn't
until the mid-1970s that evangelicals began to mobilize around partisan
political issues in a way that directly linked their theology to the electoral
sphere.10
While many previously passive sectors of Christianity were
being mobilized by conservative political organizers, a complementary theological
movement influenced by popular Christian philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer
and theologian Cornelius van Till, called for a more "muscular" and
interventionist form of Christianity. The most zealous version of this
renewal movement was called Reconstructionism, a post-millennial theology
which argues that the US Constitution is merely a codicil to Christian
Biblical law.11 Rooted
in militant early Calvinism and the idea of America as a Christian redeemer
nation, Reconstructionism sees religion, culture, and nation as an integral
unit in a way that echoes some European clerical fascist movements of the
1930s.
Among the leading Reconstructionist ideologues are R. J.
Rushdoony, Gary North, and Greg Bahnsen. There are few Reconstructionists,
but they have facilitated the emergence of a more widespread and softer
form of dominionism, the theocratic idea that regardless of religious views
or eschatological timetable, Christian men are called by God to exercise
dominion over secular society by taking control of political and cultural
institutions.12 The
result is a broad dominionist movement of Christian nationalism that has
spread from independent evangelical churches into mainstream Protestant
denominations and even small sectors of Catholicism.
From Red Menace to New World Order
Apocalyptic millennialism provides a basic narrative within
the US political right, claiming that the idealized society is thwarted
by subversive conspiracies.13 During
the 1980s and 1990s, the main demonized scapegoat of the US hard right
shifted seamlessly from the communist Red Menace to international terrorists,
sinful abortion providers, anti-family feminists, homosexual "special
rights" activists, "pagan" environmentalists, liberal secular
humanists and their "big government" allies, and globalists who
plot on behalf of the New World Order. The relatively painless nature of
the shift was due in part to the basic underlying apocalyptic paradigm,
which fed the Cold War and the witch-hunts of the McCarthy period.14 To
understand this dynamic requires stepping back a few paces to the roots
of fundamentalist belief.
One of the core ideas of the fundamentalist Christian Right
during this century has been that modern liberalism is a handmaiden for
collectivist, Godless communism. Many conservative Christian anticommunists
believe that collectivism is Godless, while capitalism is Godly. They often
link liberalism to Godless collectivism; then to the notion of a liberal
secular humanist conspiracy; and finally conclude that globalism is the
ultimate collectivist plot. Prior to the collapse of communism, many leaders
of the new Christian Right had already embraced a variation on their long-standing
fear of secret elites in league with Satan: the secular humanist conspiracist
theory.15 According
to George Marsden, the shift in focus to the secular humanist demon:
"...revitalized fundamentalist conspiracy
theory. Fundamentalists always had been alarmed at moral decline within
America but often had been vague as to whom, other than the Devil, to
blame. The "secular humanist" thesis gave this central concern
a clearer focus that was more plausible and of wider appeal than the
old mono-causal communist-conspiracy accounts. Communism and socialism
could, of course, be fit right into the humanist picture; but so could
all the moral and legal changes at home without implausible scenarios
of Russian agents infiltrating American schools, government, reform movements,
and mainline churches."16
A number of contemporary Christian Right ideologues promote
the secular humanist conspiracist theory, including: Pat Robertson, founder
of the Christian Coalition; Beverly LaHaye, leader of Concerned Women for
America; her husband, the Rev. Timothy LaHaye, a well-known Christian author;
and Dr. James Dobson, founding President of Focus on the Family, whose
syndicated radio program is on thousands of stations.
The shift in focus from anti-communism to the claim that
secular humanism now plays the key subversive role in undermining America
is reflected in right-wing author John Stormer's two books, the second
an update for the 1990s of his influential 1964 book None Dare Call
it Treason.17 Similarly,
some militant Protestant fundamentalists within the antiabortion movement,
influenced by hard right theological activist Francis A. Schaeffer, claim
a conspiracy of secular humanists as the source of Godless disregard for
what they argued is sinful murder of the unborn.18 In
1991 David A. Noebel of Summit Ministries, an ultra-conservative Christian
training center located outside Colorado Springs, Colorado wrote the 900
page Understanding the Times textbook used in 850 Christian schools
enrolling a total of over 15,000 students.19 The
book argues that secular humanism has replaced communism as the major anti-Christian
philosophy.20
Secular humanists--pictured as the torchbearers of liberal
Godlessness and New Deal statism--are scapegoated from a variety of perspectives:
economic, anti-elitist, and moral, as well as religious. The idea of the
secular humanist conspiracy also parallels and buttresses the resurgent
libertarian theme that collectivism destroys individual initiative and
saps the vigor of the free market system. It also echoes the concerns of
conservatives, neoconservatives, and paleoconservatives over creeping moral
decay and the failure of New Deal liberalism. This congruence of various
sectors of the right, each opposing liberal secular humanism for its own
reasons, has resulted in some remarkable tactical coalitions following
the rise of the New Right in the late 1970s, especially around issues of
public school curricula and government funding for education.
