The Price of Hatred

by: Mike Evans

Frazier Glenn Miller has been identified as the shooter who apparently set out to murder Jews on Sunday, first at a Jewish Community Center and then at a nearby Jewish retirement community. The shooting spree ended in the deaths of a grandfather, Dr. William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, both Christians, and Terri Lamanno, a Catholic visitor to the retirement home.

According to FBI Special Agent Michael Kaste, “In the last 22 hours, we learned the acts this person committed were the result of beliefs that he had and that he was trying to hurt somebody based on their ethnicity, race, and religion.” It is likely that Miller will eventually be charged with a hate crime.

The 73-year old white supremacist founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and served as Grand Dragon in the 1980s before being removed from his post. He later organized another group, the White Patriot Party. Miller was the subject of a manhunt following violation of a bond posted while appealing a conviction in North Carolina for operating a paramilitary site. When arrested, Miller and three compatriots were found in possession of grenades, automatic firearms and numerous rounds of ammunition.

It was not the first time a hate-filled white supremacist had attacked the innocent. As I read the accounts, I was instantly reminded of two other instances of murderous attacks generated by the desire to murder and maim those who disagreed with their particular philosophy.

It has been fifteen years since the horrific events of April 19, 1995. On that day, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols set off a devastating explosion that rocked Oklahoma City’s Murrah Federal Building killing 168 and injuring more than 800. It was the worst domestic terror attack in our nations’ history until that fateful day in September 2001.

Both McVeigh and Nichols were members of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (better known as the CSA) organized in Elijah, Arkansas in 1971 by polygamist James Ellison. The CSA was not simply one of the more quirky religious cults; its stated purpose was to start a war that would ultimately lead to the second coming of Christ. The members of the group believed they were literally God’s chosen people, and as such, could dominate all others.

Another CSA member was Richard Wayne Snell. On my birthday in 1984, I was informed by the ATF that I had been targeted by the white supremacist. Snell, too, was a disciple of the CSA. A conference in 1983 had brought together Jim Ellison, the group’s founder, and Snell. The two men discussed how they could bring down the Murrah Federal Building. It was not Snell’s destiny, however, to be the one to accomplish that feat. His plans were sidetracked by his anti-Semitism—his desire to kill Jews and Blacks.

On November 3, 1983, Snell gunned down the owner of a small pawn shop in Texarkana, Arkansas, thinking his victim was a Jew; he was not. The case confounded the authorities for over eight months, but Snell’s rage would prove to be his downfall. On June 30, 1984, Snell was stopped on a lonely western Arkansas highway by State Trooper Louis Bryant. As Bryant approached the vehicle, Snell opened fire with a modified Colt .45, fatally wounding the trooper.

A truck driver who saw the shooting followed Snell across the Oklahoma border and contacted the Broken Bow police. Snell soon ran headlong into a roadblock set up by the police. In the ensuing gun battle, he was wounded and then captured.

Following his arrest, investigators combed through Snell’s vehicle. On the front seat, they found a single piece of paper on which was written my name, address, and unlisted telephone number. A phone call from the ATF would let me know beyond a doubt that that anti-Semitism was alive and flourishing.

Although Snell went to death row for the murders in Arkansas, the CSA continued to thrive and to plan an attack on the Murrah Building. Snell, who was to have led the charge, was instead executed on the same day as the devastating attack in Oklahoma City. His last words were directed at Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker. Snell warned that the governor should “look over your shoulder; justice is coming.”

Whatever you wish to call it – bigotry, anti-Semitism, Jew-hatred – it is vile. It fueled and fed the pogroms in Russia, the Holocaust in Europe, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s movement in Iran, among others. Jew-hating, Protocols of Zion-loving, Holocaust deniers must be taken seriously.

Bigotry is an equal opportunity employer. The Jews learned that in Europe during World War II. The war on terror cannot be won unless America declares war on bigotry wherever and whenever it raises it ugly head.

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Michael D. Evans is the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team and the Corrie ten Boom Holocaust Center in Haarlem, Holland.  He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and is the author of Ten Boom: a novel that details the life of Betsie ten Boom who, along with her family, saved the lives of 800 Jews during the Holocaust. It is available at www.timeworthybooks.com.