A White Extremist Group Will Now Be Recognized as a Religion in Michigan Prisons

A Federal appeals court ruled that Michigan prisons must now recognize a religious group known as “Christian Identity.” But before you start celebrating this as a win for religious freedom, a small peek behind the curtain reveals a much darker reality.

Christian Identity is “Christian in name only,” writes the Southern Poverty Law Center, describing them as “an anti-Semitic” and “racist theology.” For those unfamiliar with Christian identity, their core belief is that white people, not Jewish people are the real Israelites and are god’s favored people. According to the Anti-Defamation League, many adherents believe that “Jews [are] the Satanic offspring of Eve and the Serpent, while non-whites are “mud peoples.” The group, which doesn’t believe in “race-mixing” is also infamously connected to neo-Confederate, neo-nazi, and Ku Klux Klan movements.

One of the inmates who sued to have Christian Identity recognized, told the Associated Press, that his group wasn’t a white “supremacist” group, just about “being separatist.” Although, frankly that also doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence that the group doesn’t have racist underpinnings.

Now you might think all of this would deter courts from wanting to recognize them as an official religion, but that’s what the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals did on Monday in a 3-0 opinion. The judges argued that the Department of Corrections could not prove that the plaintiffs in this case who wanted to practice Christian Identity were violent.

The ruling means that the group will now be allowed to openly practice their “religion” and hold services. However, the Michigan Corrections Department expressed concern over what this could mean for the safety of other incarcerated people.

“A prison is a microcosm of society, and racial tensions always exist in the prison. And taking a certified step towards that would only worsen existing racial tensions,” a senior intelligence analyst testified, Todd Belcher testified on behalf of the corrections department, according to the Associated Press.

In recent years, the group has reportedly been losing adherents. However, it’s unclear what rulings like this could mean for the group’s popularity.