On July 8, Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) CEO Sam Bushman broadcast his Liberty Roundtable from the neo-Confederate store, Dixie Republic, in South Carolina. On that same day, the Christian Identity-led and secessionist League of the South hosted an event at the Traveler’s Rest store.
As if on cue to signal his commitment to promoting hardcore racists and antisemites, Bushman’s show ran an ad for Christ Kingdom Ministries “brought to you by confederatechurchofchrist.com.” The ad declared,
“My name is Christian Knuckles. I prophesize there will be no revival until the Church leadership stops lying to the people. I’m the first soldier of the spiritual body of Christ. The Lion of Judah, the Confederate Church of Christ. I’m here to declare the Lion will lie down with the lamb when the lying stops. A message from Christ Kingdom Ministries, and brought to you by confederchurchofchrist.com.”[1]
The Confederate Church of Christ, run by “Christian Knuckles,” is a proponent of the virulently racist and antisemitic Christian Identity pseudo-religion holding that whites are Biblical Israel, Jews Satanic imposters, and people of color inferior. Making this clear in its self-description, the Confederate “church” writes,
“The Beast HATES the white race, because we are the Christian race – the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel who FOLLOW the Savior of True Israel….Esau HATES Jacob with an unfounded hatred…Jesus separated the Sheep, True Israel, from the Goats, that is, from the Children of Esau, the Red, masquerading as the Children of Jacob-Israel. But now, they have deceived the world, especially the church, into confusion about their identity. They claim to be ‘the Chosen People,” but they reject the Savior of the chosen people… That Jesus separated us, in fact, helped the Christians cope with their evil, to wit: Christian Kings segregated those SNAKES from Christian Society by putting them in ghettoes to which Jews were consigned by Royal Decrees in all the Gentile Nations of Europe during the Middle Ages… The Snakes have hated the White Race since Esau (the Red) hated Jacob (the White), over 1000 years before Christ…The Beast is the Body of Satan, even as the church is the Body of Christ. They hated Hitler, before he was born. What Hitler did was, in fact, ‘Pay them back, in kind’ for the horror of the Great War; That is the World War for World Government – 1914 -1945.”[2]
On the people-of-color as inferior front, Knuckles writes,
“Do you like Air Conditioning? . . . Thank the White Race. Air conditioning was developed by European Scientists, including White Americans, studying Thermodynamics. Do you like Trains and Planes and Automobiles? Thank the White Race. The Asians can copy, but they cannot originate modern technology. (Why do the Chinese steal American technology?) All technology begins in the revelations of God to His true People; thus, God Blesses the world through the minds of White Men.”[3]
The Liberty Roundtable’s promotion of this Christian Identity church continues a pattern of CSPOA leaders affiliating its cause with white nationalism – including Christian Identity. In 1995, Richard Mack spoke at a meeting of the Idaho-based Christian Identity group America’s Promise, held in Prescott, Arizona.
At the event, Mack promoted his book From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns, which includes the racist lie that “The Rev. Jesse Jackson types and the NAACP have done more to enslave Afro-Americans than all the southern plantation owners put together.”[4]
Rather than an anomaly, this is a pattern for the far-right and pro-paramilitary CSPOA. The group also includes former Maryland leader of the League of the South on its board; carried out a 2021 national tour with an ardent antisemite; features a regular trainer who believes the 14th and 15th Amendments are “unlawful” and has spoken at a League of the South event; has maintained a long-standing relationship with the insurrectionist Oath Keepers, and more.[5]
In 2019, Sam Bushman featured League of the South President Michael Hill, also a Christian Identity adherent, telling the leader of the white nationalist and secessionist group, “We know about the League of the South, we’re grateful for your work…Tell your members that we salute them from the Liberty Roundtable Live, would you please.”[6]
NOTES
[1] Liberty Roundtable. Radio Show Hour 1 – 7/08/2023. July 7, 2023. https://www.libertyroundtable.com/2023/07/08/radio-show-hour-1-7-08-2023/
[2] Confederate Church of Christ. About Us. https://confederatechurchofchrist.com/about-us. Accessed August 11, 2023. The group’s website made clear that this is a Christian Identity group: “The Beast HATES the white race, because we are the Christian race – the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel who FOLLOW the Savior of True Israel. This is NOT to say that no one else can become a Christian, but it is to say, that we were/are the Sheep, the First Christian Race…Why do you think the “Power of the Air,” the media shows so much HATRED for the White Race? … It’s because Esau HATES Jacob with an unfounded hatred… Again, the BEAST HATES the Truth because the Truth SETS US FREE FROM THEM!! Jesus separated the Sheep, True Israel from the Goats, that is: From the Children of Esau, the Red, masquerading as the Children of Jacob-Israel. But now, they have deceived the world, especially the church into confusion about their identity. They claim to be ‘the Chosen People,” but they reject the Savior of the chosen people… That Jesus separated us, in fact, helped the Christians cope with their evil, to wit: Christian Kings segregated those SNAKES from Christian Society by putting them in ghettoes to which Jews were consigned by Royal Decrees in all the Gentile Nations of Europe during the Middle Ages… The Snakes have hated the White Race since Esau (the Red) hated Jacob (the White), over 1000 years before Christ. They hated Jesus Christ, and now, they hate the Body of Christ, even Christianity. Their hatred knows no bounds. They are Lawless, Liars, and Murderers. They embody the Spirit of Satan. The Beast is the Body of Satan, even as the church is the Body of Christ. They hated Hitler, before he was born. What Hitler did was, in fact, ‘Pay them back, in kind’ for the horror of the Great War; That is the World War for World Government – 1914 -1945. But, the Beast thinks they can do no wrong. They always think of themselves as VICTIMS, and so, they think they are justified in their unjust acts of hatred: called revenge against Jacob, now Christian Israel…”
[3] Christian Knuckles. TWO KINDS of Jews: Sheep & Goats How the REDS became LEFTISTS. Confederate Church of Christ. https://confederatechurchofchrist.com/pdf/Two%20Kinds%20of%20Jews%20-%20final%2014%20Pt.pdf. Accessed August 24, 2023.
[4] Zeskind, Leonard. Johnson County sheriff supports extremists with documented ties to white supremacists. The Kansas City Star. July 21, 2022. https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article263619468.html
[5] For Michael Peroutka’s position in CSPOA, see Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Our Leadership. https://cspoa.org/about/our-leadership/. Accessed August 25, 2023.
[6] Liberty Roundtable. Radio Show Hour 2 – 6/29/2019. June 29, 2019. https://www.libertyroundtable.com/2019/06/29/radio-show-hour-2-6-29-2019/