For many conspiracy-minded Christians, communism was but
one manifestation of Satan's age-old, one-world conspiracy. They argue
that if the ultimate villainous agent of control is Satan, the ideologies
promoted by demonic agents can easily shift from Godless communism to secular
humanism, and from global communism to a new world order. The collapse
of communism in Europe allowed a shift in focus to other aspects of the
alleged conspiracy--the collectivism and statism promoted by liberalism
and secular humanism. As mentioned earlier, more secular hard right groups
had long contended that behind Moscow Bolshevism and Wall Street capitalism
were the same shadowy secret elites with their traitorous allies in Washington.
Removing Soviet communists from the alleged secret team still leaves other
dangerous players in the field.
Conspiracism in the Christian Right often is overlooked by
the mainstream media, despite the prominence of those who promote it. Prior
to the 1998 elections, Dr. James Dobson led a well-publicized campaign
to pull the Republican Party into alignment with Christian Right moral
principles. Dobson and his colleague Gary Bauer co-authored Children
at Risk: The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Our Kids, which sees
an escalating civil war with the forces of Godless secular humanism. Dobson
praises Noebel's Summit Ministries, especially its youth training seminars
and its high school curriculum that immerse students in apocalyptic conspiracist
theories about the secular humanist menace.21
Dobson's endorsement of Summit is significant because it
illustrates how some of the more doctrinaire leaders of the Christian Right
are comfortable with Old Right conspiracism. Among Noebel's previous works
are Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles, and The Homosexual
Revolution: End Time Abomination. Summit Ministries has a longstanding
relationship with the conspiracist John Birch Society, placing large ads
in the John Birch Society's publications over many years. In at least one
instance, in 1983, Summit Ministries appears to have served as a conduit
for tax-exempt donations for the JBS.22 Noebel
recently absorbed the newsletter of Fred Schwarz' hard right Christian
Anti-Communism Crusade.
Even when not directly tied to diabolical schemes, conspiracism
is widespread in the Protestant Christian Right. Pat Robertson's The
New World Order is littered with conspiracist allegations and references,
including his invocation of the Freemason conspiracy "revealed in
the great seal adopted at the founding of the United States." Robertson
links Freemasonry to End Times predictions of a "mystery religion
designed to replace the old Christian world order of Europe and America"23 Later
in the book he says:
In earlier chapters, we have traced the infiltration
of Continental Freemasonry by the new world philosophy of the order of
the Illuminati, and its subsequent role in the French revolution. We
then were able to find clear documentation that the occultic-oriented
secret societies claiming descent from Illuminism and the French Revolution
played a seminal role in the thinking of Marx and Lenin. 24
As Michael Lind and Jacob Heilbrunn have pointed out in a
critique of the book published in The New York Review of Books,
Robertson moves beyond the Illuminati/Freemason conspiracy and incorporates
allegations that originate in anti-Semitic sources. 25
Anticipating the End Times
While most mainstream Christian religious leaders are reluctant
to suggest the year 2000 marks the End Times, some are hinting that the
date has theological significance, and a few have announced that the End
Times have already started. 26 There
is even a glossy full-color monthly magazine titled Midnight Call: The
Prophetic Voice for the Endtimes. One Christian publishing house offers
a catalog, "Armageddon Books." Its 1998 Internet version describes
itself as the "World's largest Bible prophecy bookstore featuring
books, videos, and charts on armageddon, antichrist, 666, tribulation,
rapture, revelation." There are over 400 items. Credit cards are accepted.
There are links to 160 other prophecy websites.27
Many Christian fundamentalists are scanning for the "Signs
of the Times," a phrase used to highlight the possibility that a specific
worldly event may fulfill a Biblical prophecy and thus be a signal of the
End Times, when faithful Christians are expected to engage in appropriate
(though highly contested) preparations. Earthquakes, floods, comets, wars,
disease, and social unrest are commonly interpreted as such signs.
The demonic interpretation of apocalyptic Biblical prophecy,
such as found in the Book of Revelation, has long encouraged conscious
and unconscious fears about evil subversive conspiracies. Apocalyptic fundamentalists
are thus especially concerned with false prophets and political or business
leaders who are subverting God's will and betraying the faithful by urging
them to abandon their righteous conduct, especially in terms of sinful
sexuality or crass materialism. Many faithful Christians believe they must
take on special duties during the End Times. These duties carry the weight
of Biblical prophecy, and in some cases, actions may even be felt to be
mandated by God. Revelation's prophecies can thus motivate action, especially
on the part of those fundamentalists who combine Biblical literalism with
a textual timetable.28 When
this worldview intersects with oppressive prejudices, it is easy to prophesy
the appearance of demonization, scapegoating, and conspiracism.
