AboutBlanchjoe Expertise What is a Cult? Are cults dangerous? How does one become a member of a cult? Why do people join cults? How does one leave a cult? Why do cults exist? Are cults benificial?
Experience I have studied comparative religions for more than 25 years. I am currently a student of Ruchira Adi Da Samraj. My primary area of study is the interpersonal dynamics of the Guru/Devotee relationship.
Question QUESTION: In one of your answers you state that the KKK was made up primarily of Baptists and Lutherans. The assertion that Lutherans made up any sizeable portion of the Klan is news to me. What is the basis for your assertion?
ANSWER: Interesting Question.
The KKK was one of the more infamous socio-political cults of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Their well documented hatred of Islam, Judaism and Catholics precluded the entry of any member of these faiths from joining.
The predominate belief methodologies within the area and period where the KKK maintained its greatest influence was an overwhelmingly Christian sects of the Protestant, Baptist, and Lutheran cultures.
Those few Catholics suffered increased Nativist harassment in the half century after 1890, limiting the participation of Catholic political aspirants.
Anti-Semitism was similarly at its worst in the decades after 1890 into the early 20th century, and the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 dramatized the terror that could affect anyone in the South who did not fit the orthodoxies of that closed society.
The South was an agricultural region, and the central ritual of Evangelicalism was the revival, which usually took place in the mid-summer when crops were in the ground and worshippers could devote their spirits to refreshment.
Evangelistic campaigns were among the major social and cultural activities of the region.
Evangelic Revivalism came out of the predominant concern of evangelicals for the conversion of “The Lost, and revivalists became minor-celebrities known in the region.
The faith methodologies of the KKK mirrored exactly the demographic make up of the larger society from which it arose during that time, with the exclusion of those elements of that larger society that the KKK found “wanting”.
I am sorry that I cannot cite or reference any specific text or work.
However if this is insufficient for your needs, there are many existing works written lately, or even earlier within the early 20th, century, which note the various belief methodologies that made up the regions where the KKK had their greatest influence.
I hope that this was helpful,
Blanchjoe
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QUESTION: What part of the belief methodologies of Lutheranism influenced the Klan?
With all due respect this is a marginal response with no factual support whatsoever. The Klan has its roots in the South. Lutheranism is particularly sparse south of the Ohio river. In the early 20th century when the Klan made inroads in the Midwest it was in areas predominately settled by Scots-Irish from southern and border states, not German/Swedish/Finnish or Slovakian immigrants who brought Lutheranism to North America. Lutherans were immigrants. They weren't a part of the "Know-Nothings" or other nativist movements. The Lutheran style of being "Evangelistic" is very different from Baptists or other Calvinist groups. Lutherans were forbidden from joining lodges or other secret societies which required oaths. Klan membership would have been impossible for most of them. Moreover, Lutherans tended to keep to themselves. They didn't mix with other protestants with whom they had little in common. Many worshipped in their old world language,(not attractive to the KKK), and started more parochial schools than any other religious group besides the Catholics.
According to your argument, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Western New York (Buffalo), Iowa and northern most Ohio, Illinois and Indiana would have been hotbeds of KKK activity, given the numbers of Lutherans. They weren't! Admittedly Indiana had a lot of Klan activity but there is no authority I can locate to show Lutherans joining in large numbers. Indeed, southern Indiana German communities started as a result of Germans, Lutherans included, being kicked out of Kentucky rivertowns because of their abolitionist sympathies in a slave state. Doesn't sound like a fruitful demographic for Klan recruitment.
When I googled "Klan Lutherans" I found no support for the your position. I found sites that talked about anti-Klan sentiment among some Lutherans, but nothing else. There isn't even a consensus that Lutherans are truly WASPS!
Yes, there are anti-Catholic aspects of Lutheran theology. Go figure, the Pope issued a death sentence against Luther. Luther was also anti-Semetic and anti-Baptist/Calvinist in his writings. The Catholic church of Luther's time also had a problem with anti-Semitism. What these facts have to do with your belief that there were lots of "Heinrich Berghoffs" and "Ole Swensons" riding around in white robes and hoods is lost on me.
You are the first source I've ever come across to argue a strong tie between the Klan and a church that is non-existent in the South and otherwise composed of immigrants. You response to my question is vague and void of substance. You should have more facts before you accuse a group of such unsavory activity.
ANSWER: Interesting Response.
I agree that demographicly the number of Lutherens, Catholics and Jews south of the Mason Dixon line is small in comparison, however they do, and did exist.
However I am willing to agree to your point that, while there may have been Lutheren, or even Catholic Klan members, their numbers would have been small.
Blanchjoe
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QUESTION: Thanks. I'm sure there were Lutheran Klansmen, but probably few in number as you state. I believe we are in agreement on this. I was mainly interested in addressing your position that Lutherans and their theology were driving forces behind the Klan. I appreciate your responses. Yes, Lutherans, Catholics and Jews did live in the South, but as you recognize, not very many.
Answer Well said.
Like you I also do not believe that Lutherans, Jews, Catholics and even Pentecostals have within the heart of the belief methodology the idea of exclusion, hatred, fear, and animosity (all things that represent the KKK).
However believe methodologies are made up of men, and each faith is comprised the actions of the men within it, and as the KKK and the larger history of man has shown, what the philosophical basis is of any Spiritual System is, and what men believe it is, and what men do, are often very different things.
Perhaps how we interact with each other has more importance than an argument about which belief system is better than the other?
