Howard Rand

Howard Rand, also known as Howard B. Rand and Howard Benjamin Rand (June 13, 1889 - August 17, 1991) was a lawyer, inventor, and three-time candidate for Massachusetts state office on the Prohibition Party ticket, He headed the former Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, a British Israelist group. He served from 1937 to 1968 as editor of its affiliate Destiny Publishers, which put out Destiny magazine (distinct from the magazine of the same name about Black culture).[1]

Early life & career

Rand was born in Haverhills, Massachusetts in 1889. He was raised as a British Israelite, and his father introduced him to J. H. Allen's work Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902) at an early age.[2] He later graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelor's degree in law, becoming a successful lawyer but also worked as a construction worker and had other business interests.[3][4]

Influence on Christian Identity

Rand is considered the key transitional figure between British Israelism and Christian Identity, but he is not credited as the actual founder of the Christian Identity movement.[5] However Rand first coined the term "Christian Identity".[6] As early as 1924 Rand claimed that the Jews were not really descended from the tribe of Judah, but were instead the descendants of Esau or Canaanites.[7] This view sharply contrasted with the standard British Israelite teaching that Jews are descended from Judah. Paradoxically while early British Israelites were philo-semites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson, Christian Identity emerged in sharp contrast to be strongly anti-semitic.[8][9] Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke has summed up Rand as the catalyst figure behind Christian Identity as follows:

Rand was a vital link between British-Israelism and its later American variant, Christian Identity, for he not only consolidated the movement in the United States but also opened it to the right-wing and anti-Semitic influences...[10]

The Anti-Defamation League also lists Rand as a prominent influential figure behind Christian Identity.[11] Unlike later Christian Identity proponents he did not claim that modern Jews were descendants of Satan, or were in anyway inferior, just that they were not the true lineal descendants of Judah.[12] Rand also did not teach any violence or hatred towards other races, but with a twist these acts would later emerge as the focus of the Christian Identity movement. In fact Rand was a pacifist and his ideas have been described as a "peaceful missionary imperative.[13] In 1933, Rand set up the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America and prior to its foundation had met with prominent British Israelites such as William Pascoe Goard for advice and meetings.[14] He later acquired C.A.L. Totten's book archive through the Totten Memorial Trust.[15]

Rand was also a prolific author of books in British Israelism, Bible studies and pyramidology (most published by Destiny Publishers).[16]

See also

Reuben H. Sawyer

References

  1. ↑ "Howard Rand, 102 Lawyer, led supremacist group". The Boston Globe. 18 October 1991. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  2. ↑ Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement, Charles H. Roberts, 2003, pp. 9-10.
  3. ↑ Roberts, 2003, p. 9
  4. ↑ Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement, Michael Barkun, UNC Press Books, 1997, p. 29.
  5. ↑ Roberts, 2003, p. 9.
  6. ↑ The Phinehas Priesthood: Violent Vanguard of the Christian Identity Movement, Danny W. Davis, 2010, p. 18
  7. ↑ Barkun, 1997, pp. 45-54.
  8. ↑ Barkun 1997, p. xii.
  9. ↑ Essay: The Christian Identity SPL Centre Archived 2014-09-30 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, NYU Press, 2003, p. 235.
  11. ↑ Christian Identity
  12. ↑ Barkun, 1997, pp. 45-60.
  13. ↑ Encyclopedia of white power: a sourcebook on the radical racist right, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, p. 53.
  14. ↑ Roberts, 2003, p. 9.
  15. ↑ Barkun. 2003, p. 30.
  16. ↑ Rand published The Bulletin, later renamed The Messenger of the Covenant. More recently it has been renamed Destiny and issued by Destiny Publishers.
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