The leader, Hulon Mitchell Jr., is in prison for conspiracy in connection with the murders. Mitchell ordered the slayings of defectors as well as the murder of random Whites as part of an initiation to an inner circle within the cult. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Black supremacist group named the Stream of Knowledge is being investigated in six states. They are described as an offshoot of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion, and have been amassing weapons and followers for years. The Stream allegedly recruits at military bases and in prisons, preparing for a race war.
Racist messages embedded in religion are nothing new.
But the medium for disseminating such hatred has changed dramatically. No longer limited to short wave radio transmissions and blurry, grammatically challenged flyers, Christian Identity is spreading in the form of White power rock music, slick magazines, and the Internet. According to Susan DeCamp of the Montana Association of Churches, Christian Identity families have also infiltrated small fundamentalist churches, at times trying to incorporate their racist beliefs into their church's doctrines. Ultimately, of course, violent religious racists are responsible for their own actions. But the racism inherent in most religions plays an undeniable role in fomenting hatred.