Purifying the Law: The Legal World of “Christian Patriots”

In February 2003, a defendant named Richard John Adams stood before a county circuit judge in Gainesville, Missouri, and requested that Jesus Christ be his attorney—a proposal the judge found impractical, since legal representation in his court is restricted to those licensed in Missouri.¹ Adams's unwillingness to use a licensed attorney stemmed from his belief that "the Missouri Bar Association 'created the Federal Reserve through their unconstitutional statutes and case laws.'" Adams had come before the court as a result of charges that, on earlier occasions, he had harassed court officers.²

Describing himself as "a patriot and a Christian," he had a history of associations with militia and Christian Identity groups. He had also had a brush with notoriety in the fall of 2000 when one of his court appearances was described in the now-defunct magazine George. According to that account, "He argues that the driver's license is an invalid contract, that courtrooms are under the maritime flag . . . and thus martial law, that a Jewish bankers' conspiracy has foisted the federal reserve note on Americans, and that dollars are not lawful tender."³

This and his more recent behavior might be dismissed as the ravings of a rural eccentric were they not typical of the legal subculture of the "Christian patriot" right. By "Christian patriots," I mean those who self-identify not only as believing Christians but also as persons committed to a distinctive program that blends religious and political orientations. As described by James Aho, Christian patriots believe that their obligations to government are conditional upon secular authorities ruling in accordance with the Bible and with a distinctive reading of the Constitution. At the same time, they fear that "a secret satanic conspiracy has infiltrated America's major institutions to subvert God's will," a plot they must fight against, perhaps by violent means.⁴ The Christian patriot domain begins at the point where the mainstream right is perceived to end, placing the beginning just beyond paleoconservatives such as Pat Buchanan and New Christian Right figures such as Pat Robertson. Christian patriots, therefore, include individuals as diverse as tax protestors, members of militias and other paramilitary groups, devotees of conspiracy theories, and some who espouse theories of racial inequality.

The relationships of these Christian patriots to legal matters are far-reaching and complex. In general terms, these orientations originate from a search for ultimate sources of legal authority, since only transcendent sources are capable of conferring such authority. The legislative acts of the state and its enforcement powers by themselves place no obligations upon Christian patriots, who often regard them as unworthy of compliance.⁵ The orientations range from antinomian hostility toward all law, to a hypernomian obsession with it. More concretely, one can distinguish three positions. The first, and arguably the most radical, asserts that all human law is either unnecessary or illegitimate. Hence the problems associated with it stem from its very nature, not from its particular content. Those who hold this position we can term the "antinomians." A second, less extreme view accepts the validity of some human law, but only to the extent that it conforms to divine law revealed in Scripture. Its partisans we may term the "biblicizers." The third position also accepts human law in principle, but claims that, in its present form, American law has been systematically corrupted and distorted, so that its true, hidden meaning must be revealed. Its supporters I term the "purifiers."

A complete rejection of law per se is extremely rare, particularly for groups that have a political agenda and aspire to power. I have found no such group among contemporary extremist organizations. Although they often reject the state's laws, religious militants do so with the objective of replacing them with rules of their own devising. However, an approximation of true antinomianism may be found in the Embassy of Heaven Church.

The Embassy of Heaven Church, based in the appropriately named town of Sublimity, Oregon, asserts that membership in the body of Christ requires systematic withdrawal from the state. Members of the Church must...