Militant religious and secular movements are calling on Americans to take back what has been lost to decades of liberal success and civil rights activism.
Last Saturday's shootings in Clinton County brought new attention to some of the groups because the men who have been charged have links to the Aryan Nations.
White separatist Pastor Richard Girnt Butler has led this group from a compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho, since 1974.
Among other goals, he wants to create an all-white Christian nation in Pacific Northwest, free from what members call the ZOG, the Zionist Occupational Government or Zionist Occupied Government in Washington, D.C.
Other groups also embrace the Rev. Mr. Butler's Christian Identity theology, which teaches that Anglo-Saxons and other northern European/Celtic peoples are descendants of ancient Israel and Adam fathered only the white race. He likens today's Jews to "a destroying virus'' that is "the natural enemy of our Aryan (White) Race.'' He says Jews were fathered by Satan and nonwhites are "mud creatures'' left over from a failed creation before Adam and Eve.
Dr. Wesley Swift founded the church in California during the 1940s with a pro-white, anti-Marxist message.
His successor, the Rev. Mr. Butler, broadened its vision and convened first World Aryan Congress of white separatists in 1982.
The Office of International Criminal Justice, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says Aryan Nations has 100 to 150 active members and 6,000 to 15,000 supporters. The office lists at least five members who have been arrested or convicted in cases linked to terrorism.
The nonpartisan American Church Lists Inc., of Arlington, Texas, says the Rev. Mr. Butler claimed more than 700 members in Idaho in 1995 and about 11,000 members in United States and Canada, including at least 12 ministers.
Aryan Republican Army
Also known as the Midwestern Bank Bandits, the group declared martial law in the United States and robbed banks to finance its revolution.
Peter Kevin Langan, recently convicted of armed bank robbery in Springdale and Columbus, is suspected of being ARA leader "Commander Pedro.''
Before Mr. Langan's arrest, Commander Pedro advocated the extermination of Jews and the deportation of blacks. He also claimed ARA had terrorist cells across the country but authorities said ARA's handful of men have been convicted or charged in connection with 22 bank robberies across Ohio and six other Midwestern states.
Militias
Small groups of angry, gun-owning Americans have organized into local militia units during the past three years. The groups vary widely in their professed beliefs. Some are openly white supremacist and anti-Semitic, while others reject such teachings and practices.
All oppose gun control and are committed to defending their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Units exist throughout Ohio, including the Brown County Militia and Hamilton County Patriots. There is no reliable estimate of their strength, but activists and observers agree that the militias have more sympathizers than members.
The Order
Drawing on white supremacist William Pierce's violent, apocalyptic novel, The Turner Diaries, the Order was created by former members of Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations in the early 1980s.
Two members of the Order were convicted of civil rights violations in the 1984 machine-gun slaying of Denver talk show host Alan Berg, a Jew.
The Order's leader, Robert Mathews was killed during a 1984 standoff with FBI agents. Twenty-three Order members were convicted of racketeering for conspiracy to murder, rob and counterfeit.
The Rev. Mr. Butler of the Hayden Lake Church of Jesus Christ Christian rejected the Order's violent and illegal activities. The Order probably no longer exists, but it has armed heirs that share its aggressive outlook.
Ku Klux Klan
Founded by former Confederate officers to reassert white supremacy after the Civil War, the Klan is a national, fragmented movement that critics call the mother of all American hate groups.
However, spokesman Tony Gamble says his Tristate Knight Riders of the KKK is dedicated to Christian faith and love of the white race, not to hating others. Mr. Gamble's group is best known for its successful court battle to erect a cross on Fountain Square at Christmas.
Elsewhere, Klan groups continue to be accused of racist and anti-Semitic intimidation and violence. Critics also link it to Aryan Nations, skinheads, neo-Nazis and other white supremacist and separatist groups.
Skinheads
A youthful spin-off from shaved-head punk rockers, some skinheads are openly, violently racist and neo-Nazi. Others are aggressively anti-racist. In the Pacific Northwest, racist skinheads and Aryan Nations reportedly work together. Racist skinheads also have been linked to the KKK and other groups sharing their antipathies.
MILITANTS POUND LOCAL PULPUT