Author Hal Lindsey re-ignited Protestant apocalyptic speculation
in 1970 with his book, The Late Great Planet Earth, which sold 10
million copies.29 Lindsey
argued that the End Times had arrived and that Christians should watch
for the signs of the times.30 Billy
Graham again raised expectations in his 1983 book, Approaching Hoofbeats:
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, where he observed that Jesus Christ, "The
Man on the white horse...will come when man has sunk to his lowest most
perilous point in history." Graham then discussed how bad things were
in the world. 31
Paul Boyer argues that Christian apocalypticism must be factored
into both Cold War and post Cold War political equations. He notes that
the 1974 prophecy book, Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis sold
three-quarters of a million copies.32 The
mainstreaming of apocalypticism received a major boost when, in 1983, Ronald
Reagan cited scriptural authority to demonize the Soviet Union as an "evil
empire."33 Grace
Halsell wrote in her book, Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists
on the Road to Nuclear War, of how some evangelists, including Pat
Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Hal Lindsey, hinted that use of atomic weapons
was inevitable as part of the final battle of Armageddon.34
Halsell's book, and a monograph by Ruth W. Mouly, The
Religious Right and Israel: The Politics of Armageddon, argued that
one reason certain sectors of the Christian Right mobilized tremendous
support for the State of Israel during the Reagan Administration, was
in part because they believed Jews had to return to Israel before the
millennialist prophecies of Revelation could be fulfilled.35
Prophecy belief is widespread in the US. Philip Lamy reports
that during the Gulf War, 14 percent of one CNN national poll thought it
was the beginning of Armageddon, and "American bookstores were experiencing
a run on books about prophecy and the end of the world."36 In
1993 a Times/CNN national poll found that 20 percent of those polled
thought the second coming of Christ would occur near the year 2000.37
The process of prophecy belief triggering apocalyptic demonization
and then leading to searches for the Devil's partners is continuously updated.
Paul Boyer points out that those seen as the prophesied agents of Satan
girding for End Times battle can be foreign or domestic or both. He notes
how in prophetic literature the identity of Satan's allies in the Battle
of Armageddon has shifted seamlessly over time, circumstance, and political
interest from the Soviet Union to Chinese communists, to Islamic militants;
and warns of an increasing level of anti-Muslim bigotry in some contemporary
apocalyptic subcultures.38
Robert Fuller has looked at the range of current targets:
"Today, fundamentalist Christian writers
see the Antichrist in such enemies as the Muslim world, feminism, rock
music, and secular humanism. The threat of the Antichrist's imminent
takeover of the world's economy has been traced to the formation of the
European Economic Community, the Susan B. Anthony dollar...and the introduction
of universal product codes."39
Visions of the Satanic Antichrist are common in relatively
mainstream sectors of the new Christian Right. Typical of the current apocalyptic
genre is a recent mailing from Prophetic Vision, a small international
Christian evangelical outreach ministry, reporting that "prophecy
is moving so fast" and "the Return of Christ is imminent." The
mailing goes on to declare that the Antichrist, "Must be alive today
waiting to take control!" and then solicits funds for the "end
time harvest."
Rev. Pat Robertson frequently ties his conspiracist vision
to apocalyptic hints that we are in the millennial "End Times," and
End Times themes have repeatedly appeared on his "700 Club" television
program. On one July 1998 program Robertson hinted that a tsunami in New
Guinea coupled with the appearance of asteroids might be linked to Bible
prophecy. Just after Christmas, 1994, the program carried a feature on
new dollar bill designs being discussed to combat counterfeiting. The newscaster
then cited Revelations 13 and suggested that if the Treasury Department
put new codes on paper money, it might be the Antichrist's Mark of the
Beast, predicted as a sign of the coming End Times.40
Christians are also debating the importance of the "Y2K" bug,
the technical programming problem that crashes some computer software when
it tries to interpret the year 2000 using earlier computer code written
to recognize only the numbers 0-99 for calendar-based calculations. As
in secular circles, responses range from cautious preparations to doomsday
scenarios that have led some to establish rural survivalist retreats.41 At
the 1998 Christian Coalition's annual Road to Victory conference, a workshop
was devoted to announcing a plan to mobilize churches to provide food,
water, shelter, and medical supplies in case the Y2K bug caused widespread
societal problems.42 This
mobilization was justified by arguing the anticipation of resulting disruptions
was appropriate no matter what the eschatological viewpoint; and that if
there was no serious disruption, the supplies could aid the poor. This
equation neatly sidestepped the issue of the End Times, while allowing
those who believe we are in the End Times to work cooperatively with those
who do not.
