Joseph Alan Johnston Campbell (7 August 1949 – 11 June 2017) was a Northern Irish Pentecostal pastor and Orangeman from Belfast. He founded and served as pastor and director of the Restored Open Bible Ministries in Northern Ireland. He was an author on Bible studies, a lecturer in the British Israelism movement and an advocate of white supremacy. Strongly opposed to Catholicism, Campbell published anti-Catholic literature and argued that the white Celto Anglo Saxon peoples of the world represent the lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was known in Historicist circles due to his denial of the Westminster Confession of Faith, while Fundamentalist Protestants rejected his teachings as not being biblical.
Although not a leading figure, Campbell was unapologetically loyalist and racist in his views. He was connected to activities by loyalists, including terrorism, from the early days of the Troubles. Although not named, Campbell was often referred to as "The Pastor". He had a strong association with prominent paedophiles John McKeague and William McGrath. Later he was friends with convicted loyalist paramilitaries Clifford Peeples, in particular, and Kenny McClinton. These four associates of Campbell's have been named as British agents. Loyalist politician and UVF member George Seawright was also a close friend. With Peeples and McClinton, Campbell worked to undermine the fledgling Northern Ireland peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement and power-sharing in Northern Ireland by smearing the political representatives of the loyalist paramilitaries, namely the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and Ulster Democratic Party (UDP). Campbell was instrumental in Billy Wright establishing the LVF, after his expulsion from the UVF for breaking the loyalist ceasefire. Former loyalist Roy Garland considered Campbell an expert in stirring up trouble via letter-writing and making bogus phone calls.
In his early 20s, Campbell sexually assaulted a boy and was put on trial before being acquitted in suspicious circumstances. Three years later he became the chief suspect in the paedophile murder of Belfast boy Brian McDermott in September 1973 but left Belfast very soon afterwards to start a degree course in London. One journalist has stated: "It’s important the public know the full story about this evil man", while a book refers to Campbell as a "child rapist".
Early life Joseph Alan Johnston CampbellAnthony Hart, 'Report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry'. HIA Inquiry, 30 June 2017 (KIN-20031 and KIN-20032) was born in on 7 August 1949 to parents Joseph (a stevedore) and MayAllan Preston, '40 mourners pay their last respects at funeral of controversial loyalist pastor'. Belfast Telegraph, 17 June 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2023'Loyalist pastor Alan Campbell condemned for racist and sectarian views dies at 67', Belfast Telegraph, 15 June 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2023 into a staunchly Presbyterian, well-to-do home in Wheatfield Crescent off the upper Crumlin Road, a Protestant district of North Belfast where Roman Catholic families also lived. He spent much of his life in the north of the city. His grandmother was a firm adherent of the doctrine of British Israelism, and thus he was exposed to this teaching from an early age. Despite his upbringing, he did not convert to Christianity until 19 September 1965, in the Ravenhill Free Presbyterian Church, after listening to a sermon by Rev. Ian Paisley. He had first listened to Paisley in the latter's tiny gospel hall some years before. In the early 1970s, Campbell disavowed his affiliation to the Free Presbyterian faith for what he considered Paisley's weak opposition to Irish nationalism.
Because of his "Kingdom Identity" views (which hold that Israel, not the church, is the bride of Christ, in contradiction to the teachings of the Westminster Confession of Faith) and his acceptance of Pentecostal beliefs, Campbell left the Free Presbyterian Church and no longer promoted Paisley.
He left Belfast in September 1973 to study History at the University of London, where he graduated with a 2.2 degree in 1976. He subsequently received a certificate in Biblical Studies from Queen's University Belfast.
Although Campbell denied to fellow loyalist Roy Garland that he was homosexual,HIA Inquiry (KIN-20008) he claimed in a police interview that he was a celibate homosexual.HIA Inquiry (KIN-20023) Former unionist councillor John Carson had heard rumours about Campbell's homosexuality. Campbell's name came up in statements made by others about alleged unwanted homosexual advances towards young boys.HIA Inquiry (KIN-20038) In the late 1960s, he took a girlfriend as cover for his homosexuality. She later admitted that the relationship had never gone anywhere.HIA Inquiry (KIN-20161)
Religious and racial beliefs Preaching and Ulster Campbell began preaching in May 1974 and delivered his first sermon on Bible prophecy on 24 September 1978. He was officially ordained to the ministry by Dr Francis Thomas on 18 July 1988. He was the author of a number of Bible study books and lectured throughout the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia.
His ministry centred in Ulster and many of his messages dealt with the political situation there. Amongst his best-known publications was Five Things Every Ulster Protestant Needs To Know, published by Open-Bible Ministries in 1997. In 1989, when he led Covenant People's Fellowship, Campbell opined that the people of Ulster possessed their own identity "separate from the so-called Irish identity that everybody's trying to foist upon us against our will", but that identity and heredity had become neither Irish nor English.Anthony D. Buckley (1989). "'We’re trying to find our identity": uses of history among Ulster Protestants'. In Elizabeth Tonkin, Maryon McDonald and Malcolm Chapman (ed.), History and Ethnicity, ASA Monographs 27 (London, Routledge), 183-191 Campbell also had contact with the Christian Assemblies International.
