Creativity (religion)

For creativity in Christianity, see Image of God. For the unrelated, Oregon-based new religious movement whose name was once also used by the Creativity church, see Church of the Creator.

Creativity

The Creativity flag. According to Creators, the red field symbolizes the struggle for the survival, expansion, and advancement of the White race under the creed and program of Creativity while the white triangle on the right represents the coming of a "Whiter and Brighter World." The W stands for the White race, the crown represents that Creators are the elite, and the halo is a symbol of race being "unique and sacred above all other values."
Founder
Ben Klassen
Regions with significant populations
Midwestern United States, Texas, Eastern Europe
Scriptures
Nature's Eternal Religion, The White Man's Bible, Salubrious Living, "Expanding Creativity", "Building a Whiter and Brighter World", "RAHOWA! This Planet Is All Ours", "Klassen Letters, Volumes One and Two", "A Revolution Of Values Through Religion", "Against The Evil Tide", "On The Brink Of A Bloody Racial War", "Trials, Tribulations And Triumphs" and "Little White Book"
Languages
English, Spanish, French, Serbian, Croatian, Ruthenian, Icelandic, German, French and Polish

Creativity is a white supremacist new religious movement that was founded as the Church of the Creator in Lighthouse Point, Florida by Ben Klassen in 1973. Klassen designed the church to offer an all-encompassing worldview and racial religion based on veneration of the white race.

Two separate organizations currently promote Creativity: the Creativity Movement (TCM) and the Creativity Alliance (also known as the Church of Creativity). The groups have common origins.

Etymology

Adherents of Creativity are known as "Creators". The church was founded as the "Church of the Creator" and then known as "World Church of the Creator". Use of these names was lost to Church of the Creator, an unrelated Oregon church, in a trademark infringement case. The names "Creativity" and "Creator" are derived from the foreword of the first edition of Nature's Eternal Religion by Ben Klassen, which states, "We call our religion Creativity, and members thereof, Creators, because, we believe these words, in essence, best describe the characteristic soul of the White Race." The term "creator" does not refer to a supernatural deity but to adherents of Creativity and to the collective white race which is regarded to the creators of civilization. The Church carries on under several organizations, including "The Creativity Movement".

Beliefs

Moral conduct and behavior

Creativity has the Sixteen Commandments that deal primarily with adherents' conduct and the Five Fundamental Beliefs of Creativity, all dealing with race including: the belief that their "Race is their Religion," that Creativity is based on the "external laws of nature, the experience of history, on logic and common sense", that the white race is "nature's finest" and that which helps the biological continuance of the white race on planet Earth is the "highest good". They believe that American culture is becoming "more decadent" with symptoms being "black crimes, growing acceptance of homosexuality, interracial marriage, increasing drug use, and lack of racial identity among white people." Creators are encouraged to recite the five fundamentals daily. There is also the religious diet and health doctrine called 14 Points of Salubrious Living which deals with a Creator's diet, sexuality, recreation, work, sense of achievement, social behavior and lifestyle with strong encouragement in acquiring sound and efficient sleep, making a practice of fasting and a rejection of modern medicine in favor of naturopathy along with advocating a clean environment and organic farming, although the diet aspect in Salubrious Living which is a form of raw veganism is not mandatory as a prerequisite to becoming a member.

The What We Believe In affirmation is simply an extended edition of what is contained in the Five Fundamental Beliefs of Creativity, and there are also two broad lists of what a Creator is and is not, titled Essence of a Creator and What a Creator is Not, which serve as basic guidelines for general behavior as a Creator and ideals to be striven towards. Some of the ideals include to be "responsible, productive and constructive" and to "place a high value on honor and self-respect" and also to be "eager and optimistic" and to keep physically fit and your body in the best of health at all times. Creators are encouraged to be "inquisitive and adventurous" and to have a "cheerful zest for living" all while placing a high value on attitude, and striving to continually maintain a "healthy, positive and dynamic attitude" towards life. Furthermore, being an achiever and a producer is taught as being a good thing in Creativity as well as being a problem-solver. Creators are taught to practice "racial loyalty" before any other loyalty, to defend the honor of their family at all costs, to practice both love and hate directed in the "proper channels.

