In 1973, Ben Klassen announced the birth of the Church of the Creator, publishing a 511-page book entitled Nature's Eternal Religion. In it, Klassen wrote, "we completely reject the Judeo-democratic-Marxist values of today and supplant them with new and basic values, of which race is the foundation." Sharing the Identity movement's view that non-whites are subhuman "mud people," Klassen believed "that which is good for the White Race is the highest virtue" and "that which is bad for the White Race is the ultimate sin."⁴⁶ "Rahowa," an acronym for "Racial Holy War," was Klassen's battle cry and remains a rallying point for "Creators" today. The heart of his "religious creed" was "total war" against Jews and non-whites, "politically, militantly, financially, morally and religiously."

Under Klassen's leadership, Church of the Creator grew slowly but steadily. That growth stopped abruptly two decades later, in 1992, when George Loeb, a Church Reverend, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Harold Mansfield Jr., an African-American Persian Gulf War veteran. In 1994, Mansfield's family, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, won $1 million in damages from Klassen's Church. Klassen appears to have anticipated this lawsuit, as he tried to rid the group of its assets and committed suicide in 1993.

Continuing legal problems forced Klassen's successor, Richard McCarty, to dissolve the group. In two separate incidents in California, police averted potential bombing sprees that were to be directed at Jews, Blacks, and homosexuals. In both cases, the would-be terrorists were closely affiliated with branches of Klassen's Church.

Church of the Creator was reborn in 1996 with the emergence of the young, charismatic Matt Hale as its leader. Following Hale's ascension as Pontifex Maximus (an ancient Roman title designated for the Church's supreme leader), the Church of the Creator became known as World Church of the Creator. Aggressive pamphleteering ensued; new local chapters were created, and membership has grown. Since Hale's ascension, Creators have been arrested in Florida for attacking an African-American boy and his father.

Additionally, WCOTC spawned dozens of sites on the World Wide Web, probably because most of its members are young and computer-literate. While Klassen was in his 70s when he led the Church, Hale is in his 20s, and he has taken his Church onto the Web with a vengeance.⁴⁷

At the group's main site, a document entitled "Expanding Creativity on the Net" (referring to the racist, anti-Semitic "religion" practiced by WCOTC) outlines Hale's plan for an "Internet Blitzkrieg." Calling the WCOTC central site "one of the finest White Power pages out there," Hale asserts that the Internet "has the potential to reach millions of White People with our message and we need to act on that immediately."

"We call on all Creators and White Racial Comrades to go to [Internet discussion groups] and debate and recruit with NEW people," he declares, "post our URL everywhere, as soon as possible."

Updated frequently, the WCOTC Home Page features books for sale, articles about WCOTC, editorials by Hale from The Struggle newsletter, and Hale's weekly "Voice of The Struggle" audio-on-demand broadcasts. The site makes WCOTC membership easy, providing a membership form, dozens of "contact points" in the United States, and a lengthy membership manual that covers topics from a WCOTC "Wedding Ceremony" to "Dealing with Law Enforcement."

According to this manual, "the inferior mud races are our deadly enemies, and the most dangerous of all is the Jewish race." Creators are urged to "relentlessly expand the White Race, and keep shrinking our enemies." Also spreading anti-Semitism, the "Jew Watch" section of the site contains the full text of Henry Ford's hate tract The International Jew. The online version of FACTS That the Government and the Media Don't Want You to Know, a pamphlet widely distributed by WCOTC, claims that Jews control the media, promotes the myth of a "Kosher Food Tax," and reprints spurious anti-Semitic documents purportedly penned by Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.

Connected in a "Creator Webring" (which links WCOTC sites, one to the next, in a virtual circle), the World Church subsidiary sites serve a variety of purposes, though they share significant content with the group's main site. Many of these subsidiary sites refer to specific locales, such as Central Indiana, Ohio, or Southern Florida. WCOTC also has an international presence on the Web, with three sites written in Swedish and one in German.

