Creativity (formerly known as The Church of the Creator and World Church of the Creator) is a pantheistic white separatist, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-Christian religion which has been classified as a Neo-Nazi hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was founded in Lighthouse Point, Florida by Ben Klassen as the Church of the Creator in 1973. The worldview of Creativity is based on the veneration of the white race and the supposed safeguarding of its survival, including waging "racial holy war" on Jews, "niggers" and non-white colored "mud races".
Creativity is promoted by two organizations: the Creativity Alliance (CA - also known as the Church of Creativity) and the Creativity Movement (TCM). The groups have common origins.
Video Creativity (religion)
Name
Adherents of Creativity are known as Creators. The church was originally founded as the Church of the Creator by Ben Klassen in 1973. Matthew F. Hale in 1996 formed a separate group known as the World Church of the Creator which largely supplanted the original Ben Klassen Church. The World Church of the Creator which - as of 2003 - has devolved into The Creativity Movement.
Rights to use the name "Church of the Creator" was lost by Hale in the United States to the Church of the Creator, an unaffiliated religious organization based in Ashland, Oregon, in a trademark-infringement case. Membership in the Creativity movement is restricted to persons whose genetic heritage is "wholly or predominantly" from Europe or members of the white race, regardless of where they reside. The term "Creator" does not refer to a supernatural being, but to adherents of Creativity and the White Race (which is credited with the creation of civilization).
Following the demise of the World Church of the Creator after Hale's arrest in 2003, there formed two distinct groups known as The Creativity Movement and the Creativity Alliance/Church of Creativity. The two groups are not known to interact with one another.
Maps Creativity (religion)
Beliefs
The movement reportedly exists for the "survival, expansion and advancement of the White Race exclusively." Creativity has sixteen race-based commandments and five fundamental beliefs which members regard as based on the "external laws of nature, the experience of history, on logic and common sense" These include the belief that "race is their religion", that the white race is "nature's finest", belief that race-loyalty is transcendent and that the "survival, expansion and advancement" of the white race on Earth is the "highest virtue". They believe that American culture is becoming "more decadent," as evidenced by "black crimes, the growing acceptance of homosexuality, interracial marriage, increasing drug use, and the lack of racial identity among white people". According to the Anti-Defamation League, members believe that Jewish people are working towards the enslavement of all races, and in particular the "mongrelization of the white race". Creators are encouraged to recite the "five fundamentals" daily. Creativity promotes a religious diet and health doctrine, 14 Points of Salubrious Living (a form of raw-food veganism), although it is not a religious requirement.
"What We Believe In" is stated in two extensive lists: Essence of a Creator and What a Creator is Not, which are core guidelines for general behavior and ideas to exemplify. What We Believe In is an extension of the Five Fundamental Beliefs of Creativity.
Ideals
Creators refer to Black people as "niggers" and they also refer to Creativity as a "natural religion", endeavor to convert other white people to Creativity and avoid social interaction with non-whites. During the early 2000s, they were encouraged to move to Central Illinois in order to establish a Creativity bastion.
Flaws
Creators are taught to hate their enemies and non-whites (according to Klassen, "Jews, niggers and mud races"), to avoid being gullible or superstitious, to shun "sexual deviation" (including homosexuality), miscegenation, whining or complaining, and social interaction with non-whites.
Heaven, hell and the supernatural
Creativity is a non-supernatural religion which rejects the supernatural while affirming a pantheist view of nature, asserting that "everything is in nature" and defining it as "the whole cosmos, the total universe, including its millions of natural laws through space and time." According to Klassen, "A Creator is not superstitious and disdains belief in the supernatural. He will waste no time giving credence to, or playing silly games with imaginary spooks, spirits, gods and demons." Creators do not believe in an afterlife; their only "immortality" is genetic and memorial. They believe that they should view life and death on Earth in a "rational, fearless manner," concentrating on life's positive aspects.
The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Creativity's ideology as neo-Nazi, According to Klassen, Creativity is not a rehash of Nazism and he listed eight differences between his political ideology and that of the Nazis. He adopted the phrase "racial socialism" to describe his political ideology. Klassen was critical of democracy and advocated meritocracy, believing that effective leaders should rule. Under racial socialism, "whites would work together toward common goals but without the massive economic planning in the style of the Soviet Gosplan." He supported a limited market economy, believing that social and economic activities should be in the best interests of white people. Klassen criticized "leftist proclivities" to recruit from the white working class: "All [white] members of the national or racial community ... had an important role to play."
