Council On Unusual Relations

Council on Foreign Relations

Founded at the closed of World War I, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an influential organization devoted to the report of unusual policy. Ever since 1952, when Emmanuel Josephson’s John Birch Society (JBS) inwards particular—have viewed the CFR equally a conspiratorial cabal amongst designs on global power.

Although the autumn of the Iron Curtain necessitated alteration to the theory of a CFR-Communist conspiracy, the JBS silent argues that the Council is genuinely a grouping of “establishment Insiders” intent on creating a socialist “One World Government.”

CFR members are good positioned for this coup, equally they tin live on found inwards the highest positions of the authorities (Henry Kissinger, George Bush, together with Bill Clinton); finance (the Rockefellers together with innumerable New York bankers); the legal Blue Planet (Supreme Court Justices O’Connor, Ginsburg, together with Breyer); together with the media (editors of the New York Times together with network tidings anchors); non to cite inwards other clandestine cabals such equally the Trilateral Commission together with the Bohemian Grove group.


According to the conspiracy theorists, contemporary political developments such equally the liberalization of global merchandise (e.g., NAFTA, GATT) together with the ascension of the United Nations are the outset steps toward the CFR’s ultimate goals: the halt of national sovereignty together with the enslavement of the entire Blue Planet nether the banner of their centralized, all-powerful “world government.” In this “New World Order,” U.S. armed forces forces volition live on employed equally oppressive agents of the global supergovernment—UN “peace-keeping” missions are simply the tip of this iceberg.

To live on fair, at that spot are a non bad many “charges” that members of the CFR would non assist to dispute, but the Council’s outlook on the New World Order is radically dissimilar from that of the JBS because of the historical context out of which the whole thought developed.

When the CFR was founded inwards 1919, Woodrow Wilson’s bespeak for a utopian international community constituted the starting betoken for many CFR members’ views on U.S. unusual policy. If World War I was to live on the “war to halt all wars,” it was essential to arrive at a novel international community that could repose the tensions betwixt nationstates earlier serious conflicts erupted.

What was needed, argued the Wilsonians, was less jingoistic nationalism together with to a greater extent than international cooperation; a displace toward creating “One World” from the divided, fractured Blue Planet of 1919 (and, indeed, since this was prior to the rabid anticommunism of the mutual coldness war, or then members thought inwards price of a “socialist” Blue Planet order, which was to locomote immensely unpopular 3 decades on).

Of course, for a multifariousness of reasons, lack of amount U.S. participation beingness one, the League of Nations never fulfilled this role, together with within a decade Europe was speedily descending into or then other era of bloodshed. The Council’s investigations into the causes of World War II exclusively reinforced the Wilsonian ideals of many members. The sectionalization of the world’s non bad powers combined amongst rampant nationalism had produced the preconditions for fascism, genocide, together with the almost amount devastation of Europe.

Council on Foreign Relations

Supporters of the CFR today would debate that the Council’s advocacy for a New World Order must live on understood inwards this context, together with that the displace toward international cooperation nether the aegis of the United Nations heralds an era of increasing peace together with prosperity rather than an Orwellian nightmare.

“Mainstream” critics together with historians of the CFR similar Robert Schulzinger (who genuinely suggests that much of the Council’s locomote is cliché-ridden together with ineffectual) debate that the Council’s ideas simply mirror the transformations brought on past times globalization, together with that to read the similarity betwixt the CFR’s ideas together with global developments equally involving a causal link is simply a mistake.

Thus, equally far equally the New World Order goes, it seems equally though ane man’s secular utopia is or then other man’s apocalypse; the sectionalization betwixt the 2 perspectives is completely unbridgeable, together with the apocalyptic side of the split is inevitably dismissed past times mainstream civilization equally “extreme.”

The accuse of elitism, however—the claim that the CFR is a network of “insiders” that shape an allpowerful East Coast “establishment”—is less easily dispelled, since the CFR is quite self-consciously elitist. The CFR argues that international relations should live on studied past times serious, dispassionate minds costless from the taint of impurities such equally nationalism.

At the outset of the mutual coldness war, for instance, George Kennan published his forthwith infamous “X” article inwards the CFR’s journal, Foreign Affairs, together with raised then much world hysteria surrounding the Soviet menace that the Council began to fearfulness that the number of U.S-Soviet relations would live on hijacked past times demagogues (and, inwards stance of what loomed on the horizon inwards McCarthyism, perchance this fearfulness was non misplaced). If the CFR is “secretive,” debate its proponents, it is because sometimes heightened world consciousness genuinely plant against the proper ends of international politics.

Even mainstream academics, however—people who would themselves no uncertainty live on designated “insiders” past times the JBS—might good debate that spell the CFR’s tillage of its status equally an elite organization may non accurately live on termed conspiratorial, it is non at all clear that it represents a positive evolution inwards U.S. political culture.

The United Nations

The United Nations

The United Nations (UN) has larn a cardinal target of contemporary right-wing conspiracy theories. It was established on 24 Oct 1945 to supplant the League of Nations, which had collapsed next its failure to preclude World War II.

According to its charter, the United Nations has 4 primary purposes: to keep international peace in addition to security; to develop friendly relations amidst nations; to cooperate inwards solving international problems in addition to inwards promoting observe for human rights; in addition to to endure a pump for harmonizing the actions of nations.

The half dozen primary institutions of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic in addition to Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the Secretariat, in addition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). All of these alongside the exception of the ICJ are based at United Nations headquarters inwards New York. The ICJ is located at The Hague inwards the Netherlands.


Organizations such every bit the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, in addition to the World Health Organization are linked to the United Nations through cooperative agreements. Together alongside the United Nations, these organizations brand upwardly what is known every bit the United Nations system.

One hundred in addition to eighty-nine countries are currently members of the UN. The United Nations does non visit itself to endure a “world government.” It does non brand laws, in addition to each fellow member province remains a sovereign country. The United Nations has, however, been the dependent area of conspiracy theories almost since it was foremost created.

As early on every bit 1951 the antisemitic paper Common Sense expressed concerns close U.S. troops who had issued proclamations inwards the cite of the United Nations during preparation exercises inwards California.

The Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy investigated the beingness of communist plots inside the United Nations during the 1950s, in addition to the far-right John Birch Society, formed yesteryear retired candy manufacturer Robert H. Welch inwards 1958, also saw the United Nations every bit business office of a Communist conspiracy against the United States. The John Birch Society believed that plans were afoot through the United Nations for “the establishment of a one-world Communist tyranny over the population of the whole earth.”

U.S. armed forces would endure turned over to the command of the UN, it was argued, in addition to United Nations troops were actively preparing to direct hold over the country. As a number Birchites campaigned vigorously, every bit they locomote yesteryear away along to do, to “get the U.S. out of the United Nations, in addition to the United Nations out of the United States.”

The Minutemen, a paramilitary arrangement formed inwards 1960 yesteryear Robert DePugh, farther contended that outset inwards 1952 U.S. troops acting nether United Nations command had been making “practice seizures” of U.S. cities every bit business office of a communist plot to confiscate the firearms of U.S. citizens.

Although concerns close the UN’s role inwards the creation of a global authorities direct hold been a staple of far-right politics inwards the U.S. since the 1950s, they were given renewed emphasis yesteryear members of the Patriot in addition to militia movements during the 1990s.

Publications such every bit The Patriot Report, Spotlight, The Free American, Wake-Up Call America, in addition to The Resister, in addition to groups including the Militia of Montana, the Michigan Militia, in addition to Police Against the New World Order all routinely denounced the United Nations for its conspiratorial intent.

Thousands of unusual troops were said to endure preparation inwards the U.S. inwards preparation for a United Nations takeover of the country. Russian in addition to German linguistic communication tanks had been spotted throughout the nation, every bit had numerous unmarked “black helicopters” operating nether United Nations command.

Yellowstone National Park in addition to other national parks were believed to endure nether United Nations control, in addition to clandestine plans were idea to be for the volume disarmament of America’s gun owners. Reflective stickers, it was warned, had been added to the backs of route signs to straight United Nations forces during the takeover in addition to concentration camps had been constructed to household U.S. dissidents.

