White identity is Christian Identity

The argument

Christian Identity movement originated from nineteenth-century British-Israelism. According to the movement, the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Aryan populations of Europe were the real Lost Tribes of Israel and God’s chosen people. Christian Identity adherents accuse Jews of pretending to be the descendants of the ancient Israelites and consider them as imposters. There are different theories within the Identity regarding the ancestry of Jews. One theory of the Identity asserts that Jews descended from an Asian people known as the Khazars. The Khazar Empire was a Jewish state that mainly consisted of Turks. It settled near the Black Sea during the Middle Ages. Hence, Jews were “false” Israelites. On the other hand, the most extreme “two seedline” theory of the Identity argues that Jews are the children of Satan. According to the theory, the seduction of Eve by the Serpent in Eden was sexual. Their sexual affair produced Cain, who was "a Mongrel, a Hybrid, a Non-Race." Cain's brother Abel was the offspring of Eve with the pure, white Adam. Cain's murder of Abel started the war between the Satanic forces of "Jewry" and the pure white race born of Adam. An alternative to the "two seedline" theory is the "one seedline" theory. Identity's one-seed believers suggest that Jews descended from Jacob's brother Esau. Esau cursed God and married outside the Israelite race. His actions resulted in God's hatred upon him and his descendants, also called the Jews. One-seed believers argue that Israel's identity belongs solely to the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Aryan people. Overall, the Christian Identity movement claims that the true holders of white identity are the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Aryan people. Jews are not white; they stole Israel's identity.

Premises

Counter-arguments

One counter-argument is that the Christian Identity theories serve to further the anti-Semitic agenda without any real evidence from the Bible. Linda Schearing, a biblical scholar at Gonzaga University, argues that the Christian Identity theories are an abuse of the Bible to promote white supremacy and anti-Semitism. She says that the evidence for such theories do not exist in the Bible. There is no reason to believe that the Serpent was a male, that Eve and the Serpent had a sexual relationship, or that the text concerns itself with the question of race. John Helgeland, a religion professor at North Dakota State University in Fargo, considers the “two seedline” theory to be mythic, not literal, history. The Christian Identity belief system was also condemned by the National Council of Churches because it has no basis in the Bible. In addition, Christian Identity has no central authority or ecclesiastical structure. It is not connected with any specific Christian denominations. Small congregations which consist of white-supremacist authors and individuals practice the Identity. Mail-order ministries and speeches given from a variety of rostrums promulgate its teachings. Therefore, the Identity is not a credible source to claim that Jews are not white.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise reports the claims of one nineteenth-century movement, and reporting a doctrine is not evidence for it. As the counter-argument notes, biblical scholars hold that these readings have no basis in the text they cite, and the National Council of Churches has condemned the belief system outright. [Rejecting P2] The genealogies are mutually inconsistent — descent from the Khazars, descent from Esau, and the "two seedline" account cannot all hold — and none rests on historical or textual evidence. The scholars cited describe them as an abuse of the Bible constructed to serve an anti-Semitic conclusion rather than as findings arrived at from it. [Rejecting P3] The movement has no central authority, no ecclesiastical structure and no connection to any denomination, so its assertions about who holds "white identity" carry no standing to settle the question. Whiteness is in any case a social category whose boundaries have moved over time, and a claim about descent from ancient Israel does not determine it.