Elohim City

Founded in the mid-1980s by Robert G. Millar, a U.S. resident alien from Canada with ties to The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), Identity encampment Elohim City is located on the rugged and mountainous Oklahoma-Arkansas border. The Toronto Star described the encampment as a place of white supremacy and anti-Semitism that is "among a growing number of gun-toting, right-wing religious camps across the U.S." The Canadian paper said that Elohim City has been identified as a "neo-Nazi type" camp by U.S. Justice Department officials and as a "hate group" by the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission.

Elohim City "elder" Zera Horton Patterson III said in a May 13, 1985 Arkansas Gazette article that "community members did not think of themselves as 'white supremacists,' but as a 'chosen people' charged by God with the responsibility of serving and leading others." Patterson continued "Jesus said, 'He who is the greatest among you, let him be their servant.' Jesus was the servant of all men and in that sense He was the Supreme One, the supremacist because He was the servant. So that's the way we are supremacists in that sense."

Elohim City founder Robert Millar has been connected to leaders of other Identity-type movements. He tried to raise money for CSA leader Jim Ellison's bond following Ellison's 1985 arrest for illegal weapons possession. He also served as a character witness on behalf of Richard Wayne Snell, a CSA member who was serving a life sentence in Arkansas for the 1984 murder of an Arkansas state trooper. Snell was executed by the State of Arkansas on April 19, 1995 - the same day as the Oklahoma City bombing - for the earlier murder of a pawn shop owner in 1983. According to New York Daily News columnist Michael Daly (April 23, 1995), "The Rev. Robert Millar arranged for Snell's body to be shipped to Elohim City [for burial]."

The February 24, 1987 Arkansas Gazette noted that a Federal grand jury in Fr. Smith, Arkansas was investigating members of the CSA, The Order, the Posse Comitatus and the KKK, and reported that "Rev. Robert Millar of Elohim City, Oklahoma has said that he was brought to Ft. Smith for questioning. He said that he was asked about an alleged plot to kill Federal Judge H. Franklin Waters of Fayetteville, former U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson of Ft. Smith and FBI special agent Jack Knox of Fayetteville, all of whom took part in the 1985 prosecution of CSA leaders."

In August 1993, The Balance, a publication of CAUSE Foundation - a legal defense group whose head, attorney Kirk Lyons, has described himself as an "active sympathizer" of his far-right clients' causes - made reference to Elohim City. It said that on July 9, 1993, members of the Adair County Sheriff's Office in Muldrow, Oklahoma visited Elohim City, describing it as "an Identity religious community led by the Rev. Robert G. Millar." It said that they "were there to warn Pastor Millar of a possible BATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms] raid on their church and homes."

Stating that the law officers were looking for a suspect wanted for alleged possession of an unregistered machine gun who was "known to be around Elohim City," the publication declared: "We believe that this information distributed to the law enforcement agencies is a prelude to a Branch Davidian-type raid. There are many parallels between the Branch Davidians and Elohim City. Both are known to be opposed to the government, are a religious separatist community, and have legal weapons to defend themselves." It added: "As a preemptory [sic] measure, Rev. Millar has signed a power of attorney to empower CAUSE Foundation to represent him and his parishioners should a confrontation with government develop."

Unlike the CSA and some other militant Identity encampments, Elohim City continues to exist. (Anti-Defamation League, 17-18)

The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.

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