The Georgia Guidestones Bombing Six Months Later

Unsolved for a reason.

Georgia Guidestones in 2020. Photo by Judson McCraine.

Six months ago today, in the early morning hours of July 6, 2022, someone bombed the Georgia Guidestones. Later that day, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation deliberately destroyed what was left standing for 'safety reasons."

And just like that, the GBI made a problem go away. A problem for Georgia Republicans. A potential headache for the Biden Administration.

After all this time, nobody has been charged with the crime. No suspect has even been identified, even though authorities have video footage.

It's been six months, but web searches have revealed no updates in the investigation.

The reason there is no suspect is that nobody wants a suspect. Don't tell me the Elbert County sheriff, the GBI, FBI, or ATF don't have a clue about who it is. If they don't, it's because they haven't investigated.

And if they haven't investigated, it's because they were told not to.

By whom, you ask?

Senior Republican officeholders in Georgia effectively shut down the GBI investigation. 

Senior Democratic officeholders in Washington, DC. did the same to any FBI and ATF investigations. 

But why?

Because neither major political party wants the Guidestones to become an issue. A trial under state law would further fracture the Republican Party. A federal prosecution would help promote a narrative that the Biden Administration is pushing the New World Order down our throats. Conservatives have already praised the criminal who did it; if there's a trial they'd make him a martyr.

Although the Guidestones were intended to survive a nuclear war and serve as a guide to a post-apocalyptic world, it was misinterpreted by people on the Far Right as a plan by the global elites to systematically reduce the population to 500 million by methods such as sterilization through vaccinations.

A Republican Georgia gubernatorial candidate even pledged to demolish the Guidestones. Six weeks before they were bombed, John Oliver had fun with the subject in a web-exclusive Last Week Tonight segment.

What's ironic is that, although the Guidestones have been the target of conspiracy theorists from the American Right, the Guidestone author and financier was far more racist than Republicans deny that they are. The documentary Dark Clouds Over Elberton convincingly identifies him as a eugenics advocate and David Duke supporter named Herbert H. Kersten. (Any mainstream news source that claims that the Guidestones creator is a mystery has at best failed in its research.)

Of course, it doesn't matter who built the Guidestones or what they said. They were financed and built using the proper channels. No one had any more right to bomb them than they have a right to bomb your house.

So we are left with a crime deliberately unsolved. A mob would rather the guilty go free, and politicians are bending to their will.

But I do wonder…

If law enforcement lets someone get away with this crime, will they also look the other way if, for instance, a Church of Satan building is set ablaze? A mosque? Synagogue? A church serving immigrant communities or people of color? A gathering place for gender/sexual minorities? 

If government officials are frightened of a social media mob over the Guidestones, when will they not be frightened?

And if you are among the mob who rejoiced at the destruction of the Georgia Guidestones, be careful what you wish for.

Can you trust the government to give you justice when it won't give it to others?

James Leroy Wilson writes The MVP Chase (subscribe), JL Cells (subscribe), Daily Miracles (subscribe), and The Daily Bible Chapter (subscribe). Thanks for your subscriptions and support! You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.