Washington Rep. Matt Shea endorsed training children to fight in ideological wars

[PosPosPos]

link

A week before his re-election last year, state Rep. Matt Shea denied that a leaked manifesto he wrote was a road map for a holy war, one that would pit conservative Christian “patriots” against Muslim and Marxist “terrorists.”

Rather, Shea insisted, the document titled “Biblical Basis for War” contained notes for a scholarly sermon on war in the Old Testament.

But newly leaked emails, first reported by The Guardian on Wednesday, as well as a video on Shea’s public Facebook page, show the Spokane Valley Republican has had close ties with a group called Team Rugged that trained children, teens and men in their early 20s for religious combat.

“The entire purpose behind Team Rugged is to provide patriotic and biblical training on war for young men,” a man identified as the group’s leader, Patrick Caughran, wrote in a July 2016 email to Shea. “Everything about it is both politically incorrect and what would be considered shocking truth to most modern christians. There will be scenarios where every participant will have to fight against one of the most barbaric enemies that are invading our country, Muslims terrorists.”

Caughran added that a Team Rugged event would offer “biblical teaching” based on the works of John Weaver, a racist preacher who has defended slavery, idolized the Confederacy and condemned interracial marriage. The Southern Poverty Law Center says Weaver “has recently become a leading proponent of training Christians for armed battle.”

The event also would offer weapons training, Caughran told Shea. “Those who attend will learn combatives, the use of a knife in defense, close quarters shooting with rifle and pistol and how to work effectively in teams of 2, 3 and 4.”
Advertising

Caughran went on to ask Shea to connect him with “John Jacob Schmidt,” the pseudonym of far-right podcaster Jack Robertson, who once proposed physically attacking liberal demonstrators in a leaked group chat that included Shea.

Shea replied to Caughran and passed along his request to Robertson.

Team Rugged’s Facebook page and website were taken down after The Guardian reported about the emails on Wednesday. It’s unclear if the group is still active.

The emails between Caughran and Shea were contained in a trove of Shea-related documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review through multiple sources. The same materials have been turned over to a team of private investigators hired by the state House of Representatives to determine whether Shea has promoted political violence.

But the lawmaker’s connection with Team Rugged was hardly a secret: In July 2017, during the annual God and Country Celebration in in Marble, a conservative religious community in northern Stevens County, Shea posted a Facebook Live video that shows him interviewing three Team Rugged members in their early 20s.

“Tell everybody out there in Patriot Land, what is Team Rugged?” Shea asks in the video, holding a microphone. “What are you guys doing?”
Advertising

One member, wearing a green shirt and a camouflage baseball cap, answers: “Team Rugged is basically a school of learning for young men to give them all the foundational learning and skills that they need to be effective in Christian warfare.”

Shea then muses about the group’s capabilities. “I love the fact that you guys looked like almost an acrobatic special-forces team out there,” he says.

Records on file with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office show a company called Team Rugged LLC was formed in August 2017, about a year after Caughran emailed Shea.

The company is registered to Michael Caughran, of Colville, Stevens County, and the board of executors includes Barry Byrd, the pastor of the Marble community. (In 1988, Byrd helped pen a Christian Identity manifesto that referred to Jews as “anti-Christs” and condemned interracial marriage, though he and his wife, Anne, have since tried to distance themselves from racist ideology.)
Sign up for Morning Brief

Delivered bright and early weekday mornings, this email provides a quick overview of top stories and need-to-know news.

The Spokesman-Review found five other companies registered in Washington that have listed the Byrds as executors. The S.A.L.T. Institute LLC, registered in 1996, lists “education” as its purpose. Marble Flats LLC, registered in 2010, exists to “buy and sell real estate.”

The Byrds also are listed on filings for Old Marble Township LLC, Preparedness LLC and The Marble Commonwealth Trust LLC, which names Stevens County Commissioner Steve Parker as an executor.

Attempts to reach Parker and Caughran were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who has urged fellow Republicans to denounce Shea as an extremist, compared Team Rugged to the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany.

“Any radicalization of youth in such a manner would be very comparable,” Knezovich said in a text message Wednesday.

Shea, who rarely speaks to the media, had not publicly responded to the reporting on Team Rugged as of Wednesday evening.

On Facebook Wednesday, he shared a blog post about Washington’s new Democratic House speaker, writing: “THE CURRENT DIRECTION OF WASHINGTON IS DECIDEDLY ANTI-CHRISTIAN.”

Well, at least Republicans are dropping the "but but I am peacefully advocating for violence" shtick.

Also explains why Republicans are also caught red-handed kidnapping the children of asylum seekers from their concentration camps, so if you see random kids enacting acts of terrorism in the US, you know who are the masterminds.

P.S.

Please focus on how this specimen is advocating for wanton violence and war, which is far more important than whatever specific brand of ideological zealotry he's pushing, religious or not.

[callipygoustp]

Hopefully they provide the kids with bibles that have red covers.

[Wyrt]

This is clearly the right path to take and won't at all lead to more right wing terrorism.

[Dontrike]

Of course he's a Republican, because it wouldn't be any other side of the political spectrum.

I do love that there's always a looming threat/war/rapture or whatever else that they have to prepare for and yet it never happens. I'm sure these kids will put all of this to good use when they're stocking shelves at Wal-Mart for their summer job.

[Pendulous]

This isn't the first time this dude has gone of the deep end straight into the ocean.

[PosPosPos]

I'm sure these kids will put all of this to good use when they're stocking shelves at Wal-Mart for their summer job.

Assuming that this would be the end of it anyway, and not just more right-wing based mass shootings/vehicle ramming etc.

- - - Updated - - -

This isn't the first time this dude has gone of the deep end straight into the ocean.

Yeap, the manifesto thing is in the original article too.

