October 2002

American Renaissance magazine
Vol. 13, No. 10 October 2002

CONTENTS

Nationalist Politics (Part II)
Working With the Christian Right
Christianity Turns Brown
Wichita Killers Go on Trial
O Tempora, O Mores!
Letters from Readers

COVER STORY

Nationalist Politics (Part II)

More lessons for white activists.

Part I, in the previous issue, argued that racialists must be prepared to be active in politics if they are serious about changing government policy. It outlined two strategies for change: working within the Republican Party, and establishing political action committees to promote our point of view. The concluding section describes the potential of third parties.

Third Parties

European parliamentary systems make it much easier to put dissenting views and candidates before the voters. Our winner-takes-all system largely shuts out third parties, but a racialist third party would be a tool for getting our message heard, rather than an attempt to replace one of the two major parties. If just one or two candidates were elected to office from a third party, it would be a great boost to nationalist issues. Note how the British National Party in Great Britain received worldwide attention from a shocked establishment after winning just three local council seats. At the same time, whenever third parties of either the left or the right gain any real support, the major parties co-opt their ideas, so at the very least, a nationalist party could nudge the GOP to the right.

British National Party Activist

Credit Image: © National News / ZUMApress.com

In the United States, political movements have historically succeeded by taking over existing political institutions, instead of trying to invent new ones. The Democratic Party was once lead by Southern segregationists and is now lead by former 1960s radicals. The Republican Party was once lead by Eastern establishment patricians. Even American third parties historically succeed by having their ideas adopted by one of the major parties.

There are already quite a few conservative “third” parties in this country: the Reform Party, Howard Phillips’s Constitution party, the Christian Party, the Constitutionalist Party (which seems to be an imitation of the Constitution Party), and the Southern Party. There is also the Southern Independence Party, which split from the Southern Party, and even an Independent American Party, which is an offshoot of George Wallace’s American Independent Party. Which party should nationalists try to adopt as a vehicle for their ideas?

Many people think the Reform Party is the best candidate, but it is not. Pat Buchanan and his brigades tried a hostile takeover in 2000, and have little to show for it. What remains of the Reform Party ultimately belongs to Ross Perot and not “the people,” as he likes to claim. The Reform Party, like its leader, lacks a coherent view of America and its problems, and few party members thought in racial terms during Mr. Perot’s first run in 1992. Their main complaints were the deficit, and some vague notion of ending the “bickering in Washington.” In 1996, the party promoted a protectionist message without any view on affirmative action, multiculturalism, or immigration.

When Mr. Buchanan tried to take over the party, Mr. Perot threw up one roadblock after another, and tacitly approved the breakaway candidate, John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party, who advocates such things as transcendental meditation for prisoners. In the end, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Hagelin fought each other up until Election Day for ballot space, and the party fizzled. The question shouldn’t be whether nationalists can take over the Reform Party, but how they can get the Reform Party’s voters. An American nationalist movement could attract Reform Party voters by adopting Mr. Buchanan’s “America First” rhetoric, precisely because it strikes the kind of nationalist tone that resonates with them, while at the same time terrifying the multi-culti elites.

If nationalists try to use an existing party rather than start yet another, Mr. Phillips’s Constitution Party (CP) appears to be the best choice. (Anyone who still has hopes for the Reform Party might note that this spring, many of the Reform Party leaders in California and Maryland defected to the CP.) In the most recent elections, the CP was on the ballot in 43 states, and Mr. Phillips’s supporters managed to make him eligible as a write-in candidate in six other states. While this is short of ideal, it is a much better political infrastructure than any other third-party alternative on the right. And often, sympathetic third parties end up endorsing the CP candidate rather than fielding one of their own (the American Independence Party does this).

The CP calls for a moratorium on immigration and strong protection of the borders. It opposes affirmative action, bilingual education, and foreign aid, and would abolish the Department of Education. Joseph Sobran, who spoke at the 1994 American Renaissance conference, is a former Vice Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party. This is yet another indication of why the CP could be a good fit for those tired of the status quo; it shows that the CP and Howard Phillips are open to controversy.

Constitution Party

But what about the rest of the party’s platform? Some people would object to its protectionism, but what is most striking about it is its religious appeal. This could be more than a minor inconvenience, but it is also a challenge and potential model for action.

What could be done to make the CP a vehicle for real nationalism? First, it should not jettison the traditional values of the religious right, but it could attract new support with a new set of nationalist issues — or rather, by emphasizing issues already in its platform. There is sure to be a strong vote for a candidate who will run with racial-nationalist issues; otherwise Pat Buchanan’s The Death of the West would not have stayed on the bestseller list week after week.

Would Howard Phillips fight against a new direction for his party or would he welcome a new dose of energy and commitment? Some racialists and some on the religious right may view each other warily, but the circle can be squared with a little give and take. The religious traditionalists should be reminded that the West’s historic faith takes a rather different view of racial issues than today’s politically correct churches. Likewise, atheists and agnostics shouldn’t be put off by explicit talk of traditional American values, including spiritual ones. Both groups could find synergy by working together. Also, a political movement that can get the imprimatur of America’s traditional clergy — or at least some of it — will be more respectable in the eyes of the public than one that gets total condemnation. Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front has fused traditionalist Catholics with “pagan” whites to build a movement that is stronger than each group alone.

For blacks too, preachers in the pulpit and activists in the street make an effective combination, not just for blacks themselves but for the way others see their movement. Racial activists do not have to agree with every sermon their ministers preach in order to enjoy the combined effectiveness of working together.

A fusion of racial/cultural issues would attract much of the hard-hat, blue-collar working-class. These are people who like to hunt and drink beer, and don’t think very much about abortion, but don’t like racial preferences or Mexican neighbors or Osama bin Laden. There are plenty of white women who secretly think the same way, or will go along with a man who does.

Some racialists might argue in favor of a single-issue, immigration-reform party that had the combined support of VDARE, FAIR, AICF, Numbers USA, and all the grass-roots immigration control groups, but I do not think that would be effective. With nothing to say on any other issue, the media would immediately label it the new “Know-Nothing Party.” Also, a single-issue party gives candidates no basis on which to face the local issues of a race for county commissioner, village trustee, or school board. The Constitution Party would have a more fleshed-out platform, which could be given a distinctly racialist/nationalist flavor.

This is important because racialists often seem to fantasize about trying to go for the top offices. It is at every level, from school boards to state legislatures to the White House, that nationalist office-holders can be critical in repealing anti-white policies. At virtually every level, there is something to tackle, be it multicultural/anti-Western curricula, bilingualism, lax criminal justice, coddling of illegal immigrants, etc.

Good as it is, the Constitution Party does need a new name. It only confused people when it switched recently from US Taxpayers Party to Constitution Party. What does a Constitution Party member stand for? The ACLU’s Constitution or Robert Bork’s? A better name would be the Conservative Party, since people would know right away what it stood for.

Something else the party needs is a high-profile national candidate. For years, Howard Phillips tried to woo Pat Buchanan as his standard bearer. Mr. Buchanan stayed within the Republican Party, and then went to the Reform Party because it had money. The current Constitution Party doesn’t have much money, and could use a big infusion to give it oomph, but it is more philosophically coherent than the Reform Party ever was.

Unfortunately, there is no one on the horizon who would make a credible nationalist presidential candidate. Perhaps journalist Ann Coulter could be the American answer to Australia’s firebrand, Pauline Hanson (though she meets none of the criteria set out earlier for the ideal candidate). She may not address racial issues in the way AR readers would like, but she is hated by exactly the same people who hate AR. She is a best-selling author, syndicated columnist, and has easy access to the airwaves, so she wouldn’t have any problem with name recognition at least.

Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter

But far more important than speculating about ideal candidates is building institutions to support them. Racialists, nationalists, and traditionalists must not wait for a leader to descend from on high and lead them to victory. The hard work is building the institutions, and once they are good enough the candidates will come.

What would be the effect of a candidate with high name recognition running as a candidate of a nationalist CP? A useful analogy is the effect Ralph Nader had on the otherwise moribund Green Party. Some in the party may have preferred a different candidate, but his name recognition is high, he gets free media, and just having him on the ticket put the Green Party on the map.

What would be the effect of a high-profile run for the CP? First it would energize grass-roots party activists who would probably succeed in getting the party on ballots in the remaining seven states. Second, it would help strengthen the infrastructure of the CP so that even after the big-name nationalist left the stage, it would still be in a position to act as a check on squishy Republicans. This is what Mr. Nader has done (and is doing) for the left via the Green Party.

Third, it would mean Republicans couldn’t take conservatives for granted. It doesn’t seem to occur to the Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) that conservatives might sit out an election or vote only for local candidates and ignore the unacceptable names the party puts up at the head of the ticket. If a nationalist candidate were to appear the RINOs would panic. The media would probably give the candidate a chance to get his message out, if only to hurt Mr. Bush and thereby help elect a Democrat.

