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Understanding Terrorism: Challenges,

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Brief Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction and Rationale
Part I Terrorism: A Conceptual Review
1. Terrorism: First Impressions
2. The Nature of the Beast: Defining Terrorism
3. Beginnings: The Causes of Terrorism
Part II The Terrorists
4. Terror From Above: Terrorism by the State
5. Terror From Below: Terrorism by Dissidents
6. Violence in the Name of the Faith: Religious Terrorism
7. Violent Ideologies: Terrorism From the Left and Right
8. Terrorist Spillovers: International Terrorism
9. Emerging Terrorist Environments: Gender-Selective Political
Violence and Criminal Dissident Terrorism
Part III The Terrorist Trade and Counterterrorism
10. Tools of the Trade: Tactics and Targets of Terrorists
11. The Information Battleground: Terrorist Violence and the
Role of the Media
12. The American Case: Terrorism in the United States
Part IV Securing the Homeland
13. Counterterrorism: The Options
14. A New Era: Homeland Security
15. What Next? The Future of Terrorism
Appendix A: Map References
Appendix B: Prominent Persons and Organizations
Glossary of Terms
Notes
Index
Detailed Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction and Rationale
Part I. Terrorism: A Conceptual Review
1. Terrorism: First Impressions
Opening Viewpoint: The Ideology of Al-Qa’ida
First Considerations
An Overview of Extremism and Terrorism
Terrorism at First Glance
Sources of Extremism and Terrorism
Conceptual Considerations: Understanding Political
Violence
The Significance of Symbolism
Political Violence: Mala Prohibita or Mala in Se?
The Just War Doctrine
The Past as Prologue: Historical Perspectives on Terrorism
Antiquity
The Roman Age
The Ancient and Medieval Middle East
The Dark Ages: Prelude to Modern Terrorism
The French Revolution
Chapter Perspective 1.1: The Gunpowder Plot of Guy
Fawkes
Nineteenth-Century Europe: Two Examples From the
Left
The Modern Era and the War on Terrorism
Terrorism and Criminal Skill: Three Cases From the
Modern Era
Case 1: Anders Breivik
Case 2: Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski
Case 3: Ramzi Yousef
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Total War
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
2. The Nature of the Beast: Defining Terrorism
Opening Viewpoint: Are Hate Crimes Acts of Terrorism?
Understanding Extremism: The Foundation of Terrorism
Defining Extremism
Common Characteristics of Violent Extremists
The World of the Extremist
Defining Terrorism: An Ongoing Debate
Guerrilla Warfare
A Sampling of Formal Definitions
The American Context: Defining Terrorism in the
United States
Chapter Perspective 2.1: The Problem of Labeling the
Enemy in the New Era of Terrorism
Types of Terrorism
A Definitional Problem: Perspectives on Terrorism
Perspective 1: Four Quotations
Perspective 2: Participants in a Terrorist Environment
Perspective 3: Terrorism or Freedom Fighting?
Perspective 4: Extremism or “Mainstreamism”?
The Political Violence Matrix
Combatants, Noncombatants, and the Use of Force
Case in Point: The Orlando Mass Shooting—An Act of
Terrorism and a Hate Crime
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Cold War Revolutionaries
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
3. Beginnings: The Causes of Terrorism
Opening Viewpoint: The Case of Carlos
Political Violence as Strategic Choice
Making Revolution: Acts of Political Will
Perception and Cultural Disconnect: Adversaries in the
War on Terrorism
Political Violence as the Fruit of Injustice
Sociological Explanations of Terrorism: Intergroup
Conflict and Collective Violence
Criminological Explanations of Terrorism: The Path to
Political Criminality
Chapter Perspective 3.1: Women as Terrorists
Psychological Explanations of Terrorism: Rationality
and Terrorist Violence
Chapter Perspective 3.2: Profiles of Violent Extremists:
Leila Khaled and Abu Nidal
Moral Justifications for Political Violence
Moral Convictions of Terrorists
Delineating Morality: Simplified Definitions of Good
and Evil
Seeking Utopia: Moral Ends Through Violent Means
Moral Purity: Codes of Self-Sacrifice
Understanding Codes of Self-Sacrifice
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Bloody Sunday and Black September
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
Part II. The Terrorists
4. Terror From Above: Terrorism by the State
Opening Viewpoint: State Terrorism as Domestic and
Foreign Policy
The State as Terrorist: A State Terrorism Paradigm
Understanding State-Sponsored Terrorism: State
Patronage and Assistance
State Sponsorship: The Patronage Model
State Sponsorship: The Assistance Model
Case in Point: Failed States
Violence Abroad: Terrorism as Foreign Policy
Moral Support: Politically Sympathetic Sponsorship
Technical Support: Logistically Supportive
Sponsorship
Selective Participation: Episode-Specific Sponsorship
Active Participation: Joint Operations
Chapter Perspective 4.1: Calculation or Miscalculation?
The Threat From Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Iraq
Case
Violence at Home: Terrorism as Domestic Policy
Legitimizing State Authority
State Domestic Authority
Unofficial Repression: Vigilante Domestic State
Terrorism
Repression as Policy: Official Domestic State
Terrorism
Chapter Perspective 4.2: Cleansing Society
Mass Repression: Genocidal Domestic State Terrorism
Case in Point: Death Squads in Latin America
The Problem of Accountability: Monitoring State Terrorism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Authoritarianism and Democracy
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
5. Terror From Below: Terrorism by Dissidents
Opening Viewpoint: The Tupamaros
The Rebel as Terrorist: A Dissident Terrorism Paradigm
Revolutionary Dissident Terrorism: A Clear World
Vision
Nihilist Dissident Terrorism: Revolution for the Sake
of Revolution
Nationalist Dissident Terrorism: The Aspirations of a
People
Chapter Perspective 5.1: Chechen Terrorism in Russia
Revolutionaries, Nihilists, and Nationalists: Freedom
Fighters?
Case in Point: The U.S. Perspective on Foreign
Terrorist Organizations
