The White Report

Religion has been used for thousands of years to mask hate and prejudice. ”Spirituality” still serves as a convenient excuse for violence and other forms of antisocial behavior. All that is needed is a little false piety; coupled with liberal doses of self-induced ignorance and blind devotion to ”the truth.” Even the most loathsome attitudes and barbarous acts can then be attributed to ‘’serving God.”

This holds especially true for believers in Christian Identity (also simply referred to as Identity), a twentieth-century amalgation of racism and pseudo-Christian ideas. It is a complex doctrinal system that emerged in the 1940s and reached theological maturity by the 1970s throughout the rural areas ”of the West and South - such as the Ozarks, and mountain areas of the Pacific Northwest.” According to J. Gordon Melton, a nationally recognized chronicler of religions in America, ”Identity is a religion by sociopaths, for sociopaths. It turns their sickness into virtue.”

Identity now claims approximately 20,000 to 30,000 adherents nationwided. It is not a religious sect. Neither is it an authoritarian cult, nor a mainstream denomination. It has no single leaders and is not governed by a core of spiritually elite individuals. It does not even have a definitive set of beliefs that a peson must embrace in order to be accepted as a follower. Identity is a social, political, and spiritual movement composed of religiously inclined racists from the ranks of the neo-Nazi community, the KKK and other white supremacist organizations. 

Although their views may differ on a few peripheral issues - e.g., whether or not Hitler should be idolized, what should be done with non-whites (exportation vs. extermination), the merits of violent action as opposed to the benefits of nonviolent political activism, etc. - most Identity believers agree on five basic premises: 

• White people (Aryans) are the Israelites of the Old Testament.
• The Jews are literal descendants of Satan.
• Adam and Eve were not, as mainstream Christianity teaches, the first people. They were the first white people.
• All non-Whites (blacks, Asians, Middle Easteners, etc.) are descendants of pre-Adamic races and make up an entirely different species than Caucasians.
• Armageddon, which be will a race war between whites and non-whites, is fast approaching. 

Attempting to paint an easily recognizable picture of Identity’s disjointed network of independent churches and self-styled leaders is extremely difficult. ”Rivalries among leaders, organizational splits, and the extinction of old and the creation of new groups all make the ‘mapping’ of Identity a frustrating undertaking.” 

Nevertheless, its dangerous tenets and increasing popularity suggest that the public should be given at least a general overview of Identity doctrines and structure. 

Moreover, many Christian Identity leaders and followers are closely affiliated with patriot movement groups and various militia spokespersons.