revolutionary millennial movements (278 words)

Revolutionary millennial movements possess ideologies or theologies that motivate believers to commit violent acts to overthrow the old order to create the millennial kingdom. The participants in revolutionary millennial movements believe that revolutionary violence is necessary to become liberated from their persecutors and to set up the righteous government and society. Revolutionary millennialists believe their violence is mandated by a divine or superhuman plan. Revolutionary millennial movements are numerous, and when dominant, they cause massive amounts of death, suffering, and destruction. When a revolutionary millennial movement is not dominant in society, its members will resort to terrorism.

Examples of revolutionary millennial movements are the Taiping Revolution and also Mao’s Great Leap Forward in China, the German Nazis, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

An example of a non-dominant revolutionary millennial movement is the contemporary Euro-American nativist movement which includes the Freemen, Neo-Nazis, Identity Christians, and Odinists.

Revolutionary millennialists resort to violence because they are convinced they have been persecuted. In doing so, they become persecutors.

Revolutionary millennialism involves a radical dualistic perspective of good battling evil that becomes a sense of "us vs. them." This radical dualism dehumanizes and demonizes the "other" so that it is legitimate to kill them. Radical dualism legitimates murder and warfare.

Revolutionary millennialism may be either an expression of catastrophic millennialism or progressive millennialism. For example, Christian Identity, an often racist and anti-Semitic religion which expects Christians to have to fight against the American government, "Babylon," in the endtime, is catastrophic in orientation. The German Nazis, the Khmer Rouge, and Maoists, were oriented toward progress, but these true believers utilized violence to speed up progress to establish the millennial kingdom.

Catherine Wessinger

Loyola University, New Orleans

See also entries on catastrophic millennialism, progressive millennialism, nativist millennial movements.

Ellwood, Robert. Forthcoming. "Nazism as a Millennialist Movement." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Kaplan, Jeffrey. Forthcoming. "Real Paranoids Have Real Enemies: The Genesis of the ZOG Discourse in the American National Socialist Subculture." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Lowe, Scott. Forthcoming. "Western Millennial Ideology Goes East: The Taiping Revolution and Mao’s Great Leap Forward." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Rosenfeld, Jean E. Forthcoming. "The Justus Freemen Standoff: The Importance of the Analysis of Religion in Avoiding Violent Outcomes." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Salter, Richard C. Forthcoming. "Time, Authority, and Ethics in the Khmer Rouge: Elements of the Millennial Vision in Year Zero." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Wessinger, Catherine. Forthcoming. How the Millennium Comes Violently. Chappaqua, NY: Seven Bridges Press.

______. Forthcoming. "The Interacting Dynamics of Millennial Beliefs, Persecution, and Violence." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.