Warring Against the State: Antistate Dissident Terrorism
Intensities of Conflict: Antistate Terrorist
Environments
Chapter Perspective 5.2: The Palestinian Movement
Defeat Is Unthinkable: The Terrorists’ Faith in Victory
Warring Against a People: Communal Terrorism
Ethnonationalist Communal Terrorism
Religious Communal Terrorism
Ideological Communal Terrorism
Operational Shifts: Dissidents and the New Terrorism
The New Dissident Terrorist Morality
Chapter Perspective 5.3: Child Soldiers
Terrorist Cells and Lone Wolves: New Models for a
New War
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: The Tamil Tigers
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
6. Violence in the Name of the Faith: Religious Terrorism
Opening Viewpoint: The Journey of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Primary and Secondary Motives: The Idiosyncratic Quality
of Religious Terrorism
Understanding Jihad as a Primary Religious Motive:
An Observation and Caveat
Chapter Perspective 6.1: Jihad: Struggling in the Way of
God
A Case of Secondary Religious Motive: The Protocols
of the Learned Elders of Zion
Historical Cases in Point: Fighting, Dying, and Killing in
the Name of the Faith
Judeo-Christian Antiquity
Christian Crusades
The Assassins
A Secret Cult of Murder
Modern Arab Nationalism and the Rise of Islamist
Extremism
Cult Case: Mysticism and Rebellion in Uganda
State-Sponsored Religious Terrorism in the Modern Era
National Case: Iran
Regional Case: Pakistan and India
Chapter Perspective 6.2: Assault on Mumbai
Dissident Religious Terrorism in the Modern Era
Regional Case: Religious Zealotry in the Middle East
Movement Case: The International Mujahideen (Holy
Warriors for the Faith)
Organization Case: The Al-Qa’ida Network
Nation-Building Case: The Rise of the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant
National Case: Boko Haram in Nigeria
Transnational Case: The Algerian Jihadis
Internecine Case: Sectarian Civil War in Iraq
Cult Case: Aum Shinrikyō (Supreme Truth)
The Future of Religious Terrorism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: The One True Faith
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
7. Violent Ideologies: Terrorism From the Left and Right
Opening Viewpoint: Racist Skinheads as a Supportive
Environment
Reactionaries and Radicals: The Classical Ideological
Continuum
An Ideological Analysis: From the Left Fringe to the
Right Fringe
Ideologies and Ideals
Left-Wing Ideologies and Activism
Chapter Perspective 7.1: Required Reading on the “New
Left”
For the Exploited: Class Struggle
For the People: Leftist Nationalism
Special-Interest Extremism
Problems on the Radical Left
Class Struggle and National Liberation: The Terrorist Left
Chapter Perspective 7.2: Vanguard Theory
Regional Case: Latin America
Regional Case: Europe
Right-Wing Activism and Extremism
Political Parties and Dissident Movements
Tradition and Order
Right-Wing Nationalism
Religion and Mysticism
Race and Order: The Terrorist Right
Chapter Perspective 7.3: Violent Reactionaries:
Characteristics of the Extreme Right
Regional Case: Europe
Violent Ideologies in the New Era of Terrorism
The “New Terrorism”
The Terrorist Left in the New Era
The Terrorist Right in the New Era
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box 7.1: Young Nationalist Idealists
Discussion Box 7.2: Order From Chaos
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
8. Terrorist Spillovers: International Terrorism
Opening Viewpoint: Terrorism in the Age of Globalization
Chapter Perspective 8.1: The Changing Environment of
International Terrorism
Defining International Terrorism
Expanding the Struggle: The Spillover Effect
Unambiguous International Implications
Chapter Perspective 8.2: The Benghazi Attack
Terrorist Environments and International Terrorism
Globalized Revolution: Reasons for International Terrorism
Ideological Reasons: Modern “isms” and International
Revolutionary Solidarity
Practical Reasons: Perceived Efficiency
Tactical Reasons: Adaptations of Revolutionary
Theory to International Operations
Historical Reasons: Perceptions of International
Terrorism
Globalized Solidarity: International Terrorist Networks
Chapter Perspective 8.3: A Remarkable Example of
International Terrorism: The Japanese Red Army and the
Lod (Lydda) Airport Massacre
Cold War Terrorist-Networking Theory
International Terrorist Environments
The International Dimension of the New Terrorism
Movement Case: Afghan Arabs at War
Organization Case: Al-Qa’ida and International
Terrorism
Chapter Perspective 8.4: Beyond Al-Qa’ida
Wartime Case: Terrorist Violence in Iraq
Postscript: The “Stateless Revolutionaries”
The Japanese Red Army
Al-Qa’ida
Palestinian Nationalism
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Understanding Terrorist “Spillovers”:
Middle Eastern and North African Spillovers in Europe
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
9. Emerging Terrorist Environments: Gender-Selective Political
Violence and Criminal Dissident Terrorism
Opening Viewpoint: ISIS Gender-Selective Terrorism
Culture and Conflict: Gender-Selected Victims of Terrorist
Violence
Gender-Selective Terrorism Against Men
Background to Terrorism Against Women: Cultural
Repression and Violence
An Emerging Recognition: Terrorism Against Women
Responding to Gender-Selective Political Violence
Protecting the Enterprise: Criminal Dissident Terrorism
The Criminal and Political Terrorism Nexus
Chapter Perspective 9.1: Lebanon’s Beka’a Valley
Traditional Criminal Enterprises
Criminal-Political Enterprises
Case in Point: The Logic of Narco-terrorism
Chapter Perspective 9.2: The Tri-Border Area of South
America
A Global Problem: Regional Cases of Criminal Dissident
Terrorism
Regional Case: Latin America
Regional Case: Asia
Regional Case: Europe
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Political Violence Against Women: Gender
Communal Terrorism?
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
Part III. The Terrorist Trade and Counterterrorism
10. Tools of the Trade: Tactics and Targets of Terrorists
Opening Viewpoint: Actionable Intelligence—Israel and the
Hunt for the Engineer
The Purpose: Terrorist Objectives
Typical Objectives
