The Ku Klux Klan, Conservative Politics and Religion: Taking Extremism to the Political Mainstream

Abstract

Prior to the Internet, information available to the public on white extremist groups, such as the United White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, came from news events which prevented these groups from controlling the information presented to the public about themselves, their organization, ideals, or goals. But the Internet has allowed these groups to develop websites through which they can directly dictate their image to vast audiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between political orientation and fundamental Christian beliefs and agreement with the values of a white extremist group, as presented by the United White Knights on their website. Results suggest political orientation and Christian fundamental beliefs are significantly related, but not as strong as expected, to agreement with the values of the United White Knights: as levels of conservatism and Christian orthodoxy increase, the more likely a person is to be in agreement with the group's values/beliefs. These findings support the notion that some Klan organizations, such as the United White Knights, are taking steps to rebrand their image into a more mainstream organization with an ideology similar to white, religious and political conservatives.