News Media Contact: Linda Bloom · (212) 870-3803 · New York, N.Y.
In the world of cyberspace, some groups or individuals that promote themselves as "Christians" are a far cry from the real thing. The Anti-Defamation League has labeled the numerous Web sites of the Christian Identity Movement as part of a "pseudo-theological manifestation of racism and anti-Semitism on the far right." A site with the innocuous name "Christian Bible Study," for example, categorizes Jews as the children of Satan and the image of the "Beast" in Revelations, and implies they should be killed.
As use of the Internet has grown, so has the number of hateful words and images that spill across it. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in New York, which tracks hate groups, reports having nearly 3,000 hate Web sites on its database.
"The Internet makes hate crimes all the more dangerous," said Lois Dauway, an executive with the Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. "It provides anonymity and, at the same time, a support base for individuals who take the information, use it as encouragement and act upon it. It takes away the need of having to join a group."
Such people are difficult to track, added Dauway, who leads the board's task force on Ministries in the Midst of Hate and Violence. "One can monitor the number of hate groups; one cannot monitor the number of individuals who hate," she explained.
That sobering reality became apparent on the July 4th weekend of 1999, when Benjamin Nathaniel Smith -- a self-styled white supremacist who later killed himself during a police chase – embarked on a drive-by shooting rampage targeting Asians, African-Americans and Jews. His victims included 26-year-old Won-Joon Yoon, shot in front of the Korean United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Ind., just before Sunday worship.
It has been speculated that Smith drew inspiration from the World Church of the Creator Web site, a charge its founder has denied. But the Rev. Nancy A. Carter, a United Methodist computer consultant, believes that Smith's actions were both racist and anti-Christian, attitudes promoted by the Church of the Creator. "There are not a lot of anti-Christian hate groups, but this is one of them," she said.
Smith is an example of someone affected by leaderless resistance or "lone wolf" activism. According to a report on "Hacking and Hate" posted by Hatewatch, "leaderless resistance is an ideology hinging on an individual's willingness to act alone... instead of at the behest of a leader." Web sites can advocate harassment or violence and "create a context where the individual understands his or her actions as for the 'greater good of the movement.'
"Leaderless resistance makes the line between free speech and culpability indistinct so that identification and prosecution of parties involved is difficult," the Hatewatch report continued. "Many hate sites post disclaimers and warnings to protect them from liability from lawsuits if their patrons decide to attack one of the targets mentioned on their Web sites. It is a strategy used with increasing frequency by online extremist groups."
Sandra Peters, a board consultant for Ministries in the Midst of Hate and Violence, pointed out that technology, by itself, is a neutral force, void of morality. "Internet technology is a hugely influential organizing tool which can be used for good or evil," she said. "One of the more insidious techniques is the use of enticing games to attract a young person to the site. But to get there, the child is exposed to a barrage of messages of hate."
Mark Weitzman, director of the Task Force Against Hate for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, agreed that some sites use such devices as bright graphics, coloring-book pages and puzzles to promote their racist agendas. The danger is that young people "are not necessarily able to critically evaluate what they're looking at," he explained.
Other sites look respectable on the surface but later reveal themselves. A site that seems to be tied to Martin Luther King Jr., for example, turns out to be run by a neo-Nazi group, Weitzman said. Web sites dedicated to denying the existence of the Holocaust may mimic reputable academic institutions.
Carter sees a need for educating people about the sites, but at the same time is cautious about publicizing them. "We need to be aware of these hate sites," she said, but "we don't want to assign them more power than they have."
Several organizations are monitoring Web sites that promote hate.
*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.
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