Playing to the Audience: Objectives, Victims, and
Constituencies
The New Terrorism and New Objectives
The Means: Terrorist Methods
Concept: Asymmetrical Warfare
An Introduction to Common Methods of Terrorists
Weapons Old and New
Chapter Perspective 10.1: The Al-Qa’ida “Terrorist
Manual”
The Focus: Terrorist Targets
The Symbolism of Targets
Chapter Perspective 10.2: The Symbolism of Targets:
Terrorist Attacks Against the United States
The Threat From Cyberterrorism
The Outcome: Is Terrorism Effective?
Media and Political Attention
Having an Impact on an Audience
Chapter Perspective 10.3: Tactical Horror: Digital, Video,
and Audio Terrorism
Forcing Concessions From an Enemy Interest
Disruption of Normal Routines
Provoking the State to Overreact
Effective Terrorism: The King David Hotel Bombing
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Attacks Against the U.S. Marine and
French Paratrooper Headquarters in Beirut
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
11. The Information Battleground: Terrorist Violence and the
Role of the Media
Opening Viewpoint: Media-Oriented Terror and Lebanon’s
Hezbollah
Two Perspectives: The Media and Governments
The Perspective of the Media
The Perspective of Governments
Understanding the Role of the Media
Publicizing the Cause
Spreading the Word: Mass Communications and the
Terrorists’ Message
Chapter Perspective 11.1: Delivering the Message
No More Printing Presses: Mass Communications and
the “New Media”
Truth and Consequences: Reporting Terrorism
Chapter Perspective 11.2: Al Jazeera
A New Battleground: The War for the Information High
Ground
Practical Considerations: Using the Media
Chapter Perspective 11.3: WikiLeaks
Information Is Power: The Media as a Weapon
Problems on the New Battleground: The Risk of
Backlash
The Public’s Right to Know: Regulating the Media
The Free Press
Chapter Perspective 11.4: Self-Regulation and the
American Media
The State-Regulated Press
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Freedom of Reporting and Security Issues
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
12. The American Case: Terrorism in the United States
Opening Viewpoint: Lynching—Vigilante Communal
Terrorism in the United States
An Introduction to the American Case
Weighing the Origins of Terrorism in the United States
Background to Terrorism: Left-Wing Activism and
Ideological Extremism in America
Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement
The Rise of Black Power
Growth of the New Left
Left-Wing Terrorism in the United States
Chapter Perspective 12.1: Seeds of Terrorism: Radicals on
the American Left
Generational Rebellion: New Left Terrorism
Civil Strife: Ethnonationalist Terrorism on the Left
The Revolution Continues: Leftist “Hard Cores”
Case in Point: The United Freedom Front
Single-Issue Violence on the Left
Background to Terrorism: Right-Wing Activism and
Ideological Extremism in America
Religious Politics and the “Christian Right”
Rise of the Antigovernment Patriots
Chapter Perspective 12.2: Conspiracy Theories on the
American Right
Racial Supremacy: An Old Problem With New
Beginnings
Racial Mysticism
Race and the Bible: The Christian Identity Creation
Myth
Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States
Chapter Perspective 12.3: Seeds of Terrorism: Reactionaries
on the American Right
Homegrown Racism: The Legacy of the Ku Klux Klan
Racial Mysticism: Neo-Nazi Terrorism
Patriot Threats
Case in Point: Moralist Terrorism
International Terrorism in the United States
The Spillover Effect in the United States
The New Terrorism in the United States
Chapter Perspective 12.4: The Anthrax Crisis: A Post-9/11
Anomaly
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Domestic Terrorism in the American
Context
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
Part IV. Securing the Homeland
13. Counterterrorism: The Options
Opening Viewpoint: The Death of Osama bin Laden
Responding to Terror: The Scope of Options
Use of Force
Operations Other Than War
Legalistic Options
Warlike Operations: Counterterrorism and the Use of Force
Maximum Use of Force: Suppression Campaigns
Chapter Perspective 13.1: Operation El Dorado Canyon
War in the Shadows, Part 1: Coercive Covert
Operations
Surgical Use of Force: Special Operations Forces
Chapter Perspective 13.2: Hostage Rescues
Operations Other Than War: Repressive Options
War in the Shadows, Part 2: Nonviolent Covert
Operations
Chapter Perspective 13.3: The Utility of Monitoring Social
Networking Media
Knowing the Enemy: Intelligence
Hardening the Target: Enhanced Security
Long-Term Coercion: Economic Sanctions
Operations Other Than War: Conciliatory Options
Reasoned Dialogue: Diplomatic Options
Responding to Grievances: Social Reform
Giving Them What They Want: Concessionary Options
Applying the Rule of Law: Legalistic Options
Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism: The Global
Perspective
Chapter Perspective 13.4: The Role of the “International
Police”
Domestic Laws and Counterterrorism
International Law: Legalistic Responses by the World
Community
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: The Utility of Elite Counterterrorist Units
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
14. A New Era: Homeland Security
Opening Viewpoint: Data Mining by the U.S. National
Security Agency
Homeland Security in Perspective
The Threat From Homegrown Jihadis
The Threat From Asymmetrical Warfare: The Paris
and Brussels Incidents
Crisis and Homeland Security: The European and
American Contexts
The American Case: Homeland Security in the United
States
Counterterrorism Laws in the United States
Renewed Security in the United States: The Homeland
Security Enterprise
The U.S. Intelligence Community: Mission and
Challenges
Chapter Perspective 14.1: Waging War in the Era of the
New Terrorism
Civil Liberties and Securing the Homeland
Security and Liberty: Historical Perspectives
Balancing Civil Liberties and Homeland Security
Achieving Security
Chapter Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: After the Next 9/11
On Your Own
Recommended Websites
Web Exercise
Recommended Readings
15. What Next? The Future of Terrorism
