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Hate in God’s Name: Part III

Daryl Johnson

Hate in God's Name

The religious concepts of the Sovereign Citizens Movement

Read the remainder of the five-part series as it is released:

It was February 13, 1983. Gordon Kahl, who often referred to himself as a “Christian Patriot,” had just murdered a Deputy U.S. Marshal (execution-style) on a lonely stretch of highway outside of Medina, North Dakota. Two other lawmen were shot as well as Kahl’s son, Yori. A second U.S. Marshal later died of his wounds. Yori and a deputy sheriff survived. The gun battle — between a group of sovereign citizens leaving a Posse Comitatus meeting and four lawmen — erupted while authorities were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Kahl during a traffic stop for failure to appear. After rushing his son to the local medical clinic for aid, Kahl fled the scene in the sheriff deputy’s car.

While on the run, Kahl wrote a 16-page letter to a fellow sovereign citizen stating the motive behind his attack. He wrote, “We are engaged in a struggle to the death between the people of the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Satan. It started long ago, and is now best described as a struggle between Jacob & Esau.” He also wrote, “If you’ve been paying tithes to the Synagogue of Satan, under the 2nd plank of the Communist Manifesto to finance your own destruction, stop right now, and tell Satan’s tithing collectors, as I did many years ago, ‘Never again will I give aid and comfort to the enemies of Christ.’ Mystery Babylon with all its greatness will be destroyed.”

On June 4, 1983, Gordon Kahl died in a shootout near Smithville, Arkansas, but not before he killed another lawman who attempted to confront Kahl in a burning farmhouse. Today, Gordon Kahl is looked upon as a modern-day patriot martyr by many sovereign citizens, militia extremists and other radicals on the alt-right.

The Sovereign Citizen Movement (SCM) is a loosely organized collection of groups and individuals who believe that virtually all forms of state and federal government are illegitimate. Sometimes referred to as constitutionalists, freemen or common law advocates, they use tactics such as harassment, threats and intimidation against their enemies. Sovereign citizens have been known to establish “common law courts” to issue fake indictments and bogus arrest warrants against public officials. Sovereign citizens have also been known to violently attack — even kill — government officials and others. Sovereign citizens have a strong presence on the Internet and exploit the public’s frustration over tax increases, mortgage and credit card interest rates and perceptions of government greed and corruption to recruit new members.

Due to the high level of sovereign citizen encounters and related criminal activity, law enforcement, government officials and academics are keenly aware of it. Few, however, understand that sovereign citizen actions are oftentimes based on religious beliefs.

“For most sovereigns, beliefs about the law are explicitly religious beliefs,” says Spencer Dew and Jamie Wight of the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion. “This cannot be overstated: they link their beliefs to points across a broad constellation of existing religious traditions.”

Core sovereign citizen beliefs are based on their own version of law that is derived from a combination of the Magna Carta, the Bible, English common law, and various 19th century state constitutions. Central to their argument is the view of a Supreme Being having embodied every person with certain inalienable rights as stated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Bible.

Sovereign citizens believe that God created man to be sovereign — “free” of man-made laws and government regulation. They believe their doctrine is inspired, sanctioned and sustained by God. It consists of universal divine truths concealed to humanity by the world’s most powerful leaders and business elites. A sovereign citizen group based in Oregon actually sold “Kingdom of Heaven” license plates, passports, and driver’s licenses to fellow sovereign citizens entitling them to be members of God’s Kingdom.

Author Verl K. Speer (often referred to as the “Doctor of Common Law”) in his book Pied Pipers of Babylon (considered sovereign citizen propaganda) summarizes his view of our society in religious terms. “It is time that we came to the realization that we are engaged in a spiritual war against powers and principalities, contracting parties in high places who have entangled us in their web of deceit via a multitude of non-disclosed adhesion contracts,” he writes.

SCM ideology appeals to a wide range of people separated by generations, cultural and ethnic differences, and spans the political spectrum. As a result, religious concepts among sovereign citizens can fall anywhere along the theological continuum. For example, some extremist insular communities, such as the Church at Kahweh in California and the Christ County Kingdom of God sect in Michigan, have merged sovereign citizen tradecraft into their religious organizations. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) faction in Hildale, Utah, also embraces and uses aspects of sovereign citizen tactics, such as engaging in welfare and tax fraud, disregarding federal and state laws or authority, and creating their own police force (which is neither certified nor recognized by the state). As individuals, other sovereign citizens have taken a more common approach to their religious views, such as Bible-based Christian Patriotism or holding end times/apocalyptic beliefs.

In contrast, some sovereign citizens, particularly those who are younger, reject organized religion — its institutions, doctrine and scriptures. According to the 2009 Global Sovereigns Handbook, “Religion is the greatest form of mind control through manipulation of fear, guilt, and shame. Spirituality is the opposite of religion.” 