Klassen urged Creators to "work feverishly and aggressively to organize politically, to distribute literature on behalf of the White Race, to promote and foster White solidarity, and to get control of the government and the political machinery of the state by legal means if possible. If this is not possible by legal means, then we must resort to the same means as our forefathers used two hundred years ago to defend their liberty, their property, their homes and their families."
Activism
Creativity advocates proselytism. Its goal is to place 10 million copies of two books, Nature's Eternal Religion and The White Man's Bible, into the hands of white people as part of its belief in "gird[ing] up for total war". It teaches the white genocide conspiracy theory regarding shifting perceived population demographics leading to miscegenation.
According to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, the Creativity Movement opposes illegal activity and violence, believing it to be counterproductive. The church's member handbook threatens expulsion from the church for members who commit crimes or encourage others to do so. Despite this, the church has been connected to multiple religiously and racially inspired violent crimes. Creators view the supposedly coming "racial holy war" (Rahowa) as a religious war of racial self-defense. The White Man's Bible calls for readers to, "use any means, legal or otherwise, available to us for our own survival," leading to the hunting down and eliminating of "tormentors".
Practices
Holidays
The religion has several holidays. Creators are encouraged to observe them, spending time with their families and friends of the religion:
- South Victory Day (January 26): Commemorates the initial British landings on the Australian continent in 1788
- Klassen Day (February 20): Anniversary of its founder's birth in 1918
- Founding Day (February 21): Anniversary of the publication of Nature's Eternal Religion in 1973
- Foundation Day, Rahowa Day (March 20): Anniversary of the foundation of the World Center in 1982 and a reminder of racial war
- Kozel Day, Martyr's Day (September 15): Commemorates Brian Kozel, who died on this date in 1992.
- Festum Album (December 26 - January 1): Week-long celebration of white racial pride, commemorating the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Ceremonies
Creativity has four sacraments: marriage, pledging for children, confirmation, and eulogizing the dead. All ceremonies are performed by church ministers. At a wedding, the bride and groom exchange vows before Nature. The pledging ceremony is ideally conducted a week after a child's birth, with both parents pledging to raise their child as a "loyal member of the White Race and faithful to the church." The confirmation ceremony may be performed on or after a child's 13th birthday.
Ministers
On a now-defunct website, Klassen stated that anyone could be an ordained minister in his church, provided they were "a legitimate White Man or Woman over the age of 16." Prospective ministers must demonstrate worthiness and pass written and oral examinations. The written exams consist of 150 questions (requiring a one-paragraph response to each) and an essay. Applicants are encouraged to request recommendations from three established ministers, and the final requirement is the signing of an oath.
Books
Creativity's founding text is Nature's Eternal Religion, which was written by Klassen in 1973. The book proposes that white people are the "supreme act of creation", and only white people are capable of divine creativity. The first book critiques Christianity, including the Christian Bible. Many biblical stories, including those of Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale and the resurrection of Jesus, are considered historically unlikely. The historicity of Jesus is also questioned, with Klassen saying that he can find no independent evidence of his existence. According to Creativity, Christianity is a violent religion which has killed 1,000 fellow Christians for every Christian killed by the Romans. Adherents do not believe in the existence of Jesus, rejecting Christian teachings as a "suicidal poison" that was created by Jews and foisted on the white race. They reject the exhortation to love one's enemies, believing that enemies should be hated. Creators also reject the Golden Rule, saying that it does not make "good sense" and at a "closer look" it is a "completely unworkable principle."
Klassen published other books on his white supremacist philosophy, including The White Man's Bible, which called for violence against any perceived threats to white people.
