ABSTRACT
Many religious groups, by design, exist in high "tension" with their surrounding sociocultural environments. Notorious groups such as Appalachian serpent handlers, Westboro Baptist Church, the Branch Davidians, and instantiations of religio-racial hate groups such as the Christian Identity movement defy conventional society in a variety of ways. Within the broader concept of sectarianism, the manner in which a group retreats from or engages the outside world is distinguished. In many cases "sectarianism" and "fundamentalism" can be used interchangeably, and the extensive study of fundamentalisms has in many ways superseded the study of sectarianism. The final and most problematic category-from the standpoint of social control and civil order-is impositional fundamentalism. Violence within Christian Identity and far-right movements more generally can be categorized as rhetorical, defensive (e.g., creating militias), and revolutionary. In essence, "the world" is completely damned, and violence against it is justified as righteous.