Another reason to launch a political jihad — as early as 2004 — would be to build a new institution for conservatives, nationalists and racialists. If the movement could energize a new group of activists as Barry Goldwater’s run in 1964 did, it would reap many long-term rewards. It would bring issues to the public the establishment prefers to ignore. It would develop a new team of battle-hardened veterans who would contribute enormously to the movement. And it would thwart the RINOs who say we have “nowhere else to go.”

There can be great value in what some would dismiss as “obstructionist” campaigns. Sometimes there is no other way to bring crucial issues to the fore. Jean-Marie Le Pen was essentially running an obstructionist campaign against Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee candidates. Mr. Le Pen’s chances of winning the presidency were slim to none, but his “obstructionism” jolted the system and ended the political career of the Socialist, Lionel Jospin.

Many Americans simply don’t know what immigration is doing to their country, and anything that stirs them from somnolence is valuable. If there were rumblings of a serious nationalist campaign I suspect the Bush team would ditch the idea of amnesty for illegals. If exploited properly, the amnesty proposal could be a real weakness for the President. The public’s support of racial profiling after September 11, and the establishment’s waffling over it could provide another opening. Besides getting our ideas to the general public, there would be much to be gained in terrifying the RINOs, not to mention the sheer fun of making a lot of trouble. The marriage of racial and traditional conservative issues would make a very potent party of the right that was a constant challenge to conventional wisdom. As time passes, all the issues conservatives care about will emerge in unmistakably racial terms. It is our job to make race explicit, to make it increasingly clear that a vote for a conservative third-party candidate is a clear challenge to the racial status quo.

Weak as they are, conservative third parties may already be hurting Republicans in federal elections more than liberal third parties are hurting Democrats. In the July issue of Chronicles, Greg Kaza notes that in 2000 Pat Buchanan held the balance of power in five states: Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin. He also writes that Libertarians cost the GOP several Senate seats in the West, and mentions congressional districts where Democrats were elected because conservative third-party candidates took votes from Republicans. He also lists several Democratic members of Congress who he says were elected because Republicans ignored hard-right issues: Jane Harman of California, Elizabeth Furse of Oregon, Jay Inslee of Washington, and John Tierney of Massachusetts.

Local Politics

Most white nationalists are not wealthy and most cannot run for office. How can they help a nationalist political movement? One step is to get involved in existing political parties. Within the Republican Party there are men’s groups, women’s groups, student groups and so on, all of which have elected positions that can be taken over. There is also a group called the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NRFA), which has chapters in several states, and is geared toward pulling the Republican Party further to the right. The NRFA does not now take stands on racial issues, but there is no reason why that can’t change. In some states, a person can be a member of both the Republican Party and CP. Where dual membership is not possible, helping build the local CP organization may provide the best opportunity to advance the nationalist movement.

There are many leadership positions in the party structures themselves, from entry-level precinct captain to national committee chairman. The average county organization for a political party has a chairman, vice-chairman, treasurer, and secretary — all elected. Typically, these organizations are begging for people to take these jobs. The religious right began filling these positions because they were willing to tolerate long, boring meetings and deal with a variety of personalities for the sake of their cause.

White nationalists must be prepared to do the same. Those who are unfamiliar with the nuts and bolts of politics will get an education in how the process works. Needless to say, having sympathetic members within the organization means invaluable support for white nationalist candidates. Insiders help direct funds, organize volunteers, issue press releases, and influence party members with news and updates. Party officials also help hammer out party platforms. A lot of hard, boring work goes into winning these positions but it can pay dividends over the long haul.

Whenever insurgent movements take over existing institutions, people’s feathers get ruffled, so it takes persistence and dedication. A group like the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which deals bluntly with race, could alert members to upcoming meetings of local parties. CCC members and allies could run for party positions and begin the “long march through the institutions,” the way the anti-white left took over the Democratic Party.

We Owe it . . .

Taken together, an alternative nationalist/traditionalist third party, a political bloc within the Republican Party, and a Political Action Committee along the lines of the NRA or Emily’s List would educate voters, get candidates elected, and force debate on taboo issues. If these groups worked in concert and managed to get just a few politicians elected to federal office, it would dramatically change the terms of debate. Imagine a few politicians with the nerve to ask black and Hispanic activists why their groups’ crime rates are so high — and why they choose so many white victims. Imagine a group of politicians who didn’t cave in to the multiculturalist demands for white guilt, but instead gave ringing defenses of Western Civilization? Imagine national political figures who boldly took the view that the West is not just an idea but has an ethno-cultural component that connects whites to their civilization. Imagine a few white politicians reminding people that group differences in IQ explain group differences in outcome far better than any “legacy of racism.”

Such nationalists might create a kind of racial perestroika. Of course, today’s liberal totalitarians would try to stop it, just as the Soviet Communists did. Changes in the Soviet Union would not have occurred without Soviet dissidents like Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn and Yeltsin, and we have to play the same role.

We owe it to our history, our families, and our descendants to put these ideas into action. Others may find better Bible passages, but I think Psalm 28, Verse 9, can serve as a benediction to inspire both racial realists and religious traditionalists as they go forth to build a truly nationalist political movement: “O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever.”

George Halstead is the pen name of a political consultant who has worked in journalism, as a campaign manager, and on Capitol Hill.

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ARTICLE

Working With the Christian Right

The religious right had its glory days in the 1970s and ‘80s, and is driven by personalities rather than institutions. Given the questionable things Pat Robertson does, it seems to be sputtering out, and has largely been co-opted by the Republican Party anyway. Also, voters on the religious right can be fickle. Although they may be aligned with the CP or the Republicans, they may decide on a whim not to vote, or that they shouldn’t be engaged in politics at all. As Samuel Francis explains in Revolution from the Middle:

The real problem with the religious right is that, in the long run, its religious vehicle won’t carry it home. If it ever ended abortion, restored school prayer, outlawed sodomy and banned pornography, I suspect, most of its followers would simply declare victory and retire. But having accomplished all of that, the Christian right would have done absolutely nothing to strip the federal government of the power it has seized throughout this century, . . . prevent the inundation of the country by anti-Western immigrants, stop the cultural and racial dispossession of the historic people, or resist the absorption of the American nation into a multicultural and multiracial globalist regime. Indeed, the Christian Right for the most part doesn’t care about these issues or even perceive them as issues, and in so far as it does, it not infrequently lines up on the wrong side of them.

For all its faults, the religious right does offer great opportunities to the movement in terms of coalition building. It has also set an example of dedication to its causes that nationalists would do well to emulate. The religious right is constantly ostracized and publicly ridiculed for its beliefs yet doggedly pursues its goals. Its members have dramatically changed the shape of the Republican Party. They have gotten their own candidates elected to high office, and Republicans now have to take their views into consideration.

In the matter of coalition building, millions of conservative and religious whites could be drawn to the nationalist movement if offered a more compelling political viewpoint. For example, one group, which provides Biblical answers to Christians on the need for immigration reform, is Jim Robb’s organization, Evangelicals for Immigration Reform. Many more members of the religious right could be receptive to a nationalist message if approached in the right way.

While racialist and nationalist Christians need to find a better framework and vocabulary for their views, agnostic and atheistic racialists could find much to learn from the example of the religious right. When encouraged not to lead a hermit-like existence, the religious right has a strong ability to confront tough social issues in a very public and brazen way. Its people are always willing to talk about their issues anywhere and at any time, when others would be embarrassed. In so doing, they are continually finding converts. They have been the “shock troops” of the conservative movement for a long time. There are few other groups on the right that devote as much time as they do to advancing a cause they believe in. Whites need to understand that their racial cause is morally justified, and if the religious right grasps that idea it will be a tenacious advocate.

As a practical matter, people from the religious right show up at campaign headquarters to do the grunt work others disdain. They are good, hard-working, cheerful people, and are greatly appreciated on campaigns (even if some of them love to talk at length about religion while stuffing envelopes). You don’t have to beg them to volunteer. I wish an equal number of, say, immigration reform activists showed up to volunteer, but they do not. Christian activists help candidates get elected through volunteer work and donations, and that in turn gets repaid with staff appointments, and advancement of their political issues. It is through its own efforts that the religious right has gained influence.

Another lesson for racialists to learn from religious activists is that they persisted despite tremendous opposition from the media and even from the Republican Party itself. When the movement became more active in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, it began a strategy of slowly taking over Republican positions. Its people ran for school board, for county Republican officers, for RNC delegate, and so forth. They encountered heavy resistance from establishment Republicans, but prevailed due to their tenacity.

This approach increased greatly after Pat Robertson ran for President in the Republican primary in 1988. While he did not get the nomination, he ended up using his run as a vehicle to create the Christian Coalition (CC). This group in its heyday consisted of volunteers around the country who would distribute flyers and leaflets “rating” candidates. While the Christian Coalition was a bit crude and unsophisticated at first, it grew into a very savvy operation when Pat Robertson replaced himself with the slick operator Ralph Reed. The CC is now only a shell of what it once was, but it should serve as an example of what a committed group can do in the face of fierce, hostile opposition. It has not achieved all its goals, but it has accomplished far more through politics than it ever would have if its members had just stayed home.

