FALSE WITH GOD CHRISTIAN IDENTITY MOVEMENT TWISTS BIBLE OF LOVE INTO

Throughout the centuries, Scripture has been cited to justify everything from owning slaves to opposing anesthesia for women in childbirth.

Today one of the most violent uses of Scripture occurs in the rhetoric of Christian Identity groups as justification for racism, anti-Semitism and civil war.

One of the Montana freemen leaders, Dale Jacobi, mixed religious and racist language to describe his group's objectives. "It is a race war," he said before the stand-off with the FBI began last month. "It is a spiritual war between Satan's seed, Satan's children and God's children."

This use of religious language is catching the attention of religious studies professors at mainstream colleges and universities.

Linda Schearing, a biblical scholar at Gonzaga University, will present a paper at a conference in November on the Christian Identity movement's use of the book of Genesis.

She believes biblical scholars have an ethical imperative to be aware of these uses of scripture.

"For me, the Bible is a source of power," Schearing says. "Anything that's powerful can be either used or abused. I'm very sensitive to the ways the Bible is appropriated that would harm what I see as its life-giving properties."

John Helgeland, a religion professor at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., is planning a book on the apocalyptic religious vision underlying America's militia movement.

"I would say it's unbiblical," Helgeland said. "It focuses on certain parts of the Bible and ignores the basic themes of Scripture.

"I can't see coming away from the Bible and saying justice is not big and that love and forgiveness are not at the top of the list. If you miss that, you miss most of the Bible."

For Christians who don't delve deeply into obscure Bible passages, those cited by white supremacists are often unfamiliar, and in stark contrast to the most significant themes of the New Testament gospels.

Terry McGonigal, associate professor of religion at Whitworth College, says the oft-quoted passage, John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" - is the most important message.

"Christ came to bring salvation to people of all races, of all tongues, of all tribes," McGonigal says.

In newsletters, statements to the media and Internet on-line services, Christian Identity groups list a number of basic tenets:

The creation stories of Genesis are cited to justify a theory that a sexual relationship between Eve and the serpent from the Garden of Eden conceived Eve's son Cain. The descendants of Cain, the Canaanites, are often treated as adversaries in the Old Testament, and Christian Identity groups portray this group as somehow subhuman, and the forerunners of today's Jews.

Mainstream scholars say evidence for this theory simply does not exist in the text. There is no reason to believe that the serpent was in fact a man, that Eve and the serpent had a sexual relationship, or that the book even concerns itself with the question of race.

Furthermore, most mainstream scholars see Genesis as mythic, not literal, history.

After King Solomon's death, ancient Israel was split into two countries, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. In 722 B.C. the Assyrians captured the capital of Israel and the people of the north were assimilated into nearby Assyria (II Kings 17).

Christian Identity groups believe that these people of north Israel moved to northern Europe and became the Aryan race, which they call the "true Israelites." This belief causes these groups to be certain that God's Old Testament promises to the Israelites were actually intended for white northern Europeans.

Mainstream biblical scholars say that nowhere in the Bible is this theory mentioned or justified. They say that in fact the people of the northern country were simply assimilated into Assyrian culture.

A white supremacist group calls itself the Phineas Priesthood after a character named Phinehas in Numbers 25. Phinehas killed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman who were engaged in a sexual relationship. Christian Identity believers have turned Phinehas into a white supremacist hero, claiming the couple was of mixed race.

Many biblical scholars interpret that passage differently. They disagree that the focus of the story is on race. Rather, they see it as a caution against theological and cultural intermarriage. The God of the Old Testament did not want Israelites to marry people from cultures who worshiped other gods.

The violent, apocalyptic vision of the New Testament book of Revelation is used by Christian Identity followers to predict an impending race war.

Mainstream scholars interpret the book of Revelation as a series of writings which referred to persecution of early Christians by the Romans. In chapter 5, verse 9, the book paints a picture of diversity. It states that the Kingdom of God will be made up of people of "every tribe and language and people and nation." A similar image appears in Revelation 7:9.

Furthermore, in Revelation it is God, not humans, who is the judge of other human beings.

For Schearing at Gonzaga, the stories of the Bible have a divine component, an ability to change lives and empower readers throughout the centuries.

She finds Christian Identity teachings an abuse, not a proper use of the Bible.

"It points out how the text can be absolutely misread in a really frightening way," she says.

Schearing and Helgeland agree that the Christian Identity religious vision should be taken seriously.

Some of Schearing's students at Gonzaga have been former members of Christian Identity groups, or have had friends or family members with those ties. Helgeland finds militia members attend his lectures.

Helgeland is convinced that the Christian Identity ideology has developed because the people behind the movement have been marginalized by our culture. Like similar groups, such as people living in the inner cities, they lack the educational and economic advantages that could bring them an authentic sense of power in the world.

"The first thing we have to understand about these people is that they're not mentally ill," Helgeland says. "The mainstream writes them off as sick. That accentuates their anger.

"What makes them look paranoid is that they live in a different world, a world their religion constructs."

Most of the bloodiest wars throughout human history have been fought by people with a burning religious view, he says.

Helgeland believes government and law enforcement confronting fringe groups err by consulting only sociologists, psychologists and criminologists. Experts in religion should also be consulted, to help law enforcement better deal with situations such as Waco and Ruby Ridge.

The people behind the Christian Identity movement must be treated with justice and fairness, love and forgiveness, important biblical principles, Helgeland says.

While the violence and unrest in this country appear to be worsening, and the anger of these groups seems to be growing, Helgeland does not rule out hope.

"That's always the surprise in religion," Helgeland says. "You always have reason to hope. And hope is often against the evidence."

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
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