History
Creativity was formed in 1973, when Klassen self-published Nature's Eternal Religion. He attempted to recruit neo-Nazis into the church because, apart from disagreements over religion, there was no fundamental conflict between church doctrine and National Socialism. Klassen developed a rapport with National Alliance leader William Luther Pierce; he met Pierce twice in 1975, and they maintained an "on and off" relationship for the next 18 years. According to Klassen, he "never did understand the logic of what [Pierce] called his Cosmotheism religion ... it has not been of any significance as far as our common goal of promoting White racial solidarity was concerned." In Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs, Klassen called Pierce "a great man and an outstanding intellectual thinker, and ... one of us."
In 1982, Klassen established a Creativity headquarters in Otto, North Carolina. Although his family expected resistance from local residents, Klassen wrote: "We were not quite prepared for the viciousness of the onslaught by the local paper." Opposition grew, and a May 13, 1982 Franklin Press headline read: "Pro-Hitler, anti-Christ Leader Headquarters Here".
Figures
Gaede family
April Harrington (Gaede), mother of Lynx and Lamb Lingelser (Gaede) of the band Prussian Blue, was a longtime supporter of Creativity and a member of the World Church of the Creator naming her third daughter Dresden Hale after its leader Matthew F. Hale before joining the National Alliance and then the splinter National Vanguard Prussian Blue's song "Stand Up," written for David Lane (author of the Fourteen Words), was part of the unreleased Free Matt Hale CD intended to support the incarcerated Hale. Lamb and Lynx Gaede have denounced the movement, saying that they never chose it and were controlled by their mother.
Craig Cobb
Cobb, who operated the video-sharing website Podblanc, has attempted to take over small towns in the Midwestern United States. He tried to establish an enclave in North Dakota and rename it "Trump Creativity" or "Creativity Trump" for Donald Trump. A church building purchased by Cobb to establish an enclave was "burned to the ground" in Nome, North Dakota.
George Burdi
Also known as George Eric Hawthorne, Burdi was lead singer of the Canadian metal band Rahowa, leader of the Toronto branch of the Church of the Creator, and founder of Resistance Records. He was convicted of assault, and renounced racism after serving time in prison. Burdi has been credited with a role in Creativity's survival after the death of Ben Klassen.
Matthew F. Hale
Several years after Klassen's 1993 death, white supremacist Matthew Hale founded the New Church of the Creator (later the World Church of the Creator). Hale made national news when he was denied admission to the Illinois State Bar three times due to his racist beliefs. On November 12, 1999 the Illinois Supreme Court refused to further consider the denial of Hale's law license, continuing "a decision by its Committee on Character and Fitness that said Hale lacked the moral character to practice law." According to Hale, the committee's denial of his law license may have provoked Benjamin Nathaniel Smith's drive-by shootings.
On January 9, 2003, Hale was arrested and charged with attempting to direct security chief Anthony Evola to murder judge Joan Lefkow. Hale was found guilty of four of five counts (one count of solicitation of murder and three counts of obstruction of justice) on April 26, 2004; in April 2005, he was sentenced to 40 years in a Federal penitentiary.
Johannes Grobbelaar and Jurgen White
Johannes Grobbelaar and Jurgen White, Afrikaner Creators and members of the National Socialist Partisans (the paramilitary branch of the Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging), were killed in a November 1991 gun battle with South African police near Upington while attempting to smuggle weapons and explosives into a survivalist compound in Namibia. They were stopped by police, who were suspicious that their vehicle had been stolen. According to the report, while being escorted to a nearby police station they detonated a smoke bomb and attempted to escape. Police discovered their abandoned vehicle five miles away; Grobbelaar and White ambushed them. Two officers were shot, one fatally.
Ron McVan
Ron McVan, co-founder of the Wotansvolk neo-völkisch pagan group, was once affiliated with the Church of the Creator for two years as its second-in-command; McVan contributed articles and artwork to its periodical, Racial Loyalty, and was a martial-arts instructor for the church. Although Klassen and McVan shared anti-Christian beliefs, McVan sought a more spiritual approach and felt that Creativity needed spirituality. He moved to the Pacific Northwest and founded Wotan's Kindred in Portland, Oregon in 1992, saying that the group was rooted in the "genetic character and collective identity" of the white race.
McVan's associate and co-founder of Wotansvolk David Lane drew inspiration from Creativity, particularly ideas of a "racial religion", but didn't agree with Creativity's "atheistic" stance and considered himself deist.
