| Part of a series on |
| Christian Identity |
|---|
 Category |
Sheldon Emry (July 4, 1926-1985) was a Christian Identity minister and the founder of America's Promise ministries.
| Part of a series on |
| Christian Identity |
|---|
| Category |
Sheldon Emry (July 4, 1926-1985) was a Christian Identity minister and the founder of America's Promise ministries.
Sheldon Emry was born in Jump River, Wisconsin, on July 4, 1926. Following high school, Emry attended the state teachers college in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He was drafted in 1945 and was trained as a cryptographer, serving in the US and the Philippines. Following military service, he worked in real estate. [1]
While living in Minneapolis, he became active in the John Birch Society and other anti-communist groups. At this time, he was introduced to C.O. Stadsklev, an Identity preacher in Minnetonka Hills, Minnesota. Stadsklev led a Christian Identity church known as The Gospel Temple. [1] Stadsklev also led the National Association of Kingdom Evangelicals, a British Israelism alliance similar to Howard Rand's Anglo-Saxon Federation of America. Unlike other British Israel groups, the NAKE was trinitarian, a doctrine not held by similar groups. Stadsklev promoted his views through the NAKE, The Gospel Temple, and his radio program America's Hope. [2]
In the 1960s, Emry was the vice chairman of Christian Research, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [3] [4]
In 1967, Emry accompanied Stadsklev on a two mission trips to Phoenix, Arizona and was encouraged to move there permanently in full-time Identity ministry. [1]
Emry founded America's Promise Ministries in 1967 in Phoenix, Arizona. [5] Later, through the church, he took over the America's Hope radio program previously established by Stadsklev, making it a daily program known as America's Promise Radio. [1] The radio program was broadcast nationwide on more than 25 radio stations. [5]
Emry taught that the concept of the Rapture was a doctrine developed by Jesuits to disarm and distract Christians. [6] : 105–106
On Jewish origins, Emry taught that Esau intermarried with Canaanites, and those descendants "infiltrated true Israel" to become the scribes and Pharisees. [6] : 131
The Lord's Covenant church, which was founded by Emry, distributed a concordance of Biblical laws, ranging from health to property law, in order that divine law would become the law of the land. [6] : 203
Emry was a prolific writer of pamphlets. During the inflation crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, he blamed the Federal Reserve for the nation's economic problems. [5] [7] : 181 Emry distributed literature at farm meetings, and advertised in American Agriculture News. [7] : 182 In 1984, he published Billions for the Bankers, Debts for the People, a thirty-page primer denouncing the "debt-usury banking system". [5] [7] : 372
Emry's teaching had a direct influence on introducing various members of The Order to Christian Identity beliefs, including the Robert and Sharon Merki, and Jean Craig. The Merkis were first introduced to Emry at the annual Freedom Festival held by the Christian Patriots Defense League in Flora, Illinois, in 1978. [8] : 175 Jean Craig was reached by Emry's radio and tape ministry through America's Promise. [8] : 211 Order founder Robert Mathew's mistress, Zillah Craig learned of Christian Identity from her great-aunt, who was a follower of Emry. [8] : 317
Following Emry's death in 1985, his son-in-law, David Barley, took over the ministry and moved it to Sand Point, Idaho. Continuing Emry's legacy, Barley is noted for opposing the appeal to violence of some Christian Identity leaders. [9] [10] : 13 Barley experienced difficulty in expanding the ministry when the ADL portrayed his organization with the same appeal to violence as Richard Butler's Aryan Nations. [9]
Aryan Nations is a North American antisemitic, neo-Nazi and white supremacist hate group that was originally based in Kootenai County, Idaho, about 2+3⁄4 miles (4.4 km) north of the city of Hayden Lake. Richard Girnt Butler founded Aryan Nations in the 1970s.
Messianic Judaism is a modernist and syncretic sect that considers itself Jewish. Many consider it a part of the Christian movement of evangelicalism.
British Israelism is the British nationalist, pseudoarchaeological, pseudohistorical and pseudoreligious belief that the people of Great Britain are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. With roots in the 16th century, British Israelism was inspired by several 19th century English writings such as John Wilson's 1840 Our Israelitish Origin. From the 1870s onward, numerous independent British Israelite organizations were set up throughout the British Empire as well as in the United States; as of the early 21st century, a number of these organizations are still active. In the United States, the idea gave rise to the Christian Identity movement.