Many Patriots believed that inwards reply to some variety of national emergency, either existent or deliberately manufactured, the president would declare martial police pull in addition to that this would endure the dot for the United Nations work of the U.S. to begin. Some fifty-fifty took the thought that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was the outset of such a strategy.

Members of the Christian Right direct hold also connected the United Nations to a conspiracy against the interests of the United States. One of the best examples of this is provided yesteryear Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, who published a volume called The New World Order inwards 1991.

Tracing the conspiracy dorsum to the Bavarian Illuminati inwards the piece of cake eighteenth century, Robertson argued that sinister forces had been at locomote throughout America’s history to locomote yesteryear away far business office of a “new world order.”

The League of Nations had been formed to aid alongside plans to select close a one-world government, a oneworld army, in addition to a one-world economy, he claimed, in addition to when this failed the United Nations was established to supplant it. For Robertson, this “new world order” was about coming to fruition.

Having noted that the UN’s authority of armed forces activity against Republic of Iraq during the Gulf War inwards 1991 was the foremost fourth dimension that the world’s nations had come upwardly together since the Tower of Babel had been built, he suggested that President George Bush was “unwittingly carrying out the mission ... of a tightly knit cabal whose destination is nil less than a novel gild for the human race nether the domination of Lucifer in addition to his followers.”

Millenarianism

Millenarianism

Millenarianism inwards the U.S. of A. of America has oftentimes been associated with a conspiratorial outlook. Narrowly defined, millenarianism is the belief inwards the thousand-year reign of the Messiah forecast past times the Hebrew prophets inwards the Hebrew Scriptures, or Christian Old Testament. The millennial dominion of Jesus Christ, believed past times Christians to hold upwardly the Messiah, is every bit good mentioned inwards the Book of Revelation inwards the New Testament.

More recently, the application of the term “millenarianism” has been expanded to include a diverseness of other groups who attempt to establish, or if inwards the hereafter to forecast together with promote, an ideal or utopian community. These include some Eastern together with Near Eastern religious movements, such every bit the Aum Shinrikyo, a derivative of Japanese Buddhism, together with apocalyptic sects inside Islam.

The term has every bit good been applied to certainly secular political movements, such every bit National Socialism together with communism, merely inside the U.S. of A. of America most millenarians accept traditionally been Christians, together with they oftentimes subscribe to a host of conspiracy theories.


Christian Millenarianism inwards American History

As early on every bit the colonial era, Puritans inwards the Massachusetts Bay Colony interpreted the perceived spiritual apathy, or “declension,” inside their envisioned millennial community every bit the number of dark, unseen forces, a perspective exemplified past times the notorious Salem Witch Trials inwards the seventeenth century.

Colonial religious leaders such every bit Cotton Mather together with the revivalist Jonathan Edwards saw world events every bit marching toward the institution of the Kingdom of God. In particular, Mather, who viewed the pope every bit the Antichrist inwards league with the French armies inwards Canada, saw the commencement of the French together with Indian War inwards 1754 every bit an lawsuit of apocalyptic proportions.

During the years leading upwardly to together with including the American Revolution, many colonists saw the British, together with King George III inwards particular, every bit emissaries of the devil, together with they interpreted British actions every bit purpose of a corking conspiracy that would fulfill the prophecies of the Book of Revelation.

Millenarian belief thrived inwards the early on commonwealth together with throughout the nineteenth century, together with it seemed to increase after the political together with social turmoil of the Civil War. During the 1840s, the revivalist William Miller together with his supporters eagerly awaited Christ’s furnish to works life a millennial kingdom, entirely to accept their hopes crushed when their expectations failed.

Yet the widely publicized Millerite debacle failed to dissuade farther converts to millenarianism. In fact, the intellectual pedigree of many contemporary Christian millenarians is rooted inwards the run of John Nelson Darby, a nineteenth-century Irish Gaelic government minister who developed a prophetic outline for interpreting events prior to the Second Coming of Christ.

Darby’s prophetic theories, which began to hold upwardly widely circulated inwards the U.S. of A. of America inwards the 1870s, became known every bit “premillennial dispensationalism.” Darby’s interpretations were afterward farther popularized past times Cyrus Scofield inwards his Scofield Reference Bible.

This work, which was foremost published inwards 1909, continues to hold upwardly influential at the get-go of the twenty-first century. Central to Darby’s scenario was the belief inwards the literal thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, an lawsuit that would hold upwardly presaged past times an escalating moral spend upwardly around the world.

Both Darby together with Scofield every bit good emphasized such End Time events every bit the release of Jerusalem from Gentile control, an lawsuit that Scofield suggested had been fulfilled with the British capture of the metropolis inwards 1917, together with the eventual ascent of an evil representative of the devil, the Antichrist, who would terrorize the world inwards the days before Christ’s return.

Christian millenarians who back upwardly this interpretation that social, political, economic, together with cultural atmospheric condition inwards the world volition worsen before the Second Coming of Christ are to a greater extent than oftentimes than non classified every bit “premillenarian.” They hold that Jesus volition intervene inwards world affairs together with works life the millennial reign.

Conversely, millenarians who believe that Jesus Christ does non accept to furnish for the millennium to begin, or that humanity is capable of bringing it close through social together with political reform, are known every bit “postmillenarian.”

Premillenarianism together with Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy theories are to a greater extent than oftentimes than non found alongside advocates of premillenarian beliefs. Some premillennialists are what certainly scholars accept termed “apocalyptic millenarians” and/or “revolutionary millenarians.” Apocalyptic millenarians believe that the millennium is imminent together with that they volition play an active purpose inwards bringing it about.

Revolutionary millenarians are currently actively involved inwards over-turning the structures of monastic say inwards an endeavor to convey the millennium to fruition. Many apocalyptic millenarians, together with most revolutionary millenarians, promote conspiracy theories.

These oftentimes include belief inwards a New World Order, the thought that the U.S. of A. of America authorities is bent on removing private freedoms, a belief inwards the sinister dimensions of modern technology such every bit computers or credit cards, or an interpretation that considers the planned economical together with possible political unification of Europe dangerous.

These conspiracy theories are oftentimes good publicized. For instance, when quondam U.S. of A. of America President George Bush proclaimed a New World Order inwards the post–cold state of war world, many conservative evangelical Christians interpreted his words every bit a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

These included Pat Robertson, the primary host of the 700 Club, a goggle box programme pop inwards conservative Christian circles. Robertson is the boy of a quondam U.S. of A. of America senator, together with was himself a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination inwards 1988.

In his mass The New World Order, Robertson suggested that a conspiratorial New World Order was a concerted excogitation past times specific groups together with organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, together with the Federal Reserve Board, to works life a one-world government.

Robertson attributed many of these machinations to a supposed “invisible hand” that engineered U.S. domestic together with unusual policies. Robertson left niggling dubiousness close the supposed wicked nature of these plans together with warned Christians to hold upwardly both aware together with wary.

Robertson’s high-profile status notwithstanding, the most recognized distributor of Christian millenarianism inwards the concluding few decades has been Hal Lindsey, the writer of a number of books, most notably The Late Great Planet basis (1970), which was the best-selling nonfiction run of the 1970s.

Only sales of the Bible outdistanced Lindsey’s sensational work concern human relationship of End Time prophecy, which was reissued inwards subsequent editions. Lindsey emphasized the ascent of a European dictator who would dominate the world before the furnish of Christ. In developing his assertions, Lindsey relied heavily upon the formulations before devised past times both Darby together with Scofield.

Recently, however, Tim LaHaye together with Jerry Jenkins accept popularized millenarian conspiracy theories inwards their best-selling Left Behind series. LaHaye together with Jenkins outline a fictional scenario for End Time events, supposedly based on prophecies inwards the Book of Revelation, inwards which a conspiratorial world-ruling dictator, a villain capable of enormous evil, reward state of war on all truthful Christians together with seeks to exterminate them from the earth.

The consistent popularity of the volumes inwards this series—these books accept regularly been on the New York Times bestseller list—underscores the marking to which millenarian belief together with its attendant conspiratorial fascination accept invaded pop culture.

