Creativity (religion)
Creativity, historically known as the Church of the Creator, is a white supremacist atheistic new religious movement espousing white separatism, antitheism, antisemitism, anti-Christianity, scientific racism, homophobia, and religious/philosophical naturalism. Creativity is an openly racist religion urging for "White pride" and has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. It was founded in Lighthouse Point, Florida, United States, by Ben Klassen as the Church of the Creator in 1973. It now has a presence in several states of the U.S. as well as Australia, Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom.
Creativity is promoted by two organizations: the Creativity Alliance, and the Creativity Movement. The two groups have common origins, both being created in 2003 after Klassen's successor Matthew F. Hale was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Creativity claims a naturalistic and racialistic worldview, based on the "survival, expansion and advancement of the White race", according to what the group classifies as the "eternal laws of nature, the experience of history, on logic and common sense". Members of the group believe in a "racial holy war" between "white and non-white races", such as Jews, black people, and mixed-race people.
History
The religion was originally founded as the "Church of the Creator" by Ben Klassen in 1973, when he self-published Nature's Eternal Religion. Adherents of Creativity refer to themselves as Creators, a term derived from Hitler's autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf, wherein his classification of "races" falls into three categories, with the "white race", deemed the "Master race", termed the "creators". Klassen attempted to recruit neo-Nazis into the church because, apart from disagreements over Nazism's embrace of Positive Christianity, its insistence on nationalism, anti-Slavic and other sentiments against non-Germanic European ethnic groups, Klassen highly revered Adolf Hitler as a "great pioneer" and Nazism as admirable in many contexts. He 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 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".
File:BenKlassenHeadstone.jpg|thumb|Gravestone of Ben Klassen, founder of Creativity, in the Ben Klassen Memorial Park at the Creativity headquarters in Otto, North Carolina
In August 1993, Klassen died of suicide at the age of 75 on the grounds of the Creativity headquarters in Otto by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. His motives were not explained by him at the time but writers studying neo-Nazi groups have suggested that Klassen's reason for his suicide involved the possible depression caused by the death of his wife, the legal and financial issues his church endured during the years 1992 and 1993 leading up to his death and the fact he was diagnosed with cancer. Unlike other religions such as Judaism or Christianity, Klassen's Creativity religion does not believe that suicide is a sin and in circumstances such as that faced by its founder Klassen in the early 1990s, is considered a suitable way to die. Klassen was buried on his Creativity headquarters at Otto with his grave in an area that he had already previously designated as "Ben Klassen Memorial Park".
In 1996, Matthew F. Hale, along with other ministers of the original Church of the Creator, formed a successor group known as the "World Church of the Creator". Hale's right to use the name "Church of the Creator" in the United States was lost to the Church of the Creator, an unaffiliated religious organization based in Ashland, Oregon, in a trademark infringement case.
In January 2003, Hale was arrested and charged with attempting to direct security chief Anthony Evola to murder judge Joan Lefkow; he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment. 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" or "Church of Creativity". An Australian man, Colin Campbell, co-founded Creativity Alliance.
Beliefs and membership
is fundamental to Creativity, and as such, adherents of it are taught to hate non-whites and avoid social interactions with them. Adherents of the religion are also expected to refute homosexuality, miscegenation and complaining. 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 leader of the entire Creativity religion is called the "Pontifex Maximus", Latin for "Greatest Priest" and a title derived from its usage from Ancient Rome. The first Pontifex Maximus in the Creativity religion was Klassen himself.
Creativity has "Sixteen Commandments" and "Five Fundamental Beliefs", which adherents are supposed to recite five times a day, including the belief that "their race is their religion", their belief that the white race is "nature's finest creation", their belief that racial loyalty is the "greatest honor" and their belief that racial treason is the "worst crime", their belief that anything which is beneficial to white people is good and their belief that anything which is detrimental to white people is bad, and their belief that white people should avoid business dealings with Jews and refuse to "employ niggers or other coloreds". Klassen's Little White Book declares that Creativity is the "one and only, true and revolutionary White racial religion", repudiating other racist religions such as Christian Identity and Wotanism.