Opening Viewpoint: Carnivore and the Dawn of Internet
Surveillance
An Overview of Near-Term Projections
The Theory of Terrorist “Waves”
Fourth-Generation War
Whither the “Old Terrorism”?
The Future of Terrorism: Terrorist Environments in the 21st
Century
Terrorist Typologies in the New Era
The World in Conflict: Persisting Sources of Terrorism
The Future of Terrorism: New Threats
High-Tech Terrorism
Soft Targets and Terrorist Symbolism
Controlling Terrorism: Ending Terrorist Campaigns and
New Challenges
A Theoretical Model for Ending Terrorist Campaigns
Responding to Terrorism: Conventional Adaptations
Combating Terrorism in the New Era
The Continued Utility of Force
Countering Terrorist Financial Operations
The Case for International Cooperation
Final Considerations: Terrorism in the United States
The Future of International Terrorism
The Future of the Violent Left
The Future of the Violent Right
Chapter Summary
A Final Thought
Key Terms and Concepts
Prominent Persons and Organizations
Discussion Box: Toward Big Brother?
On Your Own
Recommended Readings
Appendix A: Map References
Appendix B: Prominent Persons and Organizations
Glossary of Terms
Notes
Index
About the Author
C. Augustus “Gus” Martin
is a Professor of Criminal Justice Administration at California State
University, Dominguez Hills, where he regularly teaches a course on
the subject of terrorism and extremism. He has also served as
Associate Vice President for Human Resources Management, acting
Associate Dean of the College of Business Administration and Public
Policy, Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs, and Chair of the
Department of Public Administration and Public Policy. He began his
academic career as a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of
Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, where he
was an Administration of Justice professor. His current research and
professional interests are terrorism and extremism, homeland
security, administration of justice, and juvenile justice.
Dr. Martin is the author of several books on the subjects of terrorism
and homeland security, including Understanding Homeland Security
(SAGE, 2017); Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies
(SAGE, 2017); The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism, second edition
(SAGE, 2011); Terrorism and Homeland Security (SAGE, 2011); and
The New Era of Terrorism: Selected Readings (SAGE, 2004). He is
also the author of Juvenile Justice: Process and Systems (SAGE,
2005).
Prior to joining academia, Dr. Martin served as Managing Attorney
for the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh, where he was
also director of a program created under a federal court–mandated
consent decree to desegregate public and assisted housing. He was
also Special Counsel to the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin
Islands on the island of St. Thomas. As Special Counsel he occupied a
personal and confidential position in the central office of the
Department of Justice, sat as hearing officer for disciplinary hearings
and departmental grievances, served as chair of the drug policy
committee, served as liaison to the intergovernmental Law
Enforcement Coordinating Committee as well as to the Narcotics
Strike Force, and provided daily legal and policy advice to the
Attorney General. Prior to serving as special counsel, he was a
“floor” Legislative Assistant to Congressman Charles B. Rangel of
New York. As Legislative Assistant, he researched, evaluated, and
drafted legislation in areas of foreign policy, foreign aid, human
rights, housing, education, social services, and poverty. He also
drafted House floor statements, Congressional Record inserts, press
releases, and news articles, and composed speeches, briefing
materials, and legislative correspondence.
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The little band which settled Providence on that June day, 1636, had grown
into a large town. With other towns they suffered the same injustice from
neighboring colonies. The assembly in Newport, September 19, 1642,
which intrusted the work of securing a charter to Williams, was in reality
fusing together these separate groups, which had a common enemy and
common principles, into a State. The Town of Providence, a great
monument to Roger Williams, must now give way to the State of Rhode
Island, which was destined to become a still larger monument to the ideals
of this great exponent of civil and religious liberty, “a liberty which does not
permit license in civil matters in contempt of law and order.”
III
THE HISTORIC CUSTODIANS OF
SOUL-LIBERTY
Roger Williams must forever rank as one of the great epoch-makers of
the world, and to him impartial historians accord the honor of being
the first democrat. It was not until his expulsion from Salem Colony
that he became a Baptist, but the evidence is indisputable that he had
long been a Baptist at heart. He had spent much time among the
Baptists in England and was familiar with their doctrines and writings.
No sooner had Williams set foot in America than he found himself in
conflict with the authorities, both civil and religious.—S. Z. Batten, in
“The Christian State.”
There is not a confession of faith, nor a creed, framed by any of the
Reformers, which does not give the magistrate a coercive power in
religion, and almost every one at the same time curses the resisting
Baptists.—E. B. Underhill, in “Struggles and Triumphs.”
Godly princes may lawfully issue edicts for compelling obstinate and
rebellious persons to worship the true God and to maintain the unity of
the faith.—Calvin.
Democracy, I do not conceyve that ever God did ordeyne as a fit
government eyther for Church or Commonwealth.... As for monarchy
and aristocracy, they are both of them clearly approved, and directed
in Scripture.—John Cotton.
It is said that Men ought to have Liberty of their Conscience, and that
it is Persecution to debar them of it; I can stand amazed than reply to
this: It is an astonishment to think that the brains of men should be
parboiled in such impious ignorance.—Rev. Nathaniel Ward, Lawyer
Divine, of Ipswich, who drew up the first legal code for Massachusetts
Bay Colony.

