The Christian Identity Myth
Prepared for a Sunday School Department Discussion at Goodrich Memorial United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City
by Dr. Bruce Prescott
April 1999
1)
Creation --
the two creation accounts equal two creations of men.
a. Genesis 1 tells the creation of a pre-Adamic race (black).
b. Genesis 2 tells the creation of the Adamic race (white).
2)
Fall
– sexual in nature.
a. Eve had sex with Satan (the Serpent) and the offspring was Cain.
b. Eve had sex with Adam and the offspring was Abel.
Satan’s
Seed multiplies.
a. Cain slew Abel, was cursed and was banished.
b. Cain married a pre-Adamic woman (black).
c. The children of Cain (Eve/Satan) and his wife (black) are Satan’s Seed.
4)
Adam’s
Seed multiplies.
a. Adam and Eve have other children – Seth and other sons and daughters.
b. Adam’s descendants were blessed while Cain’s children were cursed.
5)
Satan’s
Plot.
a. From the beginning Satan conspired to steal God’s blessing for his seed.
b. Intermarriage between his seed (mixed races) and the seed of Adam (the pure white race) is how he plans to steal the blessing for his seed.
6)
The
Ten Lost Tribes (appropriation of British Israelism).
a. After King Solomon’s death the Northern Tribes of Israel separate from the Tribes of Judah and Levi. They are conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.
b. Remnants of these tribes escape to the Caucasius mountains where they maintain their racial purity and migrate to inhabit Western Europe, Britain and America.
c. This remnant is the pure seed of Adam (the white race).
7)
The
Fall of Judah.
a. The kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 589 BCE. They were taken into Babylonian captivity and resisted intermarriage.
b. A remnant returned to Palestine and were blessed until Christ was born. When the Jews rejected Christ, they were judged by God, conquered by the Romans and dispersed. They lost their purity due to intermarriage.
c. The Jews are no longer pure descendants of Adam, they are mongrels who have intermarried with the Seed of Satan. That makes them Satan’s seed. They are under God’s curse, not his blessing.
8)
Purifying
the Land – Holy war/Race war.
a. Pure white races are the seed of Adam and Abraham. All the blessings, birthrights and promises belong to them – particularly possession of the new promised land – the U.S. and Canada.
b. All mixed and mongrel races are the seed of Satan. (Blacks, Jews, Asians, Hispanics, etc -- they deny they are anti-semitic on the grounds that, in their view, whites are descendants of Noah’s son Shem).
c. The land must be purged and purified of all mixed and mongrel races in order to bring in God’s kingdom. They are not pre-millenialists or a-millenialists, they are post-millenialists. They don’t expect to be raptured and escape the tribulations of the end times. They expect to face the tribulations of war and famine and disease while purging and purifying the earth for Christ’s return.
d. Their eschatology is attractive to some survivalists, militia members, and Christian Reconstructionists.
Sources: Michael Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (University of North Carolina Press, Revised Edition, 1997). James Aho, The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism (University of Washington Press, 1990) and my own private conversations with people influenced by Christian Identity.
For a more recent treatment see Daniel Levitas, The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right (Thomas Dunne Books, 2002)