Radical religion in America

the long version

Jeffrey Kaplan takes a provocative look at three religiously based apocalyptic movements, their radical doctrines, and their rejection of mainstream American culture: the Christian Identity, whose members believe they are the true Aryan descendants of Israeli biblical tribes; Odinism and the related Asatru movement, which attempts to reconstruct the practices of Norse-Germanic paganism; and B'nai Noah, the anti-Christian movements in favor of God's covenant with Noah. Kaplan describes how the groups interact, probes the internal organizational friction, and shows how watchdog groups like the Anti-Defamation League, Klanwatch, and Cult Awareness Network monitor these groups' activities. He argues that violence takes several forms, which at its apex may culminate in millenarian violence, but maintains that right-wing violence is primarily an impulsive act carried out by part-time revolutionaries against convenient targets or against that which represents change in the status quo. Thought-provoking in his analysis, Kaplan defines the primary issue for current debate: how sectarian organizations, far outside the mainstream of American religious life, pose a significant challenge to prevailing conceptions of constitutional rights. He contends that the cost of denying such protection to even the most antagonistic and despised groups is, in the end, too high a price for a free society to pay.