Arnold Murray/Shepherd's Chapel

[tehfanglyfish]

Does anyone here know much about this guy? I read a several years old discussion about him on Rick Ross's forum and some info from the Southern Poverty Law Center, but that's really the extent of my knowledge. From what I've heard he believes that Cain and Abel had different fathers (Eve slept with the snake and with Adam), may possibly be an adherent of the Christian Nationalist Movement and a white supremacist, might believe that present-day Jews are the cursed descendents of Ham, and rejects the celebration of Easter. Is this true? Are there other interesting details anyone would care to share?

(I did find the video of him threatening someone who called him a blasphemer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf2Xa3H0eQI)

I'm asking because I know someone who follows him.

[Kaylee]

As far as what I know, it's hard to peg exactly what Murray teaches and believes because he knows some of the criticisms against him and is careful what he says in regards to him. Much of it may be because of other beliefs/groups he shares certain ideologies with and their assumptions, but he has certainly done nothing to discourage them.

The crossover is because there is a white supremacist/Christian Nationalist belief/movement called Christian Identity (CI). There are two main divisions within this group, but both believe that white people are the true Israel of the Bible. "Single seedline" CI teaches that the modern-day Jews are the physical descendents of Esau/Edom and the people who plagued the Israelites during the OT. "Dual seedline" CI teaches an idea found in a few other fringe Christian movements called "Serpent Seed". This is the belief that the real sin in the Garden of Eden was not eating a fruit, but sex between Eve and Satan (the serpent), resulting in the literal "seed of Satan" being born on this earth through Cain and his ancestors (Canaanites/Kenites) . Dual-seedliners say that this "serpent seed" are today's Jews, and they literally carry Satan's DNA.

The crossover with Shepherd's Chapel is because he does teach the Serpent Seed doctrine. He identifies this "Seed" with the people he called the Kenites. He is very careful not to identify them with any specific racial or ethnic group, but some of his followers and many of his detractors claim that they are the Jewish people (the idea being he has to hide what he's really saying to keep his program on the air). I do not know if he is actually a white supremacist or a part of the Christian Nationalist movement, but he is very popular with many of those who are on the more religious side of those movements, and there are people who are outspokenly white nationalist/supremacist who attend his yearly conferences and support his "ministry".

I haven't seen his program in years, so I am not sure how open those parts of his ideology are. I know some people get drawn into following him because he claims to just read and explain the Bible verse by verse but, in doing so, he uses it is a way to interject his own ideas and teachings into scripture and to convince people that they are the only way to interpret the truth. I think it's more a case of most of his followers not really believing in or catching the depth of the Kenite & Serpent Seed teachings, and those who already believe in them as part of an overall racist belief system flocking to him as someone "safe" to back up their beliefs (ie, you may risk your job and/or reputation by taking a week off for the Aryan Nations conference, but not for taking off to go to a "Shepherd's Chapel" conference).

As far as Easter, he rejects it in favor of Passover, and has a big yearly Passover meeting for his followers. His reasoning there is the same as many other fundies who are against Easter - the supposed connection to the goddess Ishtar and pagan fertility symbols (bunnies, eggs, and the fact that the word translated Easter in the KJV probably referred to Passover in the Bible.

Here's a forum with a ton of info and some posts from past followers:

http://www.factnet.org/vbforum/forumdisplay.php?f=121

And Murray's response to "critics" on the Shepherd's Chapel website:

www.shepherdschapel.com/critics.htm

[tehfanglyfish]

Thanks for the in depth reply and the links. Actually, now that I think about it, the people I know who follow him make a big deal about the fact that they celebrate Passover rather than Easter - giving hell to clerks who wish them a happy Easter, etc. He is a hard one to really nail down. The people I know have many, many cassette tapes of his preaching, but I honestly don't have the initiative/desire to listen to them!