Sheerit Yisrael—www.age-end.com
PO Box 473
Calder, Idaho 83808, USA
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
With
a Different Approach to the Questions of
Religion,
Philosophy, Faith, Hope and the Future
All in the Context of a Coming World Government under Man’s
Control
Reuben H. Sawyer
It’s
too bad, but Christian Identity historians have failed to give due notice to
the work of a Disciples of Christ minister in Portland, Oregon, just after WWI;
when he began a motion which would devolve to the ultimate Dual Seedline,
Christian Identity movement of today.
The man was Reuben H. Sawyer.
As
a young man, Reuben H. Sawyer must have been converted to the Disciples of
Christ Church. Because, by the time of
WWI, he seems to have showed up in Portland, Oregon as the pastor of the East
Side Christian Church (per Ralph Orr, in his article on How Anglo-Israelism
entered the Seventh-day Churches of God), which must have been a Disciples of
Christ Church.
Darien
Brown, a student at Whitworth College of Spokane, Washington, cites Reuben’s
pastorship of this church in Portland before 1921 (per Brown’s comments in an
e-mail record from the Stone-Campbell Archives on the internet). But it might be true that Reuben was a member
of the Disciples of Christ Church even before WWI and had his pastorate in
Portland in the 1910s.
Sawyer and the
BIWF
In
any case, Sawyer for sure played a key role in the organization of the British
Israel World Federation (BIWF) which came into being in 1919. Orr says that Reuben was “instrumental” in
the establishment of that organization (quoting Michael Barkun’s “Religion and
the Racist Right”).
Sawyer
helped draft the constitution of the BIWF and was present at its first congress
in London in 1920 (along with J. H. Allen who wrote Judah’s Sceptre and
Joseph’s Birthright). At the congress,
Reuben gave three addresses and presided over a session (per Orr). He also spoke at other BI conferences in
England at that time. In 1929, Herbert
Garrison, the president of the BIWF, journeyed to Toronto, Canada for a
meeting. Sawyer was on hand to meet
him.
Whether
Sawyer deserves most of the credit for the BIWF remains in doubt. But there is no dispute in the fact that he
was a key player in that group from 1919 on forward. Orr notes that he was on a list of the
federation’s vice-patrons, along with people like the Marchioness Dowager of
Headfort and Admiral Sir Richard H. Pierse.
In
addition to his work on the umbrella BIWF, Sawyer in the 1920s had a role in
the establishment of Portland’s Anglo Israel Research Society, helped organize
a speaker’s bureau to promote Anglo Israelism and supported a BI bookstore then
in business in Portland (per the Nizkor Project on the Internet).
Sawyer and the
KKK
Also,
by the 1920s, Reuben H. Sawyer had another interesting focus. He was a key player in the Oregon Ku Klux
Klan with Klan leader Fred Gifford, from 1921 to 1924. The Klan work then occupied much of his time
(per Orr).
Reuben
spoke to 6,000 people at Portland’s Municipal Auditorium about the Klan on Dec
22, 1921. The next year, 1922, he also
spoke to a crowd in Eugene, Oregon on a stage decorated with a sword, “Bible,”
flag and an image of a burning cross (per Orr).
Another
meeting in Portland, evidently in 1922, brought out a full house (the meeting
hall was guarded by robed Klansmen) and the need to turn some 1,500 people away
from the meeting hall as they could not get in to hear Sawyer.
In
1922, Sawyer wrote and published a writing on “Truth about the Invisible
Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
This pamphlet is available as a part of the Oregon History Project, now
on the Internet.
An
article by Jeffrey Kaplan on “Right Wing Violence in North America” (also from
the Internet) adds that Sawyer’s primary claim to fame lies in his being the
first to combine Identity theology with Ku Klux Klan leadership. Orr concludes that Sawyer’s work with the
Klan laid the seeds of what would eventually become the “anti-Semite branch of
British Israelism.”
Another
article from the Internet (from the Watchman Fellowship and its Profile
feature) said that Sawyer transformed Anglo Israelism into a virulent racist
theology by linking Judaism with Bolshevism.
As this source further noted, a number of Klan people have adopted
Israel Identity beliefs.
