James Aho

Christian heroism and the reconstruction of America

This is a critical phenomenology of the latest iteration of the Christian Right: Dominionism. A brief history of the movement first situates Dominionism in the American religious landscape. The article then details eight of its political-economic objectives, followed by an account of its heroic action orientation. The article concludes with a critique of Dominionism, coupled with observations on its likely fate.

German realpolitik and American sociology : an inquiry into the sources and political significance of the sociology of conflict

A critical history of the sociologies of conflict of Lester Ward, Albion Small, Robert Park, and Arthur Bentley all of whom fell under the influence of German sociologists who explicitly approached the study of conflict from the perspective of realpolitik.

THE DANSE MACABRE

This is a sociology of how antagonists demonize each other, simultaneously turning themselves into executioners and (unwittingly) into victims of their own victims. The process is said to be tragic because each party to it experiences itself as blameless; hence, their victimization always comes as a surprise. I illustrate this paradoxical dance of death by utilizing three recent, related domestic incidents involving federal officials and purported deviants.

Christian Identity Movement

The Christian Identity movement (CI) is the product of a marriage between various marginalized knowledges and British Israelism (BI). The betrothal was consummated in Southern California during the 1930s and 1940s by recently arrived Dust Bowl immigrants carrying with them evangelical Methodist/Baptist enthusiasms. While there are many CI congregations, the most notable is the Church of Jesus Christ Christian (Aryan Nations (AN)). When AN was headquartered in Idaho, it spawned a number of terrorist activities in the decades after the 1980s, most notably those of The Order. The Order was implicated in murders, robberies, armored car heists, and arsons. It ended in a fiery shootout with federal agents in 1985. Keywords: aggression; ethnocentrism; fundamentalism

Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States.

This work traces the development of four types of right-wing movement over the last four years - the anticommunist conservative movement, the racist right, the Christian right, and the neoconservatives.