Straitway Truth Ministry applauds Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila; leader embraces 'cult' label

A former Green Bay Packer accused of sending two armed men to his children's Christmas pageant in Wisconsin is connected to a Hebrew Israelite ministry in Tennessee.

Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, a Packers Hall of Fame inductee with an exceptional sack record, leads Straitway Praiseland in Green Bay. It is an affiliate of Straitway Truth Ministry, which is located more than 50 miles northeast of Nashville.

The unusual Wisconsin case has thrust the religious group into the spotlight.

Its top leader, Pastor Charles Dowell, has come to the defense of the former NFL player and celebrated the two men, both members of Straitway Praiseland, for supporting Gbaja-Biamila.

"Proud of you," Dowell said in a Jan. 7 video. He repeated himself, shouting this time as he leaned toward the camera. "Proud of you."

"I told you brother, Kabeer. We're not like the rest of these other people, like your wicked sorry family and everybody else want to get mute when the pressure's on," Dowell said. "Straitway is with you to the end or the bitter end or the glorious end."

What happened at the Christmas pageant in Wisconsin?

Gbaja-Biamila, who shares custody of his children with his ex-wife, does not believe in celebrating Christmas and did not want his kids to participate in their private school's holiday event.

The former NFL player said he needed proof of his children's participation in the pageant in order to send a bill to the school for using them. So he directed Jordan Salmi, 24, and Ryan Desmith, 22, to take photos of the Dec. 17 performance held at a Green Bay church.

More: Former Packer Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila discusses his side of Christmas pageant incident

More: Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila's 'brothers' in Christmas pageant case walk out of court without cooperating

The two men now are facing criminal charges, accused of carrying concealed handguns and 34 rounds of ammunition into the pageant and refusing to leave. Gbaja-Biamila also showed up but was not arrested. All three men were ordered not to come within 100 feet of the school, its headmaster or future school events for the next four years.

This is now a legal matter, but it is also a religious one.

Straitway Truth Ministry describes itself as a nation of Hebrew Israelites who are obedient to Yah, a Hebrew term for God, and follow Jesus.

Hebrew Israelism is a belief that people primarily of African descent, specifically those whose ancestors were slaves, are descendants of the Israelites from the Bible.

What does Straitway believe and practice?

Dowell did not respond to The Tennessean's requests for comment, but he details the beliefs and viewpoints espoused by his ministry in a prolific collection of online videos and newsletters.

Among those discussed include rejecting the Sabbath as a Sunday and not celebrating Christmas and Easter because of the holidays' pagan roots. The ministry also agrees men can have more than one wife, the Earth is not a sphere and in general appears to set themselves apart from the the broader society.

"It's this very tightly boundaried religious group with a belief that not only are they right in their reading of the Bible, very literally, 'We can live like Old Testament people, but that the rest of the culture is out to prevent us from doing it and therefore the secular culture is ungodly,'" said James Hudnut-Beumler, a professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University.

In the videos, Dowell often discusses current events and delivers his positions with a plainspoken frankness while sitting in a moving vehicle, walking around Straitway's property or sitting behind a desk with guns and Hebrew texts in the background.

He regularly appears casually dressed in these videos, wearing ball caps and T-shirts branded with the ministry logo with its two crossed swords and a shield.

How large is the ministry?

It is not clear how many members Straitway has, but the ministry has a strong online presence with more than 140,000 subscribers to Dowell's YouTube channel alone.

It is also not clear exactly where Straitway is located in Tennessee. The address listed on its website is for a post office box in Lafayette, Tennessee, and the woman who answered the ministry's phone would not share their address.

Property records show a Charles Dowell Jr. owns several acres of land about a dozen miles northeast of the city. A person with the same name was also listed as the registered agent for a now-administratively dissolved Church of Jesus Christ, House of Prayer in the area, according to a business filing with the Tennessee Secretary of State.

Police in Wisconsin described their group as a cult. Gbaja-Biamila did not refute that characterization in an interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, but said their lives revolve around Jesus and went on to call Green Bay Packer fans a cult as well.

It is not the first time the label has been used to describe Straitway or those associated with the ministry. Dowell responded to an accusation in a 2017 video by challenging other religious leaders to a debate in order to find out who is really in a cult.

"I actually embrace the term 'cult leader' because the word 'cult' comes from the word 'culture.' You got that right. I am a culture leader. You better believe it," Dowell said in a video shot from inside a moving vehicle. "I know the intent the ignorant folks of what they are trying to use it for, but that's neither here nor say."

In 2018, Dowell did debate the headmaster involved in the Green Bay case. School leader Ron Jung is an elder of a Presbyterian Church in America congregation in Green Bay. The two men came together in Wisconsin to debate Christmas and Easter from their respective Hebrew Israelite and Christian viewpoints.

What is a Hebrew Israelite?

Hebrew Israelism is an umbrella term.

"Although many Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly anti-white nor antisemitic and do not advocate violence, there is a rising extremist sector within the movement," the Southern Poverty Law Center states.

Nationally, the Black Hebrew Israelite label has been attached to recent cases of extremism, but Dowell specifically rejected in a Dec. 19 Facebook post that Straitway has any affiliation with Black Hebrew Israelites.

Straitway has white members, including the two men arrested at the Christmas pageant in Wisconsin. Gbaja-Biamila explained to the Green Bay Press-Gazette that anyone who embraces Straitway's belief system is an Israelite.

One expert on Hebrew Israelism, who professionally goes by the name Vocab Malone, said he has engaged with some of Straitways members and its messages. Malone wrote a primer on Hebrew Israelism called "Barack Obama vs The Black Hebrew Israelites."

"They're not going to go out and hurt anybody. They're not about that. They're not going to stand on a street corner. They're not going to harass people," Malone said. "They're about an independent, self-sustaining community that is ready for the end times."

But he did point out Straitway's emphasis on guns and hypermasculinity.

"I would not want to be the law enforcement agency that decides to go in there if a law enforcement agency ever does decide to roll up on them because they do weapons training. They do what they call self-defense training," Malone said.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette contributed to this report.

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.