Religious Terrorism: Moral Decay, the Army of God and Islamic Fundamentalism

"A glance at history, or at the pages of any newspaper, reveals that ideas which divide one group of human beings from another, only to unite them in slaughter, generally have their roots in religion," says one passage in the text, The End of Faith: Religion, terror and the future of reason (Harris, 2004). Never have truer words been written. Through every age, and in every nation, religious terrorism of one stripe or another has been allowed to thrive; separating us one from the other before eventually, the cruel hand of violence, wielded on its behalf, touches each and every one of us in some profound and lasting way.

We cannot point our fingers at any one religion and say, "right here is where the blame lies," for to do so would be to deny the truth. Every religion is equally guilty, for every religion under the face of the Sun has had one sect or another resort to violence as a means to enforce God's will. Every religion has suffered. And with the guilt, with the violence and with the suffering of every religion has come the suffering of those in every nation.

Those that perpetrate such heinous acts often live in our own country, walk the very same streets and sit in the exact same churches as the rest of us. While the attention, anger and mistrust of our nation focuses on those from foreign lands fighting in the name of a foreign God, domestic religious terrorism has thrived in our midst for decades.

Religious terrorism is by no means a new concept; throughout every age religion has been perverted by those that believe God's will, no matter what god, must be enforced by any means necessary. Likewise, domestic religious terrorism is not a new concept. From the very beginning, religious terrorism has dwelt on our shore and has been carried out by our own people; one against the other.

When the Puritans first settled on these shores, they did so to escape religious persecution. So too, did their Quaker neighbors. Unfortunately, however, the persecution was not left ashore in Europe, but instead crossed over with our ancestors and in very short order had gained another captive audience within the colonies. The Quakers, commonly referred to as the Society of Friends, fled persecution at the hands of the Anglican Church for persecution at the hands of their Puritan neighbors (Glenn, 2007). Quakers that ventured into Puritan colonies were often imprisoned, if not executed, or banished from the colonies.

Between about 1660 and 1664 in Massachusetts twenty-two Quakers had been banished on pain of death, three martyred, three had their right ear cut off, one had been burned in the hand with a letter H, three had been ordered by the court to be sent to Barbadoes as slaves, thirty-one had received six hundred and fifty stripes administered with extreme cruelty, £1044 of property had been taken, and another was martyred in 1661 (Upsall as cited in The Quakers: Hostile bonnets and gowns, 2006).

While religious persecution is defined as "a program or campaign to exterminate, drive away, or subjugate a people because of their religion" (Dictionary.com, n.d.) and religious terrorism is defined as "the use of violence to further what is seen as divinely commanded purposes," (Web definition, n.d.) one is quite similar to another and, in many cases, one breeds the other. With that in mind, it is logical to name the religious persecution of the Quakers as one of the first acts of religious terrorism to touch these shores, as the Puritans persecuted the Quakers out of the belief that God wanted it as such (Glenn, 2007). .

Today the world that existed in the 1600s is no longer recognizable. The Quakers and the Puritans have given way to other religious sects; however, religious persecution and religious terrorism still abound and in even greater numbers than they did then. It can be argued that the signing of the Declaration of Independence help to start religious extremism of a political nature; at least in one sense. Christian extremists, for example, "seek to reform society along Christian lines and force society to conform to their conservative Christian values" and they mean to reach this goal by any means necessary including through gaining and exerting political influence, and in some cases, through acts of violence (Christian Extremism, 2007). Nothing has driven that mission home in the minds of American citizens' quite as forcefully as violent pro-life groups such as the Army of God. While groups such as the Army of God do not come from any single Christian denomination and their acts of terror cannot rightly be laid at the feet of Christendom, the perversion of the Christian religion to suit their own beliefs is evident in their dogma.

The term Army of God was first used in 1982 when Don Benny Anderson and two supporters kidnapped an abortion provider and his wife in Illinois. Anderson promised to release the couple only if the United States outlawed abortion. That did not happen, but the couple was later released and Anderson and his accomplices were convicted of both the kidnapping and a string of abortion center arsons (Clinic violence, 2007). Since the 1982 creation of the Army of God, members of the organization have been involved in numerous attacks including the 1984 bombing of the National Abortion Federation and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Atlanta Olympic bombing, the bombing of an abortion clinic and gay bar in Atlanta, the shooting of 7 abortion providers between 1994 and 1997, the sending of 550 anthrax letters to abortion clinics in 2001, and the threatening of murder to 42 abortion clinic workers (Army of God, 2007).

The number of members in the Army of God are not known, but amongst the ranks have existed such notorious figures as Eric Rudolph, Paul Hill, James Kopp and Clayton Waagner, each of whom were charged with at least one of the crimes listed above. One excerpt from the Army of God Manual states that the Army of God, ...is a real Army, and God is the General and Commander-in-Chief. The soldiers, however, do not usually communicate with one another. Very few have ever met each other. And when they do, each is usually unaware of the other's soldier status. That is why the Feds will never stop this Army. Never. And we have not yet even begun to fight.

