Christian Militants Are Using Instagram to Recruit—and Becoming Influencers in the Process

> In a reel shared to Instagram on February 14, an account identifying itself with a group called The 13th Northeast Guerillas put out a call to prospective recruits in Vermont and New Hampshire. What they advertised was fairly benign on its surface: fitness, community, preparation, survivalist training. The video was set to the tune of Kendrick Lamar’s “TV Off” and featured a rapid succession of highly edited images showing **armed men posing in the wilderness in tactical gear. They sometimes wore skeleton masks, and everyone had their faces entirely concealed or censored.** In many of the images, crucifixes are seen visibly dangling from their necks or sewn onto clothing.

> In another post from earlier this year, one of the group’s purported members shared a photo of a young man holding an assault weapon with a crucifix displayed over a plaid shirt and his face blurred out. The caption cites **Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim his handiwork.”** That quotation is followed by a series of hashtags, including “#militia,”

> This group is part of a new guard of paramilitary activists whose youthful membership, edgy aesthetics, use of Instagram, and, in many cases, overt nods to religion points to a new brand of **anti-government Christian nationalist militias.**

> Many of these new groups, whose follower counts range from dozens to thousands, began quietly setting up shop on Instagram over the past two years.

> Over time, these groups have continued to grow their audience on Instagram, publishing slick propaganda imagery from **IRL meetups** that often shows groups of armed men with their faces covered or censored.

> Experts say that this emergent movement draws on a number of trends in the **modern extremist landscape**, including that it establishes a paramilitary wing of surging Christian nationalism in the US and reflects the sensibilities of a new generation of fitness-obsessed, “Christ-pilled” young men, some of who call themselves tradcaths.

“Christian militants”… if it was another religion, they would have said “______ extremists”.

Now a reading from the Gospel according to Luke. “Then Jesus made the AR-15 and gifted it to his followers. And Jesus said to them “Ye use the AR-15 to shoot people who disagree or minorly inconvenience you.””

Religious zealots are the like the Terminator, they can’t be reasoned with nor will they stop at anything to achieve their goals. I don’t fear radical Islamic terror, but I am concerned about radical Christian terror. One day these people are going to come for those that they feel are ‘the others’….which is everyone else.

Relevant quote and I don’t even care it’s from a TV show:

> “See, that’s the difference between a real soldier and this little Halloween outfit you got going on. You’d kill to protect your rights. A real soldier? He’d die protecting somebody else’s.