Even though the CC is virtually gone, there are still millions of white Christian Americans who are waiting to hear the good news about white nationalism and why it is morally compatible with their faith. Whites do not have to jettison religion to accommodate racialism. All we lack is a kind of “American Renaissance” of the faith to lead us out of the spiritual quagmire. Religion and race can, and should be, mutually reinforcing. We are stronger together than we can ever be separately.

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ARTICLE

Christianity Turns Brown

“Medieval” Christianity is sweeping the Third World.

Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002, 270 pp., $28.00.

About half-way through Treasure Island, the hero Jim Hawkins stumbles across a castaway left on the island. The first words out of the man’s mouth are, “I’m poor Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven’t spoke with a Christian these three years.” Jim, who at first thinks the deeply-tanned Gunn might be a native, quickly realizes his error: “I could now see that he was a white man like myself . . .”

The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins

As the British Catholic author Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) famously noted in 1920, “Europe is the Faith and the Faith is Europe.” “Christian” was another word for white man, and Christendom another name for Europe. Not any more, says Philip Jenkins, who teaches religion and history at Penn State University: “The era of Western Christianity has passed within our lifetimes.” As Christianity wanes in the West, especially in Europe, primitive variants of it are flourishing in the Third World. Prof. Jenkins argues credibly that this change — largely overlooked — could be as significant an historic development as the collapse of Communism.

The numbers tell the story. The Philippines reports 1.7 million Catholic baptisms every year, more than France, Spain, Italy and Poland combined. There are more Catholic baptisms in Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo than in any single European country, and in Africa 37 percent of baptisms are of adults. At an estimated 20 to 50 million, there are probably more active Christians in the People’s Republic of China than in Britain or France.

In 1800, approximately one percent of all Protestants lived outside of Europe and North America. In 1900 the figure was ten percent, and now it is 65 percent, with huge increases in Latin America and Asia. Whites are a minority of believers. In Korea alone there are as many Presbyterians as in the United States.

Only a generation ago, the Mormon Church was overwhelmingly white. Now, there are more Mormons living outside of North America than within it. In Uganda, 35 to 40 percent of the population are Anglicans and some 30 percent are Catholic. This makes it more Christian than Britain, where 44 percent of the population expresses no religious affiliation at all, and 66 percent of those ages 18 to 24 have no religion.

Today, an estimated one third of the people on earth are Christians. The largest single bloc of 560 million at least nominal believers is still in Europe, but next comes Latin America with 480 million, Africa with 360 million, Asia with 313 million, and North America with 260 million. This means only 42 percent of Christians live in what we think of as the West. Prof. Jenkins projects that current birth rates alone mean that by 2050 only 20 percent of the world’s Christians will be non-Hispanic whites. The figure could be considerably smaller if Third-World conversions continue at their current rate. The number of African Christians surged from 10 million in 1900 to 360 million in 2000, and shows no signs of slowing.

Changing church demographics are reflected in church leadership. In the early 20th century, there were practically no non-white clergy outside of the black denominations in America. Now, over 40 percent of the cardinals who can vote in papal elections are from Third-World countries, and there is a good chance the next pope will be non-white.

Already in the United States, an increasing proportion of active Christians are non-white immigrants. In the Boston — Cambridge area, reports Prof. Jenkins, half the congregations worship in a language other than English, and in the United States as a whole, one sixth of the working priests were born overseas.

Church History

Prof. Jenkins thinks this transformation is just fine. He says Christianity has changed complexion many times, and that there is no reason it should remain European forever. It was founded by Jews, then Hellenized, then adopted by Copts and Syrians before taking on symbols of European paganism to assume its current form. Prof. Jenkins takes pleasure in pointing out that Armenia was probably the first state officially to become Christian, making the switch in AD 300, 13 years ahead of Rome. Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the same century, whereas Lithuania, for example, was not Christianized for another 1,000 years.

Likewise, although whites may shake their heads at what now passes for Christianity in the tropics, Prof. Jenkins emphasizes that Europeans have often repackaged Christianity for local consumption when it suited them. In the 17th century, for example, Jesuits converted several hundred thousand Chinese by canonizing Saint Confucius, permitting ancestor worship, using the names of local pagan gods in Chinese translations of the Bible, and conducting mass in Chinese. In 1704, Rome prohibited the Chinese Rite, and ordered that mass be celebrated only in Latin. The emperor promptly banned Christianity, and put the Chinese church out of business. (Prof. Jenkins argues that the Coptic church, which was beyond the reach of Rome, prospered because services were in Coptic rather than Latin.)

Although it is now fashionable to sneer at missionaries as blundering cultural imperialists, Prof. Jenkins points out they were hugely successful. Some converts no doubt were seeking the sheen of the West, but many were sincere. Prof. Jenkins writes that the lecherous king of Buganda (now part of Uganda) turned against Christianity when converts refused his homosexual advances. He insisted on recantation or death, and in 1885 and 1886 hundreds chose death. On one day, no fewer than 32 Bugandan Christians were burned alive rather than recant.

During decolonization after the Second World War, many church leaders feared Third-World Christianity would wither, but it boomed like never before. However, what Prof. Jenkins delicately refers to as “inculturation” picked up speed. The process had begun in the early missionary days, partly because there were never enough Europeans to keep native converts entirely on the rails. The result was not just odd flavors of Christianity but new, breakaway religions. As Prof. Jenkins explains, the usual pattern was for a native to convert enthusiastically to European Christianity but then strike off on his own so he could include more native practices.

In Africa, Simon Kimbangu attracted a large following in the Belgian Congo in the 1920s. He encouraged invocations to ancestors, and declared himself the mediator between God and the flock. He was also convinced whites had got things wrong. One of his prayers proclaims: “The Kingdom is ours. We have it! They, the whites, no longer have it.” Kimbangu’s surging movement became such a threat the Belgians locked him up until his death in 1951. What is now known as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ on Earth of the Prophet Simon Kimbangu still claims to have six to eight million current members.

William Wadé Harris was a Liberian who, early in the 20th century, walked the country in a white robe carrying a bamboo cross, and reportedly made 200,000 converts. He traveled with several wives and performed miracles, healing the sick and casting out demons. Pagan shrines are said to have gone up in flames when he approached. Many Harrist churches survive to this day.

The Taiping Rebellion of 1850 to 1864, which tried to overthrow the Manchu dynasty, was based on a homegrown Chinese church. Recruits, for example, were required to learn the Lord’s Prayer within a certain time or be put to death. Taiping means “great peace,” and describes the perfect communism the movement intended to establish.

All over the Third World, whether visionary locals have started their own cults or have remained within European churches, Christianity tends towards prophecy, faith healing, exorcisms, and the whooping style of worship typical of American blacks. “Today,” writes Prof. Jenkins, “rising African churches stand or fall by their success in healing, and elaborate rituals have formed around healing practices.” He quotes an expert on Brazil: “[I]n some churches, faithhealing so dominates the liturgy that the sanctuary resembles a hospital.” However this may strike Westerners, Prof. Jenkins notes that church members are often so poor they cannot afford doctors.

As Prof. Jenkins notes, Third — Worlders love Biblical accounts of exorcisms and miracle cures. “African Christians [for example],” he explains, “find it difficult to understand just why there are some parts of the Bible they are expected to believe with absolute literalism — for instance, the resurrection — while [other] stories . . . must be treated as no more than instructive fables.” He explains that since the lives of Third-Worlders have always been full of magic and witchcraft, they “can read Biblical accounts [of miracles] with far more understanding and sensitivity than Northern Christians can.” The new Christians wonder how northerners can claim to be Christian and not believe in miracles.

African Christianity, in particular, permits “a wide range of traditional practices, including polygamy, divination, animal sacrifices, initiation rites, circumcision, and the veneration of ancestors.” The Catholic Bishop of Bloemfontein in South Africa has proposed that animal sacrifice be added to the mass. African priests are also notorious fornicators. Now, explains Prof. Jenkins, because of the fear of AIDS, some specialize in seducing — or raping — nuns.

Just as among the lower classes in America, Christianity can be a high-paying racket for Third-World entrepreneurs. In Brazil, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God teaches its members that the more money they put into the collection plate, the richer they will become. Some of its millions of members put glasses of water close to the television screen to be blessed by remote control during broadcasts. The church’s boss, Edir Macedo de Bezerra, was caught on video gloating over how much swag he was squeezing from the faithful, but carries on undaunted.

In Latin America there are now Catholic versions of the doctrine that God will make you rich, especially if you hand over cash. Catholics have had to let in snake handlers, faith healers, prophets, and glossolaliacs to keep from being left behind by Pentecostal Protestants, whose ardent and colorful practices are a hit among Latinos. All over the underdeveloped world, charismatic, money-oriented churches are popular among the millions of poor who have crowded into the cities. Church becomes family for them.

