Christian Literature Crusade

Court lets inmate fight for racist literature

NASHVILLE — A convicted murderer has won the right to wage a court fight for the right to receive hate-filled white supremacist material in a Tennessee prison because he claims it's part of his religion.

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a U.S. district judge should not have dismissed Anthony Hayes' lawsuit against the state of Tennessee and its prison system.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived Hayes lawsuit, saying it was improperly dismissed because neither the lower court nor the state of Tennessee addressed whether barring Hayes from receiving the mailings violated a federal law that strengthens religious freedom.

The law, known at the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), has been used by a variety of prisoners in legal battles, but it also grants protections outside the penitentiary.

It's not clear if the state will appeal. A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Attorney General's office said lawyers are reviewing the ruling.

Hayes, 54, has been a Tennessee prisoner since 197, and is serving a sentence for first-degree murder, aggravated burglary and two counts of felony escape.

He is currently being housed in the Morgan County Correctional Complex in Wartburg.

Hayes filed a federal lawsuit in Knoxville in 2006 when officials at Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex barred him from having the materials. He wanted prison officials to recognize his membership in the religious group Christian Israel Identity. He also wanted to receive mailings from the New Christian Crusade Church of Metairie, La., court documents say.

Based on his requested religious affiliation and materials, Hayes is aligning himself with the racist Christian Identity movement, said Mark Potok, head of the department that monitors hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"This is fundamentally a neo-Nazi reading of the Bible," Potok said. "Christian identity says the Bible is the reading of the white race."

He says the movement, which calls on followers to wipe out Jews and other groups to bring Christ's return, has spurned much violence.

The religious material that warden rejected contained messages of white supremacy, claiming the Bible is for the white race only and that "Jews are mongrelized descendants of Satan through Cain," court documents say.

Hayes was able to get access to the material after asking a fellow prisoner to order the literature.

Life in HD: A Response to the Christian Research Journal's Recent ...

NOTE:  I have a son who is involved in the local church.  He turned to the local church after his friends and his church rejected him following a psychotic episode.  They were accepting and embracing of him.  Here is a theological paper that Norm Geisler (Author of Living By The Book) wrote concerning the local church and a recent determination by Christian Research Institute that they are no longer considered a "cult."  It appears that Hank Hanegraaff has had a change of heart. articles (45). It is a fact that the litigations of the LC drove a major countercult movement called Spiritual Counterfeits Project (SCP) into bankruptcy. The list of other groups threatened with lawsuits include Christian Literature Crusade, Christian Herald Books, Moody Bible Institute, Salem Kirban, Eternity Magazine, InterVarsity Press, Tyndale Press, Jim Moran, and Light of Truth Ministries, Berean Apologetics Research Ministry, and Daniel Azuma (45). Most recently they sued John Ankerberg and John Weldon in reference to their In the wake of this, “a long list of evangelical theologians, apologists, and leaders” (7) sent an “Open Letter” protesting the aberrant teachings of the LC (15), urging them to recant their unorthodox statements “that appear to contradict or compromise essential doctrines of the Christian faith” (15). [3] Further, they asked the LC to “disavow and cease to publish these and similar declarations” (15). In addition, they requested that the LC desist their litigious activities against evangelical groups that do not believe that their doctrines and practices measure up to the standards of evangelical beliefs and practices. No apologies have been forthcoming by the LC, nor have they retracted the unorthodox statements. Instead, the Supreme Court of Texas disagreed with their charges against Ankerberg and Harvest House. The LC appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court also failed. This was a great victory for the countercult movement and all who seek to preserve evangelical orthodoxy, as we pointed out in our article titled “The Local Church Movement and the Supreme Court of Texas: A Big Victory for the Countercult Movement” .

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