The Future of Millenarian Belief

It is unlikely that millenarian belief, together with the conspiracy theories that arise from it, volition recede. Although specific millenarian interpretations, such every bit the thought of William Miller together with his followers that Christ would furnish inwards 1843, tin hold upwardly disproved, the millenarian model for agreement the world cannot hold upwardly together with so easily undermined.

Millenarian beliefs are persistent together with tin hold upwardly made to rhetorically jibe almost whatever social together with cultural context. Contemporary advocates of millenarianism, premillenarians inwards particular, are unlikely to hold upwardly convinced that their portrayal of the conspiratorial nature of electrical flow events is inaccurate.

In fact, the belief that 1 is instrumental inwards bringing the millennium to fruition, or at to the lowest degree that 1 is witnessing or close to witness the cataclysmic events that volition Pb to the destination of the world, is seductive. Millenarians are oftentimes drawn into a fantasy realm to which their lives seem integral.

Although critics may struggle that such belief is delusional, advocates of millenarianism are probable to sense a psychological sense of relief, together with fifty-fifty a sense of eager anticipation, occasioned past times their thought that the course of didactics of world events is predetermined together with that political, social, together with cultural alter is imminent. They volition therefore stay on the sentinel for “signs” of the end, signs that are oftentimes found inwards the night corners of U.S. conspiracy theories.

Militias

citizens militias

Although beingness armed inwards the U.S.A. is yesteryear no way a novelty, during the early on 1990s the collection of marginalized groups that comprised the right-wing “Patriot” community found their ranks swelling equally meaning numbers of newly disaffected Americans joined “citizens militias” across the United States.

Strongest inwards the rural heartland of the West, Midwest, together with South, at its zenith inwards 1996 the motility had militias active inwards all l states together with numbered maybe equally many equally 50,000 members, with several millions of supporters together with sympathizers.

Some militia leaders have got claimed full membership figures equally high equally 10 million, which is frankly far fetched; federal agents have got suggested that supporters could number inwards the millions. Perhaps to a greater extent than realistically, others propose a full militia membership of betwixt 20,000 together with 60,000.


Ostensibly defensive inwards posture, mobilizing inwards item against gun laws together with equally a defiant response to the federal outrages at Ruby Ridge (1992) together with at Waco (1993), the militia motility was remarkable together with unusual non entirely for claiming to endure socially inclusive, champaign able to recruit African Americans, Hispanics, Jews, together with middle-class professionals, but also for utilizing what some have got termed “fusion paranoia”—that is, conspiracy theories non just to the correct of the political spectrum, but also those incorporating the arguments to the left (Kelly). However, the view that the militia motility was progressive was sharply contradicted yesteryear many analysts.

One commentator saw the militias equally acting equally “recruiting pools” for the racist underground, pointing out that the same metro spawned Tim McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. And equally early on equally 1994, the various “watchdog” organizations that monitor the activities of the far correct were raising the alert that racists together with antisemites were lurking inwards the background, disguising their truthful ideology behind constitutionalist arguments.

The “constitutionalist militias” that have got since acquire a permanent characteristic of the antigovernment motility are united entirely inwards price of their opposition to the “New World Order”—an elitist conspiracy to do a global socialist tyranny. The grade to which racism together with antisemitism dominate this coalition is highly questionable, together with it is the nature of conspiracy theories that holds the key to understanding the purpose together with significance of the militias.

What the Militias Believe

Can nosotros genuinely push clit the militias equally a movement? Arguably, the exercising of gun rights represents entirely a mutual strategy amid various groups (such equally survivalists; the advocates of mutual police who declare themselves “sovereign citizens”; militant antiabortionists; together with pro-gun activists), but this does non necessarily correspond a mutual ideology or set of principles.

Nonetheless, the term “militia movement” is widely used to refer to those who frame their activity inwards price of defending the U.S. Constitution, together with who fighting that the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights (“A good regulated militia, beingness necessary to the security of a complimentary state, the correct of the people to maintain together with deport arms, shall non endure infringed”) is the 1 that guarantees all the other constitutional rights.

The entirely existent number some which the motility coheres is opposition to gun control, which is seen equally a precursor to “tyranny”. “The private correct to deport armed forces arms is a fundamental together with undergirding regulation of our Republic,” argues a prominent pro-militia journalist, together with therefore, he concludes, “upon its removal the entire national regime would acquire an illegitimate tyranny”.

The spirit of rebellion against gun laws is summed upward inwards the phrase, “You tin have got my gun when you lot pry it from my cold, dead hands,” together with it is the symbolic importance of the Second Amendment that guides the militia movement, tied into the ideology of nationalism: “This refusal to submit to tyranny is non simply close firearms. It is close human rights, it is close the dominion of law, together with it is close the continuance of this keen nation”.

How tin it endure that the militias, who nowadays themselves equally “Patriots” inwards defence forcefulness of U.S. values, are also “antigovernment”? This tin entirely endure answered yesteryear understanding the politics of nationalism. The FBI’s special study of 1999, Project Megiddo, which discussed the possibility of civil disorder at the start of the novel millennium, listed the next criteria equally a guideline for what constitutes a militia: “(1) a domestic organisation with ii or to a greater extent than members; (2) the organisation must possess together with usage firearms; together with (3) the organisation must deportment or encourage paramilitary training.”

Jon Roland, of the pro-militia Constitution Society, argues that this Definition is non the 1 implied inwards the U.S. Constitution, especially the Second Amendment, together with that “the discussion militia way defence forcefulness service, together with is applicable to whatsoever 1 or to a greater extent than persons engaged inwards the defence forcefulness of the community.” Roland cites George Mason, who defined the militia equally “the whole people, except for a few public officials,” together with he describes the FBI’s mentality inwards dealing with the militias equally “essentially fascist” (Roland).

This accusation—that federal employees together with “socialist” politicians such equally the Clintons are “fascists”—is a really mutual 1 inwards militia propaganda. By leveling this accuse at their enemies, militia leaders tin claim, sometimes with genuine conviction, to endure “antifascist,” thereby effectively preempting those on the left who themselves accuse that genuine fascists together with antisemites are influential inside the militias.

The website www.US-militia.org, for instance, describes those states with stringent gun laws equally “despicable together with fascist,” spell also stating, “If you lot are a racist, NAZI, KKK, aryan national, psycho or whatsoever other type of genetic freak; nosotros do non want you. We propose you lot locomote regard a psychiatrist or other mental wellness professional.” Nevertheless, despite this disclamation, the site contains a link to the seventh Missouri Militia—the most openly racist militia site, run yesteryear Martin Lindstedt.

In a similar vein, a pro-militia group, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, puts forrard an declaration that gun command has “racist roots” (because blacks inwards the South have got historically been denied the correct to gun ownership) together with that it is a precursor to “genocide.”

Therefore, yesteryear opposing gun laws the militias fighting that they are preventing the likelihood of genocide beingness carried out inwards the U.S.A. against whatsoever minority. Within this framework gun owners are depicted equally a victimized grouping denied their civil rights inwards much the same way equally nonwhites historically have got been denied theirs (www.JPFO.org is 1 of the most widely linked pro-gun sites from militia sites).

This mirrors the strategy of the Christian Right, who have got since the 1980s utilized the linguistic communication of “civil rights” inwards defence forcefulness of Christian values, together with have got employed conspiracy theories concerning “secular humanism”—portrayed equally a competition organized religious belief to Christianity.

Apart from “nationalism,” expressed equally the want to “save America,” at that spot is no guiding ideology behind a motility that to a greater extent than often than non denies beingness “antigovernment” at all—militias are simply opposed to “unconstitutional” government, their exponents claim. Widespread understanding exists amid militia members entirely that at that spot exists a conception to impose global tyranny, unremarkably referred to equally the New World Order. This is specifically a socialist conception for global domination.

Within this conception a cardinal purpose is played yesteryear the United Nations, which, it is claimed, volition usage unusual troops to disarm the U.S. public next the enactment of stringent gun-control measures, hence the importance non entirely of gun ownership, but also of preparation together with drilling inwards armed forces techniques together with marksmanship.

