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It has been suggested that Creativity (religion) be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2010.
Creativity Flag with the Logo

The Creativity Movement (formerly known as the World Church Of The Creator) is a White separatist organization in the United States that advocates the religion Creativity. The supremacism of the group has been described by founder Ben Klassen with reference to the logo:

The ‘W’ stands for the white race which we think is nature’s finest. The crown designates that we are the elite, the aristocrats, of nature’s realm. The halo above the crown means that we hold our racial values sacred and we believe that our white genes are our greatest treasure and we should safeguard our gene pool zealously.

The use of the term "creator" does not refer to a deity, but rather to White Europeans or (white people), whom they believe are the sole creators of all worthwhile culture and civilization. The term Creativity movement was originally used as a descriptive phrase coined by Klassen to indicate all adherents of the religion rather than just members of the Church of the Creator. Since 2003 it has come to refer solely to the group known as The Creativity Movement which should not be confused with the Creativity Alliance - a group with similar origins to The Creativity Movement (see below). The Creativity Movement is currently led by James Logsdon of Zion, Illinois.

History

Creativity is a White Separatist religion that was founded by Ben Klassen in early 1973 under the name Church of the Creator. After Klassen's death in 1993, Creativity almost died out as a religion until the New Church of the Creator was established three years later by Matthew F. Hale as its Pontifex Maximus (highest priest), until his incarceration in January 2003 after being accused of plotting with the Church's head of security, Anthony Evola (an FBI informant), to murder a federal judge.

Soon after its establishment in 1996, the New Church of the Creator was renamed the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC). Hale prefixed the name with World in an effort to symbolize the organization's global mission of attaining a "Whiter and Brighter World." The group was not a direct follow-on from Klassen's Church of the Creator. This meant that prior use was not a defense when the World Church of the Creator lost a lawsuit in 2002 brought on by an unrelated Christian organization named TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation which had previously trademarked the name "Church of the Creator". This forced yet another name change and the name The Creativity Movement (TCM) was eventually chosen by Matt Hale and a section of Creators who referred to themselves as "Skinheads of the Rahowa." Creators who are not part of The Creativity Movement prefer to use the name Church of Creativity, while the term "The Church" is applied to all adherents of Creativity.

Legal issues

Brian Kozel, 18, a White Beret (security group of the movement) was killed on September 15, 1990, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After a conflict on the street with an Hispanic gang, he was shot in the back and died on the scene. The murderer was never found. Kozel is hailed as a martyr by the group.

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 Reverend George Loeb, a minister of the Church of the Creator in Florida. 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 dead man's family successfully sued the organization, winning an award of $1 million in damages in March 1994. Prior to the lawsuit, Klassen placed the organization's North Carolina property, which housed its headquarters, on the real estate market, but eventually agreed to sell it to William Pierce, head of the National Alliance. The SPLC filed suit against Pierce for his role in what it claims was a 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 and Doctor of Psychology Richard McCarty as his successor, who moved the organization to Niceville, Florida. Soon after appointing McCarty in the summer of 1993, Klassen, already dying from cancer, committed suicide. In 1996 Hale established a new group which he led until his arrest in January of 2003.

During the weekend of July 4, 1999, former group member and fellow law student Benjamin Nathaniel Smith went on a shooting spree after Matthew F. Hale was denied a law license.

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 recently 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.

In August 2002, Patrick John O'Sullivan, of Victoria, Australia, was convicted to 18 months imprisonment for viciously beating and stabbing a man. According to evidence given in the court, he was chanting "white power" with a group of people at a house-warming in May of 1999. Another guest started to talk to O'Sullivan about his white supremacist views. They started to debate whether O'Sullivan can be considered a Nazi because he did not have German blood. According to the Herald Sun newspaper: "The jury found he then either butted or punched the victim in the head before stabbing him in the abdomen. The victim received a 5cm-deep (2") wound."

In August 2004, former Creator Hardy Lloyd killed his girlfriend, whom he had met on an internet dating service in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The act was ruled a case of self-defense by a jury on November 3, 2006. Based in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Lloyd founded his own Church of Creativity in 2003, and declared himself Pontifex Maximus. Lloyd left Creativity in 2007.

In 2008, Patrick John O’Sullivan of Melbourne, registered a trademark for the name "Creativity Movement", including the logo of Creativity with the Australian Federal Government Trade Mark office.

Present day

Due to the loss of the trademark suit by TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation, the Creativity Movement currently owes $650,747 in court costs, attorney's fees and fines.

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 emphasises living in accord with the "Laws of Nature", with personal cleanliness and self-mastery, with avoiding medications or drugs, and with promoting white eugenics.

