Not All American Terror Wears a Turban
The cross burned on lawns long before anyone blamed the Quran.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “terrorist”?
If you grew up in post-9/11 America, it’s probably a brown guy shouting in Arabic. That’s how the media trained you. Brown skin, foreign words, Islam — that’s what “terror” was supposed to look like. The government spent trillions on wars and security while ignoring what was happening in its own backyard.
Because here’s the ugly truth: America’s been terrorized by its own people for over a century. White men in robes. Preachers with guns. Militias wrapped in flags and scripture. They didn’t carry Qurans. They carried crosses. They didn’t shout “Allahu Akbar.” They shouted “Jesus saves.” They weren’t hiding in caves; they were marching through towns, sitting in churches, and working in city halls.
They believed God was on their side. They believed they were chosen. And they called their hate righteous. The cross wasn’t always a symbol of peace. Sometimes, it burned on front lawns.
Terror in the Name of Jesus
The Ku Klux Klan wasn’t some random gang of idiots in sheets. It was a movement. A Christian movement. Its members called themselves defenders of “white Christian America.” They burned crosses to purify the land. They prayed before lynchings. They quoted Bible verses while hanging Black men from trees.
That’s terrorism, plain and simple.
Between 1880 and 1960, thousands of Black Americans were tortured and murdered in public spectacles. Entire towns gathered to watch. Church choirs sang hymns in the morning, and those same families brought picnic baskets to afternoon hangings. They turned murder into Sunday entertainment. And then they went back to church the next week as if nothing happened.
The Klan twisted the Bible into a manual for supremacy. They claimed white Christians were God’s chosen people, destined to rule over everyone else. They called it racial purity. They called it divine order. But what it really was, was murder baptized in scripture.
And don’t think this was just backwoods lunacy. The Klan was middle America. Judges, mayors, police officers, school board members, even pastors. They shaped laws and schools while wearing crosses around their necks. They called their violence holy.
America looked away. Or worse, nodded along. That’s how terrorism wins — when it wears the same clothes as your neighbor.
As historian David M. Chalmers wrote in Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, “The Klan saw itself not as a criminal mob but as a religious movement, defending God’s order against a world gone wrong.”
White Supremacy in a White Robe
The Klan’s power came from how normal it became. By the 1920s, it wasn’t a secret society — it was a political force. Millions joined. Parades filled the streets. Sermons praised them from pulpits. Governors and senators posed for photos with men in hoods. They called it patriotism. They called it faith.
Their theology said God made the races separate for a reason, that integration was sin, that Black equality was rebellion against divine order. They believed violence was duty — protecting what they saw as “God’s America.”
It wasn’t just racism. It was religious nationalism. A twisted marriage of faith and power. The same one still lingering today in “Christian nationalism.” The Klan faded, but the idea never died. It just put on new clothes and learned new slogans.
That’s the thing about religious terror — it doesn’t go away. It reincarnates.
Journalist Kevin Boyle, writing for The Atlantic, noted that “the Klan’s Christianity was not a sideshow — it was the justification. Their burning crosses were meant to light the way to salvation as much as to intimidate.”
Bible in One Hand, Bomb in the Other
Fast-forward to the 1990s. The robes were gone, but the war lived on. The target changed from Black Americans to abortion providers.
Christian extremists called themselves “pro-life warriors.” They saw themselves as soldiers in a holy crusade to save unborn children. What they did was bomb clinics, stalk doctors, and kill in cold blood.
Paul Jennings Hill — a name most Americans don’t know — was a Presbyterian minister. He wasn’t insane. He was educated, articulate, and utterly convinced that God told him to kill. In 1994, he walked up to a Pensacola abortion clinic, pulled out a shotgun, and murdered a doctor and his bodyguard. Then he calmly waited for police, quoting scripture as they cuffed him.
He said he was obeying God. He said he was saving lives. He smiled in court and called himself a hero.
And others agreed. The Army of God, a network of radical Christian extremists, called Hill a martyr. They published bomb-making manuals and “hit lists” of doctors. They mailed death threats. They quoted Bible verses to justify murder. They praised Eric Rudolph, the man who bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and several abortion clinics, killing and maiming innocent people.
This was organized terrorism. Coordinated. Religious. Domestic. But because the killers were white and Christian, America called them “extremists,” not terrorists.
Imagine if Muslims had done it. There’d be Homeland Security raids, headlines about “Islamic terror cells,” endless fear campaigns. But when the killer is Christian, the system looks for excuses. “He was disturbed.” “He acted alone.” “He was misguided.”
The hypocrisy isn’t just sick — it’s dangerous. It teaches extremists that they’ll be forgiven if they wave a cross.
According to sociologist Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God, “When violence is done in the name of religion, it gains moral legitimacy in the eyes of believers — and that’s what makes it so hard to confront.”
The Hypocrisy is Loud
If a Muslim cleric told followers to assassinate doctors, the FBI would have tanks outside the mosque by morning. But when Christian pastors preach that abortion providers deserve death, they get airtime. Some even get donations.
If a Muslim posted bomb instructions online, it’d be called radicalization. When the Army of God did it, it was “activism.”