Another popular Third-World practice is to treat Mary as more or less equal to God, and to make her a fourth member of the Trinity. The primitive mind seems to require mother goddesses.

Prof. Jenkins insists there is plenty of sober Christianity south of the equator, and maybe there is. However, the churches with real momentum are the exotic kind, and given the force of numbers, he concludes that “in the coming decades, the religious life characteristic of those regions may well become the Christian norm.” He adds that “the dominant churches of the future could have much in common with those of medieval or early modern European times,” by which he means that the mental tone of Third-World Christianity is ripe for witch-burnings, religious wars, and trial by ordeal.

To Europeans who are put off by this, Prof. Jenkins asks: “Whoever said that European criteria were absolutely valid for all times and place?” “Northern views on religious matters,” he points out, “should become less and less significant” as Christianity turns brown.

White Christians no longer have the confidence to march off to foreign countries and tell the natives what’s what, but the natives are happy to export hopped-up Christianity back to the white man. Matthew Ashimolowo is a Nigerian missionary who came to England and started the Kingsway International Christian Centre in London in 1992. Now he can seat 5,000 worshippers in his main facility, and has several satellite congregations. He says the Anglican church should “die gracefully” and hand over its buildings to groups like his. There are reportedly 1,500 missionaries in Britain from some 50 countries, many of them African. “The country needs reconverting,” explains an Ugandan. Third-World evangelists may be learning from European Muslims, who like to parade in the streets carrying signs that read “Islam — our religion today, your religion tomorrow.”

Prof. Jenkins believes that Third-World Catholicism has already influenced church hierarchy at the very top. He thinks the election of a Pole as John Paul II in 1978 was a compromise offer to non-whites cardinals, who would have been very grumpy about yet another Western European pope.

Politics and Conflict

The non-white shift has greatly changed the politics churches advocate. In the 1960s and 1970s there was much talk of “liberation theology,” and priests like the Colombian Camillo Torres actually became guerrilla fighters. Now, Third-World Christians are flocking to get-rich-quick churches, whose ministers in flashy suits and diamond rings are living proof that faith brings wealth. Poverty is for chumps, and salvation can wait.

At the same time, speculation about the death of God, and European flirtations with outright denial of the supernatural do not go down well with congregations that expect miracles. Third — Worlders also don’t like abortion, homosexuals, or lady priests, and Christianity that promotes that sort of thing is found only in countries where the faith is dying. Liberal white Christians who thought their tropical brothers were going to be allies in the revolution have had a nasty shock.

The latest doings in the Anglican church are likely to be increasingly typical. In 1998 at Lambeth, England, the conference of Anglican bishops was all set to vote in a pro-homosexual resolution. However, of the 736 bishops in attendance, only 316 were from the US, Canada, and Europe. Africa sent 224 and Asia sent 95, and these men rallied to crush the resolution. It is dawning on the whites that they have created a monster. Bishop John Spong of Newark no doubt spoke for many when he complained: “I never expected to see the Anglican Communion, which prides itself on the place of reason in faith, descend to this level of irrational Pentecostal hysteria.”

The lines of battle are clearly drawn. Moses Tay, the Anglican archbishop of South East Asia, who is based in Singapore, will not go to meetings held by pro-homosexual bishops. He, in turn, was forbidden to pay a visit to New Westminster, Canada, by its pro-homosexual bishop.

Some conservative American and Canadian Anglican priests have even gone to Rwanda to be made bishops by the anti-homosexual, anti-abortion Rwandan archbishop. They have come back to North America to “lead the Episcopal Church back to its Biblical foundations,” and fight “manifest heresy.” This greatly displeases the liberals. Presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church Frank Griswold says “bishops are not intercontinental ballistic missiles, manufactured on one continent and fired into another as an act of aggression.” Ordinary congregants, however, have rallied to the reactionaries. Now there are some 30 Episcopalian congregations in North America that are technically under the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Rwanda! Needless to say, for white churchmen who love to grovel to non-whites, it is disconcerting to have to face them down in order to please abortionists and homosexuals. Conservatives, on the other hand, now enjoy the moral glow of having authentic people of color on their side of the barricades.

Prof. Jenkins suspects the new converts are likely to put an end to Christianity’s accommodating and even apologetic attitude towards Jews: “African and Asian Christians do not necessarily share Northern qualms about blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus, or about believing that this guilt should fall upon the whole race.” This is the sort of thing Prof. Jenkins means when he writes about the return to “Medieval” Christianity.

Likewise, in Third-World countries, Christian hierarchs have a political status not seen in Europe since the 17th century, and Prof. Jenkins predicts the coming of militant theocracies that will be just as hard boiled as the regimes of mullahs and ayatollahs. “A worst-case scenario,” he writes, “would include a wave of religious conflicts reminiscent of the Middle Ages, a new age of Christian crusades and Muslim jihads.”

Even without officially Christian governments, there is constant fighting between Muslims and Christians, with especially fierce blood-letting in Nigeria, the Philippines, Indonesia, and even in relatively stable Ivory Coast. Once sectarian violence begins, revenge killing can keep it going indefinitely.

With Third-World Christianity on a collision course with resurgent Islam, Prof. Jenkins writes, “the fundamental question here is whether Islam and Christianity can coexist.” Activists are campaigning for Islamic states in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and other parts of the former Soviet Union, and Prof. Jenkins predicts more governments — Islamic and Christian — that try to wipe out minority religions. For many Third — Worlders, Revelation is their favorite part of the Bible. They thrill to the story of Armageddon, and they expect God to smite non-believers.

This only deepens the divide between Europeans and Third-Worlders. Christians who read the Bible for inspiration in the face of martyrdom, and who love the passages in which God blasts the heathen are scarcely practicing the same religion as those who search scripture for reasons to ordain homosexuals.

Prof. Jenkins recognizes that religious tolerance and separation of church and state are alien concepts in the tropics. He notes that on the Indian subcontinent, Muslims and Hindus have been killing each other for generations, and that Hindus like to burn down Christian churches, especially in Gujarat Province. He says the troubles in the Mexican province of Chiapas are largely a conflict between Amerindian Pentecostals and wealthier mestizo Catholics. During the wholesale slaughter in Rwanda in 1994, both Hutus and Tutsis went strictly Old Testament, and tried to purge the church hierarchy of tribal enemies. Religion can be particularly dangerous when boundaries of race and faith coincide, as they do in the Sudan, where Arab Muslims and black Christians and animists have slaughtered each other by the million.

Prof. Jenkins never writes one positive word about specifically European Christianity, and tries very hard to be cheerful about the demographic transformation of the church. Still, even he understands there is a chance that “Christianity comes to be seen as, in effect, a jungle religion.” What is happening, of course, is that the Third World is simply adapting Christianity to its own state of mind. To a visitor from Copenhagen, the Christianity of Kinshasa will be as alien as everything else. Prof. Jenkins writes blithely that 35 to 40 percent of Ugandans are Anglican, but what on earth is an Ugandan Anglican? There may be conservative American Anglicans who agree with the Rwandans on homosexuals and abortion, but what about witchcraft and ancestor worship?

Prof. Jenkins predicts that Third-World practices will become the Christian norm. If that is true, it will either drive yet more Europeans away from “jungle religion” or there will be divorce, with white and brown Christians denouncing each other as heretics. Nothing — not a neighborhood, not a school, not a city, not a country, not even God almighty — remains the same once it falls into the hands of non-whites.

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SIDEBAR

The Lord’s Resistance Army

Africa appears to be the most fertile breeding ground for bizarre and even repellent variants of Christianity. An Ugandan, Alice Lakwena, founded a particularly violent “church” in 1988, which she called the Holy Spirit Movement. She led an ostensibly Christian armed rebellion, and came very close to overthrowing the Ugandan government before she was defeated and fled to Kenya in 1997. Some of her followers came to a sticky end when they started believing her blessings could make them bullet-proof.

Her nephew Joseph Kony, a former altar boy, stepped in, raised a new band of rebels, and called it the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He is still fighting the Ugandans, with the proclaimed goal of setting up a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments — though he and his men generally ignore them. Armed and uniformed by the Sudan, which likes to keep things stirred up in Uganda, the LRA comes across the border in small groups to raid the Acholi people of northern Uganda. In just a few weeks last May, they reportedly killed nearly 500 civilians and burned down six villages. The LRA specializes in stealing children, perhaps because kidnapping is not specifically prohibited in the Decalogue. Some they recruit as soldiers and others they sell to Arabs in the Sudan, at the going rate of one rifle per child. Well-intentioned abolitionist Westerners are also said to provide a ready market. The army keeps many of the girls as “wives,” and Mr. Kony is said to have collected 60 of his own.

Over the last 14 years, his army has made off with an estimated eight to ten thousand children. Some who have escaped say the LRA kills children who do not work hard enough, and that if soldiers catch a child trying to escape, they make others trample him to death.