The “precipitating factors” that spurred the motility included the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill, which regulated the sale of handguns together with restricted ownership to nonfelons; the outlawing of “assault weapons” equally component of the Omnibus Crime Bill (1995), passed inwards the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing; the passage of international merchandise agreements such equally the Global Agreement on Trade together with Tariffs (GATT) together with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which politicians such equally Patrick Buchanan said were causing U.S. jobs to endure exported to the Third World; together with ii events that indicated, from the Christian Patriot perspective, that the federal regime had declared state of war on its people: the botched sieges yesteryear federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, inwards 1992 together with and so again, to a greater extent than cataclysmically, at Waco, Texas, inwards 1993.

These events were interpreted equally proof that the New World Order was nearing completion. H5N1 Texan militia commander said of Waco, “We were sleep-walking through life. It was the massacre that woke us all up. When the history of this historic catamenia is written, that’ll endure the shot that rang out some the basis together with changed everything”.

Militia activists are widely characterized equally sharing a conspiracist outlook. Core beliefs include: that the New World Order volition require the usage of concentration camps for Christian resisters; that unmarked dark helicopters are beingness used yesteryear the armed forces inwards preparation for their plans; that unusual troops working for the UN volition endure used to disarm civilians together with imprison them; that international route signs are used inwards the U.S.A. inwards monastic say to help these unusual troops; that urban street gangs (such equally the Bloods together with Crips inwards Los Angeles) volition endure used equally “shock troops” for the New World Order; together with that implanted chips are beingness used to monitor U.S. citizens (a belief shared yesteryear Tim McVeigh).

The next elite groups are identified equally the instigators of the conspiracy: the Skull together with Bones cloak-and-dagger society, based at Yale University (of which the Bush theater unit of measurement are said to endure members); the Council on Foreign Relations; the Trilateral Commission (comprising economic, political, together with media elites from Western Europe, North America, together with Japan); the Bilderbergers; the Rockefeller together with Rothschild banking families; together with the British regal family. Many of these conspiracy theories are the same equally those of the John Birch Society, who label these elites “the Insiders.”

Although these elites include Americans, the conspiracy itself is specifically un-American, equally pointed out yesteryear Bo Gritz, speaking inwards 1992: “what nosotros regard are the tentacles of this elite club.... I holler upward the head, the brain, the guts of this affair likely lies offshore from the United States”.

This is a brief summary of some of the to a greater extent than mutual theories, which non all militia members volition believe. Another pop view is the proposition that UFOs have got made contact with human governments together with they are colluding with corrupt elites, equally advanced yesteryear William Cooper inwards Behold a Pale Horse, a volume that is both pop together with influential inwards militia circles (and which takes its championship from a line inwards the Book of Revelation 6: 8).

Some conspiracy theories are to a greater extent than mundane, relating to wellness issues such equally fluoride inwards H2O supplies, or the belief that high schoolhouse shootings are caused yesteryear giving the drug Ritalin to children. It is belief inwards conspiracies that informs all resistance from the far right, framed inwards opposition to the left. Unanimity is non required, simply the identification of mutual enemies—the enemies of the nation.

Militia together with Patriot publications together with websites also nowadays an economical analysis, inwards which the Federal Reserve is depicted equally a corrupt body, backed yesteryear private banking interests, overseeing a monetary scheme based upon usury together with fictitious capital.

There is a considerable crossover into the revenue enhancement protest/resistance constituency of Patriots who believe that the payment of income tax—which was introduced illegally inwards 1912, it is argued—is genuinely voluntary together with non a compulsory obligation.

By refusing to cooperate with the Inland Revenue Service (IRS), Patriots believe that they are striking a blow against the New World Order. By declaring themselves “sovereign citizens” many believe that they tin legally evade income tax, so long equally they larn “common law” good plenty to refute the erroneous arguments of IRS officials inwards court.

Predictably, run-ins with the IRS have got resulted inwards many would-be Patriots becoming incarcerated or fined, equally their mutual police argu- ments have got failed to win out inwards court. Thus “tax resisters” often acquire available for recruitment to the far right, equally was the instance with Robert Mathews of The Order, for instance.

In militia publications together with websites, comparisons are commonly made with the province of affairs when America was a British colony, ruled yesteryear King George III, which resulted inwards the American Revolution together with the overthrow of colonial rule.

This comparing legitimizes resistance against corrupt federal authority, summed upward inwards the oft-repeated quote from Ben Franklin, “They that would surrender essential freedom for a picayune temporary security deserve neither freedom nor safety.”

The vast bulk of militia websites together with publications, it should endure emphasized, limited entirely the utmost loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, which they experience is nether threat from traitorous enemies, together with they disavow both racism together with violence.

It is apparent that the militias’ typical stance, beingness 1 of rebellion together with distrust of mainstream politics together with culture, leads many to come upward into conflict with police enforcement agencies, together with the Militia Watchdog website provides a lengthy litany of militia members together with leaders who have got been arrested together with charged with crimes ranging from firearms offenses, revenue enhancement evasion, together with civil disobedience (such equally driving without a valid driver’s license), to to a greater extent than serious ones such equally conspiracy to blow upward federal buildings.

In some cases, such equally that of the Arizona Viper Militia, the leading protagonists inwards a conspiracy to brand bombs turned out to endure undercover federal agents (eleven out of the twelve who were arrested inwards 1996 eventually received prison theater sentences).

Impact of September 11

Prior to the terrorist attacks of 11 September Mark Pitcavage believed that the militia motility “has sure enough declined, but it is non inwards danger of disappearing, together with inwards fact inwards many parts of the province it is silent really strong. In some parts of the country, where militia arrests set it depression (such equally West Virginia together with Georgia), it is reforming.”

He also mentioned the “reflowering” of the revenue enhancement protestation motility together with the increment inwards popularity of the “redemption” tactic of mutual police adherents (a type of fiscal scam), “active inwards virtually every unmarried state”. Militias were also able to mobilize supporters for lengthy standoffs with police enforcement agencies inwards both Indiana together with Texas during 2000–2001, at the Indianapolis Baptist Church together with the Joel Grey farm, respectively.

Taking the “antigovernment movement” equally a whole, of which the militias are but a part, Pitcavage concluded that it “has existed inwards to a greater extent than or less its nowadays shape since the early on 1970s together with nobody’s managed to postage stamp it out yet. I doubtfulness it is dead correct now.”

However, since 11 September the militias have got been somewhat eclipsed yesteryear the moving ridge of patriotism that has swept the United States, coupled with the potent back upward for President Bush together with the federal government’s “war on terrorism.” Militia websites have got adapted their rhetoric, arguing that terrorism stands with socialism, liberalism, together with communism equally threats to U.S. values together with prosperity.

The lesson for the gun lobby—the middle of gravity for the militias—was that the airplane hijackings could have got been avoided if air passengers were allowed to send guns on board flights: “only self defence forcefulness yesteryear the ‘unorganized militia’ volition endure available when domestic or unusual terrorists withdraw their side yesteryear side minute of murder. And hither is the public-policy implication of this fact: It would endure improve if the militia were to a greater extent than prepared to human activity when it is needed”.

The passengers who fought against the hijackers on Flight 93, which came downwards inwards rural Pennsylvania, it is argued, were effectively acting equally a citizens’ militia. Individualized security—the correct of the citizen to deport arms together with shape militias—is held equally the ideal, contrasted with whatsoever notion of collectivized security arrangements carried out yesteryear the province inwards conjunction with the disarming of civilians, which remains anathema to the Right inwards the United States.

It is clear, however, that militia appeals have got lost a grade of salience equally a resultant of 11 September, equally at that spot is 1 time again an external enemy taking on a similar purpose to that of international communism during the mutual frigidness war. As Norm Olson set it, “I don’t want anyone to have got the thought that we’re going to bow downwards to the federal government, but I holler upward this could endure a novel beginning.... As long equally at that spot is a unusual enemy, nosotros volition run together with our federal government. George Bush’s enemy is my enemy”.

