ABSTRACT
(Copyright © 1993 Taylor & Francis Group. This chapter was first published in Terrorism and Political Violence 5, no. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 30–82. Reprinted with permission of the publisher)
Rebellion is a sin of sorcery, presumption a crime of idolatry!
(1 Samuel 15:23)As a private citizen, you have a responsibility to protest sin and put down evil by working in cooperation with the proper authorities in the home, church and state. You do not have the Scriptural authority to … wield the sword of vengeance. 1
(Pastor Dan Gayman, 1991) It is popularly believed that the millenarian Christian Identity theology movement in the United States is inextricably associated with revolutionary violence. This article examines the Church of Israel, an important center of Identity theology, to determine whether or not that popular impression is consistent with the facts in this case and with the Identity movement as a whole. It differentiates among the competing appeals of the far right wing offering taxonomies of organization types and ideological appeals. The conclusion is that while Christian Identity theology represents a revolution within the religious tradition, its adherents have rarely resorted to revolutionary violence, following a pattern familiar to earlier millennial movements in which the dominant motif was partial withdrawal from society punctuated by unusual and exceedingly short outbursts of violence.