Christian Front (United States)
The Christian Front was a far-right anti-Semitic political association active in the United States from 1938 to 1940, started in response to radio priest Charles Coughlin.
The Christian Front was founded in November 1938 in response to the prompting of radio priest Charles Coughlin, who had called for a "crusade against the anti-Christian forces of the Red Revolution" in the May 23, 1938, edition of his newspaper, Social Justice.
[4] He was personally selected by Charles Coughlin, who announced Cassidy's leadership by radio to six thousand of his most ardent followers, then in Social Justice on July 31.
[4] The Christian Front sold Social Justice, organized boycotts of Jewish businesses, and held parades and rallies.
They heard speakers denounce Jews as international bankers, war mongers, and communists, mock President Roosevelt as Rosenfelt, and praise Franco and Hitler.
[6] The Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn, Thomas Molloy, was a prominent supporter and his diocesan newspaper, the Tablet once addressed the charge that the Christian Front was antisemitic: "Well what of it?
"[7] The Front also targeted organized labor and tried to replace union officials, deemed too radical or Jewish, with "Christian leadership".
[4] The Christian Front participated in the February 20, 1939, Nazi rally held in Madison Square Garden organized by the German American Bund.
[11] In September 1939, the editors of Equality magazine published a 15-page letter to Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York asking him to state his position on the Front and warning its activities might "culminate in a violent, bloody rioting such as the city has never known."
[4] A faction of the Christian Front that supported cooperation with the German American Bund and an escalation on the violence against Jews and Communists splintered in 1939.
[11] On December 28, 1939, U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy announced that a grand jury in Washington, D.C., would hear evidence of organized antisemitism and other activities that might be fomented by foreign agents.
[14] In January 1940, federal agents arrested 17 men, all residents of Brooklyn and mostly Front members, and charged that they had conspired to "overthrow, put down and destroy by force the Government of the United States" and planned to steal weapons and ammunition to do so.
[11][17] The Catholic magazine Commonweal expressed sympathy for those arrested, saying in an editorial that Coughlin, The Tablet, and Social Justice were responsible for creating this group of "hypnotized men".
One of the accused, Claus Gunther Ernecke, a naturalized emigrant from Germany and a member of the German American Bund, went missing on April 13, 1940.
Healy also testified that Christian Front members were gathering weapons and waiting for the "Jewish revolution", after which they would launch a counter-revolution.
Charles R. Gallagher, S.J., declassified FBI documents assert that the Brooklyn Christian Front members engaged in military training, sought to carry out a wide range of attacks, and were in possession of weaponry that included Browning automatic rifles.
