Blood and Faith: Christianity in American White Nationalism

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Explores the complex relationship between Christianity and American white nationalists. "Berry’s groundbreaking debut traces the history of the "alt-right"—an offshoot of conservatism that mixes white nationalism and populism—while unpacking its relationship to the religious right and the tension between them. Certain branches of Christianity have long shared space with the nationalist movement in the U.S., but Berry provocatively posits that racialized Christian mythologies are not the only religious ideologies influencing white racist activists. Berry cites Odinism (a Norse-inspired paganism) and Creativity (a new age racialized movement that began in the 1970s) as the two main examples. Berry stresses that understanding this trend away from Christianity in racialized, right-wing politics is particularly important due to rising "pan-European ethnonationalism committed to the survival of the imagined global white racial community." The chosen medium for the movement is the internet, and its goal is to undermine the mainstream political establishment. Berry’s primary mission is to examine why white nationalists are rejecting historical connections to racist Christianity in favor of a new Odinism, racialist Paganism, and other Euro-Aryan ideologies that are providing “spiritual” foundations for the larger goal of "white racial survival." This is a must-read for all Americans who want to understand the shifting spiritual allegiances of the strengthening white nationalist movements throughout the U.S. and Europe."—Publishers Weekly starred review "Berry does a fine job bringing together the ideological, ‘biological,’ and theological strands of belief that form the bones and sinews of the race movement in the United States."—Jeffrey Kaplan, School of International and Public Affairs, Jilin University, Changchun, China "A powerful, original, and extremely timely book. Tracing the history of white nationalism in the United States, Berry examines a series of hugely influential but today little known figures and movements, revealing their key role in the broader landscape of American religious, political, and racist discourses. Perhaps most importantly, Berry’s book also highlights the continuities between these twentieth-century racist currents and our own historical moment, with the rise of the alt-right movement, and the resurgence of white nationalism."—Hugh Urban, author of The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion Damon T. Berry is assistant professor in the religious studies department at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He has published articles in the Journal of Hate Studies and Security Journal. Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Racial Protectionism and White Religion 1 1. Revilo Oliver and the Emerging Racialist Critique of Christianity 19 2. William Pierce and the Cosmotheist Critique of Christianity 44 3. Anti-Christianity in Ben Klassen’s “Racial Holy War” 74 4. “Authentic” Whiteness and Protectionism in Racialist Odinism 102 5. Esoteric Racialism and Christianity 128 6. The North American New Right and Contemporary White Nationalism’s Latest Religious Adaptations 155 Conclusion: Making White Nationalism Familiar 191 Epilogue: The “Alt-Right,” Trumpian Populism, and White Religious America 199 Notes 209 Bibliography 235 Index 251