The
writer of this study would just add that it seems today that almost all Klan
people believe in Christian Identity (except, of course, those Klan members who
are secretly linked to the Federal government and the various Khazar Jew hate
groups--like the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Defense League. The Klan has been heavily infiltrated by its
enemies for a number of years now; and we can be sure that the same thing is
true with the Christian Identity movement).
Per
Darien Brown, Sawyer left his Disciples of Christ Church pastorate in
1921. Orr adds that Reuben traveled
extensively over the next 16 years to lecture in the Pacific Northwest and in
Canada to various groups--evidently in support of his British Israel and Ku
Klux Klan beliefs. Because he was an accomplished
speaker and had some success, the Khazar Jews grew to passionately hate
him.
Sawyer and the
Khazar Jews
The
National Foundation for Jewish Culture has an article by Robert Singerman on
the Internet labeled “Contemporary Racist and Judeophobic Ideology Discovers
the Khazars, or, Who Really Are the Jews?”
This article focused on the Arthur Koestler book on the Khazars (proving
that the Asiatic-European Khazars are not really Jews at all) and how it has
influenced people.
Per
Singerman, Sawyer contributed some very hard hitting diatribes against the
“synagogue of Satan” in “The Jewish Question,” a rare booklet of 16 pages
printed in England and issued in 1925.
From
a section of this pamphlet on “Who Are the Jews,” Sawyer applauded the
Sephardim Jews for having “contributed some of the most honoured leaders to the
great nations of the world, while the Ashkenazim Jew has been a constant menace
to every country into which he has thrust his unwelcomed presence.” He compared the Sephardim to the good figs of
Jeremiah 24:2 and the Askenazim to the “very naughty figs” (the Khazar alleged
converts to Judaism).
Sawyer
added “and from thenceforth were called Jews by the world, being accepted as
thus by the Jewish scholars and people.
Who can deny that from that day to this there have been large numbers of
so called Jews in the world who are not of the Hebrew race? But this fact from history, important in
itself is but a single detail in the story of the decline and degeneracy of a
portion of a great people to whom was entrusted the mighty Sceptre and an
honoured part in a world-wide mission.”
Sawyer’s
Contributions
As
noted in various writings, Reuben spent about sixteen years from 1921 to 1937
speaking throughout the Pacific Northwest and Canada on British Israelism and
evidently the Ku Klux Klan. He traveled
widely and must have had some recognition and appreciation from his
audiences. At some point in time, he
seems to have retired to Modesto, Stanislaus County, California, where he died
on Jul 28, 1955. His wife Anna survived
him.
Per
Orr and the several reporters on the Sawyer work in Oregon, several conclusions
can be drawn on his contributions to truth and righteousness in the 21st
century. First, he must be credited with
being perhaps the most important person who laid the groundwork for the
eventual congregation of Philadelphia believers (still to come in early 2011)
with an involved focus on race and on the Jewish question (which must concern
every person who takes the Scriptures seriously).
While
he may not have had it all right on the Jews, he certainly was able to see that
there is a line of demarcation between the Sephardim and the Askenazim (not
only are they different people racially, but their theology on Judaism is
different as well). For sure, he knew
that there were both good figs and bad figs.
This is something that most of the world simply has never understood. Even the subsequent Christian Identity motion
lacks this same comprehension.
Like
the overall Christian definition, Sawyer probably did not grasp the role of
true Judaism in the whole scheme of things.
But apparently, Sawyer did not have any criticism for the Judaism of the
Sephardim (whom he seemed to praise and appreciate).
It
is also unclear what all Sawyer knew or had to say about the overall subject of
race. But with the fact that he was
heavily involved with the Ku Klux Klan, one can be sure that he was totally
opposed to racial integration, mixing and intermarriage. All of this was good thinking which would
soon be trashed in the years following WWII.
Herbert
W. Armstrong’s radio work in Oregon surfaced in about 1934. And quickly, in Southern California, Clem
Davies (who was from Vancouver BC), Wesley Swift, San Capt, Bert Comparet, and
others began having periodic “Bible Studies” by 1938 to lay the groundwork for
the Christian Identity focus. Of course,
the whole BI effort can be partially laid to Sawyer, as well as the Ku Klux
Klan focus on Israel Identity.
In
conclusion, Sawyer was a trailblazer who must be recognized for his
contributions on what will ultimately become Philadelphia.
THE END