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Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement

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While I highly enjoyed this book and found it meticulously, yet engagingly, researched, I will try to refrain from repeating what other reviewers have already stated. What I would like to add, is that I was unexpectedly impressed with the tortuous connections Barkun unearthed between the Identity/British-Israel sects/movements and other strains of Protestants and Pentecostals. I felt that I learned not only about Identity, but also gained a wider perspective on America's colorful religious history. Barkun also did an admirable job of maintaining a degree of objectivity and emotional distance from his subject, preventing a preachy or moralistic tone from overwhelming the book.

This book is bashing christians using hate speech and I would seriously reccomend that nooene else reads this trash, where is the tolerance for other religions here? why is the author being so hateful!

This is easily the best book on the subject. The first section on the history of British Israelism (a little known theory today but well known during the last half of the 19th cen. and first half of the twentieth) is simply invaluable. Three cheers for Professor Barkun. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to be informed about one of the most dangerous and bizarre movements in our country today.

"Religion and the Racist Right" traces the origins and development of the Christian Identity movement, a particularly virulent strain of racist theology that constitutes the religious undergirding of many violence prone white supremacists groups on the radical right of our political culture. These are groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the Order, the Posse Comitatus, and the Militias. The author, Michael Barkun, also argues that Identity doctrine is conspicuous within the circles of David Duke supporters.

Mr. Barkun finds the origin of Identity within a distant and little known 19th century religious movement called British Israelism. This movement emerged from within Victorian English Protestant circles and claimed that the British were descendants of the "lost ten tribes" of Israel. Barkun then asks, and sets about to answer the question as to how this rather curious notion devolved into the three central religious doctrines of Christian Identity; first and most important, that the Jews are the literal biological offspring of Satan who have from the beginning of time been engaged in a cosmic conspiracy to rob the white race of its birthright as the true "chosen people of God"; that the white "Aryans" are descendants of the biblical tribes of Israel; and that the world is on the verge of a final, apocalyptic struggle between good and evil, in which Aryans do battle with the Jewish conspiracy and its allies so that the world can be redeemed.

The question is important because, as Mr. Barkun argues, these strange ideas are at the heart of much of the political activity of the radical right. They serve as religious justification for the conspiratorial paranoia so prominent among Identity followers. Over time, Identity writers have elaborated on the extent of this conspiracy's malevolence and cunning. They portray it as reaching into every facet of American life, the churches, universities and mass media, but particularly the Federal government. "A worldview premised upon such ideas sees politics in confrontational terms, with choices that range from disengagement to violent overthrow."

In the introduction Mr. Barkun describes the development of Identity as a strange story that "unfolds in a subculture few know,.. where deviant religion, spurious scholarship, and radical politics intersect". This might be regarded as an apt description of how the book reads. It is like reading a well crafted mystery novel in which the many clues from diverse sources painstakingly build toward answering the question of how this deadly ideology ever emerged. The book is devided into three parts. Part one pieces together the development of British Israelism with a focus on three main aspects: its' origins and consolidation as a social movement up to the mid 19th century in England, its racial explanations for its central idea and the early development of its' anti-Semitism and millenariansim, and its' exportation to the United States and the development of Identity doctrine under the influence of leading figures of the extreme right wing. Under their influence, racism becomes the key hermeneutic for history, particularly the Bible, as well as for the rest of reality.

Part two examines the development of Christian Identity doctrine, its peculiar cast on millenarianism and, most importantly, its demonization of the Jews. Mr. Barkun recognizes that demonizing the Jews is not new. The unfortunate practice goes back to the Middle Ages. But, according to Barkun, Identitys' doctrine that the Jews are thebiological offspring of a sexual union between the Devil and Eve is the most unique and extreme. Barkun suggests that the biological link to the Devil is the outcome of British Iraelisms struggle with the question of the identity and status of the Jews. If the British are the true Israelites, then who are the modern day Jews? Their answers relied more and more over time on racial explanations.This started from the beginning with their distinction between the Southern Kingdom of Judah, from which the Jews were deemed to have sprung, and the nothern Kingdom of Israel, from which the British are considered the descendents. The former was lost through centuries of intermarriage with a host of other races, while the latter migrated to Britian, its pure blood-line intact. Consequently, the Jews were religously disenfranchised by dint of their racial impurity.

Barkun tells us that while British Israelism was increasingly anti-Semitic over time, its anti-Semitism was not sustained or systematic. Moreover, within British Israelism, the Jews were always in some sense salvagable. But in the hands of their American counterparts these racial explanations grew increasingly nefarious. The anti-Semitism of British Israelism hatched the idea of the "good Jews" and the "bad Jews". The leaders of American racism transformed this into the evil Jews. But more than this, their doctrine combined virulent racism with two much older ideas, the idea of a cosmic conspiracy by the Devil toward world dominance, with the idea of a Jewish conspiracy toward social subversion. Hence the Jews are viewed as Evil incarnate.