Christian Reconstructionist author Gary North is now a much-quoted
expert on the Y2K bug. He sees much chaos created by Y2K, but dismisses
the link to Christ's imminent return.43 Some
post-millennialists are more in line with the suspicious view expressed
in the John Birch Society magazine, New American: "Much like
the Reichstag fire, could the Millennium Bug provide an ambitious President
with an opportunity to seize dictatorial powers?"44
Most Christians, even those who think the End Times are imminent,
do not automatically succumb to demonization, scapegoating, and conspiracist
thinking. Yet in the escalating surge of millennial titles, a scary number
name the agents of the Antichrist or claim to expose the evil End Times
conspiracy: Examples include: Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist;
One World Under Antichrist: Globalism, Seducing Spirits and Secrets of
the New World Order; Foreshocks of Antichrist; How Democracy Will Elect
the Antichrist: The Ultimate Denial of Freedom, Liberty and Justice According
to the Bible.45
Gender issues play an important role in apocalyptic millennialism.
In describing the symbolism in Revelation, one contemporary Catholic commentary
cautions against negative stereotyping of women.46 This
is a needed caution, because anti-feminist, misogynist and homophobic interpretations
of Revelation are widespread. A 1978 brochure with an apocalyptic subtext
from Texas Eagle Forum was titled: Christian Be Watchful: Hidden Dangers
in the New Coalition of Feminism, Humanism, Socialism, Lesbianism.47 As
Lee Quinby has noted, while it is difficult to predict the outcomes of
millennial moments, the current manifestation is unlikely to be good for
women.48
A good example is the Christian evangelical men's movement,
Promise Keepers, which has scheduled "Vision 2000" rallies at "key
population centers and state capitols around the United States," for
January 1, 2000.49 At
the massive Promise Keepers rally of Christian men on the Washington Mall
in October 1997, questions about the approaching End Times elicited eager
responses.50
While the Promise Keepers is driven in part by millennial
expectation, it is also a response to the need for men to find a coherent
identity in modern culture that responds in some creative way to the issues
raised by the civil rights and feminist movements.51 Nonetheless,
when push comes to shove, men in the Promise Keepers are still considered
the spiritual leaders in their families. As PK president Randy Phillips
said, "we have to listen and honor and respect our wives," but
admitted, "[w]e talk about ultimately the decision lying with the
man."52
Acknowledging the sincere religious devotion and quest for
growth of many Promise Keepers men, academic Lee Quinby, who has extensively
researched the subject area, nonetheless sees political content in the
group's vision of "apocalyptic masculinity," which rejects gender
equality and scapegoats homosexuals and feminists "as a threat to
the pure community." Quinby calls this tendency "coercive purity."53
Sociologist Sara Diamond reports that even some Christians
who are dubious of "hard" End Times claims have nevertheless
been re-energized by a "softer" millennial view of the year 2000
as a time for aggressive evangelism or even "spiritual warfare" against
demonic forces.54 The
broad quest for purity associated with the "softer" millennial
thinking among apocalyptic Christians can breed violence, such as seen
in the escalating attacks on abortion providers. It has already sparked
legislative efforts to enforce divisive and narrowly-defined Biblical standards
of morality. The wave of newspaper advertisements calling on gay men and
lesbians to "cure" themselves by turning to Jesus is another
example of a Christian coercive purity campaign influenced by millennial
expectation. Richard K. Fenn, a professor of Theology and Society at Princeton
Theological Seminary, argues that popular "rituals of purification" in
a society are closely associated with apocalyptic and millennial beliefs.55
Jeremiah the Profitable Prophet
An example of a group profiting from a campaign of millennial
ritual purification is Jeremiah Films, named after the Biblical prophet.
Jeremiah Films and Jeremiah Books are run by the husband and wife team
of Pat and Caryl Matrisciana.
Sen. Trent Lott, who in 1998 denounced homosexuals as not
just sinful but sick, had already appeared in Jeremiah's 1993 anti-gay
video "Gay Rights, Special Rights." The video, used in several
statewide legislative campaigns to erode basic rights for gay men and lesbians,
also features former attorney general Edwin Meese III and former education
secretary William J. Bennett, along with notable conspiracists such as
David Noebel of Summit Ministries. Lott also stars in Jeremiah's 1993 video "The
Crash--The Coming Financial Collapse of America," which comes in two
versions, one with a secular doomsday scenario and another with a special
Christian cut featuring discussions of End Times Biblical prophecy.
Jeremiah has a large collection of conspiracist videos. Caryl
Matrisciana, a leading author of Christian Right books with conspiracist
themes, co-hosted a thirteen-part video series from Jeremiah titled "Pagan
Invasion." The series includes videos that claim evolution is a hoax,
Freemasonry is a pagan religion, Halloween is a tool for Satanic abduction,
and Mormonism is a cult heresy. The Jeremiah video on Mormonism has earned
rebukes from mainstream religious commentators for its bigoted intolerance
toward the Mormon faith.56
One segment of the Jeremiah Films series "Pagan Invasion," is
titled "Preview of the Antichrist." It is described in an online
Christian Right catalog with the following blurb:
"According to Ancient Hebrew scriptures,
in the last days mankind will urgently seek the security of a one - world
government. This global desire for a super leader, who will bring peace
and safety to a world in chaos, will ultimately leave the human race
vulnerable to the beguiling charm and the most intelligent, powerful,
and charismatic person of all history. The Bible calls this man the "anti-christ." Ironically,
he will dominate the globe and orchestrate society's ultimate destruction.