Creators are told to "love and aid their own kind" and hate their enemies and non-whites who Klassen referred to as the "Jews, niggers and mud races", not be gullible, to not practice superstition but rather be down to earth, to shun "sexual deviation" (including homosexuality with miscegenation being considered a form of bestiality), to not whine or complain but rather deal with problems and solve them and also to shun all forms of race-mixing or social intercourse with non-whites as much as possible.

Race is the supreme value of the religion and the Golden Rule of their socio-ethical system teaches that what is good for the White Race is the highest good, and what is bad for the White Race is the ultimate sin. In one's actions, adherents are to ask themselves "how will this accrue to the benefit of the White Race?" If an action does not harm themselves and is not harmful to their people, then it basically is all right, whereas if an action is harmful to either themselves or their people, it is a bad decision and they are therefore not encouraged to partake in it.

Heaven, hell and the supernatural

Creativity is a non-supernatural religion that fundamentally rejects the supernatural while affirming a pantheist view of Nature asserting "everything is in nature", and defining Nature 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." As such, Creators do not believe in a hereafter. They believe that life on earth is the only life and that upon death they go to oblivion. Their only true "immortality" is genetic and memorial. Creators reject notions of an afterlife and believe in looking at life and death on earth in a "rational, fearless manner". In doing so, they believe they will then be more capable of concentrating on the positive aspects of living a good life.

Racial socialism

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Creativity's ideology as Neo-Nazi, while Klassen stated that Creativity was not a rehash of Nazism, and listed eight differences between his political ideology and that of the Nazis. Ben Klassen adopted the phrase "racial socialism" to describe his political ideology based on Creativity's golden rule. He was highly critical of democracy, advocating for meritocracy believing that strong, effective leaders should have the ability to rule. Under racial socialism, "whites would work together toward common goals but without the massive economic planning in the style of the Soviet GOSPLAN". Klassen supported a limited version of a market economy. His main concern was that social and economic activities be directed in the best interests of white people. Criticizing the "leftist proclivities" of those who attempted to recruit solely from the white working class, Klassen believed that "all [white] members of the national or racial community... had an important role to play."

Klassen stated that many people were "confused" about what socialism really is or what collectivism really entails, citing use of the term by Jews, Christians, conservatives, and other groups Creativity is designed to oppose as the source of the problem. Klassen and the Creativity church's position on what they viewed socialism as is "Organized Society." Klassen's socialism does not "imply state ownership of the means of production," nor does it, in his definition, "imply confiscation of private property." The Creativity church is opposed to state ownership of the basic means of production, such as farms, factories, stores, etc. However they are for the ownership of private property by individuals. They believe that there is a category of functions that are best performed by organized society as a whole. In this category they place highways, airports, harbors, national defense, law enforcement and many others.

Salubrious living

Klassen, in the book Salubrious Living, expounded the facet of Creativity dealing with physical health on individual and group levels, based on the idea of a "sound mind in a sound body in a sound society in a sound environment". The word "salubrious" comes from the Latin word "salubris" meaning "healthy; wholesome; sound; useful; vigorous." Salubrious Living promotes a fruitarian form of raw veganism, encouraging the eating of raw organic foods, fasting, heliotherapy, exercise, and racial hygiene (eugenics).