R
OGER WILLIAMS, both minister and citizen, probably led the
Providence planters in their religious activities. He was neither
identified with the Established Church of England, nor in
sympathy with the intolerance of the new established order at Boston
and Salem, or even the one at Plymouth. He was a Separatist of the
most pronounced type, and that was exactly the accredited Baptist
position. He was one with the Baptists in his ideas concerning a
complete separation from the State Church of England, one with
them in the absolute separation of Church and State, one with them
in insisting upon a regenerate church-membership. So according to
the logic of the situation he turned to the Baptist movement. He may
have been instructed as to their position by Mrs. Scott (the sister of
the Antinomian, Mrs. Ann Hutchinson), who came to Providence
shortly before the baptism of Williams. Roger Williams had been
accused of tendencies toward the Anabaptists while in Plymouth,
Salem, and Boston. Before he met Mrs. Scott, however, he held the
Baptist positions of the time. It is not unlikely that she, being an
intelligent Baptist, showed Williams the remarkable similarity
between his position and that of the Baptists. Some time before
March, 1639, Williams was baptized. In the absence of a Baptist
minister, Ezekiel Holliman, an exile from Salem, baptized Roger
Williams, who in turn baptized Mr. Holliman and some ten others.
Like the disciple band of old the Baptist movement in Providence
and America commenced with a band of twelve disciples. Their
names are as follows: Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, William
Arnold (?),[1] William Harris, Stukely Westcott, John Green, Richard
Waterman, Thomas James, Robert Cole, William Carpenter (?),
Francis Weston, and Thomas Olney. Thus was organized the First
Baptist Church in America.
[1] The “?” is after Arnold’s name in First Baptist Church Register.
Great was the consternation in Salem when news reached there of
the baptism of Williams and others who had been members of their
church. The Puritan church took action at once. The letter
announcing to the church at Dorchester the exclusion of the
offenders is interesting:
Reverend and dearly beloved in the Lord:
We thought it our bounden duty to acquaint you with the names of
such persons, as have had the great censure passed upon them, in
this our church, with the reasons thereof, beseeching you in the Lord,
not only to read their names in public to yours, but also to give us the
like notice of any dealt with in like manner by you, so that we may
walk toward them accordingly, for some of us here have had
communion ignorantly with some of other churches. 2 Thess. 3:14.
We can do no less than have such noted as disobey the truth.
Roger Williams and his wife, John Throckmorton and his wife,
Thomas Olney and his wife, Stukely Westcott and his wife, Mary
Holliman, Widow Reeves.
These wholly refused to hear the church, denying it, and all the
churches in the Bay, to be true churches, and (except two) are all
rebaptized.
After some time Roger Williams left the Baptist church he had
organized in Providence. Because of this fact many have asked the
question, “Was Roger Williams after all a Baptist?” His life-story
reveals the fact that he held the Baptist views before he left
Plymouth. Elder Brewster detected the Baptist heresy in his teaching
to the people of the Pilgrim colony and warned the leaders of the
Bay Colony of this tendency to “Anabaptistery.” Williams’ ministry in
the Bay Colony reveals the fact that he was against everything which
was related to the Episcopacy or that might even lead to a
“presbytery.” He refused to minister to the Boston church because it
was related to the Episcopal State Church of England. He also
questioned the propriety of the ministers’ conference in New
England, for fear they might establish a presbytery which would rob
the local church of its congregational privileges. His whole life in
America was universally true to the accepted Baptist position relative
to church polity.
At the time of Williams’ baptism, English Baptists were agitated in
regard to the proper administrators of Christian baptism. Many
crossed to the Continent and were baptized by ministers in Holland.
Williams was soon troubled also in regard to the same question. Was
he properly baptized? That was the question which confronted him.
He would not juggle with his conscience. He knew of no Baptist
minister or baptized believer ordained to the ministry in America
when he was baptized. His own baptism was by an unbaptized
person. He made diligent study of the question and could not satisfy
his mind that there was a real succession of proper administrators. In
the awful decline of the church he was convinced that the sacred
succession had been broken. He believed that either that succession
must be in existence, or God must raise up a new “apostolate,” to
commence again the sacred succession. True to principle, he felt he
must withdraw from the church at Providence. In the years which
followed nothing which he said or did ever changed the facts that he
was the first recognized pastor of the first Baptist church that was
organized in America, that he was the first known case in America of
a believer being immersed upon profession of faith into the
fellowship of a local Baptist church, and that he was the organizer of
the first Baptist church in America.
In the years which followed his separation from the church at
Providence, he left no uncertainty as to his Baptist views on every
question save that of the proper administrator of baptism and its
kindred subject of ordination. In all other views he was a loyal Baptist
until his death. In his day, the Baptists were divided into two
recognized divisions, namely, Particular and General Baptists. Dr.
Henry M. King, of Providence, one of the successors of Roger
Williams in the pastorate of the Providence church, describes Roger
Williams as a “High-church Baptist.”
The late Reuben A. Guild, for many years librarian of Brown
University Library, and a thorough student of the original sources of
information, writes thus of Roger Williams in his history of Brown
University:
In regard to the other great doctrines held by the Baptists, liberty of
conscience, or soul-liberty, the entire separation of Church and State,
the supreme headship of Christ in all spiritual matters, regeneration
through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and a hearty belief in the Bible
as God’s divinely inspired and miraculously preserved word and the
all-sufficient rule for faith and practice, he was throughout life a
sincere believer in them all and an earnest advocate of them, as his
letters and published works abundantly show.
In Williams’ book, “Christenings make not Christians,” we have the
most radical Baptist teaching in regard to the errors of infant
sprinkling. He attacked the very foundation of the pedobaptists. He
insisted that only the regeneration of the heart, through the ministry
of the Holy Spirit, could make any person a Christian.
He believed that believers’ immersion is the New Testament baptism.
In a letter to Governor Winthrop, dated December 10, 1649, he
writes:
Mr. John Clarke hath been here lately and hath dipped them. I believe
their practice comes nearer the practice of our great Founder, Jesus
Christ, than any other practices of religion do.
In his debate with Fox, he writes thus, eleven years prior to his
death:
That gallant and heavenly and fundamental principle of the true matter
of a Christian congregation, flock or society, namely, actual believers,
true disciples and converts, such as can give an account of how the
grace of God hath appeared unto them.
We should think of Roger Williams as a man chosen of God to be
champion of a great distinctive Baptist doctrine held by the Baptists
centuries prior to his day and taught by the Baptists after his time
until it was made an essential part of our national Constitution.
Released from pastoral duties, Roger Williams gave himself
completely to the task of establishing and guarding the sacred fires
of soul-liberty which he had kindled in Rhode Island. For this sacred
cause he sacrificed his comfortable home at Salem and devoted the
earnings of a lifetime in trips to England to secure parliamentary
protection for the colony when envious neighbors on all sides were
coveting his purchased possessions. He sacrificed his opportunity to
become wealthy and died a poor man. All honor to John Clarke,
physician and pastor at Newport, for the splendid cooperation which
he gave to Williams. They were comrades, not rivals for fame in
those days. They were happy in life and should not be made
enemies in death. Their names should be linked together as the
pioneers and perfecters of soul-liberty in Rhode Island.
Christenings

