God and Country: Revolution as a Religious Imperative on the Radical Right

This article examines three different appeals to the legitimizing power of religion in the literature of the contemporary radical right. It focuses first on the interpretation of the Christian Bible in The Field Manual of the Free Militia, second on the more diffuse references to a new civil religion in William Pierce's two novels, Hunter and The Turner Diaries, and finally on the myths and rituals that are growing up around the date of April 19. In each instance, through the respective strategies of scriptural exegesis, fabrication of a civil religion, and adoption of myth and ritual as forms of expression, religion is used to provide a primary sanction for a violent resistance to the status quo. The article, argues that, far from being peripheral, in the examples discussed religion is central, because it is used to legitimize the seriousness and ultimacy of the revolutionary cause.