Nevertheless, given the nature of conspiracist thinking, it is clear that many volition endure resistant to appeals to back upward the federal government, together with volition regard 11 September equally a planned event, component of the conspiracy—as does the Freedom Fighter Net, linked from the Michigan Militia site: “As Franklin Delano Roosevelt is quoted equally saying: ‘Nothing always happens inwards international politics that isn’t planned.’ Our leaders may non have got a clue what is genuinely going on here, but these attacks have got New World Order together with One World Government written all over them.”

Hidden Agendas?

The pro-militia publication the Patriot Report (run yesteryear Christian Identity adherent George Eaton, out of Arkansas) argued that the militias formed inwards the 1990s equally a defensive response to “when the socialist alter agents began making offensive moves against the U.S. Constitution together with American sovereignty.... the entirely affair standing inwards the conspirators’ way of full basis conquest,” he continued, “was the few American patriots who silent believe inwards the constitutional American Republic.... It was aggressive together with offensive moves yesteryear the conspirators for a One World Government that caused the patriot community to recognize tyranny together with and so to shape militias.... The militias are defensive, non offensive or revolutionary”.

Nevertheless, “watchdog” organizations, such equally the ADL together with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), together with some activists fighting that the militias harbor hidden agendas together with that racists together with antisemites have got played influential roles inwards the formation of the militia movement. They farther fighting that the “Patriots” who brand upward the mass of the membership constituted “the seedbed, if non the realization, of a uniquely American variety of fascism”.

Morris Dees (of Klanwatch—part of the SPLC that Dees heads) describes John Trochmann, founder of the Militia of Montana, equally “a frequent visitor to the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations,” champaign indicating guilt yesteryear association. In Dees’s volume Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat, he links the militias direct with Tim McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber), suggesting that the motility “led to the most destructive human activity of domestic terrorism” inwards U.S. history upward until that point.

Dees stated inwards a missive of the alphabet to the together with so U.S. attorney general, Janet Reno: “Our business office has confirmed the active involvement of a number of well-known white supremacists, Posse Comitatus, Christian Identity, together with other extremist leaders together with groups inwards the growing militia movement”. These included established far-right leaders such equally Louis Beam (ex–Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon), Bo Gritz (“a notorious antisemite”), together with James Wickstrom (a Posse Comitatus leader).

In making the instance for the involvement of far-right activists, Dees is non lonely inwards ascribing a coming together that took house inwards Oct 1992 at Estes Park, Colorado, equally a sort of planning coming together for the formation of the militias. Known equally the “Rocky Mountain Rendezvous,” it brought together over 150 far-right leaders, including Richard Butler of Aryan Nations, Red Beckman of the Fully Informed Jury Association, together with Larry Pratt, founder of Gun Owners of America, who represented the militant fly of the pro-gun lobby.

The event, which was organized yesteryear Pete Peters largely inwards response to the Ruby Ridge siege that had taken house before inwards the year, featured a keynote spoken language yesteryear Louis Beam inwards which he outlined the “leaderless resistance” strategy, based upon cellular, decentralized structures champaign similar to those employed yesteryear the “Committees of Correspondence” during the American Revolution.

In the article of the same holler that explains “Leaderless Resistance,” originally written inwards 1983, Beam advocates various ways inwards which “those who honey our race, culture, together with heritage” tin resist “federal tyranny,” which he regards equally having replaced the threat of communism inwards the United States.

Strategies include utilizing “camouflage,” yesteryear which Beam way “the powerfulness to blend inwards the public’s oculus the to a greater extent than committed groups of resistance with mainstream ‘kosher’ associations that are to a greater extent than often than non seen equally harmless.”

In other words, racists should involve themselves inwards groups through beingness disingenuous close their truthful ideology. With this inwards mind, it is clear that it would endure impossible to evidence that racists together with antisemites are dominant inside the militias, but at the same fourth dimension it is a fair supposition that at that spot are at to the lowest degree some present.

Nevertheless, the purpose of racists should non endure overstated. Mark Pitcavage believes that Estes Park was non peculiarly relevant to the evolution of the militia motility together with that “most militia leaders never fifty-fifty heard of it.” Representatives of both the SPLC together with ADL are agreed that the militia motility is non mainly characterized yesteryear racism.

Martin Durham argues, “Rather than regard Estes Park equally the origin of the modern militias it would seem to a greater extent than useful to regard it equally 1 of many Patriot initiatives that anticipated, but entirely inwards some cases influenced, the emergence of a novel moving ridge of paramilitary groups inwards 1994”. He concludes that far to a greater extent than emphasis should endure given to the purpose of the militant pro-gun lobby, including the National Rifle Association, but to a greater extent than significantly a competition group, the Gun Owners of America (headed yesteryear Larry Pratt).

For some, it is the belief inwards conspiracy theories that is regarded equally proof plenty that the militias harbor racist sentiments: “This electrical flow crop of conspiracy theories is written on a template forged long agone together with reshaped yesteryear successive tales of cloak-and-dagger worldwide conspiracies”. The declaration is that the inwards a higher house theories tin endure traced dorsum to antisemitic conspiracy theories, based on the model of Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged occupation concern human relationship of Jewish plans for global domination.

But this is to overlook the overwhelming religiosity of the movement. Other commentators have got drawn attending to what they regard equally the leading purpose of Christian “reconstructionists” together with antiabortion radicals (often with links to white-supremacist theologies).

But at that spot is far to a greater extent than consensus that it was Pat Robertson’s 1991 bestseller, The New World Order, that did most to pave the way for the militias. It both popularized together with brought together secular together with religious conspiracy theories inwards a unmarried overarching analysis that labeled the conspirators equally motivated yesteryear absolute evil (McLemee).

Robertson specifically rules out blaming “monopoly capitalism” for the problems of the world—there is “some other powerfulness at work.” He identifies the “policy elites” who are attempting to dominate the basis together with concludes that such impulses bound “from the depth of something that is evil, neither good intentioned nor benevolent”.

There is no overt racism or antisemitism inwards the book, however, although Robertson took considerable flak for his determination to utilize antisemitic sources—he included references to both Eustace Mullins together with Nesta Webster, for example.

Rather than demonizing the militias equally racist conspiracies guided yesteryear antisemitism, Mark Fenster argues that they are improve understood if the of import modern purpose of “popular eschatology” is emphasized: that is, the do of reading together with interpreting both history together with contemporary events equally the signs foretold inwards the Bible, mediated to a mass marketplace of Christians (hence pop eschatology).

The Book of Revelation is peculiarly significant, speaking of “fire together with smoke together with brimstone”; the number of the Beast (666); the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse; the vehement devastation of Babylon together with the slaying of a 3rd of the human population; the lx minutes of judgment; Armageddon; together with so on. Rather than preparing for a race war, Fenster feels that militia members are to a greater extent than probable to endure preparing to fighting it out with the Antichrist, assisting the forces of Christ inwards the concluding showdown at Armageddon.

Popular eschatology is based upon a “mechanistic theory of powerfulness ... [which] echoes, together with at times explicitly borrows, the theories of to a greater extent than secular right-wing conspiracy theories,” but they are non the same thing. Although the lines betwixt religious together with secular conspiracy theories are blurred, “they each emerge from distinct, if at times overlapping, social together with cultural contexts” (Fenster, 147).

It is, therefore, the deviation betwixt conservative Protestantism on the 1 hand, together with modernist/liberal Protestantism on the other, that holds the key to understanding pop eschatology, which is deeply traditionalist together with pious. The militias correspond the backlash politics of conservative Protestantism, reacting against the domination of “secular humanism” together with the (immoral) liberal consensus that prevails inwards contemporary America.

There are concerns that militias purpose equally “bridges,” facilitating the motility of Christian conservatives toward the far right, equally they encounter the secular conspiracy theories of the Christian Right together with the John Birch Society, whose tracts are widely available on militia sites, together with and so acquire susceptible to the to a greater extent than unsafe extremism of antisemites, whose sites are far less often linked (Barkun).

Similarly, Ken Stern (107) uses the notion of “funnels” to push clit the way that the motility takes people inwards over concerns over a broad gain of issues, such equally gun command together with environmental restrictions, together with and so when they acquire to the extremist heart of the funnel they emerge equally antisemites, equally did Tim McVeigh.