Part three of the book deals with the political outcome of their doctrines. God's purpose is racial redemption, which is viewed as the only valid political goal. It is not therefore negotiable. Any compromise is viewed as compromise with the Devil himself. This is why the overthrow of or seperation from the US. government is so important to Identity followers. They view democracy as part of this cosmic Jewish conspiracy to destroy white Christian civilization. To them, democracy is designed to promote race mixing with "mud people". This derisive phrase is how Identity refers to all people of color. They're regarded as mistakes by God before the creation of the perfect white race in Adam. Identity views interacial marriage and abortion as part of the plan to destroy the white race. Combine this with their apocalyptic expectations that we are living in the end times and the final conflict will involve a war between the Aryans, the Jews and their allies, and you arrive at what Barkun calls Identity's "politics of ultimacy". Prepare for war and regard the rest of the world as deceived or deceiving.

This is an important and timely book for those who seek to understand the ideology and politics of the extreme right wing of American political culture. But the reader must exersize patience. The book reads like a picture puzzle because the sources for the developement of this sad and deadly perspective are extremely varied and obscure. But it behooves all Americans to understand what we're up against, and Mr. Barkuns' book is a good first step in that direction.

Professor Barkun has certainly done his research in this exhaustive project on the linkage between Anglo-Israelism and Christian Identity. I found the sections on the demonization of the Jews the most relevent explanation of Identity doctrine I've ever seen. By looking at early Identity founders such as William Potter Gale and Wesley Swift, Professor Barkun does a great job of showing how Identity has morphed into its present form. He did his research, which is heavily footnoted. The only problem I have with this book is his tendency to overstate the obvious-again and again. Overall, a must read for anyone interested in the religious ultraright.

This book is a thorough and fascinating (in a skin-crawly kind of way) look at the origins of Christian Identity, tracing it back to its British-Israelism roots in the nineteenth century. The author narrowly focuses on the theological elements in this discussion for most of the book and the how or why which made people believe these quite paranoid, delusional or hate-filled things is left out of the discussion. This book is about what they believed and not why. But that really would not fit into this book (and would take several on its own account). This book also does not go beyond British Isrealism or the Christian Identity into other ways in which the right, religion and rascism all connect. But what this book does cover, it does so masterfully and the research is impressive and important. An read for anyone interested in the right wing fringes of society in a "know thy enemy" sort of way.

This is really the only complete history of the Christian
Identity movement, a modern descendent of the anglo-centric
British Israelism movement of the late 19th century. Identity
is the overtly racist religion practiced by Aryan Nations,
the Freemen, and many other fringe White Supremacist movements.

Among the beliefs subscribed to by a variety of Identity
groups are that Jews are descendents of Satan, and that
all non-Whites are descendents of sub-human "beasts of the
field" created before Adam and Eve. Identity believers
claim that they are the "remnant" of the lost tribes of
Israel, and will have dominion over the earth after a
racist holy war in which God will smite all their enemies.
This is a fascinating book that sheds light on an obscure
and shadowy movement that has united many disparate elements
of the racist fringe for the past couple of decades. I
could't put it down! While Identity has been covered in
passing in other books or articles, nobody has researched
and explained this movement quite like Barkun, a professor
of Political Science at Syracuse.

This is a good history of the Christian Identity movement. The biggest fault this book has is it barely touched on the huge influence the old Mormon faith (before it became pc) had on Identity doctrine. As much of a kook religion as it is Identity theology has always fascinated me. I do find it rather odd that some of the biggest foaming at the mouth Jew haters are people who either practice religions that have roots in the Jewish culture or even claim that they are Jews themselves. Its like they have Jew envy or something.

This is really the only complete history of the Christian Identity movement, a modern descendent of the anglo-centric British Israelism movement of the late 19th century. Identity is the overtly racist religion practiced by Aryan Nations, the Freemen, and many other fringe White Supremacist movements. Among the beliefs subscribed to by a variety of Identity groups are that Jews are descendents of Satan, and that all non-Whites are descendents of sub-human "beasts of the field" created before Adam and Eve. Identity believers claim that they are the "remnant" of the lost tribes of Israel, and will have dominion over the earth after a racist holy war in which God will smite all their enemies. This is a fascinating book that sheds light on an obscure and shadowy movement that has united many disparate elements of the racist fringe for the past couple of decades. I could't put it down! While Identity has been covered in passing in other books or articles, nobody has researched and explained this movement quite like Barkun, a professor of Political Science at Syracuse. Tad Cook

This is really the only complete history of the Christian Identity movement, a modern descendent of the anglo-centric British Israelism movement of the late 19th century. Identity is the overtly racist religion practiced by Aryan Nations, the Freemen, and many other fringe White Supremacist movements. Among the beliefs subscribed to by a variety of Identity groups are that Jews are descendents of Satan, and that all non-Whites are descendents of sub-human "beasts of the field" created before Adam and Eve. Identity believers claim that they are the "remnant" of the lost tribes of Israel, and will have dominion over the earth after a racist holy war in which God will smite all their enemies. This is a fascinating book that sheds light on an obscure and shadowy movement that has united many disparate elements of the racist fringe for the past couple of decades. I could't put it down! While Identity has been covered in passing in other books or articles, nobody has researched and explained this movement quite like Barkun, a professor of Political Science at Syracuse. Tad Cook