Tabernacle of Hate: Seduction into Right-Wing Extremism, Second Edition

7. The Birth of CSA

116 7 The Birth of CSA Prepare War! Wake up the Mighty Men! Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears. —Joel 3:9, 10 I stood in the midst of the meeting, once the music had ended and prophesied that God was going to set us as a beacon in the night, that as He had spread our name across the local area, so would He spread our name across the country, to draw others to Himself and to His purpose in this hour. Within three weeks of the prophecy, during our January 1981 visit to John Harrell’s Christian Patriots’ Defense League in Illinois, Jim Ellison was briefly interviewed on ABC World News Tonight. The occasion? We were among the hate-mongers, and we had made our presence known. Jim Ellison stood behind the pulpit at John Harrell’s. He was dressed in American camouflage with a military-style haircut. Clearly angry, he began to preach to the group of dissidents. “I’m here today,” Ellison began, “to bring you a word from God, a word to Israel. In the Bible there are rules of warfare—how to pick good soldiers, how to invade a city. We’ve been preparing for war for a long time. John told you a little about our place in Arkansas. We only want committed Israelites there, committed soldiers. Don’t come if you’re not committed. Don’t come. This is a nation guilty before God. America calls good, evil and evil, good. America has been lied to and deceived by its schools and its preachers. But God will have a remnant to rule with Him, a people for Him. I’m here today to get you stirred up. Get ready! For judgment is coming to America! For if The Birth of CSA | 117 God does not judge America for her sins, then He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology. Do you hear me?” Amens echoed from the audience. “We live rough in Arkansas. Because we have to! Because we’re serious with God! And guess what? You’re going to have to get serious with God, if you’re not already. You’ll have to learn to live like we do. I’ve committed my family, my fortune and my life to Him. He owns them anyway! Yes, I know my family is in danger from the government. But if I have to sacrifice my children for what God’s doing, then I’ll have to do it! I tried before not to do what God required of me and it cost me. On April 29, 1970, at 9:45 a.m., God caused a building to collapse around me while I was working on it. I broke twenty-eight bones and my lung was punctured. But in fifteen days I was out of the hospital and back to work in two months. I learned to say what God has told me to say! People won’t leave the cities until the blood is ankle deep. But I’m telling you now that it’s later than you think! War is coming!” Jim stood tall before the clapping audience as John Harrell nervously thanked Ellison for his message. UponreturningtoArkansas,theeldersofthechurchwereconvened by Ellison. “Our name is spreading,” he began, “even as the prophecy said it would. Do we want that name to be Zarephath-Horeb?” It was determined that our church name was too complicated for the public and too special to us. We needed a public name, a name that would symbolize our paramilitary function. That name, Ellison decided, would be CSA—the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord. “The Covenant,” he explained, “speaks of all the covenants of God from Adam to Christ and especially of the covenants He has made with us in this last hour. It also speaks of the covenant that He has made with each of you individually and that you have made with Him and with each other and with this Body. “The Sword speaks of all the judgments of God from the time of the Garden, but especially of the coming judgment upon America. The Arm is those people whom God will use to administer the final end-time judgment. And we are part of that people. 118 | The Origin and Rise of CSA “Our symbol shall be a military patch that shows a flaming sword with a rainbow...