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organizations do (e.g., intense activity constant retreats from the outside world the
deception of members a relentless focus on recruitment and raising money) rather than
what they believe that qualifies them to be regarded as cults (Singer &Lalich, 1995). It
would therefore appear that social psychological research which explores group dynamics,
attribution theory, prejudice formation, and stereotyping processes can shed much light on
how extremist belief systems find an organizational expression in high activity groups that
might properly be understood as cults. Hence we may be better positioned to understand
how extremist belief systems often march hand in hand with totalistic forms of organization.
The Armageddon Paradigm
We pay particular attention in this study to what we call ―The Armageddon Paradigm.‖
Originating in the Judeo-Christian tradition, this view has spawned religious cults like the
People‘s Temple (Layton, 1998) the Branch Davidians (Breault and King, 1993), and, most
recently, Aum Shinrikyo (Lifton, 1999). Scores of groups have been identified that adopt
what can be defined as a millennial perspective of imminent doom (see Landes, 2000). All
of them proclaim that The End Time is upon us. This means that most of the world‘s
population will be annihilated, with the exception of the chosen few. On the far left, also,
capitalism is claimed to be in crisis, revolution is imminent, and the elite presently organized
into a vanguard party will soon triumph (see Lalich, 1992 Wohlforth, 1994 and Tourish,
1998, for fuller accounts of this approach). The far right has now adopted its own version of
the Armageddon Paradigm. As Cox (1998) has noted, its cataclysmic reading of the
problems thrown up by modern capitalism can be read as almost Marxist like in their
implications. However, whereas leftists anticipate Armageddon in terms of class insurrection
and warfare, rightists see the End Time in terms of race war, and depict whites (or Aryans)
as the chosen survivors of a racial conflagration.
The Armageddon Paradigm isolates its adherents from the damned mass of humanity, gives
a sense of urgency to their activities, leads to increasing paranoia, and justifies any course
of action its leaders propose. These are fruitful conditions for the emergence of cultic
organizations.
Christian Identity, which forms the theoretical foundation for the approach of many on the
far right, is convinced that Armageddon is imminent, maintains intense suspiciousness
toward all those deemed different, and holds to a belief that a Chosen People have a God-
given role to play in salvaging the world. Survivalism, high levels of activity, internal
gatherings from which outsiders are excluded but in which emotionally charged rituals
reinforce the belief systemthese behaviors, and others, flow naturally from this belief
system. Both the ideology of Christian Identity and the actions to which it gives rise are
immune from the influence of facts, alternative and more credible explanations, and the
possibility of growth and change through experience. A cultic analysis can therefore enrich
our understanding of this important phenomenon.
The Growth of the Right
Within the United States, the politics of hate is currently a major growth industry. According
to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Internet housed one hate site at the time of the
Oklahoma bombing in 1995 (Hunt, 1999). By the end of the century, this had risen to 2000.
Some of these were aimed at children under ten. Nor have organizations possessed by
notions of racial superiority merely confined their activities to cyberspace. The Southern
Poverty Law Center has calculated that the total of hate groups within the US is 537, and
growing. Between them, these groups claimed 200,000 members (MSNBC News Release,
1999). The number of neo-Nazi and KKK groups rose by 40% in one year, to 314 (Preston,
1999). Militia groups have also mushroomed, and are reckoned to be active in at least 36
states (Stern, 1996). In passing, it should be noted that the growth of hate is not confined
to the United States. For example, during the late 1990s, Australia saw a large if temporary

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 18
growth in a party known as ―One Nation,‖ which displayed semi-fascistic undertones in its
propaganda. It also concentrated all power in the hands of its revered leader, Pauline
Hanson, and barred its claimed 300 branches from communicating directly with each other
(Tourish and Wohlforth, 2000). It won 22.67% of the vote in its first electoral outing in the
state of Queensland (Greason, 1998).
Within the American militias the dominant mood is one of fear, paranoia, contempt for
difference, a conviction that Armageddon is imminent, and an absolute determination to
achieve wider influence. One report into their activities summarized their belief system in
these terms:
Some speak of government plans to shepherd dissidents into 43
concentration camps ...Some claim that the government plans to murder
more than three-quarters of the American people ...that Hong Kong
policemen and Gurkha troops are training in the Montana wilderness in order
to ―take guns away from Americans‖ on orders of the Clinton administration
that UN equipment is being transported on huge trains and that Russian and
German trucks are being shipped to attack Americans ...that House Speaker
Newt Gringrich is part of a ―global conspiracy‖ to create one-government
New World Order‖ (Cited in Stern, 1996, p.15).
Many of the militia groups, and other supremacist organizations, trace their belief system to
the theology of Christian Identity. In this philosophy, Jews, blacks, gays, and all identifiable
minority groups are depicted as the champions of a devilish conspiracy against a pure,
Christian, and white way of life. Consequently, catastrophe can only be averted by racial
separation achieved through conflict. One of the movement‘s best known and most
vociferous proponents, William Pierce, expounds this position in an article published on his
website:
Certainly, there may be bloody chaos if we resist the Jews and their
collaborators. And we should not flinch from this. We should not focus on the
fact that it will be horrible and bloody, but on the fact that it will be
necessary, and because it is necessary it is good (Cited by Etchingham,
2000, p.4).
The theology of Christian Identity acts as a theoretical and emotional justification for the
activities of the many white supremacist cults now active within the United States. Such is
its imagined explanatory power that they are drawn to it, just as a moth is attracted to the
brightest light in a room. Understanding where it comes from is a vital step in grasping the
mindsets of those organising to deliver white supremacy in America. It also helps explain
the sense of passionate commitment and invincible conviction held by many of its
supportersemotions that lend themselves perfectly to cultic forms of organization.
Identity Theology, Paramilitarism, and Politics
Identity theology is dangerous precisely because it necessarily seeks an organized
expression in the form of high activity groups that share many of the characteristics
commonly found in cults. The movement‘s eschatological credo provides paramilitary and
survivalist groups with an ultimate justification for their existence and an inexhaustible fuel
for their over-arching sense of self-importance. Accordingly, many Identity believers have
embraced self-sufficient survivalist communities that eschew the larger societies. The term
―survivalism‖ describes a life-style of physical withdrawal and self-sufficiency geared to
surviving some imagined future catastrophe. Survivalist writer Kurt Saxon has said that a
survivalist is ―one who anticipates the collapse of civilization and wants to save himself and
his loved ones and bring something to the movement, if you would, which will contribute to
the advance of the next generation‖ (Cited by Tourish &Wohlforth, 2000, p.48).