Mr. Kony, who now styles himself a major general, claims to have 6,500 men under his command. He is said to go into trances, during which he makes predictions that invariably come true. Like his aunt’s followers, his soldiers reportedly believe he can protect them from bullets, but since they usually attack unarmed civilians, their faith is not sorely tested. The LRA has declared ducks and sheep to be unclean animals, and executes anyone found keeping them. The Ugandans have been trying to persuade the Sudan to stop supporting the LRA, and have recently worked out a deal that may allow them to cross the border and attack LRA camps.

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ARTICLE

Wichita Killers Go on Trial

Court TV to cover Kansas v. Carrs

Nearly two years after they killed five white people (see August AR), Reginald and Jonathan Carr now face the death penalty in a Wichita courtroom. On Sept. 9, as AR was going to press, jury selection began in the trial of the two black men indicted on a combined total of 113 criminal charges, including first-degree murder, rape and kidnapping.

Although both Carr brothers were in police custody within twelve hours after they left their last victims dead in a snowy soccer field on Dec. 15, 2000, defense tactics have delayed the trial. Lawyers for the Carrs filed approximately 140 motions, all of which had to be considered by a judge. Within the past six weeks alone, the defense moved to have the state’s death penalty statute declared unconstitutional on the grounds of racial bias, and again filed to move the trial to another city and to have separate trials for each brother. Sedgwick County District Court Judge Paul Clark denied these motions, allowing the trial to proceed.

Twelve jurors and four alternates will be chosen from a pool of 517 — the largest in Sedgwick County history — in a process that could take weeks. The large pool is partly to placate the defense, which argues it will be impossible to find unbiased jurors. In a poll earlier this year, the lawyers found that 74 percent of Wichita residents believe the Carrs are either “probably guilty” or “definitely guilty.”

Potential jurors first got a 16-page questionnaire asking if they had seen, read or heard news reports on the case; if they had formed opinions on it; if they knew any victims, defendants or their families; and what they thought of the death penalty. Judge Clark removed four prospective jurors on the basis of their answers, including one who strongly opposed the death penalty.

The lawyers will examine the rest orally on many of the same subjects. The jury pool will be winnowed to 60, and then each side will use preemptory strikes to cull the number to 12 jurors and four alternates. Once the jury is seated, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Parker says her case for the prosecution will take three weeks. Defense lawyers say their case will be much longer.

The Carr brothers are being tried together but each has his own lawyers. The main defense strategy is denial — the Carrs will claim they where nowhere near the scenes of the crimes. If that doesn’t work, each brother will try to blame the crimes on the other. “We’re going to be pointing fingers at each other a lot,” says Jay Greeno, one of Reginald Carr’s lawyers.

The star witness for the prosecution is the sole survivor of the massacre, a woman known only by her initials, H.G. She walked to safety nearly naked for more than a mile in sub-freezing temperatures with a bullet in her head, and gave police enough information to arrest the Carrs. Defense lawyers will claim H.G. cannot identify the brothers — in court in April 2001, she recognized only Jonathan — and will attack the state’s DNA evidence. They will also argue that although prosecutors have a weapon they can show was used in all three attacks, they cannot prove it was the Carrs who used it.

Thanks at least in part to AR’s efforts to publicize the crime, Court TV was bombarded with requests to cover the trial, and has decided to do so. Broadcasts will begin after jury selection is completed. The Wichita Eagle will post articles about the trial at www.kansas.com. A local country music radio station, KFDI, will suspend its usual programming for live broadcasts of trial testimony, and will post frequent updates on its website, www.kfdi.com. Unfortunately, KFDI does not have audio on its web page. As the trial proceeds, this gruesome crime may slowly begin to attract the national attention it has so far been denied.

Kansas has not put anyone to death since 1965, the year Dick Hickock and Perry Smith were hanged for the Clutter family murders. In 1994, the state established lethal injection as its method of execution, but does not yet have a working death chamber. One is under construction for the people who are already on death row, and it is to be hoped that the injection machinery will soon be in fine working order.

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IN THE NEWS

O Tempora, O Mores!

Philly Flap

On Aug. 22, the Philadelphia Daily News printed an article about fugitive murder suspects the police thought were hiding in the city. On the cover were mug shots of murderers; on the inside, the paper profiled 27 suspects, publishing their photographs and describing their crimes. All the fugitives were non-white men. Most were black, and a few were Hispanic or Asian.

Fugitives Among Us

Readers promptly turned in two of them, but the predictable reaction came quickly, with blacks yelling about “racism” and “insensitivity.” A week later, Managing Editor Ellen Foley published an apology, in which she said the story caused “much soul-searching in the Daily News newsroom.” She explained that there were no pictures of whites because there were no whites wanted for murder in the city, but apologized for the layout anyway: “The front page photos from last Thursday sent the message to some readers that only black men commit murder. That was a mistake.” (This is odd, since not all the men on the cover are black.)

Too little, too late. A group of blacks calling itself the Coalition for Fair News Coverage is demanding the resignations of Miss Foley and Editor Zack Stalberg. So far, no resignations. [Fugitives Among Us, Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 22, 2002. Mark Angeles, Strong Reaction to People Paper Fugitive Cover, Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 23, 2002, p. 4. Ellen Foley, To Our Readers: An Apology, Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 30, 2002, p. 6. William Bunch, Coalition Calls for Editors’ Resignations, Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 30, 2002, p. 6.]

Fakers Foiled

The court system is finally beginning to punish people who stage fake hate crimes. Two years ago, a black woman named Jaelynn Sealey burned her own car in her driveway in Huntersville, North Carolina, hoping to collect insurance money. For added drama, she also wrote “racial epithets” on her garage door. Support poured in from white neighbors, who raised money, brought food, and helped wash the words off her garage.

On August 8, Miss Sealey confessed in court that it was all a hoax. The judge ordered her to repay $2,225 neighbors gave her, and after pleading guilty to wire fraud, mail fraud, and making false statements to federal investigators, she faces a theoretical 45 years in prison and a $2.25 million fine. Her actual sentence will be considerably lighter, but there is a good chance she will do hard time. [Woman Admits Faking Hate Crime, AP, Aug. 9, 2002.]

Likewise, two black students at Wall High School in Asbury Park, New Jersey, face criminal charges and possible expulsion for putting threatening letters in their own lockers and in those of other black students. Police discovered the hoax by setting up pin-hole cameras to observe the lockers. Faced with the evidence, the two girls confessed they had written the notes in the hope of being excused from school. Because they are both 16, their charges of conspiracy, bias intimidation, and making false statements to police will be handled in family court.

“One of the most unfortunate things about this is that there were a couple hundred man hours spent on this case in order to determine it was just a hoax,” says prosecutor Ken Keller. “It is time and effort that could have been directed elsewhere.” School Superintendent Ed Miklus notes that a number of innocent students were treated as suspects, and says “the whole incident was very damaging to everybody.” He says he will probably convene a disciplinary hearing that could result in expulsion. [Naomi Mueller, Racist Notes Found at Wall High School a Hoax, Asbury Park Press, July 17, 2002.]

These measures are a significant change from years past, when hoaxers would get a slap on the wrist while liberals shook their heads in bewilderment at the idea of faking a hate crime when there was so much real “racism” on the loose already.

Maine: Not as White

In August we reported that former Maine Attorney General Jim Tierney thinks his state is losing population because it is too white and boring. This may be about to change. Approximately 1,200 Somali refugees have descended on the city of Lewiston (population 36,000), heretofore 98 percent white and overwhelmingly Catholic. Originally resettled by the federal government in Atlanta and elsewhere, the Muslim Somalis began arriving in Lewiston in February 2001. There are now about 1,200 of them — about three percent of the city’s population — and their numbers are growing by about 120 every month.

Somalis didn’t choose Lewiston by accident. The ones in Atlanta wanted to escape high rates of violent crime and drug use. In 2000, the elders sent scouting parties to a number of cities where Somalis already lived, such as Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City; and Portland, Maine. Portland was promising, but housing was expensive. The elders chose nearby Lewiston because housing was cheaper and welfare benefits were higher: up to $742 a month for housing and $454 for food for a family of four. Lewiston isn’t known for its thriving economy, but that makes no difference to the Somalis, who aren’t looking for jobs anyway.

Now 729 Somalis are on the dole, and account for 46 percent of the city’s welfare spending. The city has hired two additional welfare workers to handle the influx of indigents, and two new English as a Second Language teachers to cope with the one-year jump from 25 to 230 in the number of students who don’t speak English. The schools also hired six new teaching assistants and a Somali parent coordinator. So far this year, Somalis have swallowed up $400,000 in welfare and education benefits.

Residents have not voiced any real opposition. School curriculum coordinator Janice Ploude worries that there aren’t any jobs for the Somalis, and recognizes they are straining city finances. “But is it healthy for kids to be with other kids of diversity?” she asks. “Yes it is.” Even if the locals didn’t want the Somalis, there is nothing they can do about them. Refugee advocates point out that refugees are legal residents, and therefore entitled to live wherever they like. [Brian MacQuarrie, New Arrivals Put Strain on Lewiston, Boston Globe, July 16, 2002. Mark Bixler, Atlanta Somalis Escape to Maine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 18, 2002, p. A1. Mark Bixler, Concerns About Crime, Kids’ Future Led to Move, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 18, 2002, p. A10.]