Lost tribes of Israel Campbell, a "British Israelite", believed that the people of Ulster form part of the lost tribes of Israel taken into exile by the Assyrians. Further, his sermons on this subject taught his listeners that the Protestant people of Ulster and the white race in South Africa represent Israel's lost tribes. He argued that the hand of the Lord had seen a Calvinist race, descended from the people of Israel, settle in each place well over 500 years previously and form an ethnic nation. God's plan, he contended, is that each race has a special duty to convert non-believers and remain immovable in defence of the truth of the gospel.'"Bigot" teacher peddles racism'. Sunday Life, 25 February 2001.Alan Campbell B.A., 'British-Israel, Fact or Fiction?' Orange Street Congregational Church, undated. Retrieved 31 October 2023
Campbell, an outspoken Ulster-Israelite,J.T. Searle (2014). The Scarlet Woman and the Red Hand: Evangelical Apocalyptic Belief in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Cambridge, Lutterworth Press), p. 69 preached about the movement of lost tribes of Israel through Western Europe.‘THE REMNANT OF JUDAH REVEALED IN GERMANY – (1)’. The Ensign Message, undated. Retrieved 26 October 2023 He considered himself amongst the third-generation of followers of the British-Israeli cause he espoused. In 1988, he observed that Ulster people had felt pressurised into feeling shame for their patriotic and loyalist views. British-Israelism, by contrast, rejects such teaching: "Britain is part of God's vineyard, Ulster is our own Promised Land, peopled by the very seed of Israel planted here as a light in darkest Ireland, and we must occupy until Jesus comes".Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, 'Loyalism and British Israelism'. History Ireland, vol. 27, issue 6 (November/December 2019). Retrieved 26 October 2023
He was also a prominent figure in the Association of Covenant People, which teaches that Anglo-Celto-Saxon peoples can trace their lineage back to the Twelve Tribes of Israel.'Search results for: Alan Campbell'. The Association of the Covenant People, 26 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023 Reformed Evangelical Protestants decried Campbell's views on British Israel as being contrary to scripture.Ron Johnstone, '"British Israelism" examined and its errors exposed'. The Burning Bush, June–November 2000. Retrieved 30 December 2023
In the late 1990s, the British Israel movement forbade Campbell from addressing any of its gatherings.'Leader of "despised outcasts"'. Sunday Life, 25 February 2001.
Anti-Catholicism Campbell held fiercely anti-Catholic views and mentored "anti-Catholic sectarian bigot" Clifford Peoples.Henry McDonald, 'In defence of bigotry'. The Guardian, 12 June 2005. Retrieved 25 September 2023 Campbell once referred to Catholics as worshipping a "wafer God" and used his website to disseminate such sentiments; he also authored a number of anti-Catholic pamphlets, including Rome Watch. Campbell once linked a protest to the ancient conflict between Protestant beliefs and the Beast of Rome.J.D. Brewer and G.I. Higgins (1998). 'Northern Ireland: 1921-1998'. Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600-1998. The Mote and the Beam (Basingstoke, Macmillian Press, chapter 3) Critics of Campbell noted that he fomented opposition to Catholics.Tony Allen, 'Flag Preacher's Racist Sickener. The Union Flag Protests'. Sunday Life, 20 January 2013 In August 2002, a unionist Catholic journalist noted that Campbell had referred to him as "that Romanist who writes for the Belfast Telegraph".'Need not be a case of mistaken identity'. Belfast Telegraph, 26 August 2002. Retrieved 11 October 2023
Campbell's website also recounted tales of Catholic clergy in various countries making the news for involvement in crimes of a sexual nature. The Church of Rome, he argued, was carrying out a jihad against the Protestant religion. He directed his ire towards Tony Blair on account of the Prime Minister's spouse being a Catholic.'Teacher's Jail Visits to Terrorist Peebles'. Sunday Mirror, 11 February 2001 One commentator observed that Campbell had failed to draw attention to activities of that nature undertaken by the likes of McGrath or McKeague.Stephen Gordon, 'Website of hate'. Belfast Telegraph, 3 September 200. Retrieved 26 October 2023
A flavour of Campbell's views can be seen in a sermon delivered in October 1985 at the Cregagh Pentecostal Fellowship in which he attacked all major tenets of the Catholic faith.'Proud to be a Protestant. By the late Pastor Alan Campbell'. The Ensign Message, undated. Retrieved 26 October 2023 In Campbell's opinion, there is no single Antichrist but, instead, it is seen in the entire succession of Bishops of Rome.Searle, The Scarlet Woman, pp. 71, 94, 103, 142, 194 In the struggle against the Antichrist, the soul of Ulster would be a key battleground.Alan Campbell (1992). For God and Ulster: The 90th Anniversary of the Ulster Covenant (Belfast, Open-Bible Ministries), p. 25
Campbell likened the Harryville church protest to the historical struggle between the true believers of God's word and the idolatry of Catholicism. This was "a battle to the finish" to deny popery a devastating victory over Protestantism.John D. Brewer (2003), "Contesting Ulster", in Robin, R. and Strath, B. (ed.), Homelands: Poetic Power and the Politics of Space (Brussels, Peter Lang), pp. 283–304. Open Bible Ministries, led by "notorious anti-Catholic figure Campbell", was Ulster's primary British Israeli movement. Its theological and political focus was stridently Protestant and anti-Catholic in nature.
White supremacy and racism