William Christopher Gibbs
William Christopher Gibbs, a Church of Creativity adherent in Georgia and part of the Creativity Alliance, was arrested for possession of the chemical ricin. Gibbs went to a hospital after he accidentally got the ricin on his hands while experimenting with it.
Legal problems and reorganization
In 1992, faced with financial and legal problems (including a civil lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center) and the death of his wife, the aging Klassen looked for a successor. Although Rudolph G. ("Butch") Stanko was favored for the position, he was imprisoned at the time. Klassen selected Charles Edward Altvater, but replaced him before he could assume leadership (possibly due to recurrent criminal charges; he was later convicted of attempted murder and other crimes). Klassen then chose Milwaukee neo-Nazi Mark Wilson, who ran the church from July 1992 to January 1993. Klassen abruptly replaced Wilson with Richard McCarty, working to establish McCarty in the Creativity community, before selling most of the church's property to the National Alliance's William Luther Pierce for $100,000. Pierce quickly sold the property to an unaffiliated third party for $185,000.
Shortly before and during McCarty's leadership, Creativity was plagued with legal problems; members were arrested for conspiracy, unlawful firearms possession and their association with the July 1993 firebombing of an NAACP building in Tacoma, Washington. McCarty struggled to keep the group unified. The lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), seeking damages related to the May 1991 murder of Harold Mansfield, Jr. by Creator George Loeb, finally led to a March 1994 court ruling which fined the Church of the Creator $1,000,000. The court also ruled that Klassen's property sale to Pierce shortly before his suicide was collusion to deny payment to Mansfield's family, ordering Pierce to return his $85,000 profit from the resale of the property. With the church unable to pay the outstanding balance, the SPLC sued for its dissolution to settle the remaining damages and McCarty readily agreed.
Creativity Movement
Matthew F. Hale founded the New Church of the Creator in 1996 - later renamed the World Church of the Creator. Hale's World Church of the Creator was a new and separate group rather than a direct successor to Ben Klassen's Church of the Creator. Until his arrest in 2003, Hale was the only Pontifex Maximus of the now defunct World Church of the Creator. The current group known as The Creativity Movement is a white power skinhead oriented direct successor to Hale's World Church of the Creator.
Headquartered in Zion, Illinois, with a heavy concentration of Creators in Montana, and 24 regional branches, it also claims to have local branches and members "all over the world."
In 2000 the Oregon-based TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation filed a lawsuit against the World Church of the Creator for using the name "Church of the Creator", since the Oregon group had trademarked and registered the name in 1982. U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow ruled for the World Church of the Creator. In December 2002, the World Church of the Creator was fined $1,000 for each day it continued using the old name. Further appeals were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003. Hale was charged with contempt of court and soliciting the murder of judge Joan Lefkow, and sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment on April 6, 2005. Bill White was convicted of threatening a juror in the Matthew Hale case and sentenced to 42 months in prison.
In early 2017, a group referring to itself as the "Guardians of the Faith Committee" of the Creativity Movement elected James Costello of England as its "Pontifex Maximus".
Creativity Alliance
According to a Southern Poverty Law Center report, in 2015 the Creativity Alliance had groups in Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Vermont. Members of the Creativity Alliance do not associate with Creativity Movement members. Unlike other white-supremacist groups, the Creativity Alliance claims a policy of "non-participation in the White Power social scene." The group is currently led by former World Church of the Creator member Cailen Cambeul, formerly known as Colin Campbell. Cambeul's title is Church Administrator and refers to his chapter of the group as the Church of Creativity South Australia. The current Pontifex Maximus of Creativity Alliance is Joseph Esposito (Church of Creativity Oregon). The Creativity Alliance was for a short period known as the White Crusaders of the Rahowa (WCOTR), which was founded by former World Church of the Creator Members after Hale's arrest in 2003.
Creativity Alliance members include former Klassen supporters George Loeb and Joseph Esposito, each serving extended prison sentences in Florida. The Alliance has distanced itself from Hale, and no longer actively supports him.
