  Aryan Nations
''Church of Jesus Christ Christian''
Background
The Aryan Nations is a racist, anti-semitic, white supremacist hate group. It is the political arm of the ''White Identity Church of Jesus Christ-Christian,'' long led by Richard Butler. The movement promotes the heresy known as '' Christian Identity.''
After losing a multi-million dollar lawsuit - brought civil rights attorney Norm Gissel and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of two people attacked by Aryan Nations guards - the movement lost the right to use the name ''Aryan Nations.'' The hategroup briefly used a new name, '' The Aryan National Alliance.'' However, Butler quickly abandoned it:
Butler said he will keep using the names ''Church of Jesus Christ Christian'' and ''Aryan Nations'' even though they will be part of the ''intellectual properties'' sold at the bankruptcy sale.
For a brief time, Butler changed his group's name to Aryan National Alliance, but abandoned that last week when its Web site contact defected to the Church of True Israel.
A jury on Thursday awarded $6.3 million to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards outside the white supremacist group's north Idaho headquarters.
The jury found that Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler, the group and its corporate entity, Saphire, Inc., were negligent in the selection, training and supervision of the security guards who assaulted Victoria and Jason Keenan two years ago.
The Keenans' attorney, Morris Dees, had asked the jury to award more than $11 million in punitive damages. Dees, of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, has said he hoped the penalty would be severe enough to bankrupt the Aryan Nations.
[...more...]
In Feb, 2001, the Aryan Nations compound as well as intellectual property including the names ''Aryan Nations'' and ''Church of Jesus Christ Christian'' were sold to Victoria and Jason Keenan.
Keenan and her son, Jason, sued Butler and last year won a $6.3 million judgment. They gained possession of the 20-acre compound and its nine buildings after Butler filed for bankruptcy protection, and in March they sold it for $250,000 to the Carr Foundation, a human-rights group based in Cambridge, Mass.
The foundation is headed by Greg Carr, an Idaho native and former chairman of the Internet company Prodigy Inc. In addition to his plans for the Aryan Nations site, he wants to build a human-rights center 10 miles down the road in Coeur d'Alene - all in the name of erasing Idaho's image as a haven for racists.
Meanwhile, Butler, who had to leave his compound with only the clothes on his back, has been living in a house purchased for him by fellow white supremacist Vincent Bertollini.
New Leader
At the July, 2000, Aryan Nations National Congress in Hayden Lake, Idaho, Pastor Neuman Britton, of Escondido, California, was appointed as the group's new leader. However, in Aug. 2001, he died of cancer, and in Oct. 2001, Pastor (Harold) Ray Redfaeirn - of Ohio's white supremacist ''Church of the Son's of YHVH'' - was named successor.
Redfaeirn is an an Ohio white supremacist who served six years in prison after being convicted of aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated murder in the shooting of a Dayton police officer in 1985
On the web site of the Church of True Israel, and Aryan Nations splinter group, he hails Islamic terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He has also stated that he is prepared to use ''violence as a form of defense:''
An Ohioan named to direct the hate group Aryan Nations says he won't rule out violence as the group charts a course under his leadership.
''I believe in the defense of our people,'' said Harold Ray Redfeairn, the group's new national leader. ''I won't renounce violence as a form of defense.''
[...]
"You have a convicted, violent felon leading a violent organization. That's a recipe for problems,'' said Ted Almay, superintendent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
Redfeairn testified as a witness for Butler at last year's civil damages trial in Coeur d'Alene.
He told the jury that he wasn't then a member of the Aryan Nations because he didn't share Butler's view of non-violence.
Newly appointed 'Director of Information,' Pastor August ''Chip'' B. Kreis III - the group's current web master, also has a violent streak:
I strive for and will accept NOTHING less than a racially cleansed America and this will not be accomplished without the bloodletting of His enemies in the commission of upholding His Laws!
Articles
News Archive
Sites
Aryan Nations ''Pastor'' Richard Butler's official site.
About this page:
Aryan Nations
First posted: Sep. 1, 1996
Last Updated: Oct. 23, 2001
Copyright: Apologetics Index
Link to: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/a83.html
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ADL Backgrounder on Aryan Nations by the Anti-Defamation League
