I would not have permitted you to harm my tribe

The world refuses to cool. Peace is just the brief period between wars. And if one is to experience any kind of safety or security, it's within the confines of one's own tribe. Or at least, that's the message underneath the more overt religious views being propagated by the faithful who took to the streets this Saturday afternoon. Join or die. Submit to our superior ideals or find yourself punished in this life of the next.

Here's a tribe you might not be familiar with -- or at least I wasn't until recently -- the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. If you've never had the pleasure of being called a cracker to your face, these are the folks you'll want to share a few uncomfortable moments with on a crowded city sidewalk. While there are multiple sects of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which have adapted various elements of mainstream Christianity and Judaism into their religious practices, their core doctrine is that Black Africans are the true descendants of the Ancient Israelites. Active primarily in the United States, adherents of Black Hebrew Israelite sects were estimated at around 200,000 through the 1990s.

Membership has been on the rise since 2000, after prophecies of the second coming and apocalypse failed to materialize resulted in a schisms within the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ. New leadership emerged, headed by Jermaine Grant, who updated the church's message by embracing contemporary R&B culture.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported extensively on Black Hebrew Israelite activities in the past few years:

"Confrontations between Hebrew Israelite street preachers and their perceived enemies are growing uglier and gaining increasing attention through video clips circulated to legions of viewers on websites like YouTube. The Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, a sect that is the Israelite Church's main rival, has its own YouTube "channel," or video sharing distribution networks, with over 500 subscribers. One recently circulated Israelite School video, which has been viewed more than 26,000 times, shows a group of robed street preachers harassing a white woman until she bursts into tears. Another shows the preachers applauding as a white man kneels down to kiss the boots of "the prophets of God" while begging forgiveness for the sins of his race."

(Read the entire report, Ready for War.)

I wasn't able to nail down exactly which sect setup camp at Westlake Center today, but here's a sample of their particular brand of crazy:

Black Hebrews 1
Black Hebrews 2
Black Hebrews 3
Black Hebrews 4
Black Hebrews 5
Black Hebrews 6

I found it interesting that these gentlemen had no problem spewing their vitriolic nonsense in public, but stated quite explicitly that I could not photograph their faces.