Dispensationalism is a theological framework of interpreting the Bible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages or "dispensations" in which God acts with his chosen people in different ways. It is often distinguished from covenant theology. The term "dispensationalism" is attributed to Philip Mauro, a critic of the system's teachings in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom.
Christian Identity is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or people of the Aryan race and people of kindred blood, are the descendants of the ancient Israelites and are therefore God's "chosen people". It is a racial interpretation of Christianity and is not an organized religion, nor is it affiliated with specific Christian denominations. It emerged from British Israelism in the 1920s and began to take shape during the 1940s-1970s. Today it is independently practiced by individuals, independent congregations, and some prison gangs.
The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization is actively controlling international banks, and through them governments, in order to collude against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.
LaPorte Church of Christ is an independent church in Laporte, Colorado, led by Peter J. Peters from 1977 until his death.
VDARE is an American far-right website promoting opposition to immigration to the United States. It is associated with white supremacy, white nationalism, and the alt-right. Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia describes VDARE as "one of the most prolific anti-immigration media outlets in the United States" and states that it is "broadly concerned with race issues in the United States". Established in 1999, the website's editor is Peter Brimelow, who once stated that "whites built American culture" and that "it is at risk from non-whites who would seek to change it".
David Wulstan Myatt, also known by the pseudonym Abdulaziz ibn Myatt al-Qari, is a British author, religious leader, far-right and former Islamist militant, most notable for allegedly being the political and religious leader of the White nationalist theistic Satanist organization Order of Nine Angles (ONA) from 1974 onwards. He is also the founder of Numinous Way and a former Muslim.
Willis Allison Carto was an American far-right political activist. He described himself as a Jeffersonian and a populist, but was primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.
Wotansvolk promulgates a white nationalist variant of Neo-Paganism—founded in the early 1990s by Ron McVan, Katja Lane and David Lane (1938–2007) while Lane was serving a 190-year prison sentence for his actions in connection with the white supremacist revolutionary domestic terrorist organization The Order. After the founding of 14 Word Press by David Lane and his wife Katja to disseminate her husband's writings, Ron McVan joined the press in 1995 and founded Temple of Wotan. 14 Word Press - Wotansvolk proceeded to publish several books for the practice of Wotanism before becoming defunct in the early 2000s.
Black Hebrew Israelites are a new religious movement claiming that African Americans are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Some sub-groups believe that Native and Latin Americans are descendants of the Israelites as well. Black Hebrew Israelites combine elements to their teaching from a wide range of sources to varying degrees. Black Hebrew Israelites incorporate certain aspects of the religious beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism, though they have created their own interpretation of the Bible, and other influences include Freemasonry and New Thought, for example. Many choose to identify as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections.
The Church of Israel is a denomination that emerged from the Church of Christ in the Latter Day Saint movement. The denomination is noted for explicit white supremacist beliefs similar to the Christian Identity movement.
Jeffrey Kaplan is an American academic who has written and edited a number of books on racism, religious violence, terrorism and the far-right. He is an associate professor of religion at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and a member of the board of academic advisors of the university's Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence and Memory.
In the politics of the United States, the radical right is a political preference that leans towards ultraconservatism, white nationalism, white supremacy, or other far-right ideologies in a hierarchical structure which is paired with conspiratorial rhetoric alongside traditionalist and reactionary aspirations. The term was first used by social scientists in the 1950s regarding small groups such as the John Birch Society in the United States, and since then it has been applied to similar groups worldwide. The term "radical" was applied to the groups because they sought to make fundamental changes within institutions and remove persons and institutions that threatened their values or economic interests from political life.
Howard Rand, also known as Howard B. Rand and Howard Benjamin Rand was a lawyer, inventor, and three-time candidate for Massachusetts state office on the Prohibition Party ticket, He headed the former Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, a British Israelist group. He served from 1937 to 1968 as editor of its affiliate Destiny Publishers, which put out Destiny magazine.
William Potter Gale was an American political activist who was involved with several white supremacist groups, including Christian Identity and the Posse Comitatus. He had connections to the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian, Aryan Nations, the sovereign citizen movement, and the militia movement.
The Christian Defense League was founded as a white supremacist activist organization in California, and it later moved to Louisiana. According to the Anti-Defamation League, it also had a paramilitary function.
San Jacinto Capt was an influential figure in the formation of Christian Identity. He was a former klansman, pyramidologist, and an advocate of Anglo-Israelism.