Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 21
WE BELIEVE that there is a battle being fought this day between the children
of darkness (today known as Jews) and the children of light (God), the Aryan
race, the true Israel of the Bible. (Cited by Barkun, 1994, p.189)
In part, this explains the fascination that so many on the far right display for the person of
Hitler. His photographs frequently adorn white supremacist sites on the Internet. Aryan
Nations is a fan club for Hitler, but one that seeks to move beyond homage and achieve the
enactment of his program in modern day America. Hence, Jews are not only demonized for
their alleged satanic origin. It is also argued that they are engaged in a tightly organized
and well-advanced conspiracy to take over the world. In some cases this conspiracy is
presented as having already come to fruition. The US Government is often referred to as
ZOG -the Zionist Occupation Government. Hate literature offers what its authors take to be
indisputable evidence for this assertion, such as long lists of Jews who have belonged to
President Clinton‘s cabinets. During his presidency, Clinton himself was frequently described
as ―President Klinton.‖
It follows that Jews routinely engage in inhuman practices. Aryan Nations produces a paper
entitled Calling Our Nation. It has regularly published accounts of Jews committing human
sacrifices as a normal part of their religious rituals.
Once such attitudes are acquired, those infected by them seek out evidence that supports
their belief system and ignore anything that suggests they might be mistaken. This practice
(of selective attention) is central to the maintenance of uncritical enthusiasm for all cultic
belief systems. It is also a cognitive defect that is widely shared and afflicts among many
people who would be appalled by the suggestion that they harbored racist ideas.
Researchers have found that most of us interpret minor differences between groups, such
as skin colour, as a barometer of much greater difference (Brown, 1995). It has also been
found that even those whites outside the Identity tradition, who observed or heard about a
solitary black person‘s negative attitudes, had their critical outgroup perceptions
strengthened (Henderson, 1996). In addition, they were more likely afterwards to avoid
contact with black people or minimize the duration of such contact when these proved
unavoidable. Furthermore, a single negative event involving a black person was sufficient to
lead participants into expressing in-group favoritism.
This may be partly because unusual events stand out in our memory, precisely because
they are unusual (Dawes, 1994). However, when an action out of the ordinary is performed
by a member of a minority group it stands out all the more both because the event is
unusual and because the source is a member of a minority group (Brown, 1995). The
Christian Identity milieu is clearly predisposed to highlight ―bad‖ behaviors on the part of
those who belong to the stigmatized out group, claim that it is typical of everyday behaviour
by all concerned, diminish instances of normal functioning by such people, and claim that
the exceptional events they highlight as typical constitute a terminal threat to the survival
of the white race.
Accordingly, those influenced by Identity theology now assume that the Jewish conspiracy
has assumed vast proportions. It involves the International Monetary Fund, the Federal
Reserve, the United Nations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS). Taxation is generally viewed as a threat to individual freedom. The primary aim of
the conspiracy is to erode white rights. Identity followers believe that gun control is nothing
more than a cunning ploy to render whites helpless in the face of the Zionist enemy.
Thus, in-group favoritism (e.g. ―American whites are the chosen people‖) is inexorably
combined with the stigmatization of out-groups (e.g., ―Jews and blacks are at best sub-
human‖). What others see as random or unrelated events are depicted as part of an orderly
conspiracy, directed with great cunning by the designated out-groups. The result is an
overwhelming sense of moral righteousness, persecution, isolation and contempt for

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 22
mainstream society. If all the institutions of the state are indeed as nefarious as is depicted,
then it also follows that elitist and high activity forms of organization are necessary for
salvation: nothing less than the future of humanity is at stake.
The End is Nigh...
The prospect of imminent catastrophe is a hard-to-beat, ultimate justification for zealous
proselytizing, commitment, and sacrifice in support of The Cause. It is therefore no surprise
that a strident belief in Armageddon, in one form or another, is common to all manner of
cults. In this case, Identity believers insist that a final conflict between the Aryan forces of
goodness and the Satanically inspired forces of darkness is imminent. The resultant sense of
urgency is a handy weapon in the struggle to enforce conformity, veneration of the idealized
leader, and intense levels of activity. Debate, doubt, and dissent are seen as luxuries for
more tranquil times than these. In this respect, Identity adherents excel even the sooth-
saying prophets of Marxism. Dan Gayman, of the Church of Israel, put it like this:
The fall of the American government is imminent. We are living already in
the preparatory throes of a national and world wide revolution ...as the
agents of Satan who head their world wide conspiracy of anti-Christ, plot and
plan the total demise of Christian civilization and of the white race ...A blood
bath will take place upon the soil of this great nation, that will end only in
victory for Christ or Satan. We of the Nordic race who believe in Jesus Christ
are determined that this nation will remain ours. (Cited by Barkun, 1994,
p.110)
Such expectations lend a frantic urgency to the hunt for out-groups who can be blamed for
every calamity that besets the modern world. Unemployment, poverty in the rural mid-
West, declining moral standards, and the reluctance of many to teach so-called creationist
science in schools are all taken as evidence of the Jewish conspiracy against Christian and
American values. As one publication puts it:
Jews are evil, anti-Christian, un-Christian, and in control of most of the
organized evil of the world, such as prostitution, international slavery,
international money-changing, profiteering on wars, racketeering in labor,
corruption in politics, modernism in religion, atheism in the school system,
promotion of lewd propaganda through theaters and picture shows etc.
(Cited by Bushart et al., 1998, p.143).
At the core of the Identity belief system lies the notion of imminent racial obliteration.
Identity believers want to relocate all minorities to about 10% of the US landmass, and
reserve the rest for white Christians. These must also be not gay, left wing, feminist, pro-
abortion, or multi-cultural in outlook. Difference, the spice of life, will give way to bland
uniformity. The landscape for all seasons is white, white, and more white. Dissent must bow
its head in submissive conformity.
The threat of violence is never far below the surface. It further promotes a sense of
imminent peril, and hence reinforces the members‘ allegiance to the primary in-group.
Ezekiel, a researcher, attended an Aryan National Congress in Northern Idaho, and has
produced a chilling account of the proceedings. Aryan Nations is one of the best-known
organizations on the far right, and its leaders have been heavily influenced by Identity
theology. Here is one speaker and the response of his audience (Ezekiel, 1995, p.42):
We must get rid of the Federal Reserve System and of the income tax. We
must repudiate the national debt. We must tell the people at the top: ―There
will be treason trials! You will be strung from the trees!”‟