Schools Resegregate

A recently-released report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University has found that racial segregation is increasing in American public school districts. It calculates segregation in terms of what it calls the “exposure index,” of non-whites to whites. An exposure index for blacks of 23, for example, means the average black students goes to a school that is 23 percent white.

In a sample of 185 school districts with enrollments of more than 25,000, black exposure to whites increased in only four districts over the last 14 years. Hispanic exposure to whites increased in only three districts. White “isolation,” as the researchers call it, increased in 53 districts. Resegregation was most rapid in Clayton County, Georgia, where in 1986 the average black went to a school that was 68.7 percent white, but now goes to a school that is 23.1 percent white. The report did not give details on how test scores, violence rates, and other indices of deterioration have changed over the same period. The 20 most rapidly resegregating school districts are concentrated in the South, with eight in Texas and three in Georgia. [AP, Study: School Districts ‘Resegregating,’ Aug. 11, 2002.]

Press reports did not indicate to what extent exposure to whites has decreased simply because the tremendous increase in non-white children means there are fewer white children to go around.

Brown-bagging

Rainbow Foods, a grocery store chain in the Minneapolis area, calls itself “the friendliest store in town.” Earlier this summer it sponsored The Gathering 2002, A Woman of Color Expo. The store promoted the event — ”a weekend of fun for today’s Black Woman” — on ads printed on grocery bags. Held on June 29-30, the program featured home decorating, attractions for children, and a black-cultural bookstore, and promised “Make-up, Fashion and Beauty Galore!” and “Non-Stop Main Stage Entertainment” starring black bands. All for $7.00. [Ad from a Rainbow Foods grocery bag.]

Just Random Violence

The city of Milwaukee hosts an annual summer fair and carnival called Summerfest. On July 7, from about 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., groups of young blacks ran through the festival crowd beating whites. The worst injuries appear to have been broken noses and ribs, as blacks attacked whites of both sexes and all ages.

Victims and witnesses say the attacks were racially motivated. Henry Schlipp of Milwaukee says blacks screaming obscenities about whites knocked down two of his friends at around midnight on July 7. “One of them was 6 foot 4 inches and 250 pounds, so you know these kids must’ve been moving quickly through the crowds,” he says. “We honestly didn’t know what hit us.” Ken Waara, also of Milwaukee, says a group of 30 to 50 blacks sped through the crowd screaming insults at whites. “But before we could react,” he says, “I was struck on the back of the head and couldn’t see for a few seconds . . . I was hit again on the left side and on the right side of the head.” Diane Riddle says one black shouted “What are you looking at, white boy?” before attacking her and her son. Jeremy Mor of Mequon, Wisconsin, says, “All of a sudden, somebody jumped up and knocked out a white kid for no reason. Then another person got punched and was dropped.” Young blacks punched and pushed 10 to 15 Summerfest security guards, and injured two police officers who were trying to arrest them. All suspects got away.

Milwaukee Police Chief Arthur Jones at first claimed the violence was strictly random, but as more witnesses came forward, he managed to conclude: “The truth is we had African-American youths and victims who were white. I am not in a position to say, nor would I say under the circumstances, that the attacks were not racially motivated. Nor am I in a position to say they were racially motivated.” [Tom Held and James Burnett, Youths Beat Festival Patrons, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, July 10, 2002. James Burnett and Tom Held, Summerfest Wants More Police Next Year, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, July 11, 2002.]

Genes Make the Difference

Scientists have recently announced that a few key changes in a single gene may explain why people can talk but monkeys and mice cannot. Wolfgang Enard of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, explains that the FOXP2 gene appears to be the same in mice, chimpanzees, orangutans, and humans, except that in the human version there are just two differences in the amino acid sequence. This very slight difference appears to give humans the ability to make the fine face and jaw movements necessary for speech. There are undoubtedly other genes involved in human speech, but scientists are surprised that so slight a genetic difference seems to be so crucial to what we think of as one of the defining characteristics of our species. The genetic code for humans is 98 percent the same as that for chimpanzees, and FOXP2 is just one example of the profound differences that can result from minute genetic variations. [Maggie Fox, Apes Lack Gene for Speech, Study Finds, Reuters, Aug. 14, 2002.] Although the researchers at the Max Planck Institute did not draw this conclusion specifically, the discovery lends yet more credence to the view that the very small genetic differences that distinguish human races also have great significance.

In a new study appearing in Science, for example, researchers say they have identified a genetic variation — found mainly in blacks — that greatly increases the risk of developing a rare type of cardiac arrhythmia. Among patients being treated for irregular heartbeat, scientists found that more than half the blacks had the allele, known as Y1102. One out of every 123 Hispanics had Y1102, but it was not found in any white or Asian patients. Among American blacks as a whole, 13 percent have the allele. [Paul Recer, Gene Variant Tied to Heart Risk is found Mostly in Blacks, AP, Aug. 23, 2002.]

Cleansing the White Tribe

Since 1994, when the African National Congress took power in South Africa, blacks have killed 1,334 farmers, farm workers, and family members. Blacks have also killed 12 white farmers in Zimbabwe and four in Namibia. The dispossession of farmers and the resulting famine in Zimbabwe have been well publicized, but the same process in South Africa is largely ignored. As Dutch journalist Adriana Stuijt explains: “These [murders] ‘only’ occurred in South Africa, and so the rest of the world remains oddly silent. Post-apartheid South Africa is apparently immune from the usual investigative journalism being conducted in the rest of the Western [?] world.”

The murder rate for South African white farmers is now 264 per 100,000, or nearly 40 times the murder rate in the United States. Since 1994, half of all white commercial farmers have either been murdered or have shut down operations rather than risk death. As a result, this year there will be 2.5 million fewer acres of corn harvested than during the last year of white rule, and South Africa could soon be joining Zimbabwe on the food line.

The South African government is largely indifferent to the plight of farmers. President Thabo Mbeki describes the killings as “the final stage of the revolution.” At the funeral of Peter Mokaba, an ANC member of parliament who recently died, “mourners” chanted “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer,” a slogan Mr. Mokaba is said to have coined. Cassie Aucamp of the Afrikaner Unity Movement points out that this kind of provocation draws little comment. “Imagine the uproar,” he says, “if Afrikaners were to start chanting, ‘Kill the Xhosas, kill the blacks’” at the next funeral of a murdered farmer.

A white South African activist in the Transvaal Agricultural Union says there is no hope for white commercial farming in southern Africa. “It might indeed be a good idea for the US Congress to hold hearings on the farm killings,” he says, “and extend visas to the Boers to go live in the United States.” [Anthony LoBaido, ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer,’ WorldNetDaily.com, July 28, 2002.] Nothing so sensible is likely to happen.

Foxing the Gringos

President Vicente Fox of Mexico is eager to consolidate his fellow citizens’ hold on life in the United States. He established a special government office to look after the interests of Mexicans — legal or otherwise — in America, and recently upgraded its head to cabinet level. He has pushed dual citizenship for Mexicans, which gives them a political voice in the United States while allowing them to maintain primary loyalty to Mexico. Until last Sept. 11, he was conducting well-publicized talks with President George Bush about getting amnesty for illegals.

Mr. Fox has also been behind the push to persuade American authorities to recognize the matricula, an identity document issued to Mexicans — legal or otherwise — at any of Mexico’s 47 American consulates. Most Americans identify themselves with a driver’s license when they open a bank account, cash checks, or get a library card, but most states make it difficult for illegals to get licenses. Banks, in particular, like the matricula system because they want the business illegals bring. According to Mexican authorities, Mexicans in the US sent home $10 billion, and banks make profits on the transfers.

According to the consulates, they issue matriculas only to Mexican citizens who can produce a certified copy of a birth certificate and an official Mexican photo ID like a driver’s license or voter registration. Applicants must also show proof of US residency, such as a lease or utility bill. The applicant then pays $29.00 for a laminated card with a photo, US address, and place and date of birth in Mexico. Last year, consulates issued 695,420 matriculas and are issuing them this year at an annual rate of 978,000.

No one pretends that a matricula changes anyone’s legal status, but every step that makes life for illegals more like that of legal residents is a step towards de facto amnesty. The matriculas are also a clear attempt by Mexican authorities to make it easier for their citizens to violate American immigration laws. Their success, however, depends exclusively on the willingness of Americans and American institutions to recognize them. The matricula has been so successful authorities in El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica plan to introduce similar documents for their own illegals. [Max Bixler, Guatemala Follows Mexico on ID Card, Atlanta Access.com, Aug. 14, 2002.]

