Archive/File: orgs/american/christian.identity chr-iden.02
Last-Modified: 1993/11/02

THE BOSTON GLOBE, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, 1992

                WHITE CHRISTIANITY ESPOUSED BY GROUP

JDL disrupts Mansfield meeting; members embrace anti-Jewish code

By James L. Franklin, Globe Staff
---------------------------------

MANSFIELD - In a rented assembly hall at a campground here recently, a
handful of believers with a plain-brown-wrapper of a name began what was
organized as a day of prayer, education and companionship.

Before two hours elapsed, the meeting of New England Concerned Christians
collapsed in shouting and confusion, with the handful of participants and a
smaller group of protesters from the Jewish Defense League, who entered the
meeting late, calling each other haters and Nazis.

The confusion afforded a look at a secretive group that promotes exclusive
white Christianity. Critics say that small groups like Concerned Christians
are active on the East Coast, propagating the loose-knit Christian Identity
Movement.

Groups like this "represent only a small fraction of the people of our
country, but their voices are strident and divisive and their activities
often hurtful beyond the expectation of their small numbers," says a
handbook on such groups published by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith.

Increased public awareness, watchfulness by law enforcement, and
dissemination of information about groups like Christian Identity are
essential to "foster a national consensus that extremism will be rejected,"
the ADL contends.

In the Western states, Identity includes groups like the Aryan Nation and
The Order, whose members have been charged with bombings, assaults and
murder. Both outside critics and participants at the NECC meeting describe
Randall Weaver, an Idaho man charged with the fatal shooting Aug. 21 of
Deputy US Marshal William Degan of Quincy, as a proponent of Identity ideas.

Only a small, hand-lettered sign outside identified the 15 persons attending
the seesion as New England Concerned Citizens, and the leader, Richard
Messenger of Upton, reluctantly allowed a reporter to attend what he said
was a private meeting.

In a statement of belief he read at the meeting, Messenger said he wanted
"to establish a loosely knit tie to Christians with similar beliefs `for the
Glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian Faith,'" qutoing the
Mayflower Compact signed by the Pilgrims on their voyage to Massachusetts.

Part of his statement outlines conservative Protestant beliefs about the
truth of the Bible and Christian doctrine, with an overlay of patriotic
conviction about the importance of the United States. But other parts of the
NECC creed clearly show the link between NECC and the ideas of Christian
Identity.

"I believe that an honest examination of the Bible and history shows that
only the Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, Germanic and kindred nations are the
only people who show forth the fruits of Christ in the earth," asserts a
section of the creed he did not read that morning. "I believe that the
people commonly called Jews are, for the most part, not God's covenant
Israel, for by their fruits ye shall know them."

With an audience of 15, including three young children, Messenger began by
showing a videotape of the late Rev. Sheldon Emery of Phoenix, a preacher
who until his death in 1986 propagated Christian Identity through his
"America's Promise" radio program, conferences, videotapes and the Lord's
Covenant Church in Phoenix, a congregation he founded.

"The white European race" is the author of "every invention and discovery
that has improved man's existence on earth," Emery says in the tape. "Only
white Caucasians have claimed Jesus Christ as their God and taken to this
book [the Bible]. These are God's chosen people."

The meeting that morning never got to the even cruder racial and
anti-Semitic slurs often heard from Identity speakers, such as the claim
that the importation of African slaves to the American colonies resulted
from pressure on the British king by his Jewish bankers in Holland. Instead
there was impromptu prayer from Messenger and signing of hymns such as
"Onward Christian Soldiers."

As Messenger was about to play another videotape, five more persons arrived
and a shouting match erupted. The latecomers said they were members of the
Jewish Defense League, and their leader accused those present of backing
violent hate groups such as The Order and the Aryan Nation.

The result was a demand by the campground manager that everyone leave and
hurt feelings among the participants. "I didn't see that we did anything to
provoke them," complained a woman who came with her three young children.

"These people are trying to keep people away from learning the truth," said
a man in the group.

Michael Slomich of the JDL said later that his group disrupted the meeting,
because they had learned from a tipster that a reporter would attend and
because they recognized one of the men attending as a Ku Klux Klan leader
from New Hampshire "and we figured it was all over anyways."

Slomich insisted the disruption was justified because "they were showing
tapes of Jack Mohr and Pete Peters," two other Identity leaders. Although
neither Mohn nor Peters were ever charged in the case, Slomich asserted they
were morally responsible for the death of Alan Berg, a Denver talk show host
who was murdered in 1984 by assailants linked to the order.

One man who attended the NECC meeting agrred to talk, without giving his
name or any identifying personal information.

He describers a way of life that takes literally the idea that "Christian
America	" is the Israelite people, including following the dietary laws of
the Old Testament, and avoiding the sin of usury by shunning banks and
modern business methods, like paying employees by check rather than with
cash.

But he strongly objected to efforts by critics to treat everyone espousing
Identity ideas as if they were part of violent groups. "To try to control us
from the outside, they lump us together with people we don't associate
with," he said.

Hollis Mosher of Braintree, an amateur observer of extremist groups who also
attended the camp meeting, said NECC is typical of the work of Christian
Identity groups on the East Coast.

Like a short-lived New Hampshire grouop he also learned about through the
Spotlight - newspaper of the anti-Semitic, far-right Liberty Lobby -
Messenger and NECC have had a few meetings and made available tapes from
Identity leaders, Mosher said.

Messenger responded later that the NECC is not associated with the Aryan
Nation or The Order and "does not belive that the Bible justifies rascism
and does not advocate violence against other peoples in any fashion but
defense."

In the two years Mosher says he's monitored Messenger's activities, "I have
never heard them advocate violence."

"It's true they're not the same as The Order ... but there is no difference
in their mindset," said Mosher, who said he was going public finally
"because I'm getting too old to be running around after these people."

-30-

Ed. note: See also Boston's Jewish Advocate, Nov 13-19, 1992, for report on
same meeting. knm.

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