This country’s double standard is disgusting. It’s not just media bias — it’s structural protection. It’s the system guarding its own religion while demonizing everyone else’s.
You can’t fight terrorism when you refuse to name it. You can’t fight hate when it carries your God’s name.
Don’t Forget the Militias
Christian terrorism didn’t end with clinic bombers or cross burners. It moved into bunkers and backwoods.
Take the Christian Identity movement. They preach that white people are the “true Israelites” and that Jews are children of Satan. It’s old hate dressed up as revelation. Their followers have been tied to assassinations, shootouts, and bomb plots across the U.S.
Then there are the “Patriot” and “sovereign citizen” militias — heavily armed, deeply religious, and convinced that God’s law overrides every human law. They talk about the coming apocalypse, the “deep state,” and “holy war.” Many see the U.S. government itself as the enemy of God.
They’re stockpiling weapons, training in the woods, and spreading their gospel of paranoia online. And yet, they rarely make national news until someone’s already dead.
These groups mix theology, racism, and guns into one lethal cocktail. They dream of a Christian theocracy and call it freedom. And the politicians who should stop them instead pander for their votes.
January 6 Was No Accident
If you think all this is ancient history, think about the Capitol riot. January 6, 2021 wasn’t just political rage — it was religious frenzy. Crosses, Bibles, “Jesus 2020” banners waving beside Confederate flags. People screaming “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my President” as they stormed Congress.
It looked like a revival gone feral.
Some knelt in prayer on the Senate floor. Others built a gallows and called it divine justice. They believed they were doing God’s work.
If a Muslim crowd had done that — stormed the Capitol, chanted religious slogans, and tried to overturn democracy — the entire country would’ve gone to war. But because the mob was Christian and white, they got excuses. “They were passionate.” “They went too far.” “They were misled.”
That’s not a few bad apples. That’s what happens when Christian nationalism becomes normalized — when religion stops guiding morality and starts justifying domination.
Religion scholar Kristin Kobes Du Mez, in her book Jesus and John Wayne, described January 6 as “a revival meeting mixed with a coup — the culmination of decades of militant Christian nationalism that fused faith, masculinity, and politics.”
The System Lets It Happen
Why does Christian terrorism get a pass? Because the system was built to protect it.
When white Christians kill, they get called “mentally ill.” When Muslims kill, it’s “terrorism.” When white Christians bomb a building, the FBI hesitates. When Muslims do, the whole nation panics.
This isn’t new. America was built by men who believed God handed them this land. They slaughtered Indigenous people in His name. They enslaved Africans with Bible verses. They segregated schools while singing hymns.
Religion didn’t tame America’s violence — it sanctified it.
When the state and the church sleep in the same bed, violence becomes virtue. From Manifest Destiny to the Iraq War, America has always painted its enemies as “evil” and its own bombs as “holy justice.” The same pattern repeats at home.
Christian terrorism doesn’t scare the establishment — it is the establishment’s reflection.
Religion Doesn’t Get a Free Pass
This isn’t about hating all Christians. Most don’t kill or bomb anyone. But the moment you say “Islamic terrorism,” you better have the honesty to say “Christian terrorism,” too.
Violence done in God’s name doesn’t care which God it is. Once people believe their faith gives them permission to hurt others, the rest is just branding.
If you think Christianity makes people more moral, explain the crusades, the lynchings, the bombings, the wars. If your excuse is “They weren’t real Christians,” congratulations — you’ve just used the same defense Muslims use after every attack.
You can’t have it both ways. Either faith can be corrupted — or faith itself gives people permission to corrupt morality.
At some point, religion stops being the cure and starts being the disease.
Final Thoughts
Christian terrorism didn’t disappear. It just rebranded. It calls itself “pro-life.” It waves the flag. It shows up at school boards screaming about God’s law. It votes for politicians who promise to turn the Bible into legislation.
It hides behind “religious freedom” while preaching hate. It still blesses guns and war. It still excuses cruelty as “God’s plan.”
And every time someone excuses it, America gets further from the truth. The myth of a peaceful Christian nation is a lie built on blood.
Until this country faces that truth — its own holy terror — the next explosion, the next mob, the next lynching won’t be an accident. It’ll be a tradition continuing.
Sources and Further Reading
Christian terrorism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorismCHRISTIAN NATIONALISM AND THE CAPITOL INSURRECTION
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000062431/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000062431.pdfArmy of God (terrorist organization)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_God_(terrorist_organization)Christian Identity Reborn – Program on Extremism | George Washington University
https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2024-08/christian-identity-reborn.pdfPaul Jennings Hill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jennings_HillEric Rudolph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_RudolphThe Identity Christian Movement: Ideology of Domestic Terrorism
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236121639_The_identity_christian_movement_ideology_of_domestic_terrorismArmed for Life: The Army of God and Anti-Abortion Terror in the United States
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376445242_Armed_for_Life_The_Army_of_God_and_Anti-Abortion_Terror_in_the_United_StatesHooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan — David M. Chalmers (1965)
Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence — Mark Juergensmeyer (2000)
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020)
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age — Kevin Boyle (2004)
One of your best articles ever. I would add Robert Bowers to the list https://share.google/GENdftPEv7ST9fUO9