Michael Bray | |
---|---|
Criminal status | served 46 months from 1985 to 1989; living in Wilmington, Ohio since December 2003 |
Spouse | Jayne Bray (1976–present) |
Children | 11 |
Criminal charge | conspiracy and possessing unregistered explosive devices in relation to 10 different bomb attacks |
Penalty | 10 years |
Reverend Michael Bray is an American Lutheran minister who was convicted in 1985, along with two other defendants of two counts of conspiracy and one count of possessing unregistered explosive devices in relation to seven bombings of women's health clinics and three offices of women's health advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. [1] Bray and his wife, Jayne, are the named defendants in the Supreme Court decision Bray v. Alexandria, a ruling that determined anti-abortion demonstrators could not block entrances to abortion clinics in order to stop patients from entering to receive services.
At the time of his conviction he was a member of the Christian extremist terrorist organization Army of God. Because of his involvement with the organization, public acts of terrorism, and suspected authorship of the underground manual Army of God, [2] Bray is considered "the intellectual father of the extreme radical fringe of the antiabortion movement which engages in terrorism." [3] Initially sentenced to ten years in prison, he agreed to a Alford plea and served only 46 months between 1985 and 1989.
Bray attended the United States Naval Academy for one year as a Midshipman. He was also a volunteer firefighter with the Bowie Maryland Fire Department. [4] He was based in Bowie, Maryland, and later moved to Wilmington, Ohio, where he professes to be a member of the Army of God, considered a terrorist organization by the F.B.I. among others. [5] Some of the writings that Bray completed during his involvement with the Army of God included the following:
While most nations have their own specific legal definition of terrorism, many terrorist researchers and experts have expressed the need for a universal definition that is narrow and can be applied globally. [6] [7] A proposed definition that fits this bill defines terrorism as a "focused attack on unarmed, non-combatant civilians, that has a political aim" [7] Following these guidelines for determining whether an egregious act of violence can be considered a terrorist attack or not, makes it apparent that acts Rev. Michael Bray engaged in can, in fact, be classified as terrorism. The attacks that were led by Bray himself as well as other Army of God members specifically targeted women's healthcare providers. [2] The providers were civilian physicians, nurses, and other employees who were unarmed. [2] The aim of Bray's attacks, as well as the aim others carried out by the Army of God movement, was political in the fact that the goal was to create enough hysteria and chaos that Roe v. Wade would be eventually overturned. [2]
In 1994, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) suspected that he and other anti-abortion figures might be developing "a conspiracy that endeavors to achieve political or social change through activities that involve force or violence", as stated in a confidential Teletype message sent to all 56 F.B.I. field offices. [8] This further justifies classifying these acts as terrorism.
In addition to the bombings that Bray participated in himself, he authored several publications that advocated for the killing doctors and health workers who perform abortions which inspired the actions of other Army of God members, and provided detailed instructions on how to do so as he is presumed to be the author of the Army of God manual. Bray became the spokesperson for Rev. Paul Jennings Hill after he murdered Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in 1994 at a women's health clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Bray also publicly defended the actions of Shelly Shannon who shot Dr. George Tiller as he left his clinic in Wichita, Kansas, and later applauded Scott Roeder for eventually murdering him while he was attending a church service in 2009. [2]
The actions of Bray and other Army of God members were considered extreme and denounced by other anti-abortion groups at the time. [2] Bray's Lutheran background informed the ideology he eventually developed in the time he spent in the Army of God movement, although this involved taking many Biblical scriptures and teaching out of context while actively challenging traditional interpretations made by mainstream theologians. [2] Perhaps one of the most notable interpretations was the way Bray justified violent actions, and taking human life. From Bray's perspective, Christianity granted him the right to defend unborn children even if it meant doing violence, destroying property, and even killing doctors and staff who were "murdering them". [2] The Army of God used a single Bible passage, Psalms 91: "You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day", to justify this line their logic and interpreted this line as divine approval for their actions. [2] They further justified their terrorist actions by claiming that they were defensive in nature, as they were defending the lives of innocent unborn children. [2] That is, the targeted attacks on health care workers and women's health clinics were not done out of revenge against doctors for performing abortions, but to defend future lives who would be lost.
