God and country: Revolution as a religious imperative on the radical right

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 9, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 63-79

  Gallagher, Eugene V ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0031327101     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09546559708427416     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. On Posse Comitatus see James Corcoran, Bitter Harvest: The Birth of Paramilitary Terrorism in the Heartland (NY: Penguin 1995); on The Order and CSA see Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhart, The Silent Brotherhood (NY: Signet 1990); on the Montana Freemen see Carey Goldberg, 'The Freemen Sought Refuge in an Ideology that Kept the Law, and Reality, at Bay', New York Times, 16 June 1996, p.A14.
2. On Posse Comitatus see James Corcoran, Bitter Harvest: The Birth of Paramilitary Terrorism in the Heartland (NY: Penguin 1995); on The Order and CSA see Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhart, The Silent Brotherhood (NY: Signet 1990); on the Montana Freemen see Carey Goldberg, 'The Freemen Sought Refuge in an Ideology that Kept the Law, and Reality, at Bay', New York Times, 16 June 1996, p.A14.
3. On Posse Comitatus see James Corcoran, Bitter Harvest: The Birth of Paramilitary Terrorism in the Heartland (NY: Penguin 1995); on The Order and CSA see Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhart, The Silent Brotherhood (NY: Signet 1990); on the Montana Freemen see Carey Goldberg, 'The Freemen Sought Refuge in an Ideology that Kept the Law, and Reality, at Bay', New York Times, 16 June 1996, p.A14.
4. As cited in Corcoran (note 1), p.153.
5. The concept of leaderless resistance as a strategy for opposition to 'state tyranny' was promoted by Louis R. Beam in a February 1992 essay in his quarterly The Seditionist. It is an organizational structure designed to maintain secrecy, minimize the damage caused by leaks of information, protect groups from infiltration and perpetuate resistance by shifting the focus to ideology rather than individual leaders. See Morris Dees, with James Corcoran, Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat (NY: HarperCollins 1996) pp.33-47.
6. On the organization of militia groups into 'cells' see Anonymous, Field Manual of the Free Militia, foreword by Skipp Porteous (Great Barrington, MA: Riverwalk Press 1996) pp.84-95. On the diversity of the militia movement see Martin Durham, 'Preparing for Armageddon: Citizen Militias, the Patriot Movement and the Oklahoma City Bombing', Terrorism and Political Violence (hereafter TPV) 8/1 (Spring 1996) pp.65-79. The more 'typical' terrorist structure of 'autonomous cells' has connecting links though they are minimal. See John Horgan and Max. Taylor, 'The Provisional Irish Republican Army: Command and Functional Structure', this issue, pp.1-32, and David C. Rapoport, Assassination and Terrorism (Toronto: CBC 1971) Ch.6.
7. On the organization of militia groups into 'cells' see Anonymous, Field Manual of the Free Militia, foreword by Skipp Porteous (Great Barrington, MA: Riverwalk Press 1996) pp.84-95. On the diversity of the militia movement see Martin Durham, 'Preparing for Armageddon: Citizen Militias, the Patriot Movement and the Oklahoma City Bombing', Terrorism and Political Violence (hereafter TPV) 8/1 (Spring 1996) pp.65-79. The more 'typical' terrorist structure of 'autonomous cells' has connecting links though they are minimal. See John Horgan and Max. Taylor, 'The Provisional Irish Republican Army: Command and Functional Structure', this issue, pp.1-32, and David C. Rapoport, Assassination and Terrorism (Toronto: CBC 1971) Ch.6.
8. On the organization of militia groups into 'cells' see Anonymous, Field Manual of the Free Militia, foreword by Skipp Porteous (Great Barrington, MA: Riverwalk Press 1996) pp.84-95. On the diversity of the militia movement see Martin Durham, 'Preparing for Armageddon: Citizen Militias, the Patriot Movement and the Oklahoma City Bombing', Terrorism and Political Violence (hereafter TPV) 8/1 (Spring 1996) pp.65-79. The more 'typical' terrorist structure of 'autonomous cells' has connecting links though they are minimal. See John Horgan and Max. Taylor, 'The Provisional Irish Republican Army: Command and Functional Structure', this issue, pp.1-32, and David C. Rapoport, Assassination and Terrorism (Toronto: CBC 1971) Ch.6.
