Creativity (religion)

For the Christian new religious movement, see Church of the Creator.

Creativity
Creativity flag; the red field symbolizes the struggle for the survival, expansion, and advancement of the white race, and the white triangle on the right represents a "whiter and brighter world".[1]
Founder
Ben Klassen
Regions with significant populations
Midwestern United States, Texas, Montana, Eastern Europe, Australia, and United Kingdom
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 and Polish
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Creativity, historically known as the (World) Church of the Creator, is an atheistic[2] (nontheistic) white supremacist new religious movement espousing white separatism, antitheism, antisemitism, anti-Christian sentiment, 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.[3][4] 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 (CA also known as the Church of Creativity), and the Creativity Movement. The two groups have common origins,[5] both being created in 2003 after Klassen's successor Matthew F. Hale (who had renamed the organisation New Church of the Creator) was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison.[6][7]

Creativity claims a naturalistic and racialistic worldview, based on the "survival, expansion and advancement of the White race",[8][9] according to what the group classifies as the "eternal laws of nature, the experience of history, on logic and common sense".[10] Members of the group believe in a "racial holy war"[11][12] between "white and non-white races", such as Jews, black people, and mixed-race people.[13][14][15][16][17][18]

  1. ^ Robinson, B. A. "The Creativity Movement: Introduction". ReligiousTolerance.org. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
  2. ^ "Matt Hale". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved February 15, 2022. Klassen had founded the Church of the Creator in 1973 based on the belief that "white people are the creators of all worthwhile culture and civilization." Race itself was the sole religious doctrine of this "church," an essentially atheistic discipline that views the Judeo-Christian god as a phantom "super-spook."
  3. ^ "The Creativity Movement". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  4. ^ "You are being redirected..." www.adl.org. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  5. ^ Michael, George (2003). Confronting Right Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA. Routledge. p. 72. ISBN 978-1134377619.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference halearrest was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference guilty was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference adl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Henry, Sarah (December 12, 1993). "Marketing Hate: The Church of the Creator Has Sold Violent Racism as Religion for 20 Years. Now, It's the Skinheads Who Are Buying, and Some Serious Head-Bashing Has Begun". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  10. ^ Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement
  11. ^ "Creativity Movement".
  12. ^ "Church of the Creator Timeline".
  13. ^ "The Creativity Movement".
  14. ^ "Te-ta-ma Truth Foundation — Family of Uri, Inc., Plaintiff-appellant, v. World Church of the Creator, Defendant-appellee, 297 F. 3d 662 (7th Cir. 2002)".
  15. ^ Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies, p. 147
  16. ^ Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management: Issues and Tactics, p. 121
  17. ^ The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, p. 218
  18. ^ The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration, p. 41