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The Creativity Movement was a term originally coined by Ben Klassen as a descriptive phrase encompassing all adherents of the religion known as Creativity, whether they held membership in the church or not.
The current group calling itself The Creativity Movement (formerly (World) Church of the Creator) is an often violent United States-based white separatist organization that advocates the whites-only religion, Creativity. The movement's use of the term creator does not refer to a deity, but rather to themselves (white people and/or Europeans). Despite the former use of the word Church in its name, the movement is atheistic.
History
The Creativity Movement was founded by Ben Klassen in early 1973 under the name Church of the Creator. The group was later led by Matthew F. Hale as its Pontifex Maximus (high priest), until his incarceration in January 2003 for plotting with the movement's head of security, Anthony Evola (an FBI informant), to murder a federal judge.
In 1996, it became the New Church of the Creator which was quickly changed to the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC). Hale prefixed the name with World in 1996 in an effort to symbolize the organization's global mission of attaining a white world without Jews and non-whites. The group is not related to the TE-TA-MA "Truth" Foundation's Church of the Creator, which legally trademarked the name Church of the Creator and won a lawsuit in 2002, forcing the most recent name change. Since its start, the Creativity Movement's members have been charged and convicted in over 17 acts of racial violence, including murder.
In 1991, Harold Mansfield Jr., an African-American and decorated veteran of the Gulf War, was killed in a parking lot in Neptune Beach, Florida by George Loeb, a Church of the Creator reverend. George Loeb was convicted of first-degree murder on July 29, 1992, and received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. His wife Barbara Loeb was sentenced to one year in jail on weapons possession charges. The organization has repeatedly argued that Loeb was acting in self-defense when he committed the act.
Subsequently, the murder victim's family successfully sued the organization, winning an award of $1 million in damages in March 1994. Before the judgement was handed down, Klassen sold the organization's North Carolina compound, which housed its headquarters to Doctor William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, to avoid money being paid to Mansfield's heirs. The SPLC filed suit against Pierce for his role in the fraudulent scheme, and won an $85,000 judgment in 1995. The amount was upheld on appeal and the money was collected prior to Pierce's death in 2002. Klassen then chose former telemarketer Richard McCarty as his successor, who moved the organization to Niceville, Florida. Soon after appointing McCarty in the summer of 1993, Klassen committed suicide. Hale became leader of the group in 1996.
During the weekend of July 4, 1999, group member and fellow law student Benjamin Nathaniel Smith went on a shooting spree because Matthew F. Hale was denied a law license. Smith is viewed as a martyr by Creators.
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, which the Oregon group had registered as a trademark. Early in 2002 U.S. District Court Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow ruled in favor of the World Church of the Creator. However, this decision was appealed by TE-TA-MA, and in November 2002, in a reversal of the previous ruling, a panel of three judges in the appeals court overturned the previous decision. District Judge Lefkow then enforced the appeals court injunction in favor of TE-TA-MA; barring the use of the name by Hale's organization. In December 2002, the World Church of the Creator announced it was moving its headquarters to Riverton, Wyoming, in what the Anti-Defamation League claimed was an effort to avoid the court injunction barring use of the name.
On January 9, 2003 Hale was arrested and charged with attempting to direct his security chief Anthony Evola to murder Judge Lefkow. Hale was found guilty of four of the five counts (one count of solicitation of murder and three counts of obstruction of justice) on April 26, 2004 and in April 2005 was sentenced to 40 years in a Federal penitentiary.
On July 22, 2002, two followers of the organization were found guilty in federal court of plotting to blow up Jewish and black landmarks around Boston, in what prosecutors said was a scheme to spark a "racial holy war." A federal jury deliberated seven hours over two days before convicting Leo Felton (the 31-year-old mixed-race son of civil rights activists) and his 22-year-old girlfriend, Erica Chase.
In August 2004, Reverend Hardy Lloyd, friend and colleague of Reverend Hale, killed a former associate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was attempting to murder him and his wife The act was ruled a case of self-defense by a jury on November 3, 2006. Lloyd founded and was elected as Pontifex Maximus for the Church of Creativity, which was based in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 2003. He disbanded the COC in September 2007, and created the "New Dawn", a multi-racial Fascist think-tank. Lloyd now spends his time promoting Fascism throughout the world.
Salubrious Living
While not a mandatory part of church doctrine, Salubrious living is greatly encouraged within the Church. The basic doctrine is laid down by Ben Klassen and Arnold DeVries in the book "Salubrious Living". The program emphasis the following areas or "basic points"
1. We believe in living in accord with our human biological heritage and in harmony with the Laws of Nature.
2. This means eating fresh wholesome food in its natural state as Nature has given it to us. It must be uncooked, unprocessed, unpreserved and not tampered with in any other way. This further means it must be organically grown, without the use of
chemicals.
3. Availing us of a clean, wholesome environment; fresh, unpolluted air; clean water; and the beneficial therapy from the direct
rays of the sun, every day.
4. Some form of strenuous physical exercise several times a week.
5. Rest and relaxation, both mental and physical, including sound and efficient sleep.
6. A form of recreation that is gratifying to our sense of accomplishment.
7. A sense of purpose, security and confidence to fuel our goals for accomplishment and living the good life. We must have
goals and we must be motivated.