9. On the organization of militia groups into 'cells' see Anonymous, Field Manual of the Free Militia, foreword by Skipp Porteous (Great Barrington, MA: Riverwalk Press 1996) pp.84-95. On the diversity of the militia movement see Martin Durham, 'Preparing for Armageddon: Citizen Militias, the Patriot Movement and the Oklahoma City Bombing', Terrorism and Political Violence (hereafter TPV) 8/1 (Spring 1996) pp.65-79. The more 'typical' terrorist structure of 'autonomous cells' has connecting links though they are minimal. See John Horgan and Max. Taylor, 'The Provisional Irish Republican Army: Command and Functional Structure', this issue, pp.1-32, and David C. Rapoport, Assassination and Terrorism (Toronto: CBC 1971) Ch.6.
10. Field Manual (note 4), p. 1.
11. Ibid., p.5.
12. Ibid., p.31.
13. Ibid., p.3.
14. Ibid., p.8.
15. Ibid., p.13.
16. Ibid., p.24.
17. Henry as quoted in ibid., p.17.
18. See Evan Thomas et al., 'The Plot', Newsweek, 8 May 1995, p.31. On The Turner Diaries see the ADL report, 'William L. Pierce: Novelist of Hate' (NY: Anti-Defamation League 1995); Dees (note 3), pp.143-7.
19. See Evan Thomas et al., 'The Plot', Newsweek, 8 May 1995, p.31. On The Turner Diaries see the ADL report, 'William L. Pierce: Novelist of Hate' (NY: Anti-Defamation League 1995); Dees (note 3), pp.143-7.
20. Thomas et al. (note 13), p.31.
21. See '"I m Just Like Anyone Else" An Exclusive Interview with Timothy McVeigh', Time, 15 April 1996, p.56.
22. On Pierce's background see Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1994) p.226. On both Pierce's career and the ideology of his 'Cosmotheist Community' see Brad Whitsel, 'Aryan Visions for the Future in the West Virginia Mountains', TPV 7/4 (Winter 1995) pp.117-39.
23. On Pierce's background see Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1994) p.226. On both Pierce's career and the ideology of his 'Cosmotheist Community' see Brad Whitsel, 'Aryan Visions for the Future in the West Virginia Mountains', TPV 7/4 (Winter 1995) pp.117-39.
24. MacDonald (Pierce) also includes a similar scenario in his other novel, Hunter, indicating a certain attraction to that revolutionary tactic. See Andrew MacDonald (William Pierce), Hunter (Hillsboro, WV: National Vanguard 1989) pp. 176-81.
25. On the popularity of The Turner Diaries see Dees (note 3), pp. 143-4, 152, 156; James William Gibson, Warrior Dreams: Paramilitary Culture in Post-Vietnam America (NY: Hill and Wang 1994) pp.220-27.
26. Andrew MacDonald (William Pierce), The Turner Diaries, 2nd ed. (Hillsboro, WV: National Vanguard 1980) pp.iii-iv.
27. Ibid., pp.52, 74, 71, 162, 184, 196, respectively.
28. See Barkun (note 16), p.226 for an acknowledgment of the religious dimensions of those ritual practices.
29. Field Manual (note 4), p.19.
30. Robert N. Bellah, 'Civil Religion in America', in Bellah (ed.), Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World (NY: Harper & Row 1970) p. 186.
31. MacDonald (Pierce) (note 17), p.8.
32. Ibid., pp.9-10.
33. National Vanguard Books Catalog, # 15, p.6.
34. Bellah (note 23), p. 186.
35. Gibson (note 18), p.306.
36. See Field Manual (note 4), p.70; MacDonald (Pierce) (note 19), pp.202-4; Dees (note 3), p. 140 on the initiatory oath of The Order.
