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Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
This week on Interfaith Voices:
‘On God’s team now’: A former white supremacist’s journey
Hate groups are growing in the United States; the Southern Poverty Law Center reports among white nationalists, neo-Nazis grew the most. Some of these groups subscribe to a Christian Identity philosophy, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic interpretation of Christianity. But for these groups, faith beliefs are more about cultivating an identity, than religion. That was the experience of Frank Meeink, a self-described “good Catholic boy” who was recruited into a neo-Nazi skinhead group at the age of 13. He now lectures and writes about his life experiences as a former white supremacist, works to end hate groups’ recruitment, and helps others get out of the movement through organizations like “Harmony Through Hockey” and “Life Afer Hate.”
Lecia Brooks, outreach director at the Southern Poverty Law Center
Frank Meeink, author of “Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead“\
Journalist goes down the ‘rabbit hole of white supremacy’
Journalist Vegas Tenold spent six years following several white supremacist and alt-right groups throughout the U.S. He learned that while far-right extremist groups are growing, they are anything but uniform, including their relationship to religion. And he found that the talking points he heard among these groups were making their way into mainstream political culture.
Vegas Tenold, author of “Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America“
Though many white supremacist groups claim a Christian Identity, a St. Lawrence University professor studying the emerging white nationalist movement finds this relationship between far-right extremism and Christianity is changing. Some groups are gravitating towards neo-pagan religions, like Odinism, while others are following a national trend of rising secularism and leaving behind theism altogether.
Damon Berry, author of “Blood and Faith: Christianity in American White Nationalism“