make not

CHRISTIANS,
OR

A Briefe Discourse concerning that


name Heathen, commonly given to
the Indians.

As also concerning that great point of their


CONVERSION.

Published according to Order.

London, Printed by Iane Coe, for I. H. 1645.

The History of the First Baptist Church


The early Providence Baptists met at first in a grove under the trees.
In inclement weather they would meet in private homes. They
adopted no articles of faith, and to this day the First Church of
Providence has been without a formal creed or covenant. For sixty
years the church founded by Roger Williams had no house of
worship. Pardon Tillinghast, its sixth pastor, built them a house of
worship in 1700 and deeded it to the Society in 1711. It stood on the
corner of North Main and Smith Streets. A larger church, forty feet
square, built in 1726, succeeded this first edifice. The present edifice
was built in 1775, and was dedicated “for the worship of Almighty
God and to hold commencements in.” It cost $35,000, a part of
which was raised by a lottery, authorized by the State. The building
was designed by Joseph Brown and James Sumner, who used as a
model Gibb’s church in London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields. It is
recognized as one of the finest examples of colonial architecture in
America.
It has a beautiful interior. The upper gallery at the west end was
originally set apart for slaves and colored people. It was removed to
give place for the pipe-organ in 1832. The same year the old-
fashioned square pews were exchanged for the present ones; the
lofty pulpit and sounding-board were taken down. The beautiful
crystal chandelier, imported from England in 1792 was lighted for the
first time when Hope Brown, daughter of Nicholas Brown, was
married to Thomas Poynton Ives. It was the bride’s gift to the church.
The bell in the tower weighs two thousand five hundred pounds, and
bore originally this inscription:
For freedom of conscience the town was first planted;
Persuasion, not force, was used by the people;
This church is the eldest, and has not recanted,
Enjoying and granting bell, temple, and steeple.

It has been cracked three times and recast in this country. It now
bears the date of the origin of the church, and the name of Roger
Williams, “its first pastor and the first asserter of liberty of
conscience.” The bell is rung at sunrise, at midday, and at nine
o’clock as in the days of old.
First Baptist Church of Providence
Roger Mowry’s “Ordinarie.” Built 1653,
Demolished 1900

In the vestries are pictures of many of the former leaders of this


historic church. In the hallway, in a glass case, is a piece of the
original “What Cheer Rock,” the landing-place of Williams. At the
entrance to the church a bronze tablet commemorates the fact that
the First Baptist Church of Providence was the first Baptist church
established in America and that Roger Williams was its first pastor.
The present organization, known as the First Baptist Church of
Providence, has every valid reason for claiming to be the true
successor of the original church, organized before 1639, by Roger
Williams. In the Rhode Island Baptist State Annual the date of the
church’s organization is given as 1638. A committee appointed by
the church, when reporting, on March 16, 1899, the reasons for
claiming that the present organization is the true successor of the
first Baptist church organized in America, quoted in defense of this
position the following writers: Arnold, “History of Rhode Island”;
Caldwell, “History of the First Baptist Church”; Guild, “History of
Brown University and Manning”; Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, of Yale, “In
Colonial Era”; Cramp, “Baptist History”; Dexter, “As to Roger
Williams”; Morgan Edwards, “Materials for a History of Baptists in
Rhode Island.” In the following fall this report was also presented to
the Warren Association and was ordered printed in the Minutes of
the Association.
In the “Historical Catalogue” of this church, a book prepared by a
committee consisting of Rev. H. M. King, D. D., Pres. W. H. P.
Faunce, Prof. Wm. C. Poland, and others, a committee familiar with
the original sources of information, we find Roger Williams listed as
the first member in its list of members and as the first pastor in its list
of pastors. The bronze tablet in front of the present meeting-house
and the inscription on the bell both state that Roger Williams was the
first pastor.