8. Deliberate self-mastery of our lives and our work.
9. Gregarious living within the framework of our CREATIVE religion, our White society and social intercourse with our White
Racial Comrades. We are social animals.
10. Healthy expression of our sexual instincts.
11. Living in a pleasing and healthful environment.
12. We do not believe in the use of any "medicines.” drugs or chemicals as having any healing or therapeutic value. In fact, all medicines, drugs, narcotics, and chemicals are poisonous and toxic to the human body. Furthermore, and for the same reason, we do not believe in the use of vitamin, mineral, or enzyme supplements, or the use of artificial food coloring, preservatives, nor
refined or fragmented foods.
13. We strongly believe in THE PRACTICE OF FASTING as the best means of ridding he body of accumulated poisons and
toxins. We are convinced that fasting is the most natural and effective means the body has of overcoming all forms of disease, and restoring itself back to health.
14. Living in, and promoting a eugenic White society. This means that we take particular care in not only assuring the perpetuation of our precious White Race, but we take deliberate care that the misfits are culled and that each generation advances to higher and more salubrious levels, physically, aesthetically and mentally.
Current: breakup and factionalism
Since Hale's conviction, there have been ongoing schisms within the organization, amounting to what was at one time eight independent groups. The Church of the RaHoWa (the religious arm of the White Crusaders of the RaHoWa—itself a break-away group from the Creativity Movement; the word RaHoWa is a contraction of "Racial Holy War" and a battle cry for church members) was one such group. After police raids on the homes of several of the leading members, the group broke up and the bulk of the adherents of The Church and the White Crusaders of the RaHoWa then left to either join other groups or form newer and smaller independent groups of their own.
As of 2008 Creators have divided into two ideologically opposed factions. The first has adopted the name The Creativity Movement (also known as "Skinheads of the Racial Holy War"), and follows the rigid organizational structure set up by Hale. It includes local, state and national leaders under the leadership of its own Pontifex Maximus. This group has adopted the uncompromising stance that for one to be a Creator, one must be a member of that group. Adherence to Creativity by those outside the group is not permissible. Group membership consists of two former members of Hale's Church with some new recruits. It has an outlook that is more in line with the stereotypical skinhead gangs as portrayed in Hollywood films such as American History X and Romper Stomper. The group still owes thousands of dollars in fines and court costs incurred as a result of its trademark dispute with TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation.
The second of the two ideologically opposed factions is known as the "Creativity Alliance". It follows the loose organizational structure first proposed by Ben Klassen, but it does not supply its own Pontifex Maximus. Instead it looks to Hale as the last legitimate high priest of Creativity (Pontifex Maximus - Emeritus). This group does not consider itself an organization. It maintains that it is a group of individuals and numerous smaller groups (some of whom label themselves as local variants of the Church of Creativity) that have banded together in an alliance to promote Creativity. The group also has a policy of non-participation in the White Power social construct. It espouses the belief that for Creativity to survive as a religion, it must become accepted by mainstream society as a viable religion. In short, as opposed to The Creativity Movement, the Creativity Alliance promotes the adherence of Creativity outside the confines of the group. The group as such has no formal membership or leaders. It consists of its founder and other adherents of Creativity - various individuals and groups, who sometimes refer to themselves as "independent Creators." The predominant makeup of the alliance is of former members of both Klassen's and Hale's churches along with new adherents. The group does not owe money in fines or court costs. As a legal precaution its web pages and published books stress the fact that it makes no attempt to assume or supercede the US registered trademark now owned by TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation.
Due to The Creativity Movement's rigid stance that adherence to Creativity is restricted to members of its own group, neither of the two factions appears willing to reconcile.
See also
References
- Hedda Rosner Kopf, "Understanding Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl: A Student Casebook" (1997) Greenwood Publishing Group at p. 189.
- Expert: Hatreds rooted in poverty don't thrive here, the Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA), July 9, 1999
- Creativity Movement (formerly known as World Church of the Creator)
- "Church of the Creator: A History". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 1999. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- ^ "Supremacist Told to Pay Black Family". New York Times. 1996-05-20. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- ^ "Mansfield v. Pierce". Southern Poverty Law Center. 03/07/1994. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "Hate Groups Seeking Broader Reach". New York Times. 1999-07-07. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/WCOTC.asp?xpicked=3&item=cm
- "White Supremacists Rally in York, Pa". New York Times. 2002-01-13. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "What's in a Name?". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "Creator Crack-Up". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "White Supremacist Group Fined $1,000 a Day" by The Anti-Defamation League, May 1, 2003
- "Race extremist jailed in plot to kill judge". CNN. 2003-01-09. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- United States v. Matt Hale grand jury indictment, 2002.
- "White supremacist found guilty". ABC7Chicago.com. 2004-04-26. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "Hate, American Style". New York Times. 2002-08-30. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "About Hardy Lloyd". Post-Gazette. 2004-08-08. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "Squirrel Hill man claims self-defense in fatal shooting". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "The Blotter". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2006-11-03. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- "SA Attorney-General wants racist website closed down". ABC Australia. 2006-01-31. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- Group calling themselves The Creativity Movement want no rivals The Creativity Movement Forum
- The Creativity Alliance is not an organization About the Creativity Alliance
- The Creativity Alliance makes no attempt to assume or supercede trademark Legal disclaimer used by the Creativity Alliance
External links
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