Editing Christian Identity (section)

==Origins==

===Relationship to British Israelism===
{{British Israelism sidebar|Offshoots}}
{{Main|British Israelism}}
The Christian Identity movement emerged in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s as an offshoot of [[British Israelism]].{{Sfnm|1a1=ADL|1y=2017|2a1=Barkun|2y=2014|2pp=xii–xiii}} Early British Israelites such as [[Edward Hine]] and [[John Wilson (historian)|John Wilson]] were [[Philosemitism|philosemites]].{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=xii}} The typical form of the British Israelite belief held that modern-day Jews were descended from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, while the British and other related Northern European peoples were descended from the other ten tribes.{{Sfn|Gardell|2002|p=165}}  Christian Identity emerged in sharp contrast to British Israelism as a strongly [[Antisemitism in Christianity|antisemitic theology]], and by the 1940s to 1970s, it was teaching that contemporary Jews were either descendants of [[Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry|Eurasian Khazars]] or literal descendants of [[Satan]].{{Sfnm|1a1=Barkun|1y=2014|1p=xii|2a1=Gardell|2y=2002|2p=165}}

===Early influences===
British Israelism can be traced back to Great Britain in the 1600s, but in terms of its relationship to Christian Identity, a key text was ''Lectures on Our Israelitish Origin'' by John Wilson (1840).{{Sfn|Davis|2010|p=11}} Wilson was the first to formalize a distinction between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. Although Wilson's views were not originally antisemitic, they came to have great significance for modern Christian Identity adherents who believe that the northern tribes were carried off by the Assyrians and remained racially pure as they migrated into modern Europe, while the southern kingdom eventually became allied with Satan.{{Sfn|Davis|2010|p=11}}

In the 1920s, the writings of [[Howard Rand]] (1889–1991) began to have an influence.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=27}} Considered a transitional figure from British Israelism to Christian Identity rather than its actual founder,{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=30}} Rand is known for coining the term "Christian Identity".{{Sfn|Davis|2010|p=18}} Rand's father raised him as a British Israelite, introducing him to [[J. H. Allen]]'s work ''Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright'' (1902) by offering him five dollars {{USDCY|5.00|1920}}{{void|Fabrickator|comment|no precise date but presumably not later than 1924}} if he would read it and write a report on it.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=29}} Around 1924, Rand began to claim that the Jews are descended from [[Esau]] or the [[Canaanites]] rather than the tribe of Judah, although not going so far as to advocate the "serpent seed" doctrine.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|pp=45–54}}

During the late 1920s, Anglo-Israelite writers began to compile research from 19th century writers [[Dominick McCausland]], [[Alexander Winchell]], and [[Ethel Bristowe]], using them to develop five basic beliefs that would become the core tenets of Christian Identity doctrine. These were that Adamites represented Aryans as the chosen, that [[person of color|nonwhites]] were tainted through race-mixing, that the serpent in the story of the Fall was not a reptile, but the Devil himself, that the [[Serpent seed|seedline of Cain]] came through a union of Satan (the serpent) and Eve, and that the Jews were descended from this unholy line and thus had a natural propensity for evil.{{Sfn|Davis|2010|pp=17–18}}

In 1933, Rand founded the [[Anglo-Saxon Federation of America]], an organization which began to promote the view that the Jews are not descended from Judah. Beginning in May 1937, there were key meetings of British Israelites in the United States who were attracted to this theory, and these meetings provided the catalyst for the eventual emergence of Christian Identity. By the late 1930s, the group's members considered Jews to be the offspring of Satan and [[Demonization|demonized]] them, and they also demonized non-Caucasian races.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=140}} Rand, however, rejected the satanic origin theories. This doctrine came to confirm the explicit separation between British-Israelism and Christian Identity.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=174}}

Links between Christian Identity and the [[Ku Klux Klan]] were also forged in the late 1930s, but by then, the KKK was past the peak of its early twentieth-century revival.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|pp=60–85}}

