After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:9 TNIV- from John on the Isle of Patmos.

While many across the nation gathered with family, friends, and community over the past several days to celebrate the nation’s independence on the 4th of July, there was another type of gathering in Lamar County Alabama. The third “Annual Pastors Conference” was held and “All White Christians” were invited.

While the event did receive some media attention, it could easily have gone unmentioned and unnoticed. Note, this was the “third” annual gathering. Had not the groups fliers been distributed in nearby Winfield, Alabama and caused appropriate consternation and concern in that community it might have passed without media attention. The community of Winfield repudiated the ideology and actions of the event’s planners.

The group holding the event is a part of the Christian Identity Movement. The “movement” has been around for many years and hold to a convoluted and flawed theology of whites as the “chosen people”. A spokesperson/organizer for the event, the Reverend William C. Collier (Church of God’s Chosen) affirms their white nationalist, white separatist and white supremacist ideology yet still claims that they are not a hate group.

The “Christian Identity Movement” also has an extremely violent history and has documented connections to anti-government militia groups. Further, many believers in the various groups within the Christian Identity Movement believe in an Armageddon that will be a racial holy war and some have committed violent acts of murder and terrorism in the hopes of sparking such a war. According to the flier, the conference was to end with a so-called “Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony”. Lets call it what it is, a “cross burning”.

It would be a mistake not to take note of these kinds of events that take place regularly in our society or to pass it off as some aberration that should not receive attention. However, it serves as a reminder that this is not a “post-racial” society. It also serves as an opportunity to note that hate groups have been on the rise rather than on the decrease in recent years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It would be a mistake to believe that these are fringe groups that exist primarily in the south. California leads the nation in hate groups, according to the SPLC hate map and Illinois is certainly has its share. While I applaud the SPLC efforts it would serve all of us well to be vigilant and aware of such groups and ideologies in our midst. In other words, we should keep our eyes on them and also know that they are keeping their eyes on us too.

I discovered this earlier in the year when I received messages from white supremacists at my Twitter account following my tweets regarding “Slavery By Another Name”. A quick look into the background of those who sent me the messages revealed an intricate web of white nationalist and racist individuals, organizations connected through social media.

However, we should not be intimidated by their threats nor hoodwinked by their claims of religious liberty. Their belief system, if it can be called that, run counter to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision of John from the Isle of Patmos contrasts their world view.  This is their worst nightmare- countless numbers of every nation, tribe, people and language who realize that there is a God and that they are not God, who know that race is a social construct and that we ALL have been created in the image and likeness of God. When an ideology or faith proclaims that others are “beasts of the field” and not children of God they reject the very God that created us ALL.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom,

Chris Pierson