Gerald Burton Winrod
Gerald Burton Winrod was a fundamentalist preacher, publisher, political agitator, and Christian-fascist organizer whose antisemitic, anti-Catholic, British Israelite, anti-Roosevelt, and pro-Nazi propaganda helped shape the ideological world that later fed Christian Identity, Serpent's Seed theology, and parts of the radical revivalist atmosphere surrounding the postwar healing movement; through his Defenders of the Christian Faith, Capitol News and Feature Service, promotion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ties to William J. Cameron, William D. Upshaw, Roy E. Davis, Paul Rader, F. F. Bosworth, Gordon Lindsay, and other fundamentalist and Pentecostal figures, Winrod functioned as a bridge between far-right religious politics, racialized prophecy, anti-communist conspiracy, British Israelism, and the networks that later overlapped with William Branham, Latter Rain, and the Voice of Healing revival world.
World Christian Fundamentals Association
The World Christian Fundamentals Association, founded by William Bell Riley in 1919, was a militant fundamentalist organization that moved beyond the original five doctrinal fundamentals of Christianity into aggressive political, cultural, and sectarian warfare against liberal theology, modernism, evolution, Catholicism, and religious pluralism. Under leaders and allies such as Riley, Roy E. Davis, John Roach Straton, Gerald Burton Winrod, and William Jennings Bryan, the WCFA framed opponents as false Christians and enemies of the faith, promoted investigations of schools, pulpits, seminaries, missionaries, and denominations, and used publications such as The Fundamentalist to identify and attack perceived modernist threats. Its campaigns against Darwinism, public education, Catholic influence, and theological liberalism helped radicalize American fundamentalism into a combative movement that blended apocalyptic fear, political activism, anti-modern rhetoric, and exclusionary religious identity.
Defenders of the Christian Faith: How Fundamentalism Fueled Fascism in America
The Defenders of the Christian Faith emerged in the 1920s as a fundamentalist movement that fused biblical literalism with political radicalism, eventually aligning itself with fascist and antisemitic ideology. Under the leadership of Gerald Burton Winrod, the organization played a significant role in spreading Nazi propaganda in the United States and was ultimately named as a co-conspirator in the Great Sedition Trial of 1944.
Supreme Kingdom
The Supreme Kingdom was a short-lived white supremacist religious organization founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader Edward Young Clarke after his fall from power, blending fundamentalist anti-evolution activism, anti-atheist politics, school purges, fraternal-style secrecy, and religious nationalism into a new vehicle for Klan-adjacent influence; through figures such as John Roach Straton, Caleb A. Ridley, and Roy E. Davis, it connected Baptist fundamentalism, Klan leadership, anti-modernist crusading, financial exploitation, and white supremacy networks that overlapped with the religious world surrounding Davis and, later, William Branham.
Alley Oop: When Comics Become Demons
William Branham’s accounts of angelic and demonic visitations were central to his self-presentation, even though their details shifted across different versions of his ministry persona. In one striking example, he described a demonic figure that resembled the cartoon character Alley Oop, revealing the extent to which his visionary claims blended religious motifs with elements of popular culture.
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