Klassen was a racist who hated all black people and was very open about his contempt for them. In public discourse as well as in his writings, Klassen consistently referred to black people with the racial slur "nigger" and required that all followers of his religion use that word to refer to black people rather than non-derogatory terms such as "black" or "African American". Klassen also condemned other racists who used less offensive terms such as "negro", stating in print that "Furthermore, in looking up the word in Webster's dictionary I found the term 'nigger' very descriptive: 'a vulgar, offensive term of hostility and contempt for the black man'. I can't think of anything that defines better and more accurately what our position... should be... If we are going to be for racial integrity and racial purity... we must take a hostile position toward the nigger. We must give him nothing but contempt."
The religion advocates the belief that American culture is becoming "more decadent", citing an increase in the number of "black crimes, the growing acceptance of homosexuality, interracial marriage, increasing drug use, and the lack of racial identity among white people" as evidence of its increasing decadence. According to the Anti-Defamation League, members believe that Jewish people are working towards the enslavement of all races, and in particular, they believe that the Jews are working towards the "mongrelization of the white race". During the early 2000s, the group was encouraged to move to Central Illinois in order to establish a "Creativity bastion".
Diet
Klassen was a natural hygienist who recommended a strict fruitarian and raw vegan diet known as "Salubrious Living" which consisted of organically grown fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables. He commented that food should 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." Klassen argued that humans are frugivores and distinguished his fruitarian diet to vegetarianism. In his book The White Man's Bible, he stated that "we are not recommending a vegetarian diet but a frugitarian diet", which included nuts and seeds as a supply of protein. However, Klassen himself did not follow all the rules of his health regime. Historian George Michael has noted that "despite his advocacy of healthy nutrition, some of his associates claimed that in practice Klassen did not actually follow the "salubrious living" regimen, because he often ate red meat and ice cream."Creativity Alliance continues to advocate Klassen's raw vegan diet and argues against the use of all drugs, including "artificial medications", in favor of "natural remedies". Creativity members are purported to follow their own anti-Semitic version of "kosher" dietary laws in which pork, shellfish and catfish are strictly forbidden.
Afterlife and supernatural
Creativity rejects supernaturalism, affirming a metaphysical naturalist worldview. According to its founder Ben Klassen, a member is "not superstitious and disdains belief in the supernatural... credence to, or playing silly games with imaginary spooks, spirits, gods and demons." Members do not believe that Nature is a conscious entity, but hold to a naturalistic pantheist view of "everything in Nature"—"the whole cosmos, the total universe, including its millions of natural laws through space and time".Members reject the concept of an afterlife believing that individual genetic "immortality" is attained through reproduction and legacy, with a cessation of consciousness of the individual at death. Creativity upholds collectivism over individualism and teaches that life and death on Earth should be viewed in a "rational, fearless manner". Members believe that the purpose of life is "the survival, expansion and advancement" of the white race with "continuance of the individual" attained through heredity and the legacy left to future generations.
Whereas Klassen was classified as an atheist, and Creativity has been labelled atheistic by the press, he objected to the usage of the term considering it a derogatory smear word without meaning employed by believers in what he termed "non-existent spooks in the sky" while stating that the "organized atheist movements" lacked any "positive creed and program of its own to replace the superstitions it seeks to destroy" while stating that most of the atheist movements in existence at the time did not take any pro-white racial stance and that many of them were under "heavy Jewish influence". Citing commonality, Klassen stated that both "atheism and Creativity deplore and denounce any and all supernatural beliefs, claims and superstitions. We do not believe in gods, devils, spooks, spirits, heaven or hell. We denounce all such hocus-pocus as being invented by men, largely for the purpose of controlling their minds and worldly affairs and extracting the utmost financial gain from them."