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

Prologue

1 Prologue O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walks to direct his steps. The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord. —Jeremiah 10:23; Psalm 37:23 On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 in the morning, the heartbeat of America flatlined as the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City exploded into rubble, killing 168 innocent men, women and children (and wounding over 500 more) in the largest terrorist act ever committed in the United States. Twelve hours later, white-supremacist Richard Wayne Snell, already serving life in prison without parole for shooting and killing a black state trooper, would be executed in Arkansas for the previous murder of a pawn shop owner (an unsolved murder at the time of his first conviction). Snell spoke just two weeks before his execution about an upcoming event that would have to do with a bombing. While watching the news televising the Murrah building devastation, the bloody bodies being carried away and the rising death toll being announced, guard records reveal that Snell smiled and laughed. Then while being strapped down, awaiting the injection that would end his life, Richard Wayne Snell proudly proclaimed, “Hail his victory.” On April 19, 1993, the world watched in horror as over eighty men, women and children were sacrificed as a burnt offering to their messiah, David Koresh, rather than surrender to federal agents. For fifty-one days, America had been praying for a peaceful end to the standoff at Waco. Are there interconnecting threads between these three fabrics of insanity? Is their common date, April 19th, significant? 2 | Tabernacle of Hate On April 19, 1985, another religious community engaged a standoff with many of the same agents that were later at the Branch Davidian compound. During that four-day standoff, I was the negotiator between that group and the United States government. From May 1977 to May 1985 I was a member and one of the leaders of an organization in northern Arkansas that evolved from a quiet, rural community church into a violent, paramilitary, right-wing, white supremacist group. We were well-armed, formed paramilitary units, built bunkers and practiced military-style maneuvers. That organization , formerly known as Zarephath-Horeb Community Church, came to be known nationally and internationally as CSA: the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord. From January 1981 to October 1982 we received constant attention from the news media. I was the group’s spokesman. In April 1985, we were invaded by over 200 law enforcement officers from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and various state, county and local police agencies, for weapons violations and terrorist acts. It was the first time in FBI history that they raided a domestic terrorist group as militarily trained as ours. We became the case study for federal agents for several years. How will history remember Kerry Wayne Noble? The Federal Bureau of Investigation lists me as the number two leader of the second most dangerous domestic terrorist organization of the United States of America in 1985. That’s the negative side. On the positive side, I am, to the best of my knowledge, and by the admission of the FBI, the only leader of a religious, paramilitary, extremist organization who has been involved in a siege/standoff situation with the federal government to have gone to prison, and to have turned around for the good — by the actions of the government I once condemned. This places me in a unique position, as an individual who has insight into both sides: the mindset of the ultra-right groups and the intentions of the government. Today I speak to law-enforcement, civic organizations, and other groups about the dangers of the right-wing movement, its paranoid mentality and philosophy, its future and how law-enforcement should Prologue | 3 approach the various religious, nationalist and racist groups so that future Oklahoma City/Waco-type tragedies can be avoided. I believe that not only should people understand what the rightwing movement is all about, but also how easy it is to get seduced by its philosophy. How and why did I get involved in the right-wing to begin with? What prompted my changing back — my awakening? How is my story like those of others? How is my story different? These are the reasons...