Roger Williams’ Ideal, a Distinctive Baptist


Principle
We have already noted the fact that Roger Williams was accused of
Anabaptist tendencies. The Baptists, or Anabaptists, throughout the
ages have stood for the most advanced principles of Protestantism.
They existed long before Luther. Many historians claim for them a
historic continuity from the days of the early Christians. Their
principles—democracy of the local church, sovereignty of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the authority of the Scriptures—have been
perpetuated by local distinct bodies rather than by the historic
continuity of a general denomination with a common name and a
common governing body.
The Master, in the parable of the Tares, taught the principle
advocated by the Baptists and by Roger Williams. The field is the
world; the good seed, the children of the kingdom; the tares are the
evil-doers. Wheat and tares should be allowed to grow together in
the world (not in the church) until the end of the age, when the
angels, the reapers of God, will gather them together for reward or
punishment. Force must never be used to make disciples for Christ.
In the early Christian centuries, the church longed for liberty to live
for Christ and preach his gospel. Ten great general persecutions
were launched by the Roman emperors to crush the church. The
promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against it was
realized. The Edict of Milan, issued in 313, by Constantine and
Licinius, joint emperors, gave the church an opportunity to grow and
prosper and it was soon in the lead throughout the Roman Empire.
Then the church turned persecutor and put to death those who
differed from the ruling order, which now had lost its democratic
ideals. When the Montanists, the Donatists, the Paulicians, the
Albigenses, and the Waldenses in turn resisted the evil tendencies
and assumptions of a corrupt church, they were persecuted with a
fierceness greater than that formerly waged by the pagans against
the church. The principle of religious liberty was almost lost. It
became the far-off dream of idealists. These dreamers were usually
called Anabaptists. At first they were dissenters from Roman
Catholicism, but afterward they were also dissenters from the
dominant forms of Protestantism.
Interior of First Baptist Church, Providence

The Protestant Reformation was a case of arrested development. It


was like the exodus from the Egyptian bondage. There was a long
lingering in the wilderness before the day dawned with full religious
liberty. Henry Melville King says:
The absolute supremacy of the word of God, the spiritual nature of the
Christian church, the Christian ordinances for believing souls, the
divorce of Church and State, full, unrestricted religious freedom for
every man, these essential truths of the gospel of Christ found no
room at the inn of the sixteenth century, and were thrust aside into the
manger ... the inn was not open for it, but the manger was. The
principle of religious liberty did not fail to get born.
The Anabaptists of Europe kept alive the ideals of religious liberty.
They sought to carry out the principles of the Protestant Reformation
to its scriptural and logical conclusion. Many, called by this name,
had little in common with the movement which now bears the Baptist
name. The actions of the fanatics under Münzer have been cited
since Williams’ day as an argument against his principles. Münzer,
who “never submitted to, nor administered rebaptism, who persisted
in baptizing infants, and who sought to set up the kingdom of Christ
by carnal warfare, was not correctly classed.” Cornelius, Roman
Catholic historian of the Münzer uprising, shows that the Anabaptists
repudiated the actions of this fanatic.
The only crime of which they (the Baptists) were accused as a body
by their contemporaries, and which is substantiated by evidence, the
crime for which they were inhumanly persecuted by Catholics and
Protestants alike, and for which they went cheerfully and in large
numbers to death by drowning or the stake, was the crime of
advocating soul-liberty. They claimed the right to interpret the
Scriptures for themselves. They demanded freedom of faith and
worship for all men. They apprehended the sublime doctrine of civil
and religious liberty, and they were the only men who did apprehend
it.
Most of the creeds and confessions of the Reformation gave to the
magistrate a coercive power in religion, and included a curse for the
despised Baptists. Luther, in the early years of his Reformation work,
said:
No one can command or ought to command the soul except God, who
alone can show it the way to heaven. It is futile and impossible to
command, or by force to compel any man’s belief. Heresy is a spiritual
thing, which no iron can hew down, no fire burn, no water drown...
Whenever the temporal power presumes to legislate for the soul, it
encroaches.
Luther, when he was successful, turned his back upon this noble
utterance and compromised with error. He stopped short of full
victory and failed to secure the “full splendor of a complete triumph.”
He wrote differently in after days:
Since it is not good that in one parish the people should be exposed to
contradictory preaching, he (the magistrate) should order to be silent
whatever does not consist with the Scriptures.
Thus the civil ruler was made the final judge of truth and given power
to suppress what he would condemn. This was a case of tyranny
changing hands. Luther wrote to Menius and Myconius in 1530:
I am pleased that you intend to publish a book against the Anabaptists
as soon as possible. Since they are not only blasphemous but also
seditious men, let the sword exercise its rights over them, for it is the
will of God, that he shall have judgment who resisteth the power.
Melanchthon, in a letter to the Diet at Hamburg, in 1537, advised
death by the sword to all who professed Anabaptist views. Zwingli,
the Swiss Reformer, whose statue in Zurich pictures him with a Bible
in his right hand and a sword in his left, also persecuted the Baptists.
On January 5, 1527, Felix Mantz became the first Swiss Anabaptist
martyr by drowning at Zurich. This was a hideous parody of his belief
in believers’ baptism by immersion. Heinrich Bullinger, in his book
against the Anabaptists, specifies thirteen distinct sects among the
Anabaptists. He mentions twenty-five points of agreement among
them, including the following:
That secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that the
Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law-courts; nor should
ever make use of the tribunals; that Christians do not kill or punish
with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from the body
of believers; that no man should be compelled by force to believe, nor
should any be slain on account of his faith; that Christians do not
resist, and hence do not go to war; that Christians may not swear; that
all oaths are sinful; that infant baptism is of the pope and devil; that
rebaptism, or better, adult baptism, is the only true Christian baptism.
In 1527, the Swiss Anabaptists issued a confession of faith at
Schaffhausen. Its writer was Michael Sattler, an ex-monk who was
martyred that same year. It was the first confession “in which
Christian men claimed absolute religious freedom for themselves,
and guaranteed absolute religious freedom to others.” This Baptist
movement was the target of Protestant and Catholic persecution
alike and its brave, spiritual men and women were driven to the
martyr’s crown or to exile. Many fled to Holland. The torch of truth,
the advanced ideas which they had received from the Waldensians
and other pre-Reformation movements, were handed over to the
Anabaptists of Holland. These increased in number rapidly under the
toleration afforded them in that country. Menno Simons, a Roman
priest, set to thinking by the martyrdoms about him, espoused their
cause and doctrines. Baptized at the age of forty-four, he fled to
Holland, where he became the leader of a host, which afterward
bore his name, being called Mennonites. Charles V persecuted
these Baptists, and fully fifty thousand were martyred. They were not
exterminated, however, for God, as in other days, preserved a
remnant to pass the torch of religious liberty on to others.
Bell of First Baptist Church, Providence