Randolph Dilloway, former Hasta Primus (Secretary or 2nd in Command) of the Creativity Alliance and founder of the defunct Smoky Mountains Church of Creativity, was an accountant for the revived National Alliance (an unaffiliated Neo-Nazi group formerly led by William Luther Pierce author of the Turner Diaries) and assessed financial damage under past leadership. Claiming to fear for his life after discovering (and discussing) the errors, Dilloway contacted police and the SPLC and furnished documents alleging fraud and embezzlement by organization members.
Creativity Alliance members are known to regularly distribute flyers; particularly Australia, and New Zealand. and in 2015 it distributed flyers in Inverbervie (Scotland) and Liverpool. A reverend speaking on behalf of the Church of Creativity Britain said in a letter to the editor that the leaflets were legal and called for racial separation, not supremacy. The South Australian Attorney-General and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs have made a number of attempts to close the website of the South Australian representative and Pontifex Maximus of the Creativity Alliance and outlaw the organization. Cailen Cambeul filed a complaint with the Australian Press Council that describing the Creativity Alliance as a white-supremacist organization (rather than a religion) and characterizing its members as "a few loners looking for something to do with all their hate" was unfair. His complaint was dismissed on the basis that the journalist's assessment was not a news article but an opinion piece. Creativity Alliance web pages and published books stress that they make no attempt to assume or supersede the registered trademark "Church of the Creator", owned by the TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation. In 2017 they were found to be responsible for the distribution of flyers throughout Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Creativity Alliance has been in existence since 2003 and so far two members have been arrested: William Chistopher Gibbs of the Church of Creativity Georgia (whom the Department of Justice assumes was attempting to make ricin poison) and Hardy Lloyd of the Church of Creativity Pennsylvania (arrested for alleged anti-Semitic activities by distributing flyers that said WHITE PEOPLE ROCK).
Other legal cases
Creativity was recognized as a religion by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Peterson v. Wilmur Communications (205 F.Supp.2d 1014) (2002). The American Civil Liberties Union intervened on behalf of the World Church of the Creator.
California federal judge Maxine M. Chesney ruled against an imprisoned Creator who brought a suit against Pelican Bay State Prison based on an alleged violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in Conner v. Tilton, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111892 (ND CA, Dec. 2, 2009), in which Creativity and several other organizations and belief systems (including MOVE, veganism and the Church of Marijuana) were declared to not constitute "religions" but moral or secular philosophies under the definition of religion based on addressing of "fundamental and ultimate questions having to do with deep and imponderable matters" as part of a three-point test for determining religion developed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The court concluded that the plaintiff had failed to raise a genuine issue about whether Creativity is a religion; it found that to the extent Creativity deals with a "fundamental concern", the concern is with secular matters and not with what the court considered to be religious principles. Creativity is not "comprehensive" in nature because it was presented as confined to one question (or moral teaching), and that the structural characteristics of Creativity "do not serve to transform what are otherwise secular teachings and ideals into a religious ideology." In Hale v. Federal Bureau of Prisons (2015), the court found that Creativity may qualify as a religion under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (with potential tax exemption by the IRS) and may be practiced in prison.
Leafletting campaigns
In March 2015, leaflets were posted on doors in southern Liverpool in the United Kingdom saying: "The white race is nature's finest". Cailen Cambeul out of Australia, Creativity minister and then Pontifex Maximus for the Creativity Alliance said that he was responsible for their distribution. Complaints were made to the police by local councilors. Sarah Jennings of the local Green Party denounced Creativity as a "fringe group of blatant racists". According to Cambeul, "Any politician claiming disgust at our flyers and seeking to make political gains via our 100-percent-legal message is partaking in an opportunistic abuse of power at the expense of innocent people exercising their rights to speak out against the injustices of a politically correct world."
In the United States, northwest Montana and in particular the Flathead Valley, part-time home of Alt-Right leader Richard B. Spencer has seen a "flurry of racist fliers" promoting the Creativity movement. The Southern Poverty Law Center listed Creativity Alliance presence in the state in 2015.
See also
- Christian Identity
- Naturalistic pantheism
- Nontheistic religion
- Rahowa (band)
- Religious naturalism
- Wotansvolk
References
External links
- Creativity Movement official website
- Creativity Alliance official website
- Nature's Eternal Religion by Ben Klassen, 1973.
- Portfolio One - First 20 issues of the religion's flagship magazine racial loyalty.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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