Chuck Smith and Caryl Matrisciana host this blueprint of apocalyptic
events. Interviews with prophecy experts Chuck Missler, Hal Lindsey,
and Peter Lalonde explain "why" the world will follow this
man into perdition. Must viewing for all who desire a glimpse of the
future."57
Jeremiah is best known for The Clinton Chronicles,
a video distributed widely by Jerry Falwell, which alleges that the President
is at the head of a vast murderous conspiracy. The Clinton Chronicles video
and the subsequent The Clinton Chronicles book are the work of Jeremiah's
Patrick Matrisciana, who is also founder and president of Citizens for
Honest Government, a group dedicated to the impeachment of President Clinton.58
Many of the conspiracist attacks on President Bill Clinton
originate in the apocalyptic sector of the Christian Right. One example
is a book penned by Texe Marrs, titled Big Sister Is Watching You: Hillary
Clinton And The White House Feminists Who Now Control America--And Tell
The President What To Do. The book claims a plot by "FemiNazis" and
their allies in "subversive organizations whose goal is to end American
sovereignty and bring about a global Marxist paradise."59
Catholic Marianist Apocalyptics
Catholics who pay special devotion to the Virgin Mary constitute
a diverse Marianist subculture within the Church. Some Marianist groups
have clashed with Church hierarchy over what constitutes an appropriate
amount of adoration expressed for the Virgin Mary in relation to that reserved
for Jesus Christ. Some Marianists report sightings or apparitions of the
Virgin Mary; and these are sometimes considered End Times warnings.60
The basic message of the Marianist magazine Fatima Crusader, for
example, is that we are in the apocalyptic End Times and are facing a direct
struggle with Satan. Furthermore, the magazine urges that the actions and
religious devotions of true Catholics must be based on End Times warnings
and predictions made in appearances by the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ
before the Catholic faithful.61
Visions of the Virgin Mary have inspired devout Catholics
to pay more attention to their religious duties since 1531 when an apparition
of Mary appeared at Guadeloupe, Mexico. A shrine to the Virgin of Guadeloupe
was built at the site, and the appearance was venerated in Europe.
The Virgin Mary also appeared several times before three
children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, and a shrine to Our Lady of Fatima
was built there as well. A major message delivered at Fatima was the need
to carry out the consecration and conversion of Russia to Christianity.62 This
mandate had serendipitous benefit to the anticommunist movement within
Catholicism, which in turn had socio-political consequences in Europe and
the US.
Now, given the collapse of Godless communism in Russia, this
task might seem less pressing. Not so; in the worldview of The Fatima
Crusader, Russian tyranny can come in many forms. The Fatima Crusader's editorial
position is that the predictions at Fatima refer to the threat of a Russian-style
collectivist One World Government ushered in by socialists, liberals, secular
humanists, homosexuals, abortionists, and followers of the New-Age spirituality
movement. Articles in The Fatima Crusader also weave in millennialist
references to Biblical prophecies about the End Times struggles against
Satan and the Antichrist.
Numerous apparitions of Mary have been reported at a number
of locations, with disputes arising among competing factions within the
Marianist subculture as to which appearances are true and to be venerated,
and which are hoaxes to be denounced. Medjugorje is a Herzogovinian village
in what was Yugoslavia, where visions, first reported in the 1970s, draw
Marianists from all over the world.63 In
Bayside, New York, starting in 1968, the late Veronica Lueken reported
visions that became increasingly apocalyptic, including news from the Virgin
that the Antichrist was alive and on earth.64 Starting
in 1993 the faithful gathered at Conyers, Georgia to hear divine messages
from Mary revealed through former nurse Nancy Fowler.65
In the Summer, 1994 issue of the Marianist Fatima Family
Messenger, Charles Martel writes, in an article on "The Antichrist," that "The
Church is in a shambles" characterized by:
· "Open rebellion against authority,
· "Enthusiasm for abortion, contraception, divorce, etc.,
· "Addition of many clerics to Marxism,
· "Presence of un-Catholic teachings in seminaries and universities,
· "Widespread and well organized homosexual network,
· "Acceptance of New Age belief as the latest of ecumenism."66
Martel argues that "There is much more indisputable
evidence available which indicates that the Antichrist is here and is in
command."67
Another right-wing Catholic publication with apocalyptic
themes is the Michael Journal, which includes conspiracist articles
about the parasitic nature of financial elites that reflect historic anti-Semitic
themes. Michael Journal celebrates the memory of Father Coughlin, the
Catholic priest whose national radio programs in the 1930s moved from labor
populism to anti-Semitism and eventually to fascist-style demagoguery.
Coughlin is described as a man "Who courageously denounced the bankers'
debt-money system." According to the Michael Journal, "The
Illuminati are elite men, those on the top, who control the International
Bankers to control, for evil purposes, the entire world." Followers
of the Michael Journal lobbied against the Massachusetts seat belt
law, believing it was a collectivist step toward Satanic One World Government.