The Army of God is currently believed to be led by Donald Spitz who acted as the spiritual advisor to Paul Hill before his 2003 execution and now hosts the Army of God website (Army of God, 2007).

The Army of God website is resplendent with their beliefs. Entire sections have been dedicated to people such as Paul Hill, who the Army of God refers to as an American Hero. Also available on the Army of God website is the Army of God Manual. While the website does not include the entire Army of God Manual, the website does include sections of the manual. A search on Google further parts of the manual, titled 99 Covert Ways to Stop Abortion has been published. The reading of these sections, in which entire portions have been deleted because of the dangerous information contained within, of the Army of God Manual, leaves one with a very good idea of the philosophies and beliefs of the organization. The Army of God believes that they must use any means necessary to protect God's Children, including violence, the destruction of abortion clinics and even giving their own lives to the cause.

A.O.G.: Certainly. First by disarming the murder weapons. That is, by destroying the structures where the actual crimes are being committed. Second, by disarming the persons perpetrating the crimes by removing their hands, or at least their thumbs below the second digit. (AOG Manual as cited by Bustilloz, n.d.)

The epilogue of the Army of God Manual starts with the following excerpt "we are living during the rapid decline of western thought and culture. It is almost impossible for us to think logically and then act based on that logic. All of our education teaches us non-reason" (AOG Manual as cited by Bustilloz, n.d.). The epilogue goes on to say, "Passive resistance is woefully inadequate against mass murder. The use of force is also woefully inadequate against mass murder, unless that force is directed against the perpetrator of the crime" (AOG Manual as cited by Bustilloz, n.d.). To the Army of God, passive resistance is simply not enough to overcome what they perceive to be the moral decay of American society. They surmise that the decay must be fought, logically, with force used directly against those who have started the decline of western society; the abortionists, the gay community, and the non believers.

These beliefs are similar to those that Islamic fundamentalists fighting Jihad possess; each group believes they are fighting the decline of society by forcing what they perceive to be Gods will upon everyone. Both groups fight with an "us vs. them" mentality. Either you are with them, or you are against them. There is no middle ground, to their way of thinking, when fighting God's war. Both Islamic fundamentalism and the Army of God came into existence out of similar thought and with similar goals; to enforce God's will by any means necessary. One difference between the groups, however, is evident. Islamic fundamentalists have gained a foothold in reaching their goals by putting into positions of power those that espouse their beliefs. The Army of God has been unable to do that thus far. In the end, however, Islamic fundamentalism and groups such as the Army of God aren't all that different. They intend to reach very similar goals however they can. The enemy to each group is the same; the moral decay of society and those who perpetrate said moral decay. They merely fight in the name of different Gods.

Religious terrorism is universal. While we fight international terrorism, we must also remember that domestic terrorism thrives and cannot be ignored. Nor must we forget that every religion has had its share of followers who have twisted the teachings to suit their own purposes. These groups of extremists often believe that their goals will be achieved through the use of violence and force and these groups all believe they are doing the work of their God. The Army of God fights moral decay by targeting abortionists, the gay community and non-believers in America. The Islamic fundamentalists fight moral decay by targeting the western way of life and forcing the people of their countries into submission. While the dogma of these groups is often perceived to be different because each does the will of a different God, the core beliefs are the same; the morality of society is declining and those responsible must be punished.

References

Army of God. (2007). MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Database. Retrieved March 2, 2007, from TKB Data Website: http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=28

Bustilloz, L. (n.d.). Epilogue. In The Army of God. Retrieved March 5, 2007, from http://www.skepticfiles.org/misc3/aog-book.htm

Clinic violence: Army of God. (2007). National Abortion Federation. Retrieved March 5, 2007, from http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/violence/army_god.html

Christian extremism. (2007). Patriotism. Retrieved March 6, 2007, from About Inc Web site: http://atheism.about.com/od/christiannationalism

Glenn, F. N. (2007, February 9). Religion and Law. Retrieved March 6, 2007, from Associated Content Web site: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/138819/religion_and_law.html

persecution. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved March 05, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/persecution

Harris, S. (2004). The end of faith: Religion, terror and the future of reason. United States: W.W. Norton.
Religious Terrorism. (n.d.). Google Web Definition. Retrieved March 6, 2007, from
http://www.google.com/search?

Spitz, D. (n.d.). Army of God. Retrieved March 4, 2007, from Army of God Web site:
http://armyofgod.com

The Quakers: Hostile bonnets and gowns. (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2007, from
http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/enquirer/quakers.html