The Christian Patriot movement is a movement of American political commentators and activists. They promote various interpretations of history and law with the common theme that the federal government has turned against the ideas of liberty and individual rights behind the American Revolution.
Contents |
Ideology
The movement developed in the late 1980s out of Posse Comitatus, a militant far right organization. Christian Patriots follow an ideology based on the teachings of Posse founder and Christian Identity minister William P. Gale, though many do not follow Identity's white nationalist Israelistic views. This ideology holds that state and federal governments are agents of an arcane conspiracy to deprive Americans of their rights as "sovereign citizens." This conspiracy can, however, be undermined through various legal pleadings from English common law and other sources, such as a motion to require a court to address a defendant in a particular way.[1] The ideology persists despite numerous court rulings that have declared its theories frivolous.[2]
Growth
The movement grew during the 1990s after the Ruby Ridge incident and the Waco Siege appeared to confirm the suspicions of Christian Patriots. The movement maintained ties with the militia movement of the same period. A highly publicized federal confrontation with Christian Patriots occurred in 1996, when Federal marshals arrested the Montana Freemen.[1]
References
- ^ a b Carey, Kevin (July 2008). "Too Weird for The Wire". Washington Monthly. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0805.carey.html. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
- ^ Sussman, Bernard J. Idiot Legal Arguments: A Casebook for Dealing with Extremist Legal Arguments. Anti-Defamation League. http://www.adl.org/mwd/suss1.asp. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
See also
- Militia movement (United States)
- Constitutional militia movement
- Mark Dice
- Bo Gritz
- Alex Jones
- Gordon Kahl
- James Wesley Rawles
- Christian Identity
Further reading
- Aho, James (1995). The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism.
- Durham, Martin (2000). The Christian Right, the Far Right and the Boundaries of American Conservatism.
- Gallaher, Carolyn (2003). On the Fault Line: Race, Class, and the American Patriot Movement.
- Kushner, Harvey W (1998). The Future of Terrorism: Violence in the New Millennium.
- Martin, Gus (2006). Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues.
- Niewert, David A (1999). In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest. Pullmam, Wash.: Washington State Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0874221756.
- Schlatter, Evelyn A (2006). Aryan Cowboys: White Supremacists and the Search for a New Frontier, 1970-2000.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