The newspaper featured an article titled "The Beast of the Apocalypse:
666" which proclaimed that "Satan's redoubtable ally" was
a "gigantic auto-programming computer" in Brussels at the headquarters
of the European Common Market.68
Right-wing Catholic Marianists and apocalyptics are a significant
force in the militant wing of the anti-abortion movement. Human Life International,
a right-wing Catholic group, is a major source of anti-abortion materials
for such activists. HLI publishes and distributes books that feature conspiracist
thinking and misogyny, with titles such as Sex Education: The Final
Plague, The Feminist Takeover, and Ungodly Rage: The Hidden
Face of Catholic Feminism. HLI also distributes the book New World
Order: The Ancient Plan of Secret Societies, by William T. Still, which
attacks the Freemasons as part of conspiracy to control the country through
the issuing of paper money.69 The
book is also sold by right-wing groups other than HLI. According to Still,
his book:
"...[s]hows how an ancient plan has been
hidden for centuries deep within secret societies. This scheme is designed
to bring all of mankind under a single world government--a New World
Order. This plan is of such antiquity that its result is even mentioned
in ...Revelation...."70
As this comment citing Revelations suggests, the battle against
the conspiracy is the battle between good and evil. The back cover blurb
of Still's book confirms this by stating that the plan "to bring all
nations under one-world government" is actually "the biblical
rule of the Antichrist."71
Asserting that the Federal Reserve is part of the conspiracy,
Still incorporates references to the Rothschild banking interests in a
way that reflects historic anti-Semitic theories alleging Jewish control
over the economy.72 Still's
book is endorsed in a back-cover blurb by D. James Kennedy, Ph.D., influential
senior minister of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. According to Kennedy's
blurb:
"Regardless of your views about the coming
of a world government, Bill Still's new book will make you reassess the
odds. He traces the historic role of secret societies and their influence
on the "Great Plan" to erase nationalism in preparation for
a global dictatorship. He allows the facts to speak for themselves, as
he sounds an ominous warning for the 21st Century."73
Here we see apocalyptic conspiracism bridging the divide
between politically-active right-wing Catholics and Protestants.
The Patriot & Armed Militia Movements
In the 1970s and 1980s far right Christian Identity and Constitutionalist
groups interacted with apocalyptic survivalists to spawn a number of militant
quasi-underground formations, including some that called themselves patriots
or militias.74 During
the height of the rural farm crisis in the early 1980s, one of these groups,
the Posse Comitatus--a loosely-knit armed network that spread conspiracism,
white supremacy, and anti-Semitism throughout the farm belt--captured a
small but significant number of sympathizers among farmers and ranchers.75 Other
groups, such as Aryan Nations and the Lyndon LaRouche group were also active,
and soon a loose network was constructed linking tax protesters to groups
as far to the right as various Ku Klux Klan splinter groups and neonazi
organizations.
The Patriot movement and its armed wing, the citizen militias,
are revivals of these and earlier right-wing populist movements, emerging
in the 1990s after the collapse of European communism and the launching
of the Gulf War. When President Bush announced his new foreign policy would
help build a New World Order, his phrasing surged through the Christian
and secular hard right like an electric shock, since the phrase had been
used to represent the dreaded collectivist One World Government for decades.
Some Christians saw Bush as signaling the End Times betrayal by a world
leader. Secular anticommunists saw a bold attempt to smash US sovereignty
and impose a tyrannical collectivist system run by the United Nations.
This galvanized into activism pre-existing anti-globalist sentiments within
the right.76
A self-conscious Patriot movement coalesced involving some
5 million persons who suspected--to varying degrees--that the government
was manipulated by secret elites and planned the imminent imposition of
some form of tyranny. The Patriot movement is bracketed on the reformist
side by the John Birch Society and the conspiratorial segment of the Christian
right, and on the insurgent side by the Liberty Lobby and groups promoting
themes historically associated with white supremacy and anti-Semitism.
A variety of pre-existing far right vigilante groups (including Christian
Identity adherents and outright neonazi groups) were influential in helping
organize the broader Patriot and armed militias movement.77 The
Patriot movement has drawn recruits from several other pre-existing movements
and networks, including gun rights, anti-abortion, survivalist, anticommunist,
libertarian, anti-tax, and anti-environmentalist.
Patriot movement adherents who formed armed units became
known as the armed militia movement. During the mid-1990s, armed militias
were sporadically active in all fifty states, with numbers estimated at
between 20,000 and 60,000.78 Both
the Patriot and armed militia movements grew rapidly, relying on computer
networks, FAX trees, short-wave radio, AM talk radio, and videotape and
audiotape distribution. These movements are arguably the first major US
social movements to be organized primarily through overlapping non-traditional
electronic media. The core narrative carried by these media outlets was
apocalyptic: featuring claims that the US government was controlled by
a vast conspiracy of secret elites plotting a New World Order, and was
planning to impose a globalist UN police state in the near future.
