Aryan Nations

History

The theological background of Christian Identity has its origins in British Israelism, a movement that grew to some prominence in the late 19th century. According to British Israelism, nations with their genesis in Great Britain are descendants of the biblical Twelve Tribes of Israel. As a result, when adherents to this philosophy read scriptural prophecies concerning the Jews, they interpret them as references to themselves. Christian Identity took an anti-Semitic turn by introducing the “two seed theory.” In short, the theory claims that modern Jewish peoples are descended from Satan. Coupling these theological ideas with anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, the Aryan Nations subscribe to a belief that the world's governments are controlled by a Satanic “Zionist” cabal.

Christian Identity is also a millenarian movement with a belief that the apocalypse would be brought about in the wake of a dramatic race war between descendants of Adam (the white race) and descendants of Satan (Jewish people). The Aryan Nations saw themselves as responsible for preparing for this coming conflict. As a result, the movement promoted survivalist training, and its compound was host to paramilitary drilling. In the meantime, the Aryan Nations envisioned an independent white supremacist homeland in the Pacific Northwest. Butler encouraged his sympathizers to relocate to the region.

The Aryan Nations focused on outreach. They established a mail-order service distributing tracts and cassette tapes of sermons to interested parties. Most importantly, the Aryan Nations held an annual meeting at Hayden Lake inviting all of like mind-set to spend the weekend for the Aryan Nations’ World Congress. At other times of the year, white supremacists, including youths, gathered to Hayden Lake as a pilgrimage to visit Butler and the movement's headquarters. Hayden Lake would serve as an ideal location for paramilitary training and other festivities in relative private. The Aryan Nations also devoted their energies to distributing their ideas throughout the nations’ prisons. This led to an increase of membership, but may have also directly influenced the creation of the Aryan Brotherhood, one of the most violent white supremacist prison gangs.

Militant rhetoric predicting a future apocalyptic “race war” was common under Richard Butler, but it was not until a new group emerged from Aryan Nations’ members that actual violence was perpetrated by members of the movement. In 1983, Robert Jay Matthews, a member of the Aryan Nations, was inspired by reading The Turner Diaries, a Christian Identity novel depicting the coming of a “Second American Revolution” and subsequently organized a group of antigovernment revolutionaries known as the Order. The Order would be responsible for various armed robberies, counterfeiting, bank heists, as well as the murder of Alan Berg, a Jewish radio show host. In the coming year, members of the Order were convicted on a variety of charges. On December 8, 1984, Robert Jay Matthews died in a shootout with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Washington state.

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