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 is but one example. It originally formed as the religious arm of the White Crusaders of the RaHoWa—itself an offshoot of the World Church of the Creator after Hale's arrest and remained directly opposed to The Creativity Movement (see below), which had evolved at approximately the same time. After police raids on the homes of several of the leading members, including Cailen Cambeul, now of the Creativity Alliance. The group broke up in 2006 and the adherents of the White Crusaders of the RaHoWa then left to either join other groups or form newer and smaller independent groups of their own - all of which have since joined the Creativity Alliance (see below).

As of 2007 Creators have seemingly settled into two ideologically opposed factions. The first initially formed within Hale's World Church of the Creator as the Skinheads of the Rahowa, but later adopted the name "The Creativity Movement" in 2003 after Hale's arrest and took it upon themselves to assume the leadership role within what remained of Hale's church. As a consequence, it continues to follow the organizational structure set up by Hale and claims to be the continuation of the World Church of the Creator, be it with a different name. Group membership today consists of two former members of Hale's Church as well as new recruits.

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, and maintains that it is a group of individuals and numerous smaller groups (all of whom label themselves as local variants of the Church of Creativity) that have organized themselves in an alliance to promote Creativity. The group also claims to have a policy of non-participation in the White Power movement. The Creativity Alliance espouses the belief that for Creativity to survive as a religion, it must become accepted by mainstream society as a viable religion. The group consists of a Highest Priest or Pontifex Maximus as leader, a Guardians of the Faith Committee, Church Members and other adherents of Creativity consisting of Church Primary Groups and Official Supporters or individuals, who sometimes refer to themselves as "independent Creators." The predominant make-up of The Alliance is of former members of both Klassen's and Hale's churches along with new adherents. As a legal precaution its web pages and published books stress the fact that it makes no attempt to assume or supersede the US registered trademark now owned by TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation.

There also exists a few other Creator groupings including, "Ecclesia Creatoris," "Creator Prison Ministries" (both of which consist almost entirely of current and ex convicts), as well as the Creator Skinhead Movement.

See also

References

  1. Klassen, Ben. "Race and Reason with Host Tom Metzger (Part 2/3)". Creativity Alliance. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
  2. Expert: Hatreds rooted in poverty don't thrive here, the Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA), July 9, 1999
  3. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/the-creativity-movement-0
  4. ^ Smothers, Ronald (1996-05-20). "Supremacist Told to Pay Black Family". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  5. Website: George David Loeb
  6. ^ "Mansfield v. Pierce". Southern Poverty Law Center. 03/07/1994. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. Belluck, Pam (1999-07-07). "Hate Groups Seeking Broader Reach". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  8. Creativity Movement (formerly World Church of the Creator)UPDATE: Matt Hale receives 40-year prison sentence. (4/6/05) - Extremism in America
  9. "White Supremacists Rally in York, Pa". New York Times. 2002-01-13. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  10. "What's in a Name?". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  11. "Creator Crack-Up". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  12. "White Supremacist Group Fined $1,000 a Day" by The Anti-Defamation League, May 1, 2003
  13. "Race extremist jailed in plot to kill judge". CNN. 2003-01-09. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  14. United States v. Matt Hale grand jury indictment, 2002.
  15. "White supremacist found guilty". ABC7Chicago.com. 2004-04-26. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  16. Racist gets 18 months prison for stabbing skinhead
  17. Nazi asks for lighter sentence - tattoos could provoke
  18. "About Hardy Lloyd". Post-Gazette. 2004-08-08. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  19. "Squirrel Hill man claims self-defense in fatal shooting". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  20. WTAE-TV Channel 4 News, PA Self-Defense Claimed In Squirrel Hill Girlfriend-Shooting
  21. Pittsburgh Tribune Family of slain woman says goodbye
  22. SPLC Former racist leader charged in woman's murder
  23. SPLC Acquitted of Murder, a Killer Boasts of His Deed
  24. ADL White Supremacist Arrested in Pittsburgh Shooting
  25. SPLC Acquitted of Murder, Neo-Nazi Killer Taunts Victim’s Family
  26. "The Blotter". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2006-11-03. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  27. Australian trademark registration for 'Creativity Movement'
  28. Australian trademark details
  29. Trademark Litigation - Church of the Creator
  30. Klassen, Ben (1982). Salubrious Living (PDF). p. 247. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  31. "SA Attorney-General wants racist website closed down". ABC Australia. 2006-01-31. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  32. About the Creativity Alliance
  33. The Creativity Alliance makes no attempt to assume or supersede trademark Legal disclaimer used by the Creativity Alliance

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