Christian Militias

In late March, 2010, a three-state sweep netted the arrest of nine members of a Michigan based militia self-named "Hutaree". According to arrest warrants, the group was planning to kill a law enforcement and, when other officers were attending his/her funeral, detonate home-made bombs that would kill dozens more. The groups website claims that "Hutaree" means "Christian warrior" and that the group is preparing for the end times so that it can "keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive."

Now, I don't know about you, but I feel so much better after the fiancee of one of those arrested assured us that, "[t]hey're not doing anything wrong. They're doing what they want to do.[...]If they wanted to do something, they would have done it already." Doesn't that just warm your heart? She's not saying the would never do something like that— only that if they were going to do it, they'd have already done it. Which makes absolutely no logical sense because you can't already do what you're planning to do. But it does serve to illustrate a sad fact: many of those drawn to follow these kinds of "leaders" are often somewhat lacking in the intelligence department. The "leaders" on the other hand are often geniuses, charismatic and a bit "tetched". However, upon careful review of their website, the sport links to a band who believes that the Holocaust is a myth, to a group who tracks "Christian martyrs", to their own forum where they have a whole discussion on the "evil Jew" and a page devoted to the mark of the Beast and "disproving" the concept of the pre-tribulation rapture, this group seems to earn its label as "extremists".

The fact that so many of these groups have sprouted up since the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States indicates that such groups have their roots in prejudice and discrimination and bigotry and hate. And when you look at the pictures of the kids of this David Stone, leader of the Hutaree militia, you see two young men who look like most young men. And it's so sad that their hearts are filled with hatred and violence and anger at anything non-white, straight and Christian.

These groups are, make no bones about it, homegrown terrorists. Like Timothy McVeigh and Joe Stack (who flew his plane into the IRS building) and Scott Roeder and Paul Hill, these groups resort to physical violence and have no qualms about taking innocent lives to see their manifesto brought to fruition.

While there are many who refuse to call them Christian terrorists because no true follower of Christ would do such a thing, they themselves claim the title of Christian and no one else has the right to take that claim away from them. I, personally, do not think that James Dobson, Pat Robertson or Jimmy Swaggart are Christians as *I* would define a Christian. But tell that to the millions of people across this country and around the world who see those three (and others far worse) as leaders of the Christian movement. I don't consider George Bush or Dick Cheney a Christian either, but I'll bet they do! In the same vein, many of those who would choose not to use the term "Christian" terrorist are some of the same people who would quickly use the term "Islamic terrorist" for anyone of the Islamic faith who used terrorism as their weapon even if "mainstream" Islam decries their actions.

So Hutaree are Christian terrorists. They're not quite up to the same level as other Christian terrorist groups like Army of God. [NOTE: If you follow the link below to the Army of God homepage, you will have to change the URL. I typed in .con instead of .com because I don't want anyone unknowingly stumbling onto that page, especially if there are children in the room. The page is unabashedly anti-choice and has very graphic pictures of what it claims are aborted fetuses. So it is not a page for those with weak stomachs. View at your own risk.] But such groups are increasing dramatically and with the help of people like Sarah Palin and the Tea-Baggers who are spewing hatred and encouraging violence (what do you think would have happened if any one of us had put up pictures of sitting elected officials with targets superimposed on them?).

There are groups out there who are fighting the increased hatred by exposing them for what they are: the Southern Poverty Law Center, for example. But unfortunately, many of these groups are small and operate in almost total secrecy. And there are many that are "one man" operations like Joe Stack. The number of extremist groups listed by the SPLC are probably far below what actually exists. And make no bones about it, many of these groups have no compunction against taking the life of an innocent individual who got in their way. The best way to counter the hatred these groups thrive on is to teach our children tolerance and to espouse and embrace diversity. Or, put another way, to treat other people the way we want to be treated.