An age-old ethical dilemma in Christian scholarship is determining if or when one is justified in his use of violence as a means of pursuing a righteous cause. [2] In other words, is there such thing as a "just war"? The Army of God saw themselves as being "at war" with the mainstream U.S. culture following the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade when abortion became legalized. From their perspective, society was then divided into two parts, the secular state which condoned the practice of abortion, and those who shared their Christian identity and viewed this practice as morally reprehensible. [2] Bray found perceived support for his justification of violence and murder in the previous writings of 20th-century Lutheran pastors Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who he admired as a Christian martyr in his attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler, and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. However, a primary difference between their ideology and Bray's is that both of them supported a separation between church and state, while Bray and the Army of God advocated for a type of politics that was biblically based and rooted in Christianity. [2]
Eric Robert Rudolph, also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American domestic terrorist convicted for a series of bombings across the Southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injured over 100 others, including the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. His stated motive was an opposition to "the ideals of global socialism" and to "abortion on demand", both of which he claimed were condoned by the United States government. For five years, Rudolph was listed as one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives until he was caught in 2003.
Paul Jennings Hill was an American minister, religious extremist, and anti-abortion terrorist who murdered physician John Britton and Britton's bodyguard, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Barrett, in 1994. Hill was sentenced to death by lethal injection and was executed on September 3, 2003.
Christian terrorism, a form of religious terrorism, refers to terrorist acts which are committed by groups or individuals who profess Christian motivations or goals. Christian terrorists justify their violent tactics through their interpretation of the Bible and Christianity, in accordance with their own objectives and worldview.
A lone wolf attack, or lone actor attack, is a particular kind of mass murder, committed in a public setting by an individual who plans and commits the act on their own. In the United States, such attacks are usually committed with firearms. In other countries, knives are sometimes used to commit mass stabbings. Although definitions vary, most databases require a minimum of four victims for the event to be considered a mass murder.
James Charles Kopp is an American who was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 sniper-style murder of Barnett Slepian, an American physician from Amherst, New York who performed abortions. Prior to his capture, Kopp was on the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. On June 7, 1999, he had become the 455th fugitive placed on the list by the FBI. He was affiliated with the militant Roman Catholic anti-abortion group known as The Lambs of Christ.
Army of God (AOG) is an American Christian terrorist organization, members of which have perpetrated anti-abortion violence. According to the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security's joint Terrorism Knowledge Base, the Army of God is an active underground terrorist organization in the United States. In addition to numerous property crimes, the group has committed acts of kidnapping, attempted murder, and murder. The AOG was formed in 1982 and, while sharing a common ideology and tactics, the group's members claim that they rarely communicate with each other; this is known more formally as leaderless resistance. The group forbids those who wish to "take action against babykilling abortionists" from discussing their plans with anyone in advance.
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, as well as arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
In the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as terrorist acts that were carried out within the United States by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.
Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, 506 U.S. 263 (1993) is a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that Section 1985(3) of The Civil Rights Act of 1871 does not provide a federal cause of action against persons obstructing access to abortion clinics. Alexandria Health Clinic, along with several other abortion clinics, sued to prevent Jayne Bray and other anti-abortion protesters from blocking the entrance to clinics in Washington D.C.
Jewish extremist terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by extremists within Judaism.
Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.
The Phineas Priesthood, also called Phineas Priests, are American domestic terrorists who adhere to the ideology which was set forth in the 1990 book Vigilantes of Christendom: The Story of the Phineas Priesthood by Richard Kelly Hoskins.
George Richard Tiller was an American physician and abortion provider from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which, at the time, was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide that provided late-term abortions.
Donald Spitz is an American Pentecostal minister and anti-abortion extremist who serves as the spokesperson and webmaster for the Army of God, an anti-abortion Christian terrorist organization that has been identified as an active underground terrorist organization by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security's joint Terrorism Knowledge Base. He lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he has been watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for over 20 years.
In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.
On May 31, 2009, George Tiller, an American physician from Wichita, Kansas, who was one of the few doctors in the United States to perform late terminations of pregnancy, was murdered by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion extremist. Tiller was shot to death at pointblank range during a Sunday morning service at his church, Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was serving as an usher. Tiller had previously survived an assassination attempt in 1993 when Shelley Shannon shot him in the arms.
David Francis Leach is an American anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa. He publishes the Prayer & Action News quarterly newsletter (1989–present), and edits the website The Partnership Machine (1998–present) which covers social issues including abortion, politics, religion, immigration, divorce, sodomy, and education.
Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims. There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it.
Antifa is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use nonviolent direct action, incivility, or violence to achieve their aims. Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Members of antifa aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
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