Shyster Sharpton

Al Sharpton has been evicted from his office in the Empire State Building. City marshals padlocked the 48th-floor offices of the National Action Network on July 2 after back rent amounted to $40,000. Mr. Sharpton says his staff moved to his Harlem offices at 124th Street and Madison Ave. after Sept. 11 because they were afraid of terrorist attacks. Of course he stopped paying rent on the office, he says. “Why would we pay without using it?” Mr. Sharpton’s group signed a ten-year lease on the office in October 1999, and fear of low-flying airplanes is not a valid reason to break it. His landlord plans to take him to court.

Mr. Sharpton has a long history of stiffing people. In 1995, New York City and New York State went after him for back taxes and medical bills. Later the federal government said he owed $80,000 in income taxes. In 1996, when he ran for mayor of New York, the landlord of his campaign headquarters said Mr. Sharpton tried to skip out on a $30,000 rent bill. Last year, the Millennium Hotel had to sue him for the $25,000 bill for a January 2000 conference held to coincide with Martin Luther King’s birthday. Mr. Sharpton also tried to cheat Steven Pagones, a former Duchess County prosecutor, whom Mr. Sharpton accused of raping the black woman Tawana Brawley. Miss Brawley had gone public with a story about a sexual attack by whites, which she invented to explain to her stepfather why she had been out all night. A jury in Poughkeepsie, New York, ordered Mr. Sharpton to pay Mr. Pagones $65,000 for libel, but Mr. Sharpton refused. Three years later, black businessmen finally paid the bill when Mr. Sharpton’s scoff-law behavior threatened to land him in jail. With interest, the final bill came to $87,000. [Lois Weiss and Andy Geller, Rev. Deadbeat Bounced, New York Post, July 13, 2002.]

How to Baffle a Pygmy

Louis Raets runs something called the Oasis Nature Park in Yvoir, Belgium, about an hour’s drive southeast of Brussels. Usually he exhibits tropical fish and butterflies, but on a trip to Cameroon he got the idea of setting up an African exhibit to raise money for the Baka tribe of Pygmies. He flew in ten Pygmies, and built a traditional Baka village. The Pygmies dance for visitors, play music, and show videos in return for 40 percent of the $6.00 admission charge. The money is to pay for schools and wells in Cameroon.

The exhibit has, of course, been criticized as “racist.” “We disapprove of this exposition, which brings back the exploitation of humans and defies human dignity,” says Joseph Aganda of the Movement for New Migrants, an advocacy group for African immigrants. “Human rights” activists even appealed to Belgium’s civil rights authorities to shut down the show, but they declined, saying it was not “racist.” Still, the word is out that the Pygmy exhibit is reprehensible, and very few people have come to see it. The Pygmies are baffled. “I don’t understand,” says one in broken French. “We are carrying out a humanitarian project . . . for a better life. That was our objective for coming here.” [Constant Brand, Pygmies’ Exhibition Causes Uproar, AP, Aug. 20, 2002.]

You Change, Not Us!

Utah, long dominated by white Mormons, has a growing Hispanic population just like every other state, with the Hispanics increasing by 138 percent during the 1990s, from 84,597 to 201,559. Pam Perlich of the University of Utah reports that 71 percent of the Hispanics who work in the state are either farm workers or manual laborers. Unlike the small number of Hispanics who came to Utah in the 1960s and 1970s, today’s newcomers make little effort to learn English or assimilate. They plan to stay in America only as long as it suits them, and then go back to the countries they consider home. Archie Archuleta, a Salt Lake City administrator for minority affairs, explains that the state now has enough Hispanics to provide a homey atmosphere in which they can work, shop, and socialize as they did back home. “Most of us don’t push for assimilation,” he explains. “We push for accommodation.” [Tim Sullivan, Latinos Change Assimilation Trend, Salt Lake Tribune, Aug. 13, 2002.]

Buy Your Prayer Rug Today

Two Muslim clerics living in London recently gave interviews to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, in which they described their goal of converting the West to Islam. According to translations provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, they expect to accomplish this either by military invasion or by missionary work.

Syrian-born Sheik Omar Bakri, who founded and leads the Islamic Religious Court in London, explains how it will happen: “Allah willing, we will transform the West into Dar Al-Islam [a region under Islamic rule] by means of invasion without. If an Islamic state arises and invades [the West] we will be its army and its soldiers from within. If not, [we will change the West] through ideological invasion . . . without war and killing.” Mr. Bakri adds that the West is guilty of imposing “man-made law” on Muslims, but that a “[future] Islamic regime will impose Islamic religious rulings on them.” In the meantime, he says Muslims will live in the West but will not be part of it. “We do not believe that it is permitted to integrate into the societies in which we live,” he says. Mr. Bakri supports “interaction with society by means of my religion and my belief, in order to change the environment, not be changed by it . . .

His colleague, Egyptian-born Sheik Abu Hamza, imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque, says he is a British citizen only “to the extent that I use my British documents to move around.” “It is a superficial identity;” he adds. “[R]eal identity is in the heart and in the mind, and this is the [identity] that drives a man. This [identity] is Islam . . .” He says the current debate among Britons over immigration control can be solved only if they convert to Islam: “The only solution for stopping their racism is to call on them to join Islam, so they will realize what a civilization they are missing.” [Jon Dougherty, Muslim Leaders Pledge to ‘Transform West,’ WorldNetDaily.com Aug. 13, 2002.]

Reparations Rally Fizzles

Organizers had hoped tens of thousands of blacks would turn out on the Mall in Washington, DC, August 17, for the Millions for Reparations March, but only a few thousand showed up. Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and Rep. John Conyers were the most prominent speakers. “We cannot settle for some jive token,” said Rev. Farrakhan. “We need millions of acres of land that black people can build. We’re not begging white people. We are just demanding what is justly ours.” Antoinette Harrell-Miller of New Orleans agreed: “They owe us. I want justice,” she says. “They built this country off the free labor of our ancestors.” [Janelle Carter, DC Rally Urges Slavery Reparations, AP, Aug. 18, 2002.]

Iowa Takes the Lead

Eight of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists had valid Virginia driver’s licenses they had received by showing notarized copies of leases or utility bills that were supposed to prove residency. After the attacks, at least six states changed the way they grant driver’s licenses to foreigners. Iowa used to give a license to anyone with a social security number and a work permit, but since July 15, it now requires foreigners to show INS papers that prove they are in the country legally, and that indicate how long they are permitted to remain. A license issued to a foreigner expires at the end of the applicant’s legal residency, and is in no case granted for more than two years. On the face of the license, in red capital letters, it says “Nonrenewable — documentation required.” Immigrant groups are screaming that the new regulations are racist and unconstitutional. [Vess Mitev, Licenses Identify Foreign Nationals, Register (Des Moines), Aug. 13, 2002.]

Who’s Gifted?

Florida schools have long refused to accept the fact that blacks and Hispanics are less intelligent than whites and Asians, and therefore should not be equally represented in classes for gifted students. For several years, the state required whites and Asians to score 130 on an IQ test, but let in blacks and Hispanics who scored 116. In some school districts, “underrepresented minorities” got in if they managed a score of 116 on either the math or verbal portion of the test.

A group of white Florida parents sued arguing that race-based distinctions are unconstitutional, and won. Now, everyone has to score 130 — but there is a catch. Any student who doesn’t speak English very well or who qualifies for free school lunches still gets into gifted classes with a score of 116. Some think the new rules, which go into effect this academic year, will cut black and Hispanic participation in gifted classes by half. As an analysis by the Miami Herald shows, the effect depends mainly on parents’ incomes. In mostly-minority schools with lots of poor students, most of the “gifted” will still be “gifted.” The non-whites who will be kept out are the ones with better-off parents.

The state has promised to come up with some trick to let in more non-whites without explicitly taking race into account, but has so far not managed to square the circle. [Steve Harrison, Minorities’ Access to Programs for Gifted at Risk, Herald (Miami), Jul. 15, 2002.]

‘Sanctity’ for Blacks

Azurest is a seaside community of 119 families near Sag Harbor, New York. It was established in 1947 as a vacation retreat for blacks who were not welcome in white areas. It is now the preferred summering ground for wealthy blacks who can afford to go anywhere but prefer to vacation with other blacks. Among the residents are Earl G. Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise magazine; Helen Marshall, Queens borough president; Cecil Broderick, a retired physician and the deputy mayor of Sag Harbor; and Alma Brown, widow of Ron Brown, who was commerce secretary in the Clinton administration.

The New York Times recently wrote a sympathetic story about the psychological peace Azurest provides to blacks. It quotes Laurance Graham on its joys: “When vacationing among our own, in places that have been embraced by us for so long, there is a comfort — and a sanctity — that makes it possible to forget that there is a white power structure touching our lives at all.” The newspaper even put the word “sanctity” in the title of its article. “This is a historically black community,” says Lynn Hendy, president of the property owners association. “I’d like it to stay that way.” [Jane Gross, A Black Enclave in the Hamptons Offering Comfort and Sanctity, New York Times, July 16, 2002.]

