# Christian terrorists **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735 "2007-01-20T17:52:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/1 "2007-01-20T17:52:05Z")
A coworker who is a Muslim vented to me the other day. He’d seen yet another TV show featuring Islamic Terrorists. He wondered why there weren’t more shows about Christian terrorist groups. I had to admit that I couldn’t think of many acts of terrorism by Christian militants, and few films/episodes about them. There’s _In The Heat Of the Night_ (racism, but I think the KKK hate more than black people), and i’m sure there must have been a series or two that dealt with women’s clinic bombings. And there’s Timothy McVeigh. Did they ever make a movie about him, or use his actions as a basis for an episode of a crime drama? And was he a member of a ‘militant group’, or was he freelance? I don’t think David Koresh counts, since he and his group didn’t initiate a terror attack. He mentioned the IRA, and I’ve seen a film or two featuring them (_A War Of Children_ and _Patriot Games_ come to mind). It seems to me that our society doesn’t lend itself to non-Islamic terrorism. And of course, terrorism by Islamic radicals is topical now. How about a list of television episodes and films dealing with non-Islamic terror plots? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/2 "2007-01-20T17:56:15Z")
The first episode of the TV show **The Lone Gunman** had a plot to fly a plane into the World Trade Center. I’m pretty sure Muslims were not involved. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/3 "2007-01-20T18:02:36Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] It seems to me that our society doesn’t lend itself to non-Islamic terrorism. [/quote] Or Islamic terrorism either. We’ve actually had very little of that within the country. 9/11 may have been the most _spectacular_ incident, but in terms of _frequency_, we get more homegrown stuff like Eric Rudolph, Tim McVeigh, anti-abortion terrorists, white supremacists and the like. Not that any of it is pervasive or epidemic, but our Muslim population shows no more inherent tendency towards violence or extremism than our Christians. > [@](#): > > And of course, terrorism by Islamic radicals is topical now. How about a list of television episodes and films dealing with non-Islamic terror plots? The go-to baddies for domestic terrorism in popular entertainment tends to be white supremacists, neo-nazis, KKK rednecks and the like. Examples are innumerable. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/4 "2007-01-20T18:32:28Z")
Wel, there was [_Mississippi Burning_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0095647/) about the KKK killing those civil rights activists college students in 1964 & the FBI investigation thereof. That was in 1988, so almost 20 yers ago. That’s more of a true-crime/police than a terrorism story though. Then there was [_In the Name of the Father_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0107207/) from 1993 and [The Devil’s Own](http://imdb.com/title/tt0118972/) from 97, both about the IRA. Brad Pitt also did _12 Monkeys_ and _Fight Club_, both of which featured fictional Terrorist groups which were non-religious, so I guess neither the Army of the 12 Monkeys nor Paper Street Soap Company got the tax break. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/5 "2007-01-20T18:44:55Z")
I think it might have been a forest for the trees kind of thing. There are so many that they’re engrained in the culture and practically invisible. I mean, _Gone with the Wind_ — the whole burning of Atlanta was an act of terrorism by Christians. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/6 "2007-01-20T18:45:42Z")
24 has featured terrorists from Eastern Europe, former Soviet Bloc countries, Ireland, and home-grown villains as well as Islamic terrorists. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/7 "2007-01-20T19:08:38Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] The first episode of the TV show **The Lone Gunman** had a plot to fly a plane into the World Trade Center. I’m pretty sure Muslims were not involved. [/QUOTE] No . . . but that may have been where they got the idea . . . ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/8 "2007-01-20T19:08:42Z")
First episode of THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO- I vaguely remember he was up against a Christian White Supremacist group. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/9 "2007-01-20T19:09:15Z")
_Law & Order_ has had a lot Operation Rescue type perps on their shows. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/10 "2007-01-20T19:13:38Z")
Also, RE Timothy McVeigh- while some of his right-wing-extremist associations were Christian, there was no evidence that he himself was Christian, and in fact, his few statements that were made public while he was in prison indicate more of a Nietzschean philosophy. The poem INVICTUS as his last words isn’t exactly something one says when one is ready to go meet Jesus. Oddly, Eric Rudolph is claiming much the same sort of philosophy, but his anti-abortion, anti-gay attacks seem indicative of a deranged-C’nity. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/11 "2007-01-20T19:15:36Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] It seems to me that our society doesn’t lend itself to non-Islamic terrorism. [/QUOTE] The powerful tend to get nicer labels for what they do. At this stage in history, as a group the Christians are more powerful, so they attack others in ways that don’t get labeled terrorism. Indiscriminate aerial bombing doesn’t get called terrorism, while indiscriminate car bombing does, for example. The opposite is also true; attacks using unconventional weapons or tactics is called terrorism, when it would not be if the same act was performed by, say, our military against a similar Muslim target. I’ve often heard the truck bomb attack on the US Marine’s barracks call terrorism, while few people would call it terrorism if we lobbed a cruise missle into someone else’s barracks. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/12 "2007-01-20T19:25:53Z")
Fred Phelps ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/13 "2007-01-20T21:18:45Z")
[QUOTE=BMax] Then there was [_In the Name of the Father_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0107207/) from 1993 and [The Devil’s Own](http://imdb.com/title/tt0118972/) from 97, both about the IRA. [/QUOTE] [Blown Away](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109303/) (1994) also features the IRA. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/14 "2007-01-21T01:01:45Z")
In _Contact_, the first transporter is destroyed (with many deaths) by a bomb planted by a suicidal Christian fanatic. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/15 "2007-01-21T01:39:05Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Or Islamic terrorism either. [/QUOTE] Poor wording on my part. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/16 "2007-01-21T01:45:00Z")
There’d be a lot more Christian terrorists if more Christians lived in countries where a lot of guys have no shot of getting laid until they are in their late 20s/early 30s, as is the case in some of the countries that are really productive of terrorists, like Saudi Arabia. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/17 "2007-01-21T01:49:02Z")
Terrorism, thankfully, is just not a major form of violence in the Christian west: in part probably because Christians have generally been the ones in power and have had little reason to use terrorism as a method, which is generally used by those who are too tactically weak to operate any other way. An obsession with terrorism as a tactic isn’t some universal idea for all groups, even highly violent activist groups. It’s a particular idea that happens to have taken a particularly strong hold on some Middle Eastern cultures. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/18 "2007-01-21T02:06:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Annie-Xmas** > Fred Phelps Correct me if I’m wrong but Fred Phelps has not to my knowledge committed or threatened to commit acts of violence or anything else harmful. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/19 "2007-01-21T02:19:37Z")
Didn’t the Sum of All Fears have neo-Nazi terrorists? ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735/20 "2007-01-21T02:26:54Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Didn’t the Sum of All Fears have neo-Nazi terrorists? [/QUOTE] In the movie version, yes. In the book it was middle east terrorist and a Native American terrorist. Marc [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/388735.md?page=2)