Christian Patriot movement

The Christian Patriot movement is a subset within the broader American Patriot movement that promotes and emphasizes Christian nationalism as their core goal and philosophy. Like the larger movement, it promotes a revisionist interpretation of American history in which the federal government has turned against the ideas of liberty and natural rights expressed in the American Revolution.

Insignia of Hutaree, a Christian paramilitary group

Ideology

The movement originally referred to the late 1980s' Posse Comitatus group, a militant far-right organization. The Posse Comitatus followed an ideology based on the teachings of its founder William Potter Gale, who was also a Christian Identity minister, and the majority of the Christian Patriot movement's members still adhere to Christian Identity's white supremacist views.[1][2] This ideology holds the view that state and federal governments are agents of an arcane conspiracy to deprive Americans of their rights as "sovereign citizens." It also holds the view that this conspiracy can be undermined through various legal pleadings from English common law and other sources, such as a motion protesting the way a defendant's name is typeset in a legal complaint.[3] The ideology persists despite numerous court rulings that have declared its theories frivolous.[4]

Status

The movement grew during the 1990s after the Ruby Ridge and Waco Sieges appeared to confirm the suspicions of Christian Patriots.[5] The movement maintained its ties with the American militia movement of the same period. A highly publicized federal confrontation with Christian Patriots occurred in 1996, when Federal marshals arrested the Montana Freemen.[3]

In 2009, the Southern Poverty Law Center said that militia groups may be experiencing a "Patriot revival."[6]

See also

References

  1. Eck, Diane (2001). A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" has become the world's most religiously diverse nation. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 347.
  2. Buck, Christopher (2009). Religious Myths and Visions of America: How Minority Faiths Redefined America's World Role. Praeger. pp. 107, 108, 213. ISBN 978-0313359590.
  3. Carey, Kevin (July 2008). "Too Weird for The Wire". Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  4. Sussman, Bernard J. Idiot Legal Arguments: A Casebook for Dealing with Extremist Legal Arguments. Archived from the original on 2007-09-10. Retrieved 2007-09-13. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. Anti-Defamation League, The Militia Movement Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Keller, Larry (August 2009). "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias". A Special Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Montgomery, Alabama: 5–10. Retrieved September 12, 2013.

Further reading

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