Militias also correspond really existent economical interests, such equally gun manufacturers who usage patriotism to boost sales together with who promote gun ownership equally the antidote to private insecurity; anti-environmentalists who back upward the rights of loggers together with mining interests over the efforts yesteryear Greens to limit the usage of natural resources together with to protect wildernesses; together with complimentary marketplace libertarians whose master copy concern is with maintaining a vibrant civilisation of antitax militancy together with antigovernmentalism.

These various interests limited no back upward for racism or antisemitism, but because they employ the myths of nationalism together with have got a dialectical human relationship with the same caricatured versions of their ideological enemies—liberalism together with socialism—then they also have got to fighting with the racists inwards their midst who regard the patch equally an ethnically based entity (belonging to white Europeans) rather than a values-based 1 (of which all immigrants tin acquire a part). As far equally militias are concerned, it is the political Left that has the hidden agenda (the eventual creation of communism), which volition resultant inwards the enslavement of all nations.

The militias are ideologically “slippery,” together with thence able to recruit beyond the traditional “Christian Patriot” base of operations of support, exactly because they have got no demand to endure opened upward together with unambiguous close what they genuinely believe in. They correspond symbolic resistance to globalization, multiculturalism, together with province power, often reflecting cultural chauvinism, but for every racist militia at that spot is at to the lowest degree 1 libertarian one.

They are a crusade for concern for police enforcement agencies because, equally Mark Pitcavage puts it, “they have got the tools for violence coupled with an ideology inwards which violence is non entirely permissible but if used for the correct ends, admirable.” By refusing to specify what the ultimate ends mightiness endure they are hoping to displace beyond the fringes together with into the mainstream.

Bilderbergers

Bilderbergers

Named after the Bilderberg Hotel inward Oosterbeek, Holland, where the get-go coming together took house inward May 1954, the Bilderbergers shape an unofficial, secretive grouping prepare inward the get-go years of the mutual frigidity state of war to foster communication as well as cooperation betwixt Europe as well as the United States. Leading businessmen as well as political figures hoped to farther the aims of liberal democratic capitalism, protecting it from what they saw every bit communism’s imperialist aspirations.

Critics who accuse the Bilderbergers of conspiracy claim the grouping constitutes an invisible, shadow government, as well as that this surreptitious government’s goals involve the devastation of the nationstate, the creation of a unmarried currency, as well as the foundation of a New World Order led past times a unmarried world-government.

Reference to “the Bilderbergers” mostly agency those who accept attended at to the lowest degree i of the meetings, but in that place is no laid listing of members every bit such. Rather, the group’s steering commission (including figures such every bit the one-time U.S. secretarial assistant of nation Henry Kissinger as well as Canadian media-mogul Conrad Black) is inward accuse of deciding who volition attend the coming together inward whatever given year.


The listing of those who accept attended Bilderberger meetings is impressive, including leading politicians as well as military machine figures, businessmen as well as bankers, as well as lawyers as well as academics (see www[dot]bilderberg[dot]org for consummate lists).

The get-go coming together was non solely attended past times high-ranking CIA officials, but was financed inward business office past times the CIA every bit well. Also, which is of import for a sure enough strain of anti–old public conspiracy theory, the grouping allowed members of Western European royal families to reclaim the political ability they had abdicated through constitutional reform.

The Bilderbergers claim that their limitation of press coverage as well as overall secrecy is necessary inward gild to ensure an environs of openness as well as liberty of oral communication during the meetings. In this historic menstruation of media proliferation, it is genuinely stunning that they handle to retain such a depression profile, with nearly none of the members e'er agreeing to hold upwards interviewed on the dependent plain of the meetings. Many antiBilderbergers consider this high degree of secrecy every bit sure enough evidence of a conspiracy.

In the minds of some, farther evidence of conspiracy tin give the axe hold upwards constitute inward the Bilderbergers’ ties to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)—an extremely high per centum of U.S. Bilderbergers are also members of the CFR—and to the Trilateral Commission, which was founded from inside the Bilderberg meetings past times David Rockefeller.

Even mainstream writers oftentimes advise that U.S. Bilderbergers may good hold upwards contravening the Logan Act, which makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to negotiate with unusual powers without beingness granted the authorization to practise as well as then past times the U.S. government.

Many struggle that hereafter heads of nation are handpicked past times the Bilderbergers. It is no coincidence, they charge, that Bill Clinton attended the 1991 coming together as well as went on to instruct president the next year, or that Tony Blair attended in1993 as well as became the Labour Party’s leader a twelvemonth later, ultimately becoming Britain’s prime number government minister inward the 1997 election.

Furthermore, the policies made past times the parties of the left inward both UK of Britain as well as Northern Republic of Ireland as well as the the States during the 1990s—policies that proved highly successful inward capturing “moderate” voters—seem to hold upwards inward delineate with the policies of the Bilderberger group, especially those that favor the advertisement of economical globalization (i.e., the New World Order).

When faced with the impressive listing of attendees, no i would dispute the fact that the Bilderbergers wield immense political as well as economical power; the query is, rather, whether or non this obvious ability is best described every bit a conspiracy or surreptitious public government.

The forces of international capitalism are indeed powerful, and, every bit fifty-fifty mainstream theorists accept argued, the forces of globalization create interconnected networks of ability that operate just the way a conspiracy to create a New World Order would (see, for example, Michael Hardt as well as Antonia Negri’s book, Empire).

Furthermore, past times their ain admission, the Bilderbergers are out to promote the advance of global capitalism. So it is fair to inquire just what makes anti-Bilderbergers “merely” conspiracy theorists.

For many, anti-Bilderbergers are designated conspiracy theorists because of their reliance on an array of concepts, rhetorical figures, and, possibly nigh importantly, targets that are oftentimes to hold upwards constitute inward other “extremist” theories.

As with other conspiracy theories, anti-Bilderberger rhetoric focuses on an international cabal run past times the Rockefellers as well as the Rothschilds, as well as many would struggle that the choice of these 2 families every bit targets is no accident.

Critics of these “international bankers” as well as “secret governments” tend to pull their metaphors, figures, as well as arguments from a vast conceptual reservoir that includes, with other things, attacks on the so-called Jewish-Masonic public conspiracy.

Whether or non anti-Bilderberger writings are obviously antisemitic groups highly attuned to the linguistic communication of antisemitism (such every bit the Anti-Defamation League) oftentimes notice antisemitism inward sure enough code words (i.e., the Rothschilds, “international bankers,” etc.).

When labeled antisemitic past times the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the conspiracy theorists ask: if in that place were a conspiracy of international bankers that was orchestrating public events, how on globe are nosotros to investigate it as well as critique it other than past times using price such every bit “international bankers”? In the eyes of the antiBilderbergers, the ADL may hold upwards unwittingly (or wittingly) playing into the hands of the Bilderbergers.

Yet inward the real virulence of their attacks on the ADL as well as international Jewish bankers, the right-wing antiBilderbergers oftentimes appear to betray their truthful intentions (see www[dot]bilderberg[dot]org/jewish.htm).

Franciscans in the Americas

Franciscans in the Americas

The Franciscans sent the greatest number of missionaries to minister in the New World. This is quite likely due to the fact that they were the largest order in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1493, there were some 22,000 friars participating in various Franciscan observances. A large number of them were in Spain.

By 1517, this number had grown to 30,000, mainly due to reforms initiated by Cardinal Francisco de Cisneros in the simpler more relaxed Observant reform (which retained the name Order of Friars Minor). The Franciscan order has had a history marked by reforms and divisions. In 1517, Pope Leo X divided into two independent groups disgruntled Franciscans still unsatisfied by the medieval attempts at reform.

The result was a Conventual Franciscan group (those resisting change) and the Observant group, which would be called Friars Minor. A Capuchin reform surfaced in 1528 and became an independent group by 1619 (Order Friars Minor Capuchin). Among the three groups, the Franciscans had an overwhelming majority of religious representatives in the New World.