Natural law

Creators adhere to a naturalist philosophy, claiming to base their religion on the "Eternal Laws of Nature" and believe that Nature is governed by laws which are immutable, that is, they are "unchanging, unbending and unyielding." They theorize that one of the inexorable of the "laws of Nature" is inner-segregation of species, and that racial animosity is a natural instinct... They believe that Nature is "continually striving" to upgrade each of the species by dividing them into sub-species and having each one of the sub-species compete against each other. According to the worldview, those which cannot compete fall by the wayside and forever fade into oblivion or in other words, extinction. They believe that Nature is for the inner-segregation of the species and point out that hummingbirds, for example, have been segregated into some 320 different species, sparrows have been segregated into some 263 species, wrens into over 60 species, and so on. Whether we look at the species of mice or rabbits or cats in their natural habitat, they claim, we find that they have been segregated into dozens of different species, each following its own pattern for its survival, propagation and multiplication in competition within its own sub-species and the other creatures of the earth. Each has its "peculiar means of protection, of mating, of propagation." Each has its natural enemies.

Activism

Creativity holds that spreading the faith is a religious duty of all adherents and is a highly proselytizing movement. Their established goal is to place 10 million copies of the two books Nature's Eternal Religion and the White Man's Bible in the hands of White people as part of "gird[ing] up for total war against the Jews and the rest of the goddamned mud races - politically, militantly, financially, morally and religiously" which they "regard... as the heart of our religious creed" stating that "Rahowa! [racial holy war] is inevitable... the Ultimate and Only Solution" and that due to a population explosion in the Third World, with a simultaneous population decline in Europe and in white countries with mass migration of non-whites into white countries with forced racial integration leading to miscegenation, "no longer can the mud races and the White Race live on the same planet and survive... This Planet is All Ours!". The organization places a heavy emphasis on member activism and professes non-violence although has had members and supporters who engaged in illegal activities and were then expelled from the church. The Creator Membership Manual states: "any member of the Church who either commits crimes (other than unconstitutional violations of our right to freedom of speech, assembly, etc.) or encourages others to do so, will be subject to expulsion from the Church." Creators view Rahowa as a religious war of racial self-defense within the framework of law, and not as a call for violence but rather building up of the Creativity movement. Hence, a Creator's primary mission is to convert other whites to Creativity and to practice racial loyalty. One key slogan used by Creators is White People Awake! Save the White Race!. The Creativity organization, as formulated by Ben Klassen was self-proclaimed as structured for the "survival, expansion and advancement of the White Race".

Calendar

In 1973, one of the main texts, Nature's Eternal Religion, was published, and the Creativity church was founded by Ben Klassen. Creativity does not follow the Gregorian calendar because it is opposed to Catholicism. 1973 is considered the Incepto de Creativitat (Inception of Creativity, or IC). Years following are called Anno de Creativitat. Thus 1974 CE is called 1 AC. The years before PC are called Prius Creativitat (Before Creativity). Thus 1972 CE is called 1 PC, and 2013 would be 40 AC.

Holidays

Creativity has numerous holy days that are celebrated and held sacred by Creators. Creators are encouraged to take the time to acknowledge these holidays, and to set them aside as a time to spend with their families and with friends of the religion.

• South Victory Day, January 26: Commemorates the initial British landings on the Australian continent in 1788.
• Klassen Day, February 20: The anniversary of their Founder’s birth which occurred 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 old World Center in 1982 and the declaring of total racial war against the "mud races".
• Kozel Day (Martyrs Day), September 15: Remembrance day for the Reverend Brian Kozel, Creator 'martyr' who was murdered in 1992.
• Festum Album is a week-long celebration based on White Racial Pride that runs from December 26 to January 1.
• West Victory Day, December 29: Commemorates the White victory over the last organized Native American resistance in 1890.

Religious ceremonies

Creativity has four sacred ceremonies, called sacraments, including a wedding ceremony, a pledging ceremony for children, a confirmation ceremony and a eulogy ceremony for the deceased. The names of these ceremonies in Latin, the language that Creativity promotes use of are Carimoni Nuptiae Creatora (Creator Wedding Ceremony), Carimoni Fidem Obligari (Making Loyal Ceremony), Carimoni Confirmationis (Confirmation Ceremony) and Memoria Celebritas (Memory Celebration). All ceremonies are performed by church ministers. For the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom exchange their vows before Nature. The pledging ceremony is conducted ideally within the first week after the birth of a child. Both parents pledge to raise their child as a "loyal member of the White Race and faithful to the church." The confirmation ceremony can be performed by a minister on or after a child's 13th birthday.