Global Sovereign's Handbook.
The Global Sovereign’s Handbook calls religion “the greatest form of mind control through manipulation of fear, guilt, and shame.”

        

Mark of the Beast Conspiracy

Some SCM propaganda includes Christian fundamentalist beliefs concerning millennialism, ends times prophecy and the apocalypse — including the Mark of the Beast Conspiracy. They compare today’s society to the ancient city of Babylon (allegedly destroyed for its rampant sin, corruption and rejection of God). According to the conspiracy, Satan rules our world (e.g. Babylon). The “Whore of Babylon” consists of today’s Western nations (comprising 10 wealthy, business-oriented nations). They also believe that the anti-Christ will soon rise from one of these nations. Using their interpretation of the Bible, some sovereign citizens surmise that Babylonian law is controlled by merchants (i.e. corporations). Since the Bible’s Book of Revelation supposedly says that the “Law of the Merchants” primarily operates on the sea, sovereign citizens equate it to today’s “Maritime Law.” Some sovereign citizens use this interpretation of the Book of Revelation to support their Redemption Scam.

“The warfare in Babylon is between the spiritual and material forces,” said Verl K. Speer. “The Beast derives his power from materialism, deception and ignorance of the Law. He exercises this power under the Law of Merchants within the jurisdiction of the Law of the Sea, specifically that of Admiralty/Maritime Law because of the maritime nature of Babylon itself, the sum of its qualities and characteristics.”

According to Speers, Babylon, Satan and the anti-Christ are hell-bent on keeping everyone else enslaved in debt, regulation and oversight. Their objectives are simple; financial profit and power in furtherance of their own self interests. “By succumbing to the materialistic lures and teaching of the Pied Pipers of Babylon, the true nature of Causation and the purpose of our own Being are hidden from us,” Speers said.

Financial Fraud

Sovereign citizens are known to use Biblical passages to justify tax fraud as well as defaulting on credit card payments or bank loans. They most often cite Old Testament scriptures, which reference paying usury and taking money from the poor, such Ezekiel 22:12-13, Proverbs 28:8, Deuteronomy 23:19, and Leviticus 25:36-37. Sovereign citizen extremists further cite Nehemiah 9:32-37 to bolster the belief that oppressive taxation results from sin. Also, 1 Kings 12:13-19 is used to justify rebellion against the government for oppressive taxation.

Corporation Sole

Sovereign citizen extremists have also been known to form fictitious churches or obtain bogus pastoral certifications in an attempt to avoid paying taxes. They usually obtain fake ecclesiastical credentials online or through mail-order catalogues and fraudulent ministerial schools. This financial scam is called “Corporation Sole.” The Corporation Sole scam attempts to take advantage of special tax benefits available to legitimate churches, ecclesiastical leaders, and other religious groups. Scam artists initially apply for incorporation under the false pretext of being a “minister” or “pastor” of a bogus religious organization or group. They falsely claim that such an arrangement entitles them to exemption from Federal income taxes as an organization described in USC 501(c) (3) laws.

Sovereign citizen gurus have also organized seminars — charging up to $1,000 or more per person — to learn how to file a phony Corporation Sole. Participants are manipulated into believing that their counterfeit Corporation Sole provides a “legal” way to avoid paying income taxes, child support, and other personal debts by hiding their assets in a tax exempt entity. Some sovereign citizens have been known to change their residence to a church — even putting up signs on their property with the name of their fake religious organization. Courts have routinely rejected this tax avoidance tactic as frivolous, upheld criminal tax evasion convictions against those making or promoting such arguments and imposed civil penalties for falsely claiming corporation sole status.

Other Fraudulent Schemes

Sovereign citizens have also used religion as cover for other fraudulent schemes. For example, on April 24, 2009, Jerry R. Williamson, a promoter of the Florida-based “Guiding Light of God Ministries” was convicted of mail fraud. The indictment further alleges that Eddie Ray Kahn founded and led the group from 1996 through 2004. During that time period, the Guiding Light of God Ministries enrolled more than 4,000 customers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several foreign countries. Defendants Williamson, Stephen C. Hunter, Danny True and Allan J. Tanguay allegedly worked with Kahn to develop and sell tax defiance schemes based on deliberate misrepresentations of the legal foundation of the tax system.

Daryl Johnson is the owner of DT Analytics, a private consulting firm for  law enforcement. Johnson is the former lead analyst for domestic terrorism at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Johnson has over 25 years experience working as a counter-terrorism analyst for the U.S. government. He is the author of Rightwing Resurgence: How A Domestic Terrorist Threat Is Being Ignored.