Down Mexico Way

Enrique Sanchez calls himself the “second best professional shaman” in Mexico. Earlier this year, he says he was contacted by a jailed drug dealer facing murder charges, who asked him to magic him out of prison. Mr. Sanchez drove to the US border town of Nuevo Laredo, where he had an appointment with 19-year-old Patricia Elizabeth Sanchez, who wanted help with her love life. “I sniffed her blood like the shaman I am,” he says, “and knew it would do for the sacrifice.” He took Miss Sanchez to a secluded place and raped her, slit her throat, and collected her blood in a jar. Mr. Catemaco then drove to the city of Catemaco in the southeastern state of Veracruz, which is famous for its annual gathering of witches and shamans. There, on the islet of Cocodrilo he performed the ceremony intended to get the drug dealer out of jail. “I did what I did and it was done well, according to the science I practice,” he says.

At some point Mr. Sanchez was caught and now faces murder charges. When asked how things went wrong and whether he is in danger from the authorities, he replied “I’m not wearing the amulets that protect me.” His client is still in jail. [Mexico Shaman Sacrifices Woman to Work “Magic” for Jailed Client, EFE (Mexican News Service), Aug. 17, 2002.]

Arizona Graduates

Graduation Rates
Boys Girls
Asian 81.9 86.1
White 75.5 82.4
Black 62.6 73
Hispanic 53.3 63.9
Indian 50.1 61.4

Of the 57,585 students who were freshmen in Arizona high schools in 1996, only 71 percent graduated four years later. As in every state, more girls than boys graduated, as did more whites and Asians than blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. As is often the case, Hispanics graduated at even lower rates than blacks.

Joys of Diversity

Maximiliano Esparza is a an illegal immigrant from Mexico. In 1988 he was convicted of robbery and kidnapping in Los Angeles and was sentenced to six years in prison. He got out in 1992 and was on probation until 1995 — it is not clear why he was not immediately deported. This year he showed up in Klamath Fall, Oregon, where he got a job repairing stadium bleachers. On Sept. 1, in the early hours of the morning, he came upon two nuns of the Orthodox Catholic Church, who were performing what is known as walking prayers. He raped them both, and killed one by strangling her with her rosary. He has been arraigned in the Klamath County court and could face the death penalty. [Peter Martini, Hispanic Alien Rapes & Strangles Nun, Herald and News (Klamath Fall, Oregon), Sept. 5, 2002.]

Celebrating Diversity

In Brooklyn on Aug. 12, when a gang of young Dominicans on the prowl wandered into a Bangladeshi neighborhood looking for a bicycle to steal, a gang of young Bangladeshis ran them off. The Dominicans came back with reinforcements and began attacking anyone who looked Bangladeshi. Thirty-seven-year-old Mizinor Rahman was on his way home when he saw the violence. As Mr. Rahman dialed 911 from his cell phone, one of the Dominicans confronted him, screaming, “Who are you calling? The police?” The Dominican mob then proceeded to beat the Bangladeshi immigrant to death. [Larry Celona, Ikimulisa Sockwell-Mason and Michael Sofronski, Man Beaten to Death in Brooklyn Brawl, New York Post, Aug. 13, 2002.] Three days later, police arrested two Dominicans in a case that has attracted little attention even in New York City.

INS at Work

On July 26, in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, police officer Thomas Agredano stopped a van carrying seven men because its license plate light was out. He learned the men were illegal aliens from Mexico on their way to Tennessee to harvest tomatoes, and contacted the Immigration Task Force in nearby Dalton. INS Agent Doug Sullivan told Officer Agredano there were no vacant holding cells, and to let the men go.

INS spokesman Sue Brown says agents often let illegals go because the agency doesn’t have enough cells. Miss Brown says that if the illegals had been smuggled or were engaged in criminal activity, the priority for detaining them would have been higher. Officer Agredano released the illegals, who resumed their journey to the tomato fields. [John Madewell, Illegal Immigrants Stopped and Released, www.newschannel9.com (WTVC-TV, Chattanooga, Tenn.), July 29, 2002.]

Frank Talk From Franks

Stephen Franks, a member of the New Zealand parliament, has come very close to saying the right thing about immigration: the country must discriminate on the basis of religion and cultural background. He insists New Zealanders have the right to determine the flavor and cultural climate in which they live. “We do not want to create ghettos of people whose values are intractably opposed to ours,” he says, adding that aliens should never be allowed to “swamp” natives. He says he has learned much from traveling to different countries: “I like the difference but that doesn’t mean I want to live with it. And I think that’s a legitimate choice for people to make.”

Although Mr. Franks has not specifically proposed that immigrants be selected by race, the government appears to assume that is what he means. “As long as I am Minister of Immigration,” says Lianne Dalziel, “we will not have an immigration policy that specifies the colour of an individual’s skin as a pre-requisite for residence in New Zealand.” [Vernon Small, Act Insists Migrants Must Fit In, New Zealand Herald, Sept. 5, 2002.]

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Letters from readers
LETTERS FROM READERS

Sir — I think last month’s letter writers — Ted Sallis and Michael Walker — identified the main problem regarding the Wichita Massacre: the inability or refusal of whites to resist aggression. The problem is particularly acute in the middle class.

Earlier this year some of my female students apologized for missing class. In every case they had been mugged and beaten up by gangs of blacks, some as young as twelve. When one student finally admitted this, she immediately added, “But I’m not racist.” When I suggested harsh measures for these miscreants, she objected. I can only conclude that this unnatural response to being attacked is the consequence of multicultural indoctrination. People who have no stomach for defending themselves will not lift a finger to defend others. If enough people are corrupted by this distemper, white America and Europe are doomed.

On another matter, David Horowitz is, as we say in England, a very good bloke — the scourge of liberal hypocrisy and double standards on race. That said, I would like to congratulate Mr. Taylor on his reply. A clearer, more honorable, more decent, more just, more reasonable statement of the white nationalist cause would be difficult to find. Truly inspiring.

Frank Ellis, Leeds, England

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Sir — In “The Wichita Massacre” the survivor says she did not grab her attacker’s weapon when she had the chance because she did not know how to use firearms. The anti-gun fanatics should be very proud of themselves.

With regard to the bovine behavior of the male victims, I recall reading that an ancient Spartan was asked why Sparta, alone of all Greek cities, had no walls. He replied that the walls of Sparta were her men. God help us all if those young men are examples of our “walls.”

George Bolton, Carlsbad, Calif.

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Sir — Congratulations on your reply to David Horowitz. The case for the true America of the Founding Fathers can’t be stated much more clearly. The point regarding Israel remaining majority Jewish while the United States becomes a Third-World mix is also well taken. Until after the Second World War, when our government began to play minority politics, everyone accepted the views you document. Thanks for a great piece of writing.

Tyrone Crowley, Prattville, Ala.

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Sir — Your article in the August AR (“Matt Bruno Wins the Dashes”) reminded me of something that happened during a Cleveland Cavaliers — New York Knicks basketball game in the 1970s. The only white player on the floor was a guy named Lambert, who played for the Cavaliers. During the game he sat next to the Cleveland coach, Bill Fitch, who was also white. About 10 minutes into the game, a white fan sitting several rows behind me made it clear whom he wanted to see play. “Hey Fitch,” he called, “who’s that sitting beside you?” The coach ignored him, but the fan kept on asking, each time louder, until Lambert entered the game.

The spectators roared their approval. Every time Lambert touched the ball, the overwhelmingly white crowd cheered. Lambert finally took his first shot and scored. The crowd went wild! He scored twice more and we were on our feet, shouting “Lambert! Lambert!” Before that, I had had trouble staying interested in the game, but now the spectators were fired up.

Unfortunately, the excitement was short lived. Lambert was pulled, and did not return. Still, for about 10 minutes, we were one race and one people, cheering on someone who looked like us. I believe feelings of racial identity are buried in the subconscious of all people of European descent. It only takes the right person or circumstances to awaken them. That night proved it.

A. M., St. Louis, Mo.

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Sir — As a new subscriber who is thoroughly disgusted by the direction our nation has taken, I am grateful to have found a publication that helps keep me up to date on events not covered by the media. Still, most of what you report is negative, and suggests no signs of improvement. What can we do?

In my opinion, progress requires two things. First, we must be prepared to be called “racists.” Even though the accusation is false, our opponents have been able to use this weapon to stop almost anyone in his tracks. Second, we must organize. There are many small groups that understand what is happening. We must organize these groups into an effective organization that fights for the rights of the majority, and start bailing before the ship sinks. The Roman Empire was never defeated in war; it crumbled from within.

Tony Shaw, Cincinnati, Ohio

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Sir — I congratulate you on a marvelous addition to your web site: the new Archives section. I had not visited AR in some time, and, therefore did not realize you had undertaken this profoundly valuable project. I have been able to reach back — far into the early days of AR — and find a vast sum of intellectual (and racial) wealth that I would have otherwise missed. All of us battling for racial survival need this kind of historical information, and this new dimension of AR is priceless. On behalf of our ungrateful race I sincerely thank you. Perhaps there is still some hope that we will yet be saved from our own madness.

Charles Roberts, Austin, Tex.

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