It has been suggested by historians that Franciscan missionaries, Friars Juan de la Deule and Juan de Tisin along with Father Ramón Pané, were the first members of a religious order to come to the Americas. These men accompanied Christopher Columbus in 1493 during his second expedition.

They had been sent by a special commission of the Franciscan order in response to royal instructions from the Spanish Crown aimed at bringing the natives of the Americas to Catholicism. Their initial chapel was built at Port Conception on Hispaniola, where in December of 1493 they offered Mass for the first time in the New World. A convent was built for them by Columbus at the stronghold of Santo Domingo.

Pane, probably more of a contemplative, accompanied Columbus on his voyage to Puerto Rico in 1496. Pane kept very exacting records of his activities and observations of the natives that have survived to this day. The Franciscans were at the vanguard of missionary activity on the newly discovered islands. In 1502, 17 more Franciscans arrived along with the first governor of Hispaniola. They would go on to build the first convent and church (San Francisco) at Santo Domingo.

Domingo became the base of operations for countless missionary expeditions to the north, south, and central continental mainland for many decades. During the next 25 years, more than 50 Franciscan missionaries attempted to evangelize the Caribbean islands, particularly Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Friar Juan de la Deule died while ministering to Jamaicans sometime between 1508 and 1511.

In 1512, Father García de Padilla was consecrated as bishop of Santo Domingo and, two years later, another Franciscan, Juan de Quevendo, was consecrated as the first bishop of the Central American mainland at Santa Maria Darién. The eastern part of Venezuela was also established as a Franciscan apostolic mission that lasted from 1514 to 1521.

Not until after 1576 were friaries founded in the province of Caracas. In the 17th century, the Capuchins attempted to evangelize in Venezuela. Francisco de Pamplona (a former military general) began work at Darién in 1650. The Capuchin houses located there refused to accept Creoles into the order.

Expeditions to Mexico

During 1523 and 1524, two Franciscan missionary expeditions set out for Mexico from Santo Domingo. The first friars among the Mexicans were Flemish. Among them was Father Peter of Ghent (d. 1562), who spent some 40 years among the native Mesoamericans. The following year 12 more Franciscans arrived. Around 1527, a diocese was organized under the Franciscan bishop Juan de Zumárraga.

At that point, some 70 Franciscan houses rapidly surfaced in Mexico and the region was raised in status to a province. Zumárraga is credited with setting up the first printing press in the New World. Publications in 12 languages were printed and distributed throughout the Americas.

Education of the Indian children of Mexico became a priority and labor of love among the friars. However, there was some opposition on the part of the Spanish government in regard to the education of the natives.

Most convents had schools where thousands of Mexican boys were taught to read, write, and sing. Eventually the Franciscans assisted with the development of a school for girls in Mexico City. Several colleges were also founded for the sons of tribal chiefs throughout Mexico; they became centers for further missionary activity to both South and North America.

Before the end of the 16th century, friars extended missionary efforts from Guadalajara in the northwest to New Mexico in the north, northeast to the Gulf of Mexico, and south to the Yucatán, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.

Beautiful churches were constructed at Huejotzingo, Tlamanalco, Huequechula, Izamal, and Cholula. Friars Pedro de Betanzos and Francisco de la Parra became experts in the Mayan language and have handed down keys to its translation. By 1569, there were some 300 Franciscan missionaries in New Spain (Mexico) alone.

Missions to Peru

Missionary efforts to Peru were launched by Franciscans from Santo Domingo, after 1527 by Juan de los Santos, and followed by Marcos de Niza between 1531 and 1532. Earlier, Franciscans accompanied Pizarro during his conquest and exploration of the region. Evangelization progressed fairly slowly in Peru for the first 20 years due to the animosity between natives and the Spanish invaders.

From Santa Cruz eight missionaries were sent out to Peru. Friar Francisco de Aragón took 12 Franciscans and traveled south to form the main trunk from which communities in Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia grew. A center for ministry was established at Quito as well as a college.

By 1549, a supervisor was sent to Lima to coordinate all Franciscans in the southern part of the continent. It was not until 1553 that Peru saw permanent Franciscan establishments. In Ecuador a Franciscan province was erected in 1565. Missionary activity to the east and south continued.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, many friars were lost to martyrdom in the territories of the Ucayali and the region north of the Amazon. Franciscans count 129 friar deaths on the Ucayali alone. In 1742, most of these centers of ministry were destroyed during native uprisings.

It took 50 years to restore the Franciscan missions in these areas. Attempts by Franciscans to evangelize Chile were gravely disappointing. Between 1553 and 1750, repeated hostilities between Spanish settlers and natives made activity in the region difficult.

Not until Chilean independence in 1832 did the friars resume their missionary work. In the southern part of Chile and Bolivia the Franciscans were more successful. Seven missionary colleges were established and Franciscans ministered to the people of Bolivia between the 16th and 19th centuries.

They reached Paraguay in the early 1600s and Uruguay a century later. In Argentina, Paraguay, and Peru, the Franciscan missionary St. Francis Solano (1549–1610), who was said to have had the gift of tongues (having learned numerous native languages), spent 14 years ministering to colonists and natives. He is still held in highest regard among descendants of the indigenous people of South America.

Franciscans in Florida

Franciscans arrived in Florida in 1573, eight years after the first permanent Spanish settlement. A larger influx of friars in 1587 and again in 1589 helped with the conversion of the Guale.

Many of the northern tribes of Florida were urban dwellers, so the Franciscans attempted to move into their cities and live among the people. Soon a chain of missions were established along the Atlantic coast for some 250 miles. However, during Indian uprisings of 1597, five Franciscan friars were martyred.

In 1612, the Franciscan province of Santa Elena, which was headquartered in Havana, Cuba, began to supervise missionary work in Florida. At its peak in 1675, some 40 friars maintained 36 missions and the bishop of Havana claimed 13,000 native souls and about 30,000 total Catholics (which might be an exaggeration) under his care.

Eventually, the Franciscan missions would fall victim to the struggle between England and Spain over the territory between St. Augustine and Charleston. Slaving raids, armed conflicts, and British alliances with Native American tribes caused the Florida missions to vanish. By 1706, most Franciscan houses in Florida had ceased to function.

By 1680, there were more than 60,000 Franciscan friars worldwide. This may have had to do with the growing number of friaries (2,113 in 1585 and 4,050 in 1762). There were 16 provinces in the Spanish Americas alone.

By the middle of the 18th century, at least a third of all Franciscan houses and friars were in the Spanish New World. Some of this growth reflected an increase in the number of native Franciscans in the Americas, especially in the 16th century. In fact, in Mexico, Spanish friars began to constitute a thin minority by the mid-1600s.

Texas Settlements

Texas began to be settled by Franciscans while the area was still linked to New Spain. Some missionaries refer to the areas occupied by Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California as the New Kingdom of St. Francis.

There was trouble in 1680; the Pueblo Revolt saw the uprising of many Native Americans, primarily in response to the denigration of their religion by the Spanish Franciscans as well as the disruption of the Pueblo economy. Under the direction of Popé, the revolt was successful, and Popé ruled from the former governor’s palace until his death in 1688.

Shortly after his death, the Spanish returned, reconquering the land without bloodshed by offering clemency to the inhabitants. In 1690, permanent missions began to be founded in the area of Texas, mostly through the efforts of Father Damian Mazanet.

Many Indians in Texas were open to accepting the Christian gospel. During the 1700s, some 21 Franciscan missions staffed by more than 160 friars were established in Texas and thousands of Indians embraced the faith.

During the mid-1700s, many were constructed in magnificent fashion of stone; some included fortress walls. Several examples of these still survive, particularly in the area around San Antonio, Texas. After the period of Mexican independence in the early 1800s, a large number of these missions were left to ruin.

While Mexico and Arizona had Franciscan visitors in the 1500s, it was not until the early 17th century that there was any permanent activity there. Father Juan de Padilla died in the region for his faith in 1542 during an early expedition.

By 1628, there were 43 churches and an estimate of some 30,000 Catholics (native and Spanish) in the territories. The Franciscans were the only missionaries to minister there and it has been recorded that nearly 300 Franciscans preached in the area during the 16th and 17th centuries. California did not experience Franciscan activity until 1769.