[Machismo]

So, he's a supporter of terrorism and radical religious extremism.

And people voted for him...

[Acidbaron]

Simply in line with the republican tactic of making people scared. The training of people however is not new, Eastern Europe and even in the west although such companies are mostly not located in this part of Europe, they are there to train people for the "upcoming war with Muslims". What is a lie and no proof of it often these people recruited are world strange as they come from homo-gene communities, so in essence they are scared of something they don't know.

Luckily here such hate groups are not allowed, sadly in the US despite there being laws they are allowed to spread their fascist ideology in the name of freedom of speech.

It's a vicious circle, first it begins with misinformation, than dehumanization of others, political opponents, whoever is not them and in support of them, this leads to isolation from their usual social circle and family leading this into radicalization and violence.

There is no meaningful difference between that group described in the article and the Al queda inspired groups. You are right in saying that this is far more dangerous as the ideology behind it is neglectable as it's a perverse version of what it actually is suppose the represent.

- - - Updated - - -

So, he's a supporter of terrorism and radical religious extremism.

And people voted for him...

I could list several frequent posters here that would vote for such an individual especially those claiming to be independent, so that's not so surprising.

[Machismo]

Simply in line with the republican tactic of making people scared. The training of people however is not new, Eastern Europe and even in the west although such companies are mostly not located in this part of Europe, they are there to train people for the "upcoming war with Muslims". What is a lie and no proof of it often these people recruited are world strange as they come from homo-gene communities, so in essence they are scared of something they don't know.

Luckily here such hate groups are not allowed, sadly in the US despite there being laws they are allowed to spread their fascist ideology in the name of freedom of speech.

It's a vicious circle, first it begins with misinformation, than dehumanization of others, political opponents, whoever is not them and in support of them, this leads to isolation from their usual social circle and family leading this into radicalization and violence.

There is no meaningful difference between that group described in the article and the Al queda inspired groups. You are right in saying that this is far more dangerous as the ideology behind it is neglectable as it's a perverse version of what it actually is suppose the represent.

- - - Updated - - -



I could list several frequent posters here that would vote for such an individual especially those claiming to be independent, so that's not so surprising.

I could list a hundred.

We have lots of hate groups like this running around, and he's one of many politicians who supports religious extremism in this country.

[pathora44]

Washington is a weird state, you have west of the mountains where it is mostly progressive and pretty awesome to live. Then you go east of the mountains and you hit country bumkins and religious zealots who vote in a guy like Matt Shea calling for a Christian lead religious holy war aka Christian jihadists. It is pretty jarring how utterly opposite the two halves of Washington state are. It makes sense though because eastern Washington borders Northern Idaho aka a KKK gathering point. There use to be a major converging of KKK and Neo Nazis in Northern Idaho so they spread out to Eastern Washington.

[Mihalik]

Can someone explain to me the difference between this and calling for Islamic Jihad?

I'm pretty sure if a Muslim lawmaker like, let's say Ilhan Omar, would call for training young Muslim men for Islamic Jihad based on Koranic thought she'd literally have the FBI knocking on her door within a hot minute.

[Belize]

Can someone explain to me the difference between this and calling for Islamic Jihad?

I'm pretty sure if a Muslim lawmaker like, let's say Ilhan Omar, would call for training young Muslim men for Islamic Jihad based on Koranic thought she'd literally have the FBI knocking on her door within a hot minute.

There isn't any.

[jeezusisacasual]

This entire read made my skin crawl. No i am not Christian but good god if someone of a different faith did something similar i could see another loss of civil liberties in the US.

[Thepersona]

Can someone explain to me the difference between this and calling for Islamic Jihad?

You know that they're called Y'all Qaeda/Yokel Haram, right?

[Sunseeker]

The sad part is that if you confronted any rando Republican off the streets these days they'd probably argue this is necessary due to liberal brainwashing in schools.

[Dontrike]

The sad part is that if you confronted any rando Republican off the streets these days they'd probably argue this is necessary due to liberal brainwashing in schools.

We've had at least one person spit that conspiracy out, that schools are liberal biased, and argued it plenty *couch* Sulla *cough*.

[cubby]

link



Well, at least Republicans are dropping the "but but I am peacefully advocating for violence" shtick.

Also explains why Republicans are also caught red-handed kidnapping the children of asylum seekers from their concentration camps, so if you see random kids enacting acts of terrorism in the US, you know who are the masterminds.

P.S.

Please focus on how this specimen is advocating for wanton violence and war, which is far more important than whatever specific brand of ideological zealotry he's pushing, religious or not.

Just one more step on the road to the Handmaid's Tale.

[Breccia]

Please focus on how this specimen is advocating for wanton violence and war, which is far more important than whatever specific brand of ideological zealotry he's pushing, religious or not.

No.

Because only certain "brands" of ideologies push for wanton violence and war. Even though he's just a state rep and this doesn't mean a ton, I've posted recently how pretty much every home-grown wanton zealotry group is basically right wing. This is more of the terroristic same, and "don't discuss which side is to blame" is not an acceptable limitation. The end.

[Jakexe]

We've had at least one person spit that conspiracy out, that schools are liberal biased, and argued it plenty *couch* Sulla *cough*.

He is the authority on little kids tho...

[PosPosPos]

No.

Because only certain "brands" of ideologies push for wanton violence and war. Even though he's just a state rep and this doesn't mean a ton, I've posted recently how pretty much every home-grown wanton zealotry group is basically right wing. This is more of the terroristic same, and "don't discuss which side is to blame" is not an acceptable limitation. The end.

Uh....

I think you are mistaken, I meant to not discuss religion specifically and instead focus on the violence, warmongering and far-right extremism. You know, religion being a forbidden topic on MMOC and all.