37. See Jeffrey Kaplan, 'The Context of American Millenarian Revolutionary Theology: The Case of the "Identity Christian" Church of Israel', TPV 5/1 (Spring 1993) pp.30-82.
38. See Elizabeth Gleick, 'Who Are They?' Time, 1 May 1995, p.50. Dees (note 3), p.164, however, reports that the license had 19 April 1972 as McVeigh's (erroneous) date of birth. Either way, the significance of the April 19 date remains.
39. Ron Cole, a Branch Davidian sympathizer, as quoted in Gleick (note 31), p.50. On Cole see Wayne Laugesen, 'After Waco: Longmont Man Works to Resurrect Branch Davidians', Boulder Weekly, 20 April 1995, pp. 10-14, and Laugesen and Joel Dyer, 'Americans Against Americans: Local Branch Davidian Linked to Four Bombing Suspects', Boulder Weekly, 27 April 1995, pp.8-12. Cole also wrote his own privately published account of the Waco affair, Sinister Twilight.
40. Ron Cole, a Branch Davidian sympathizer, as quoted in Gleick (note 31), p.50. On Cole see Wayne Laugesen, 'After Waco: Longmont Man Works to Resurrect Branch Davidians', Boulder Weekly, 20 April 1995, pp. 10-14, and Laugesen and Joel Dyer, 'Americans Against Americans: Local Branch Davidian Linked to Four Bombing Suspects', Boulder Weekly, 27 April 1995, pp.8-12. Cole also wrote his own privately published account of the Waco affair, Sinister Twilight.
41. Ron Cole, a Branch Davidian sympathizer, as quoted in Gleick (note 31), p.50. On Cole see Wayne Laugesen, 'After Waco: Longmont Man Works to Resurrect Branch Davidians', Boulder Weekly, 20 April 1995, pp. 10-14, and Laugesen and Joel Dyer, 'Americans Against Americans: Local Branch Davidian Linked to Four Bombing Suspects', Boulder Weekly, 27 April 1995, pp.8-12. Cole also wrote his own privately published account of the Waco affair, Sinister Twilight.
42. See Dick J. Reavis, 'Remembering Waco, and Stealing It', New York Times, 13 May 1995, p.19.
43. See James A. Aho, The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism (Seattle: University of Washington Press 1990) p.19 for an inventory of the complicated situation in Idaho. On Christian Identity doctrine see Barkun (note 16), p.ix. Constitutionalists accept only what they call the 'Organic Constitution', including the Bill of Rights but excluding all other Amendments. Constitutionalism often has marked religious features and most of its adherents seem to count themselves Christian; it also has proven especially attractive to those raised as Mormons. Christian Identity ideology holds that white Aryans are the true descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, that Jews are in fact the children of Satan and that the world will soon be enmeshed in the final apocalyptic battle between the forces of good and evil. Strong antisemitism is a distinguishing mark of Identity believers.
44. See William E. Paden, Religious Worlds (Boston: Beacon Press 1994), pp.69-92 for a recent, synthetic characterization of religious myths.
45. Rebecca Shelton, 'The New Minutemen: Regular Citizens are Organizing and Taking up Arms against Enemies of All Kinds', Kansas City New Times, 22 Feb. 1995, from 'Militias in America, 1995' posted on the Internet by the Altemet News Service.
46. See Mark Koernke (aka 'Mark from Michigan') in ibid. Koemke told a Militia of Montana rally in December, 1994: 'We don't have a choice... . The next time this happens we will be armed to the teeth... We are not going to be reading history; we are going to be making history, and that's exciting'. See also a 12 April 1994 letter from the Texas Militia Correspondence Committee, which has circulated on the Internet, and which asserts that On April 19 of last year, more than 80 persons died in the kind of confrontation that may be faced by hundreds of thousands of patriot groups, mostly single families. Standing alone, with no one to come to their aid, to avenge them, or even in many cases to bear witness to their fate, they stand little chance. Unless the Militia organizes. That is what the Powers That Be fear most'.