A key early figure in organizing the militia movement using
the short-wave radio and the Internet was Linda Thompson, whose elaborate
apocalyptic warnings and conspiratorial assertions of government plots
were widely believed within the militia movement until she called for an
armed march on Washington, DC to punish traitorous elected officials.79 Her
plan was widely criticized as dangerous, probably illegal, and possibly
part of a government conspiracy to entrap militia members. Mark Koernke, aka Mark
of Michigan, quickly replaced her as the most-favored militia intelligence
analyst.
In anticipation of attack by government agents, a significant
segment of the Patriot and armed militia movement embraces survivalism.
Survivalism is an apocalyptic view (with both Christian and secular proponents),
that advocates gathering and storing large supplies of food, water, and
medicine, in anticipation of economic collapse, social unrest, or the Tribulations.
Some adherents also purchase gold and other precious metals as a hedge
against currency devaluation; and some acquire weapons. Philip Lamy titled
his book on the subject Millennium Rage: Survivalists, White Supremacists,
and the Doomsday Prophecy.80
As a protective maneuver, a number of survivalists have withdrawn
to remote, usually rural, locations, or formed small communities for mutual
self-defense. This is what led the Weaver family to a remote region of
Idaho. Randy Weaver and his wife were survivalists as well as Christian
Identity adherents. Had the federal marshals who surrounded their house
in 1992 factored these beliefs into their plan for arresting Randy Weaver,
the subsequent deadly shoot-out might have been avoided. Federal Marshal
William Degan, and Weaver's wife Vicki and son Samuel died. Randy Weaver
and his friend Kevin Harris were wounded.81
Some Christian fundamentalist survivalists believe that to
avoid the Mark of the Beast, they must live apart from secular society
for a period of up to 42 months. Robert K. Spear, a key figure on the patriot
and militia training circuit, is the author of Surviving Global Slavery:
Living Under the New World Order.82 According
to Spear, we are approaching the Tribulations of the End Times. Spear cites
Revelation, Chapter 13, and warns that Christians will soon be asked to
accept the Satanic Mark of the Beast and thus reject Christ. True Christians,
according to Spear, must defend their faith and prepare the way for the
return of Christ through the formation of armed Christian communities.
His book is dedicated to "those who will have to face the Tribulations."
In 1993, the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas functioned
as this type of fundamentalist survivalist retreat. Davidian leader David
Koresh was decoding Revelation as an End Times script and preparing for
the Tribulations. The government's failure to comprehend the Davidian's
millennialist worldview set the stage for the deadly miscalculations by
government agents, which cost the lives of 80 Branch Davidians (including
21 children), and four federal agents.83 TV
coverage of this incident sent images of fiery apocalypse cascading throughout
the society, further inflaming the apocalyptic paradigm within right-wing
anti-government groups.84
Throughout the late 1990s, the Patriot and armed militia
movements overlapped with a resurgent states' rights movement, and a new "county
supremacy" movement. There was a rapid growth of illegal so-called "constitutionalist" "common
law courts," set up by persons claiming non-existent "sovereign" citizenship.
These courts claimed jurisdiction over legal matters on the county or state
level, and dismissed the US judicial system as corrupt and unconstitutional.85 Constitutionalist
legal theory creates a two-tiered concept of citizenship in which white
people have a superior "natural law" or "sovereign" citizenship.
Amazingly, many supporters of constitutionalism seem oblivious to the racism
in this construct.
The most publicized incident involving common law ideology
was the 1996 standoff involving the Montana Freemen, who combined Christian
Identity, bogus common law legal theories, "debt-money" theories
that reject the legality of the Federal Reserve system, and apocalyptic
expectation.86 On
a global level, many of the fears over declining sovereignty are linked
to the idea that "the UN is a critical cornerstone of the New World
Order," as one Birch Society publication put it.87
Three men suspected of shooting a law enforcement officer
while attempting to steal a water truck in Colorado in 1998 had talked
to friends about the coming collapse of society, using Patriot-style rhetoric.
Two reportedly attended meetings of a local Patriot group.88 Incidents
like this are likely to increase as we near the year 2000. However, the
conspiracist scapegoating of right-wing populism, like that in the Patriot
and armed militia movements, creates not only individual acts of violence,
but also what Mary Rupert has dubbed "a seedbed for fascism."89 Right-wing
populism is a recruitment pool for the far right.
The Far Right
The far right in the US is composed of groups such as the
Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the Christian Patriots, ideological fascists,
and neonazis. The term "far right" in this context refers to
groups with an aggressively-insurgent or extra-legal agenda, including
calls for denying basic human rights to a target group. Christian Patriots
combine Christian nationalism with constitutionalism.90 Non-Christian
neonazis are able to work in coalitions with the Christian Patriot groups
due to shared anti-government sentiments and conspiracism rooted in historic
anti-Jewish bigotry.