Many World Church sites are housed at WCOTC.COM, which claims to be "dedicated to hosting all the WCOTC Web Pages all over the White World." This site's administrators, based in central Florida, charge a minimal yearly fee to house Creativity-oriented Web sites. The originator of WCOTC.COM is a Creator calling himself "Wiking88," who also works with Candidus Productions, "World Church of the Creator's official Web Design team."⁴⁸ Though creating simple Web sites is fairly easy, even for people who are not computer experts, Candidus Productions offers to create professional-quality, technologically complex Web pages that employ "Java and CGI scripts" and "custom graphic design." The sites created by Candidus Productions are actually impressive, using bold graphics that attract attention.

Two World Church sites designed by "Wiking88" highlight WCOTC's aggressive recruiting techniques: World Church of the Creator Kids! and WCOTC Teens. With sites like these, easily accessible to young Web surfers, the danger to impressionable youngsters posed by hate's reach on the World Wide Web becomes evident.

The WCOTC Kids! site (subtitled "Creativity for Children!") utilizes enticing graphics to lure young Web users. For instance, the site posts a picture of a white family next to the phrase, "The purpose of making this page is to help the younger members of the White Race understand our fight." While many of the documents at the site are copied directly from the WCOTC membership manual, one ­ "What It Means To Be A Creator" -- is an adaptation of a membership manual piece, "The Essence of a Creator." The children's version of this hateful tract simplifies and tones down its language, making its racist ideology easier for children to understand.

Also available at the Kids! site are "Coloring Pages" and "Crossword Puzzles." Children are urged to "have fun" solving these puzzles while helping "educate" themselves "in the Creed of Creativity." Kids are encouraged to E-mail the site so that Creators can "answer any questions" they might have about the crosswords. It is suggested that youngsters print out and color illustrations bearing calligraphic, medieval designs, apparently upheld by WCOTC as artistic accomplishments of the "white race."

At its Teens site, WCOTC plans to create an interactive message board and post articles by teen-age Creators. This site displays a few particularly violent images: beside a drawing of corpses hanging from a tree and a monk being assaulted, "Wiking88" expresses the Church's hate of Christianity, which it considers a "Jewish" religion. "We can't allow this alien creed, to brainwash our children, and ruin our future with their Jewish greed," he writes. "Remember the past, remember what they did, kill them all off, and lob off their Christian heads!"

Similarly steeped in violence is the White Berets Web site, where a drawing of white men holding guns and a WCOTC flag is set against a green, camouflage background. It describes the Church's "security legions," composed of "White Berets" and "White Rangers," who are charged with providing "security services for members and Church property." Though these uniformed militants are urged to "abide by the law of the land," they are instructed to own a handgun, practice "martial arts," and school themselves in "police communications."⁴⁹

The White Berets site also links to a "Frequently Asked Questions" pamphlet about racist Skinheads (violent, shaven-headed youths). In fact, the "White Berets" pictured at the site are themselves racist skinheads: they have shaved heads, wear suspenders, and sport combat boots. WCOTC has courted racist skinheads since the 1980s, a few WCOTC sites are specifically designed to target that element of the white supremacist "movement."

Visitors must click "OK" in a window that declares "Whites Only" before entering the Skinheads of Racial Holy War site, where they are greeted by a drawing of a giant WCOTC "White Beret" crushing a tiny, Hasidic Jew in his closed fist. The Web site for the SS Bootboys, who are referred to as the WCOTC "Church Band,"⁵⁰ also reflects a skinhead theme. This group of skinhead musicians, which has been active in the San Francisco area since the mid-1990s, plays what it calls "WP metal" [white power heavy metal music].⁵¹ In addition to racist and anti-Semitic articles by William Pierce and Don Black, the SS Bootboys site provides Web users with audio recordings of the group's songs to download, such as "Coon" and "White Patriot."

Along with these WCOTC skinhead sites, Resistance Records, a racist Skinhead rock-and-roll record label, has long had a site on the Web. Resistance was founded by three Church members, and its former president, George Eric Hawthorne, has been described as "a top honcho in the Church of the Creator."⁵² While the Resistance Records site was one of the first racist skinhead sites on the Web, there are now dozens of sites that promote skinheads and their hate-filled brand of rock music.

Also Online:

Special Report - March 1998
Recurring Hate: Matt Hale and the
World Church of the Creator