47. Rogers Worthington, 'Private Militias March to the Beat of Deep Distrust', Chicago Tribune, 25 Sept. 1994, p.1.
48. Richard Lackyo, 'State of Siege', Time, 8 April 1996, p.26.
49. Susan Ladd and Stan Swofford, On the Brink of Doom', Greensboro News and Record, 25-27 June 1995, p.A1.
50. See Robert D. McFadden, 'Links in Blast: Armed "Militia" And a Key Date', New York Times, 22 April 1995, p.8. Snell's last words before his execution were 'Look over your shoulder; justice is coming', as reported in Peter Applebome, 'Radical Right's Fury Boiling Over', New York Times, 23 April 1995, p.33.
51. See Robert D. McFadden, 'Links in Blast: Armed "Militia" And a Key Date', New York Times, 22 April 1995, p.8. Snell's last words before his execution were 'Look over your shoulder; justice is coming', as reported in Peter Applebome, 'Radical Right's Fury Boiling Over', New York Times, 23 April 1995, p.33.
52. Texas Militia, 'Alamo Area Militia Day Leadership Conference', 12 April 1994.
53. 'Declaration of War against the N. W. O.', posted 10:18 PM, 18 April 1996.
54. Ibid. Upper case reproduced from the original.
55. See Michael Barkun, 'Religion, Militias and Oklahoma City: The Mind of Conspiratorialists', TPV 8/1 (Spring 1996) pp.50-64.
56. On the power of myth and ritual to create and re-create the world see Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane (NY: Harper & Row 1959).
57. Anti-Defamation League, 'Beyond the Bombing: The Militia Menace Grows' (NY: Anti-Defamation League 1995) p.30. See Gina Bellafante, 'Waco: The Flame Still Bums', Time, 1 May 1995, p.47.
58. Anti-Defamation League, 'Beyond the Bombing: The Militia Menace Grows' (NY: Anti-Defamation League 1995) p.30. See Gina Bellafante, 'Waco: The Flame Still Bums', Time, 1 May 1995, p.47.
59. See Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (NY: OUP 1992) p.74: 'ritualization is a way of acting that is designed and orchestrated to distinguish and privilege what is being done in comparison to other, usually more quotidian, activities. As such, ritualization is a matter of various culturally specific strategies for setting some activities off from others, for creating and privileging a qualitative distinction between the "sacred" and the "profane", and for ascribing such distinctions to realities thought to transcend the powers of human actors'.
60. This, and all subsequent quotations, are taken from the 'Militia Day Proclamation', which was widely circulated through fax networks and on the Internet.
61. See Tertullian, Apology, 50. For Latin text and English translation see T.R. Glover and G.H. Rendall, trans., Tertullian, Apology, De Spectaculis; Minucius Felix, Octavius (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1966).
62. See Tertullian, Apology, 50. For Latin text and English translation see T.R. Glover and G.H. Rendall, trans., Tertullian, Apology, De Spectaculis; Minucius Felix, Octavius (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1966).
63. Laugesen and Dyer, 'Americans Against Americans' (note 32), p.8. Of Cole's pretensions to leadership Sheila Martin, who lost her husband and four of her children in the fire at Mount Carmel, politely says 'Ron Cole is young and outspoken and we're all very thankful for everything he did... Some of the media down here [in Waco] began to think that he was our new leader, but we really don't think anyone is the leader now. The next David Koresh will be the David Koresh who died at Mount Carmel, and he will rise from the dead sometime next year', in Laugesen (note 32), 'After Waco', p.10.
64. MacDonald (Pierce) (note 17), pp.37-8.
65. Kenelm Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities (NY: Schocken Books 1969) p.13.
66. See note 42.
67. Field Manual (note 4), p.68.
68. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the University of Rochester. Prof. William Scott Green, Prof. Anne Merideth and Jessica Korman provided warm hospitality and helpful criticism. Amy Moulton added greatly to the clarity of this paper in its final stages. Comments from Professors David C. Rapoport, Jean Rosenfeld, and Catherine Wessinger and an anonymous reviewer were also very helpful.