Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (1992)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 YMCA of the Rockies, the venue of the Rendezvous | |
| Date | October 23–25, 1992 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Estes Park YMCA |
| Location | Estes Park, Colorado |
| Also known as | "Special Gathering of Christian Men" |
| Theme | American militia movement, Patriot movement, Radical right politics |
| Cause | Killing of Vicki and Samuel Weaver (Ruby Ridge) |
| Organised by | Pete Peters, Scriptures for America Ministries |
| Participants | 150–175 |
| Outcome | Transition of American right-wing terrorism to leaderless resistance |
The Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was an October 1992 meeting in Estes Park, Colorado of 150 to 175 adherents and leaders of the American militia movement, Patriot movement and the radical right that developed the modern strategy for right-wing terrorism in the United States.[1][2] The Rendezvous was organized by Christian Identity Pastor Pete Peters in response to the Ruby Ridge standoff two months prior.[3][4][5] Concerns included that the United States federal government was a police state engaged in systematic over taxation, wrongful imprisonment and murder of its citizens, described by the meeting as "genocide."[6][7][8][9]
The meeting was critical in influencing the young American militia movement and sparking the transition in radical right and white supremacist violence in the United States towards leaderless resistance.[10][11][12]
Peters described the meeting as a gathering of "Christian men." Attendees to the rendezvous hailed from numerous, even conflicting, far-right ideologies. Groups represented included Christian Identity, the American Coalition of Unregistered Churches, sovereign citizens, tax protestors, neo-Confederates, Posse Comitatus, the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations and National Alliance, and the Ku Klux Klan.[2][13] Some attendees identified themselves as "100 percent bigot."[11]
Peters himself was a prolific anti-Semite, white supremacist, and homophobe, whose activism once sought to defeat lesbian and gay civil rights protections in nearby Fort Collins, Colorado. Other noteworthy participants included Richard G. Butler, founder of Aryan Nations, and Louis Beam, an Aryan Nations spokesman and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon.[10]