Baptist refugees from Holland crossed over to England. Henry VIII,


when he made himself head of the Church, ordered their arrest and
banishment from the kingdom, “on pain to suffer death, if they abide,
and be apprehended and taken.” The fires of Smithfield and the
inquisition of the Protestants could not crush this movement destined
of God, at a later date, to change the world. Considered an
obnoxious sect in the reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, they
carried on their meetings secretly. They were an industrious class of
skilled mechanics and introduced into England that which afterward
gave that nation its commercial and manufacturing supremacy. The
English passed a law that each foreign workman should take and
train one English apprentice. As a result, fifty thousand English lads
were trained, not only mechanically, but also in the principles of
these Dutch Anabaptists. This spiritual training led to the Puritan
revolution in England and to the greater movement across the seas.
Each of these Dutch Baptist churches was a republic in itself,
independent with its popularly elected officers, deacons, and elders.
They held, as a cardinal doctrine, the separation of Church and
State. From the sections in which these Dutch Anabaptists lived
came fully fifty per cent of the early colonists to the New World.
Fourteen English towns, in which they formed a large proportion of
the population, are duplicated by New England towns of the same
name. From the same district Cromwell recruited his invincible
Ironsides. Back of all that was good and noble in the settlements at
Plymouth and Boston and in Connecticut was the leaven of the
Dutch Baptists in that part of England from which these early
colonists came.
Robert Browne, who is the reputed founder of English
Congregationalism, advocated his peculiar views after dwelling for
some time in a Dutch Anabaptist community. Here he promulgated
his ideas. A part of his congregation fled to Middleburg, a Baptist
stronghold. After two years he quarreled with these folks and
returned to England, where he became reconciled to the Established
Church and for forty years afterward administered to an Established
Church parish. The Baptist principle, however, had been stamped
upon the few years of his ministry when he started a new order.
At the close of the sixteenth century most of the Anabaptists in
England were Dutch. Slowly, however, English Baptists were coming
into existence, and they soon formed themselves into small groups.
Browne did not go so far as the Baptists, but in church government
he took their New Testament position. As far as is known, the first
definite English Baptist church was organized in London in 1611,
with Thomas Helwys as pastor. The members had been exiles in
Holland and were baptized there by Rev. John Smith, the famous
Se-Baptist, formerly a Church of England clergyman.
This English Baptist church formulated a confession which contains
the first declaration of faith to include, as the teaching of Christ, the
absolute separation of Church and State.
The magistrate by virtue of his office, is not to meddle with religion or
matters of conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of
religion or doctrine; but to leave the Christian religion free to every
man’s conscience.
Prof. Mason says:
It was, in short, from their little dingy meeting-house, somewhere in
old London, that there flashed out, first in England, the absolute
doctrine of religious liberty.
These of whom mention has just been made, were called General
Baptists.
In 1644, the Particular Baptists issued a confession, equally explicit
and clear. Religious liberty to them was the right, and good
citizenship the duty, of every Christian man. Their historic
confession, a confession of seven associated churches, was the first
declaration, in England or in Christendom, by a body of associated
churches on the question of absolute religious liberty. Many of these
Baptists were imprisoned.
Many denominations which today favor religious liberty, were
opposed to it in those days of Baptist persecution. For example, the
Presbyterian ministers of Lancashire declared, “A toleration would be
putting a sword in a madman’s hands, a cup of poison into the hand
of a child, a letting loose of madmen with firebrands in their hands,
etc.” The Presbyterians, then, would gladly have been a national
church. The Puritans of the Bay Colony had no higher thought than a
theocracy for themselves. To insure uniformity of worship in their
colony they resorted to whippings, banishments, fines, and
hangings. The Pilgrim Fathers were farther advanced, but historians
fail to find that they had a higher ideal than to secure a freedom to
worship God for themselves. They certainly never dreamed of
extending an equal freedom to all who differed from them in religious

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