===Emergence as a separate movement===
Christian Identity began to emerge as a separate movement in the 1940s, primarily over issues of racism and antisemitism rather than over issues of [[Christian theology]].{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|p=59}} [[Wesley A. Swift|Wesley Swift]] (1913–1970) is considered the father of the movement; so much so that every Anti-Defamation League publication which addresses Christian Identity mentions him.{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|p=296}} Swift was a minister in the [[Angelus Temple]] [[Foursquare Church]] during the 1930s and 1940s before he founded his own church in [[Lancaster, California|Lancaster]], California and named it the Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation, reflecting the influence of Howard Rand.{{Sfnm|1a1=Kaplan|1p=296|1y=2000|2a1=Barkun|2p=61|2y=2014}} In the 1950s, he was [[Gerald L. K. Smith]]'s West Coast representative of the [[Christian Nationalist Crusade]]. In addition, he hosted a daily [[radio program|radio broadcast]] in California during the 1950s and 1960s, through which he was able to proclaim his ideology to a large audience. Due to Swift's efforts, the message of his church spread, leading to the founding of similar churches throughout the country.

Eventually, the name of his church was changed to the [[Church of Jesus Christ–Christian]], today this name is used by [[Aryan Nations]].{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|p=59}} One of Swift's associates was retired Col. [[William Potter Gale]] (1917–1988). Gale became a leading figure in the [[Tax protester (United States)|anti-tax]] and [[paramilitary]] movements of the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the California Rangers and the [[Posse Comitatus (organization)|Posse Comitatus]], and he also helped found the [[American militia movement]].{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|pp=115–116}}

The future Aryan Nations founder [[Richard Butler (white supremacist)|Richard Girnt Butler]], who was an admirer of [[Adolf Hitler]] and Wisconsin Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], was introduced to Wesley Swift by William Potter Gale in 1962.{{Sfn|Levitas|2002|p=110}} Swift quickly converted Butler to Christian Identity. When Swift died in 1971, Butler fought against Gale, James Warner, and Swift's widow for control of the church. Butler eventually gained control of the organization and moved it from California to [[Hayden Lake, Idaho]] in 1973.{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|p=298}}

Lesser figures participated as Christian Identity theology took shape in the 1940s and 1950s, such as [[San Jacinto Capt]], a [[Baptist]] minister and California Klansman, who claimed that he had introduced Wesley Swift to Christian Identity;{{Sfn|Seymour|1991|p=85}} and [[Bertrand Comparet]] (1901–1983), a one-time [[San Diego]] Deputy City Attorney and associate of Gerald L. K. Smith.{{Sfn|Levitas|2002|p=27}} Later Identity figures of the 1970s and 1980s include [[Sheldon Emry]], [[Thomas Robb (Ku Klux Klan)|Thomas Robb]], and [[LaPorte Church of Christ|Peter J. Peters]].{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|pp=13, 259, 240}}

The Christian Identity movement first received widespread attention from the mainstream media in 1984, when [[The Order (white supremacist group)|The Order]], a [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] terrorist group, embarked on a murderous crime spree before it was suppressed by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]. The movement returned to public attention in 1992 and 1993, in the wake of the deadly [[Ruby Ridge]] confrontation, when newspapers discovered that [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] separatist [[Randy Weaver]] had a loose association with Christian Identity believers.{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|pp=176–177}}

These groups are estimated to have two thousand members in the United States and an unknown number of members in Canada and the rest of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]]. Due to the promotion of Christian Identity doctrines through radio and later through the Internet, an additional fifty thousand unaffiliated individuals are thought to hold Christian Identity beliefs.{{Sfn|Barkun|2014|p=x}}

While most of the Identity groups of the 1960s and 1970s relied on mailing lists, publications, and cassette recordings to disseminate their teachings, later figures promoted their ministries using radio and television.{{Sfn|Kaplan|2000|p=52}} Pete Peters and his ''Scriptures for America'' program was considered to be one of the largest white supremacist radio ministries in the United States.{{Sfn|Burlein|2002|p=21}} Additionally, Peters was an early pioneer in promoting Identity via the Internet.{{Sfn|Burlein|2002|p=37}} Today, Christian Identity is promoted through the Internet by using blogs, podcasts, and other means. The most prominent Identity teacher today is William Finck.{{Sfn|Han|Han|2022|p=131}}