
By: R. Murray-o'hair
Re: Militia Movements

"MILITIA MOVEMENT" HAS SELECTIVE VIEW OF FREEDOM

Despite Media Claims That They Oppose Government,  Militias Aren't
Active in Civil Liberties Struggle

by Conrad F. Goeringer


   With the arrests of two men linked to the shadowy world of right-wing
survivalist "militias," the media is scrambling for information about
groups and individuals who may give insight into the Oklahoma City
bombing.  Most people -- and much of the news media -- have little
understanding of this movement.  And this may account for some of the
headlines which portray the militias, and related organizations, as
movements rallying to defend freedom.

   As for the militias, despite the anti-government rhetoric, their
notion of exactly what constitutes freedom is limited.  Militias have not
been active in the overall right for civil liberties; they speak out only
on select issues such as gun control and the Brady Bill, or the
government action at Waco.

   Most of the militia groups throughout the country oppose gun control,
which they view as part of an elaborate plan to institute a police state
and one-world government.  Most take an initiation oath to the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  The Michigan Militia, which has
been linked to at least one of the suspects in the Oklahoma City blast,
is organized in nine states, and claims more than 12,000 members called
Wolverines. According to the Associated Press, they cite as examples of
government tyranny waiting periods on gun purchases, and the death of
David Koresh and his followers two years ago in a shootout with federal
agents in Waco, Texas.

   The group holds regular paramilitary drills, anticipating the day
when the United Nations and other agencies will attempt to confiscate
weapons.

   According to those who have monitored the militia movement, groups
such as this are used as a recruiting ground by more extreme
organizations such as the Aryan Nations.

   Despite the fear of government authority, however, the militias and
their allies remain strangely quiet on many issues of concern to civil
libertarians.  And while they distrust the federal government, some
militias and groups like the Posse Comitatus believe in a LOCAL
governmental authority presided over by the county sheriff.

   Civil liberties advocates generally agree that most violations of
individual rights take place due to the actions of city and state
governmental units.  They cite censorship laws, "blue" ordinances,
police roadblocks, loyalty oaths and other "nuisance" laws which are
often ruled unconstitutional by district or higher courts.  Organizations
concerned with civil liberties are often busiest at the local level.
Sometimes the best chance of protecting individual rights means taking
cases into federal jurisdiction.

   Interviews with neighbors and friends of Timothy McVeigh, one of the
Oklahoma bombing suspects, reveal a good deal of unspecific rhetoric
about government violation of personal freedoms.  One militia sympathizer
complained on CNN that "government has lost the trust of the people" and
was "violating our Bill of Rights" -- but didn't give any specifics.

            Religious Roots of Survivalist Right Movements

   Many militia members and related groups embrace a political philosophy
shaped by a bizarre religious creed that is known as "Christian
Identity."  The roots of the "Identity" movement go back to the "old
right" isolationist movements in pre-World War II American history.  But
unlike the "America First" sentiments of prominent citizens like Charles
Lindberg, groups and individuals who later crafted the Identity
eschatology saw world history as a struggle between Christians and a
Jewish conspiracy controlled by Satan.  By the 1980 s, Identity had
concocted an elaborate belief system, wherein Jews, Blacks and other
groups were a separate race created by the devil, intent on destroying
the biological integrity of the "White race" through intermarriage,
integration and other means.  The Federal Reserve, United Nations and the
Federal government structure were tools of  Jewish race-mixing
cabalists.

   Adopting the doomsday apocalypticism of Bible fundamentalists, the
Identity movement anticipates the events described in the Book of
Revelations, seeing it as the "showdown" between good and evil.

   The view of the Christian Identity, and of groups or individuals
influenced by the movement, is strongly shaped by a peculiar religious
foundation.  Identity theology holds that in Genesis, Eve had
intercourse with a manifestation of Satan in the form of an ape-link
beast, producing the biological ancestors of Blacks and Jews.  This
"demonization" of social enemies goes even further; the enemy will be
vanquished in a cataclysmic racial war that will unfold in the American
heartland, before the establishment of a "White bastion."

   Other survivalists don't go this far, though, in predicting future
events.  Like Identity followers, they accept the need for some kind of
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