Ordained ministers

It was Klassen's intention that every worthy Creator be an ordained minister in the church. Ordained ministers in Creativity are those who have proven themselves to be the right material, and have passed the Minister's Exam, written or vocally. The written Minister's Exam consists of 150 questions, in which a written paragraph response is written for each question. Follow up is done vocally, and potential ministers are to write a several page essay as to why they wish to be ordained a minister in the religion. Having recommendations of three other already established ministers is recommended as well. It is required that the person pass a written test and sign an oath. Both white men and white women can be ordained as ministers in Creativity.

Religious texts

Nature's Eternal Religion

Nature's Eternal Religion is the founding text of Creativity. It is divided into two sub-sections, which can be considered books in their own right: Book I — The Unavenged Outrage and Book II — The Salvation. The first chapter discusses nature, and what Klassen sees as Natural law. The second chapter states the religious belief that the White race is "Nature's Finest." The first book goes on to critique Christianity, including the Christian Bible. A large number of biblical stories, including the story of Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale and the Resurrection, are ruled to be historically unlikely. The historicity of Jesus is also questioned, with the author concluding that he can find no independent evidence for the existence of the man. Creativity teaches that Christianity is a violent religion that has killed 1000 fellow Christians down through the years for every Christian killed by the Romans. They do not believe in Jesus Christ as having been a real person and reject Christian teachings as being "suicidal poison" created by Jews and foisted on the white race to destroy it and reject the principle of loving enemies instead declaring that enemies should be hated - to "resist evil" rather than to "resist not evil". Creators reject the Golden Rule saying it does not make "good sense" and at a "closer look" it is a "completely unworkable principle" as there are different forms of relationship between friends and enemies, family and strangers, parents and children, co-workers and bosses and whites and non-whites and that it should be that way.

In the first book of Nature's Eternal Religion labelled THE UNAVENGED OUTRAGE, Nature is anthropomorphized as female and essentially identified as divinity, the white race is called the real creators of Aztec, Egyptian and Chinese civilization, the need to expunge the "black plague within our midst" is addressed, a look at the Jews as "parasites" and Jewish history, a critique of the Old Testament and the New Testament with the Jews surviving due to a Judaism which Klassen said has an ethic of "what is good for the Jews is good and what is bad for the Jews is bad", a full reprint if the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a critique of Marxism as a "toxic brew" and the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible being "A Jewish Nightmare in Technicolor".

The second book in Nature's Eternal Religion, calledTHE SALVATION, starts laying foundation for the religion of Creativity regarding the need for religion as inherit in humanity. Klassen said he was concerned not with the survival of non-white races but is concerned with the survival of the white race and is forming a religion not for non-white races but a religion for the white race. It has a chapter entitled "Sixteen Commandments" which includes the basic idea to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with White people, and that it is the duty of every species, and race to aid and abet their own kind. Is says that loyalty is a "sacred trust", draws inspiration from Islam, calls Mormonism a "better fraud" than mainstream Christianity due to its then-exclusion of black men from the Priesthood (LDS Church) and calls the average Mormon "more industrious, more law abiding, and more responsible than the average American". Queen Isabella I of Castile is praised for her expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In regards to the American political system, 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 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." It looks at the concept of racial socialism and also has a chapter titled "Foundations of our White Society.". The book goes on to call Christianity and Communism "Jewish twins", praise Latin as a language and urged for an updated form of it to be used an ideal international auxiliary language (an example being the Occidental language) to be used by Creators as a "white racial language" to accompany the "white racial religion". Klassen went on to say in one of the final chapters of Nature's Eternal Religion, "I therefore suggest that after we have established Latin as the second language among all the White peoples of the world, we proceed from there" also declaring that "in order to survive and prosper, the White Race must put Racial Loyalty above National Loyalty, and unite in a worldwide WHITE RACIAL COMMUNITY with one White Racial Religion (Creativity) and with one White Racial Language (Latin).", and continued to elaborate on Creativity with a "need for leadership" and dedication to the movement with a look at possibilities for success of the movement.

Klassen also offers advice and guidance to White teens, teaching that self-employment is a something worth looking into. A goal of the Creativity church is stated to be to make a form of Classical Latin the primary language between White people who speak different languages. The book ends with a chapter about their future which contains Klassen's view on the Whiter and brighter world that adherents wish to attain.

See also: Ben Klassen bibliography

White Man's Bible

The White Man's Bible was the second book to be published by Ben Klassen and the Creativity church. First printed in 1981; it consists of 73 chapters (called "Credos") and adds and expounds on Nature's Eternal Religion.

Its "Dedication" reads: "Dedicated towards developing the tremendous potential of Nature’s Finest – the WHITE RACE. May this book give our great race a religion of its own that will unite, organize and propel it forward towards a Whiter and Brighter World."

Early years

Creativity was formed in 1973 when Klassen self-published the book Nature's Eternal Religion. Klassen attempted to recruit Neo-Nazis into the church because, aside from disagreements over religion, there was no fundamental conflict between the church's doctrine and National Socialism. Klassen eventually established a rapport with National Alliance leader William Luther Pierce. Klassen met Pierce twice in 1975 and they maintained a relationship "on and off" for at least 18 more years. Klassen noted that although he "never did understand the logic of what he 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 describes Pierce as "a great man and an outstanding intellectual thinker, and as one of us." Although Pierce never became a Creator, he went on to create a racist religion, Cosmotheism which is similar to Creativity although it has more in common with Pantheism.

In 1982, Klassen established the headquarters of his organization at Otto, North Carolina. Although the Klassen family expected resistance to their beliefs from the local people, Klassen states that "we were not quite prepared for the viciousness of the onslaught by the local paper...." The opposition grew to the point that in the Franklin Press on May 13, 1982, the headlines said "Pro-Hitler, anti-Christ Leader Headquarters Here".

Key people

April Gaede

April Gaede, the mother of Lynx and Lamb Gaede who sang under the band name Prussian Blue, is a longtime supporter of the doctrines of the Creativity organization and was once a member of the World Church of the Creator, before joining the National Alliance (United States). Prussian Blue's song "Stand Up", although written for David Lane, formulator of the Fourteen Words, was part of the unreleased Free Matt Hale CD, intended to be released in support of currently incarcerated, former Pontifex Maximus of the World Church of the Creator, Matthew F. Hale. Lamb and Lynx Gaede, both of the duo have stepped away from racial politics citing that they are more "liberal" now.

Craig Cobb

Main article: Craig Cobb

Craig Cobb operated a video sharing website named Podblanc and has been very high-profile with publicity stunts in the Midwest trying to take over small towns. Recently he tried establishing an enclave in North Dakota, and renaming it either “Trump Creativity” or “Creativity Trump,” in honor of Donald Trump the Grand Forks Herald reported.

George Burdi

Main article: George Burdi

Also known as the Reverend George Eric Hawthorne, Burdi was the 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 by some with playing a role in ensuring the survival of Creativity after the death of Ben Klassen.

Matthew F. Hale

Main article: Matthew F. Hale

Several years after Klassen's death in 1993, white supremacist Matthew Hale founded the New Church of the Creator which, after Hale was appointed Pontifex Maximus, was changed to 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. Instead, the court decided to "let stand a decision by its Committee on Character and Fitness that said Hale lacked the moral character to practice law." The committee's denial of Hale's law license may have provoked the actions of Benjamin Nathaniel Smith.

On January 9, 2003 Hale was arrested and charged with attempting to direct his security chief Anthony Evola to murder Judge Lefkow. Judge Lefkow's husband and mother were later murdered by Bart Ross who had no previously known connections to Hale or the Creativity religion. 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. In April 2005 he was sentenced to 40 years in a Federal penitentiary.

Johannes Jurgens Grobbelaar and Jurgen Matthews White

Two Afrikaner Creators and members of the National Socialist Partisans (the paramilitary branch of the Blanke Bevrydingsbeweging) were killed in a gun battle with South African police, while they were allegedly attempting to smuggle weapons and explosives into a survivalist compound in Namibia. The two Creators 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, the two detonated a smoke bomb and attempted to escape. After coming across their abandoned vehicle five miles away, police came under fire from the two suspects, who lay in ambush. Two officers were shot, one fatally, before law enforcement agents returned fire.

Ron McVan

Ron McVan, a co-founder of the White Nationalist Pagan religion of Wotanism was once affiliated with the Church of the Creator for two years as second-in-command, contributing articles and artwork to its periodical Racial Loyalty and serving as a martial arts instructor at the church. While Ben Klassen and Ron McVan shared similar anti-Christian beliefs, McVan sought a more spiritual approach and deemed Creativity shallow in regards to spirituality and moved to the Pacific Northwest and founded Wotan's Kindred in Portland, Oregon in 1992, deeming Wotanism rooted in the "genetic character and collective identity" of the white race.

Notable organization

Creativity Movement, former "World Church of the Creator"

The logo of the Creativity Movement

The Creativity Movement, formerly known as the World Church of the Creator, was founded in 1996 by Matthew F. Hale as the New Church of the Creator. As the chosen successor of Ben Klassen and the final Pontifex Maximus of the predecessor Church of the Creator, Dr. Rick McCarty, had filed for that organization's dissolution on February 22, 1994, although power to elect a new Pontifex Maximus of Creativity was later taken up by the Guardians of the Faith Committee formed by Matt Hale, and which elected Matt Hale several years after Dr. McCarty's dissolution of the predecessor Church of the Creator (COTC). Although headquartered in Zion, Illinois there is a heavy concentration of Creators in Montana with 24 regional and 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", which the Oregon group also used, and which it registered in 1987 as a trademark. U.S. District Court Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow ruled in favor of the World Church of the Creator, per prior usage. 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.

The leader Matt Hale was arrested for contempt of court and for soliciting the murder of a federal judge (Lefkow). He was sentenced to 40 years on 6 April 2005.

Bill White was arrested and convicted for threatening a juror in the Matt Hale case (among other charges). The conviction was overturned on appeal, under the First Amendment, before being reinstated. In 2013, White was sentenced to 42 months in prison

Hal Turner was arrested and sentenced to 33 months for threatening the three federal judges who handled a Matt Hale case.

Following the resignation of the World Church of the Creator's remaining officers, the skinhead-only section of the World Church of the Creator going by the name Skinheads of the Racial Holy War, renamed themselves "The Creativity Movement" and took control of what remained of the by-then defunct World Church of the Creator.

Creativity Alliance (Church of Creativity)

The Creativity Alliance is an amalgam of many formerly independent Church of Creativity groups and individuals under the one umbrella. The regional groups of the Creativity Alliance are known as the Church of Creativity followed by their regional designation, such as the Church of Creativity Italy. According to the SPLC in 2015 it has groups in Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Vermont. The group has its own Guardians of the Faith Committee and an elected Pontifex Maximus. Members of the Creativity Alliance do not associate with those of the Creativity Movement. Unlike other White Supremacist groups, the Creativity Alliance claims a policy of "non-participation in the White Power social scene." According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Creativity Alliance’s declaration of non-participation in the movement shows that more active Creators are showing definite signs of life. The SPLC also lists the Creativity Alliance as a "spin off" from The Creativity Movement, which the group denies. The group is currently led by former World Church of the Creator member Cailen Cambeul, formerly known as Colin Campbell. The Creativity Alliance used to be known as the White Crusaders of the Rahowa (WCOTR), which was founded by former Church Members after the breakdown of the World Church of the Creator following Hale's arrest in 2003. A number of older pre-established Church Primary Groups within the Creativity Alliance cite their origins on their regionally based web sites. An example is the Church of Creativity Queensland, which "was formerly known as the World Church of the Creator-WCOTC Rockhampton."

Two notable examples of membership in the Creativity Alliance are former Klassen supporters George Loeb and Joseph Esposito. They are serving extended prison sentences in Florida penal institutions. Despite the Creativity Alliance having maintained a web site for almost ten years known as the Reverend Matt Hale Archive, the Creativity Alliance has distanced itself from Hale and no longer actively supports him.

Randolph Dilloway, former "Hasta Primus" of the Creativity Alliance and founder of the defunct Smoky Mountains Church of Creativity served as an accountant for the newly revived National Alliance assessing financial damages done under past leadership before a chaotic incident leaving him fearing for his life had him contact the police and later the SPLC leaking documents alleging fraud and embezzlement on the part of the organization.

The Creativity Alliance is known for creating disturbances by distributing fliers in Australia and New Zealand. In 2015 they distributed flyers in Liverpool and Inverbervie in Scotland. In a letter to the editor from the Reverend James Mac of the Church of Creativity Britain Mac stated that the leaflets were legal and called for "Racial Separation" not supremacy. The South Australian Attorney General and Minister for Multicultural Affairs have made numerous attempts to close the website of the South Australian representative and current Pontifex Maximus for the Creativity Alliance and to have Creativity declared an outlawed organization. Cailen Cambeul lodged a complaint with the Australian Press Council arguing that description of the Creativity Alliance as a white supremacist organization, not as a recognised religion, and characterization of the members of the organisation as “a few loners looking for something to do with all their hate” was unfair. The complaint was dismissed on the basis that in this instance the bylined journalist's descriptions were not included in a news article, but were instead included in an opinion piece.

Creativity Alliance web pages and published books stress that it makes no attempt to assume or supersede the US registered trademark "Church of the Creator" owned by TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation.

Legal challenges

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.

Maxine M. Chesney, a district judge in the state of California ruled against an imprisoned Creator who brought 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 the Black Supremacist MOVE, Veganism, and the Church of Marijuana were declared to not constitute "religions" but rather moral or secular philosophies under the subjective definition of religion being defined based on an addressing of “fundamental and ultimate questions having to do with deep and imponderable matters” as part of a "three-point" test for determining a religion developed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In the case, the court concluded that plaintiff had failed to raise a genuine issue as to whether Creativity is a religion and found that to the extent Creativity deals with a "fundamental concern", such concern is with secular matters and not with what the court considers to be religious principles and that Creativity is not "comprehensive" in nature because it was presented as confined to one question or moral teaching, namely Creativity's Golden Rule and that the structural characteristics of Creativity "do not serve to transform what are otherwise secular teachings and ideals into a religious ideology." However, the Supreme Court has recognized atheism as equivalent to a “religion” for purposes of the First Amendment on numerous occasions, most recently in McCreary County, Ky. v. American Civil Liberties Union of Ky., 545U.S. 844, 125 S.Ct. 2722, 162 L.Ed.2d 729 (2005). In a similar although non-related case, Cutter v. Wilkinson involving a member of the Aryan Nations and those of other religions including Wicca and Satanism, court ruled in favor of prisoners.

In Hale v. Federal Bureau of Prisons (2015), the court found that Creativity may qualify as a religion under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with potential recognition by the IRS and that it can be practiced in prison.

United Kingdom

In March 2015 leaflets were posted through doors in south Liverpool that claimed “the white race is nature’s finest”. Complaints were made to the police by local councillors. Cllr Sarah Jennings, of the local Green Party, denounced those responsible as a “fringe group of blatant racists”. Cailen Cambeul, a minister and Pontifex Maximus of the organisation said he was responsible for its distribution. He said "any politician claiming disgust at our flyers and seeking to make political gains via our 100% 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."

See also

• Ben Klassen
• Matthew F. Hale
• Religious naturalism
• Naturalistic pantheism
• Pantheism
• Wotansvolk
• Christian Identity
• Rahowa (band)

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 religions flagship magazine racial loyalty.