The work of Father Junípero Serra and his assistants saw the founding of 21 permanent missions extending from the initial foundation in San Diego north to San Francisco. For the next 100 years, 144 friars would labor in California, resulting in an estimated 80,000 baptisms among Native Americans and settlers.

English American Missions

In the English American colonies there was some isolated Franciscan activity in the late 1600s as well as some activity in French Canada in the early part of the 17th century. Between 1672 and 1699, English friars assisted the Jesuits with work in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota. The only permanent success seems to have been in Detroit. However, even that region was unstable. In 1706, the Franciscan priest Constantine Dehalle was killed in an Indian uprising.

Father Gabrielle de la Ribaude also gave his life near Joliet, on the banks of the Illinois River, in 1681. In New France (Canada) the first missionaries in the region were four French Franciscans in Quebec around 1615. They spent the 10 years ministering to the Huron and Algonquins in the regions of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.

Father Nicholas Veil was the first Franciscan to be martyred in Canada. By 1630, the British ended friar activity in most of Canada. Some work continued among the Abnaki in Nova Scotia and Arcadia until around 1633.

A group of explorers led by the Franciscan Father Louis Hennepin (1640–1701) sailed from Niagara Falls down the Mississippi. Hennepin wrote several accounts of his adventures. One of the last of the formative Franciscan missionaries in Canada was Father Emanuel Crespel, whose efforts extended all the way to the Fox River in Wisconsin during the 1720s.

Historical information on Franciscan activities during the 17th and 18th centuries is not as abundant as that of the 16th century formative period. Heroic tales of martyrs and founders survived in the form of oral traditions, written accounts, and records kept by the order. By the 17th century, the scope and goals of missionary and evangelical activity began to change.

By then it was even more necessary to educate and catechize as well as bring European culture and ideas to the native inhabitants. Dealing with a second generation of settlers, the arrival of new Europeans, as well as the issue of intermarriage, preoccupied the friars.

The mission foundations, or doctrinas, began to evolve into parishes (some were exclusively native, others were urban European, and there were many mixed communities). It was also customary to hand many of the more successful parishes and mission foundations over to diocesan secular clergy, freeing many Franciscans to attend to ministry in the more remote areas.

As the 18th century progressed, growing control by the secular clergy eventually gave way to the specialization of the Franciscans in attending to new and more isolated missionary territories in addition to the establishment of missionary colleges directed at the propagation of the faith.

United Nations

The United Nations, already six decades old, has traversed a long, strife-formed cold war. Not a superstate above the states, it collectively approaches issues of war, peace, development, and justice, and has sufficient transforming potentials to create a new, better world order.

Since the end of the cold war, it has acquired new dynamism, but at the same time it has to be restructured to cope with an emerging complex world of nation-states, various movements, and unforeseen challenges like terrorism.

The United Nations, founded in the aftermath of World War II, was established at the San Francisco Conference in 1945 on the principle of collective security. It was the successor to the League of Nations, which had been established after World War I but failed to organize world order on the principles of universality.

The United Nations, therefore, took care to avoid the mistakes of its predecessor, and five major powers were given special power and responsibility through the mechanism of "veto" power in the most important organ of the United Nations—the Security Council.


The goals of the United Nations were enshrined in the Charter: to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to achieve international cooperation, and to work as a harmonizer among nations. Security was the principal goal of the United Nations.

Unlike in the league, however, security was not narrowly conceived in the United Nations but was broadened to include socioeconomic justice, human rights, and development. Like the league, the United Nations was based on the principles of collective security.

The new principle on which the league and the United Nations were based does not consider security as the individual affair of states or regions but as a collective affair of all states, and aggression against one state is considered aggression against all others. All states are obliged to take collective action against the aggressor.

From The League

The UN Charter provided for six major organs, four of which evolved out of the League of Nations. The General Assembly was based on the democratic principle of "one country, one vote", irrespective of size and power, and was essentially a deliberative organ.

The countries of the Third World used the body for organizing themselves and took up issues of colonialism and racialism. The Charter provided for some supervisory functions of the General Assembly. The council and assembly had joint functions as well.

The Security Council, the most important organ of the United Nations, reflected the reality of power. The United States, the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, and China were the five permanent members with veto power and had special responsibility to maintain world peace and security.

However, veto became a mechanism of obstruction, and the Soviet Union frequently used it; while the United States did not use it in earlier years, the frequency of veto increased after 1970. The Security Council was based on the assumption that the major powers would agree on issues of war and peace, but the onset of the cold war around 1945 made the United Nations a helpless spectator.

The Charter provided for a mechanism of maintaining peace, whereby the council may call upon members states to apply sanctions against the aggressor and may form a Military Staff Committee consisting of the chief of staff of permanent members of the Security Council.

The enforcement of peace was possible in the Korean War, and a united command was formed under the United States. It placed an embargo on the export of strategic materials to China and North Korea. Subsequently the provision could not be replicated for a long time.

It was only after the closing stages of the cold war that the Security Council became effective again; consultations and coordination among the major powers in the council have been frequent, as in the Persian Gulf crisis and more recently over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

For about five decades of the cold war, the United Nations never appeared to play the role envisaged at San Francisco in the realm of peace and security; it was bypassed in major flash points across the globe, such as the Panama Canal crisis, Hungary, the Berlin blockade, the Cuban missile crisis, Arab-Israeli conflicts, the India-China border war, Vietnam and Indochina, and the Sino-Soviet border war.

The United Nations was a passive bystander as major powers professed to settle scores outside the United Nations. When the United Nations was hamstrung due to the use of veto, the General Assembly sought a way out through the Uniting for Peace Resolution to consider measures in a situation of breach of peace.

After the end of the cold war, the United Nations became more active again, although in the process it acquired new functions, in line with but not envisaged in the Charter. During the turn of the 21st century this function, known as peacekeeping—traditionally denoting acting as a buffer between contending parties or monitoring ceasefire agreements—expanded to other areas.

Now peacekeeping also means the provision of humanitarian relief, removal of mines, repatriation of refugees, and reconstruction of national infrastructure in devasted areas, such as Afghanistan.

The costs of all of these functions have been enormous, especially in recent peacekeeping operations: South Africa, Rwanda, Iraq-Kuwait, Mozambique, Somalia, Haiti, and Liberia. Sometimes the United Nations has drawn flak; the UN troops have also been targeted, as in Somalia and Bosnia.

Cooperation

Unlike during the cold war years, however, the United Nations finds cooperation among major powers to repulse aggression. In the First Gulf War, Moscow supported U.S. efforts to impose sanctions against Iraq, which had annexed Kuwait.

The machinery of the United Nations was used. Other major powers contributed troops, particularly France and Britain. Japan and Germany too accepted new security roles.

Besides war and peace, the United Nations has been instrumental in various humanitarian efforts. A large amount of credit must go to the United Nations for ending apartheid in South Africa, improving life expectancy in Africa, helping children suffering from malnutrition, and fighting diseases. It has not been as successful in the removal of global poverty, but it has launched efforts in that direction.

Now the United Nations finds itself playing a new role against international terrorism. It has not been as successful, and the United States acted unilaterally in 1998 when al-Qaeda attacked U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Subsequently, following September 11, 2001, the United States took drastic steps, and the United Nations was more involved than before; terrorism became a key issue of international and United Nations concern.

The United Nations has been moving into new, uncharted areas. In a world where millions of children die days after they are born, the issue of human rights has become a major arena of international attention.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, has been enshrined in constitutions of states. Now the United Nations has also been a force in expanding the frontiers of democracy worldwide, believing that democracy fosters world peace.

While the United Nations is engaged in redefining issues of war, peace, development, and freedom, reforming the world body has become a burning issue since the end of the cold war, and more particularly since 1998, when 185 states met to celebrate 50 years of the United Nations.

There is also demand to restructure the Security Council and to add new permanent members—with or without veto power. Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, and some African countries are key candidates demanding permanent places on the Security Council.

The major powers with vetos—the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France—themselves differ about who should be permanent members in a reformed council. Reforms are, however, necessary to make the United Nations more in tune with the changes of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.