Phineas Priesthood

Ideology

The ideology in Hoskins's book includes Christian Identity beliefs which oppose interracial relationships, the mixing of races, homosexuality, and abortion. It is marked by anti-Semitism and anti-multiculturalism.

The Phineas Priesthood is not considered an organization because it is not led by a governing body, its members do not hold gatherings, and it does not have a membership process. One becomes a Phineas Priest by adopting the Priesthood's beliefs and acting on them. Adherents of the Phineas Priesthood ideology are considered terrorists.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), "Many people mistakenly believe that there is an actual organization called the Phineas Priesthood, probably because there was a group of four men in the 1990s who called themselves Phineas Priests. The men carried out bank robberies and a series of bombings in the Pacific Northwest before being sent to prison. But there is no evidence that their organization was any larger than those four individuals."

In 2012, Drew Bostwick renamed a splinter faction of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations the "Tabernacle of the Phineas Priesthood-Aryan Nations" when he replaced August Kreis as the group's leader.

Activities

Phineas priest crimes include numerous abortion clinic bombings in 1996, the 1996 bombing of The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington, bank robberies in Washington state, the bombing of a Planned Parenthood clinic, and plans to blow up FBI buildings. Three men – Charles H. Barbee, Robert S. Berry and Verne Jay Merrell – who professed to follow the "religious philosophy of Phineas priests" were convicted of crimes that included bank robberies and bombings, and each of them was sentenced to life in prison in 1997 and 1998. The offenses in which the three were convicted of were conspiracy, transportation of stolen vehicles across state lines and possessing hand grenades. A fourth man, Brian Ratigan, was also convicted for his role in the planned parenthood bombing. He was released from prison in June 2020, 24 years early than what his original sentence was. In January 2021, Charles Barbee was resentenced to 55 years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge William Fremming Nielsen, who handed down Barbee's new sentence, had previously modified the sentences of his co defendants, Robert Berry and Verne Merrell. In December 2022, Barbee and Merrell's sentenced were further reduced by Judge Nielsen to 40 and 43 years respectively. Merrell had first been resentenced in 2020, but was cut down by 15 years as a result of the 2022 decision.

In the early 2000s, Joshua Caleb Sutter and August Kreis advocated the Phineas Priesthood, and compared this to a white supremacist version of Islamist attacks. Sutter declared himself a Phineas Priest.

Walter Thody was given a life sentence in 1992 for a series of bank robberies in California. He alleged the stolen money was used to fund his Phineas Priesthood cell's mission to assassinate Jews.

A copy of Hoskins's book, War Cycles, Peace Cycles, was found in a van that was driven by Buford Furrow when he killed one person and wounded five others in an attack on a Jewish Community Center in California in 1999. Although that book is about economics, Michael Reynolds of the Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Furrow's actions were consistent with the Phineas Priesthood as described by Hoskins in Vigilantes of Christendom.

On November 28, 2014, 49-year-old Larry Steven McQuilliams fired more than 100 rounds at a federal courthouse, a Mexican consulate building, which he also tried to set on fire, and a police station in Austin, Texas before being killed by return fire from police. A copy of Hoskins's book was found in McQuilliams's home.

Name

The Phineas Priesthood is named after the Israelite Phineas, grandson of Aaron (). According to Numbers 25, Phineas personally executed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman while they were together in the man's tent, ending a plague which had been sent by God in order to punish the Israelites for intermingling both sexually and religiously with Baal-worshipers. Phineas is commended for having stopped Israel's fall into idolatrous practices that were introduced to it by Moabite women. God commends Phineas as zealous through Moses, gives him a "covenant of peace," and grants him and "his seed" an everlasting priesthood. This passage was cited in Hoskins's book as a justification for using violent means against people who have interracial relationships and practice other forms of alleged immorality.

References

Works cited

References

1. (2005). "Extremism in America: Richard Kelly Hoskins". [[Anti-Defamation League]].
2. "Phineas Priesthood".
3. (1996). "Phineas Priests Arrested in Spokane Robberies". Montana Human Rights Network.
4. Morlin, Bill. (November 1, 1997). "Sentencing Delayed For Valley Bomber, but No Third Trial Charles H. Barbee Faces Mandatory Life Imprisonment". [[The Spokesman-Review]].
5. Martin, Gus [https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/terrorism2ed/chpt/phineas-priesthood "Phineas Priesthood"] ''SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism''
6. (April 3, 1997). "3 Separatists Are Convicted Of Conspiracy". The Associated Press.
7. Hill, Kip. (June 25, 2020). "Man released decades early for white supremacist bombing of Planned Parenthood in Spokane Valley".
8. (January 26, 2021). "Last of 4 domestic terrorists who planted bombs in Spokane sentenced to 55 years in jail". The Associated Press.
9. Hill, Kip. (December 28, 2022). "Pair of Phineas Priesthood bombers see sentences reduced following federal appeal".
10. Morlin, Bill. (2002-04-21). "New Seeds of Hate". [[The Spokesman-Review]].
11. (11 August 2025). "Son of domestic terrorist sentenced to prison". [[San Antonio Express-News]].
12. (11 August 2025). "A retrospective of Hate Incidents and Groups in the 1900s". [[SPLCenter]].
13. Macy, Robert. (August 12, 1999). "Gunman Admits Targeting Jews". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
14. (August 15, 1999). "Racist hate inspires more tragic death". The News and Advance.
15. (December 1, 2014). "Chief on Austin gunman: 'Hate was in his heart'". KXAN.
16. (December 1, 2014). "Police: Austin shooter was a 'homegrown American extremist'". The Washington Post.