The most significant worldview in the Christian Patriot movement
is Christian Identity, which believes the US is the Biblical "Promised
Land" and considers white Christians to be God's "Chosen People."91 Michael
Barkun in Religion and the Racist Right has tracked the influence
of apocalyptic millennialism on major racist and anti-Semitic ideologues
within Christian Identity, including Wesley Swift, William Potter Gale,
Richard Butler, Sheldon Emry, and Pete Peters.92 The
neonazi version of Identity ideology claims Jews are Satanic agents who
manipulate subhuman people of color.93
Christian Identity was a common core belief in the Posse
Comitatus in the 1980s. Some Ku Klux Klan and racist skinhead groups
now espouse Identity, as does Aryan Nations. Identity is a millennialist
ideology that plans for an imminent apocalyptic race war, and history
has proved that they act on their beliefs--making the threat of violence
especially real.94 Many
proponents of Christian Identity seek to overthrow the "Zionist
Occupational Government" in Washington, DC and establish an exclusively
white, Christian nation. In this ideology Jews are pictured as agents
of the Antichrist who must be eliminated to prepare the way for the return
of Christ.95
The Gulf War encouraged Christian Patriot groups to peddle
anti-Semitic conspiracist theories about Jewish power behind US military
involvement. An example was the 40-page newsprint tabloid booklet by Nord
Davis, Jr., Desert Shield and the New World Order, published in
1990 by his Northpoint Tactical Teams.96 Other
pre-existing Christian Patriot groups quickly reached out to the emerging
militia movement with similar propaganda materials. For instance the Tennessee-based
Christian Civil Liberties Association published The Militia News,
ostensibly a newspaper but actually a catalog of books and other educational
resources including guides on how to evade government tracking and surveillance.
The opening article, "U.S. Government Initiates Open Warfare Against
American People," is a good example of anti-Semitic Christian Patriot
dogma:
"...following the turn of the 20th century,
Communism (the Judeo-Bolsheviks of Russia) and other diabolical movements
and philosophies--Fabian socialism, materialism, atheism, and secular
humanism--would, like malignant parasites, establish themselves in America.
Even our presidents, beginning with Franklin Roosevelt, would begin using
the resources of this nation to finance and support our foreign enemies,
particularly the Communist and Zionist movements."97
The article rails against what the author sees as the unconstitutional
attack on states' rights by "Court mandated integration and forced
busing" in the 1960s, and the "systematic de-Christianization
of the nation."98 Warning
this is part of a "satanic conspiracy," the author advises that
for the government to succeed, "the globalists must outlaw and confiscate" firearms.
"Every gun owner who is the least bit
informed knows that those who are behind this conspiracy--who now have
their people well placed in political office, in the courts, in the media,
and in the schools, are working for the total disarming of the American
people and the surrender of our nation and its sovereignty....The time
is at hand when men and women must decide whether they are on the side
of freedom and justice, the American republic, and Almighty God; or if
they are on the side of tyranny and oppression, the New World Order,
and Satan."99
Mobilizing gun owners was the first step in building the
militia movement out of the Patriot movement. The Weaver and Waco incidents
focused the attention of the Patriot movement as examples of government
tyranny, and served as trigger events to galvanize a mobilization in 1993
and 1994 around stopping the Brady Bill and gun control provisions of the
Crime Control Act.100 But
more militant and suspicious elements within the Patriot movement grafted
apocalyptic conspiracist fears onto the gun rights campaign, arguing that
if gun rights were restricted, a brutal and repressive government crack-down
on gun owners would quickly follow. The Weaver and Waco incidents were
seen as field tests of the planned repression, with the ultimate goal being
UN control of the US to benefit the conspiracy of secret globalist elites.
While for many this was a secular narrative, an apocalyptic and millennialist
End Times overlay was easily added by Christian fundamentalist elements
in the movement. Another overlay was overt anti-Jewish conspiracism. The
solution, given this narrative, was to create independent armed defensive
units to resist the expected wave of government violence--thus the armed
citizens militias.
Timothy McVeigh, who had moved from conspiracist anti-government
beliefs into militant neonazi ideology, blew up the Oklahoma City federal
building on the anniversary of the Waco conflagration to protest government
abuse of power which he, and others, believed was prelude to a tyrannical
New World Order.101 It
is likely that McVeigh wanted his act of terrorism to push the more defensive
and less ideological militias into a more racialized and militant insurgency.
His act of terrorism mimicked a scenario in the novel The Turner Diaries,
which he distributed to friends. Written by neonazi William Pierce, The
Turner Diaries has apocalyptic themes invoking the cleansing nature
of ritual violence typical of Nazi ideology, which also sought a millenarian
Thousand Year Reich.102 McVeigh's
apparently secular concern that during the Gulf War the government had
implanted a micro-chip into his body echoes historic concerns among fundamentalist
Christians that the Mark of the Beast might be hidden in electronic devices. Previous | TOC | Next |