By John Ballard
This interview with Mark Potok is worth a listen. He and the Southern Poverty Law Center have been tracking splinter groups for years. Listen carefully about three minutes in to his description of the "sovereign citizens movement" which has been around for forty or fifty years.
If you want a shocking exercise in reality, check out the You Tube collections that pop up when you do a search for "sovereign citizenship movement." There you will find, among others, a seventeen-part recruitment series by "Johnny Liberty" and an HBO documentary, Soldiers in The Army of God.
The Army of God is a militant anti-abortionist organization whose operational method is one of Leaderless Resistance, a type of cell structured organizing that is designed to be highly difficult to trace and monitor. This structure also makes coordination and cooperation between cells very difficult, minimalizing its ability to plan large operations. The Army of God coordinates communication between groups and those incarcerated for crimes against the government and medical facilities, so called 'Prisoners for Christ'
The group promotes what they call 'defensive action' as an appropriate means of ending what they, and many others view as the murder or killing of the 'unborn'. This style of linguistic language specific to a group or ideology is common among extremist organizations and cults and special attention should be paid to their terminology and its ability to foster in-group understanding.
While primarily religious in nature, this Army of God has strong connections with certain political views, such as the Sovereign Citizen movement (itself an offshoot from Christian Identity teachings) and staunch conservatism.
As I listen to the messages of sovereign citizenship movement I hear an echo of the Tea Party movement loud and clear. Please, somebody, tell me I'm wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment