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The Creativity Movement (TCM)
A history of violence
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SPECIAL NOTE:
Please be aware that this essay is NOT written
by The Creativity Movement. If you want to write
a letter to that Church, send it to PMHale1@aol.com,
not to us.
This essay is
on the ReligiousTolerance.org
web site, which describes many dozens of different faith groups.
We feel
that the public needs to learn the full range of beliefs and practices
of all major religious groups in North America. This includes
religions based on racial hatred and white supremacy. |
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The church and violence:
Their founder, Ben Klassen, wrote: "We have a non-violent religious
movement. We have a comprehensive plan as to how to achieve a Whiter and
Brighter World. Every step along the way is legal, constitutional and
non-violent..." 1
The Creator Membership Manual says that: "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."
2 They view illegal or violent
behavior as counter-productive. It subjects their own members to arrest.
They feel that the public is craving for order, security and stability;
people will reject any group that appears to advocate anarchy.
Although the organization itself considers itself non-violent, some of
its members have allegedly engaged in racially an religiously-inspired
criminal acts:
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1991: George Loeb was arrested for
the killing of Harold Mansfield Jr., an African-American military veteran
in Florida. Leob was found guilty and received a life sentence with no
chance of parole for 25 years. His wife was arrested and jailed on a
lesser crime. Loeb was a minister in the COTC.
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1994: Some COTC members in
California planned two bombing sprees that were designed to attack
African-American, homosexual and Jewish institutions. Police thwarted the
terrorists' plans.
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1997: Some skinheads (neo-Nazis)
were distributing TCM pamphlets at a rock concert in Florida.
About 11 of them attacked a African-American man and his son. Several members were arrested, tried and sentenced for this crime.
The police classified it as a hate crime.
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1999-JUN/JUL: The Sacramento (CA)
Bee reported on 1999-AUG-20 that two brothers are suspected in the
murder of a gay couple (Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder), arson at three
synagogues, and arson at an abortion clinic at the Country Club
Medical Center in Sacramento CA. The two brothers are Benjamin
Williams and James Matthews. The newspaper commented "Authorities
also have reportedly linked the brothers to the World Church of the
Creator..." 3 (This is the former name of TCM)
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1999-JUL-3/4: A senior TCM
member, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, went on a shooting rampage through the
mid-west, killing one African-American and one Korean-American. Six
orthodox Jews and three African-Americans were wounded. Smith then
committed suicide. He had earlier testified at Matt Hale's law hearing.
When Hale was asked what he had to say to Smith's surviving victims and
the families of the people who died, he commented: "We really just
don't have anything to say to them. And that's part of our church. We do
not socialize with the other races." 4
In an ironic twist of logic, on his 1999-JUL-06 episode of The 700 Club
Pat Robertson, predicted that this type of violence will continue into
the future. "There will be many more of them." He blamed
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) for the "violence,
killing, mayhem [and] hatred." His rationale was that if the ACLU,
the AU, and similar groups succeed in their goal of attaining true
separation of church and state in the U.S., that the public will have
have no religious influence to restrain them. Robertson said that in
order to minimize racial assassinations, "...we must pull together to
once again reestablish the Bible as our guidebook for faith and conduct."
The AU requested an immediate on-air apology for these statements.
5
The Federal Justice Department studied whether it has the
authority to investigate TCM. The FBI is severely limited in its
investigative powers of groups that teach hatred, unless there is an
immediate link involving conspiracy to committing violence.
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1999-JUL-15: Jim Ryan, The Attorney
general of Illinois asked a court to decide whether the TCM
should have status as a charitable organization. Their tax payments were
also reviewed.
In the 12 months following Benjamin Smith's 1999-JUL-3 shooting spree,
the W.C.O.T.C. added 35 chapters and about 100 members. According to
Associated Press for 2000-JUL-4, Richard Hirschhaut of the Anti-Defamation League said: "All indications point to a
stronger or a better-supported organization."
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2002-AUG-16: Patrick John O'Sullivan, the leader of
TCM in Victoria, Australia, was convicted of bashing 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 1999-MAY. 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."
6
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2003-JAN-8: U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow ruled in 2002-NOV that the
W.C.O.T.C., as the TCM was then known, violated the copyright of a Christian organization in Oregon, the
Church of the Creator 7 by copying their name.
8 The TCM leader, white supremacist Matt Hale,
launched a lawsuit against
Judge Lefkow because of her decision. The church web site blasted the judge,
using anti-Semitic and racial slurs to urge its white supremacist members
to "show the k--- and n----- - loving judge that the jailing of . . .
Hale will not stop our Church of the Creator!" On 2003-JAN-8, Hale was
arrested and accused of conspiring with another individual
between 2002-NOV-29 and DEC-17 to kill Judge Lefkow. U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald said: "Freedom of speech does not include the freedom to
solicit murder. The conduct alleged in this indictment is disturbing on
many levels, but particularly so because it targeted a judge, whose sworn
duty is to apply the law equally and fairly to all who appear before her." 9
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2005-FEB-28: Judge Joan
Lefkow returned to her home to find her husband Michael Lefkow, 64, and
her mother Donna Humphrey, 89, dead in her basement. They had been shot
to death. The murders came one month before Matt Hale was scheduled to
be sentenced for trying to have the judge killed because of her handling
of the 2003-JAN trademark dispute. Authorities are investigating whether
the multiple murders were a work of revenge by white supremacists. Hale
said on MAR-03 that: "There is no way that any supporter of
mine could commit such a heinous crime. I totally condemn it and I want
the perpetrator caught and prosecuted...I only hope they sincerely wish
to apprehend the animal instead of railroading the innocent. Only an
idiot would think I would do this."
10 Police later determined that the mass murders were
unrelated to Hale and the Creativity Movement. They suspect a man who
was angry at Judge Lefkow's decision in a malpractice case. 11
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2005-APR-6: U.S. District
Judge James Moody sentenced Matthew Hale to 40 years in jail for
soliciting an undercover informant to murder Judge Lefkow. Judge Moody
said that this "strikes at the very core of our system of government."
11
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Conclusion:
Unless another charismatic leader surfaces in the TCM, the
movement might be finished.
Although TCM professed non-violence,
its white supremacist, anti-semitic, anti-gay teachings
appear to have inspired some of its members to commit homicide and other serious
terrorist acts. The membership will probably drift away to join other hate
groups.
These are good groups to stay away from.
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References:
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Ben Klassen, "On the Brink of a Bloody Racial War,"
(1993), Page 375.
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Rev. Matt Hale, "The Creator Membership Manual,"
Edition 2 (1999), Page 8
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"Report: Abortion fire investigation focused on
brother suspects," Associated Press, 1999-AUG-20, at: http://www.tampabayonline.net/news/news100o.htm
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"The hate crimes question," 1999-AUG-11, PBS
NewsHour on 1999-AUG-11, at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec99/
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Americans United press release at:
http://www.au.org/pr7899.htm.
See also AU spokesperson Barry Lynn's letter to Pat Robertson, at
http://www.au.org/7899let.htm,
and transcripts of Pat Robertson's on-air comments, at
http://www.au.org/7899tr.htm
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Jeremy Kelly, "White supremacist
guilty of knifing," Herald Sun, at:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au
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According to TCM's web site at:
http://www.churchofthecreator.org/, "CHURCH OF THE CREATOR?,
DIVINE RIGHT ORDER? and URI? are registered trademarks of TE-TA-MA TRUTH
FOUNDATION - FAMILY OF URI? INC. ? 1977-2002. All Rights Reserved."
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"Supremacist disagrees with ruling, sues judge,"
2002-DEC-27, Peoria Journal Star, at:
http://www.pjstar.com/news/local/
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Steve Warmbir & Scott Fornek, "White supremacist arrested
in plot to kill judge," Chicago Sun-Times, 2003-JAN-8, at:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/.
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"Jailed white supremacist disavows slayings. 'Only an idiot
would think I would do this,' Matthew Hale says," Associated Press,
2005-MAR-03.
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Natasha Korecki & Frnk Main, "Hale gets max: 40 years in
prison," Chicago Sun Times, 2005-APR-07, at:
http://www.suntimes.com/
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Other Internet sites about TCM:
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The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has a brief
guide to the TCM at:
http://www.adl.org/special_reports/hate_on_www |
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"My fianc?wants me to be a racist!", transcript
of a 1997 Jerry Springer Show featuring the TCM is at:
http://www.salonmagazine.com/ |
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ChurchFliers.com is a web site containing TCM activism
news, booklets and other materials. They also have reports on various
meetings. |
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Copyright © 1999 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2009-NOV-08
Author: B.A. Robinson
Sponsored link
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