Ben Klassen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Pontifex Maximus (of theChurch of the Creator) |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Bernhardt Klassen (1918-02-20)February 20, 1918 |
| Died | August 6, 1993(1993-08-06) (aged 75) Otto, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Resting place | Otto, North Carolina, U.S. 35°03′36″N83°23′16″W / 35.0600921°N 83.3876547°W /35.0600921; -83.3876547 |
| Spouse | Henrie Etta Klassen (née McWilliams) |
| Education | Saskatoon Normal School, Superior First Class Teacher's Certificate; University of Saskatchewan, B.A., 1943; University of Manitoba, B.Sc.E.E., 1943, Canada ROTC; Rosthern Junior College |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Creativity |
| Senior posting | |
| Period in office | 1973–93 |
| Predecessor | None (founded religion) |
| Successor | Richard McCarty |
Ben Klassen | |
|---|---|
| Member of theFlorida House of Representatives from theBroward County district | |
| In office November 1966 – March 1967 | |
Bernhardt "Ben" Klassen ((1918-02-20)February 20, 1918 (O.S. February 7, 1918) –(1993-08-06)August 6, 1993) was an Americanwhite supremacist politician and religious leader. He founded theChurch of the Creator with the publication of his bookNature's Eternal Religion in 1973. Klassen was openlyracist,antisemitic andanti-Christian and first popularized the term "Racial Holy War" within theWhite Power movement.[1]
Klassen was aRepublicanFlorida state legislator for several months, as well as a supporter ofGeorge Wallace's presidential campaign. In addition to his religious and political work, Klassen was anelectrical engineer and he was also the inventor of a wall-mounted electric can-opener.[2][3][4] Klassen held unorthodox views about dieting and health. He was anatural hygienist whoopposed the germ theory of disease as well as conventional medicine and promoted afruitarian,raw food diet.[5]
Bernhardt Klassen[6] was born on February 20, 1918, inRudnerweide (nowRozivka inChernihivka Raion inZaporizhzhia Oblast), Ukraine, to Bernhard and Susanna Klassen (née Friesen) aRussian Mennonite Christian couple. He had two sisters and two brothers. When Klassen was nine months old, he caughttyphoid fever and nearly died. Due to theRussian Civil War, circumstances during his early childhood were quite difficult. When he was five, the family moved to Mexico, where they lived for one year. In 1925, at age six, he moved with his family toHerschel, Saskatchewan, Canada. He attended the German-English Academy (nowRosthern Junior College).[7][8]
Klassen established areal estate firm inLos Angeles in partnership with Ben Burke. Believing that his partner was prone todrinking andgambling, Klassen eventually bought him out and became sole proprietor. He hired several salesmen, including Merle Peek, who convinced him to buy large land development projects inNevada. Klassen and Peek started a partnership called the Silver Springs Land Company, through which they founded the town ofSilver Springs, Nevada.[9] In 1952, Klassen sold his share of the company to Phillip Hess for $150,000 and retired.[10]
On March 26, 1956, Klassen filed an application with theU.S. Patent Office to patent a wall-mounted, electriccan opener which he marketed as Canolectric. In partnership with the marketing firm Robbins & Myers, Klassen created Klassen Enterprises, Inc. In the face of competition from larger manufacturers that could provide similar products more cheaply, Klassen and his partners dissolved the company in 1962.[11][4]
Klassen servedBroward County in theFlorida House of Representatives from November 1966 – March 1967,[2] running on an anti-busing, anti-government platform.[12] He campaigned for election to theFlorida Senate in 1967, but was defeated.[13] That same year, he was vice chairman of an organization in Florida which supportedGeorge Wallace's presidential bid.[3]
Klassen was a member of theJohn Birch Society, at one point operating an American Opinion bookstore, but became disillusioned with the Society because of what he viewed as its tolerant position towardsJews. In November 1970, Klassen, along with Austin Davis, created the Nationalist White Party. The party's platform was directed atWhiteChristians and it was explicitly religious and racial in nature; the first sentence of the party's fourteen-point program is "We believe that the White Race was created in the Image of the Lord." The logo of the Nationalist White Party was a "W" with a crown and a halo over it, and it would be used three years later as the logo of the Church of the Creator.
Less than a year after he created the Nationalist White Party, Klassen began expressing apprehension aboutChristianity to his connections through letters. These letters were not well received, and they effectively ended the influence of the Nationalist White Party.[14]
In 1973, Klassen founded the Church of the Creator (COTC) with the publication ofNature's Eternal Religion. Individual church members are called Creators, and the religion they practice is called Creativity.
In 1982, Klassen established the headquarters of his church inOtto, North Carolina. Klassen wrote that he established a school for boys. The original curriculum was a two-week summer program that included activities such as "hiking, camping, training in handling of firearms, archery, tennis, white water rafting and other healthy outdoor activities", as well as instruction on "the goals and doctrines of Creativity and how they could best serve their own race in various capacities of leadership."[15] In his ideology, Klassen disliked an "over-intellectualizing" of racial matters; one of the only other white supremacist writers he appreciated wasWilliam Gayley Simpson, the author of the 1978 bookWhich Way Western Man?[16]
In July 1992, George Loeb, a minister in the church, was convicted of murdering a black sailor in Jacksonville, Florida.[17] Fearing that a conviction might mean the loss of 20 acres of land worth about $400,000 in Otto, North Carolina, belonging to the church, Klassen sold it to anotherwhite supremacist,William Luther Pierce, author of theTurner Diaries, for $100,000.[18]
Klassen appointed himself Pontifex Maximus of the church until January 25, 1993, when he transferred the title to Dr. Rick McCarty.[19][20]
Ben Klassen first popularized the term "Racial Holy War" (RaHoWa) within the white nationalist movement. He also consistently calledblack people "niggers" in public discourse as well as in the literature of the COTC. Klassen wrote, "Furthermore, in looking up the word inWebster'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."[21]
In his 1987 bookRahowa – This Planet Is All Ours he claims thatJews createdChristianity in order to makewhite people weaker, and he said that the first priority should be to "smash the Jewish Behemoth".[22]
Klassen was anatural hygienist who promoted aback to nature philosophy that espoused fresh air, clean water, sunshine and outdoor exercise.[5][23][24] He recommended araw food diet which consisted of fruits and vegetables and believed that medicine andprocessed foods createcancer inside the body. Klassen wrote that food must 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."[24]
Klassen promoted "racial health" and natural hygiene principles, and he was influenced by the works ofHerbert M. Shelton.[5][25] Klassen believed thatfasting would cleanse the body of toxins, and he also believed that afruitarian raw food diet would curedisease.[5] Klassenrejected the germ theory of disease and believed that modern medicine was a Jewish multi-billion-dollar fraud.[23] Klassen contributed an introduction and a chapter oneugenics toArnold DeVries' bookSalubrious Living (1982).[5] The book endorsed fasting,sunbathing, fruitarian and raw food dieting.[5][26] HistorianGeorge Michael has written 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 atered meat andice cream."[27]
Klassen firmly opposedreligion because he believed it wassuperstitious, and he describedChristianity as a "Jewish creation" which was designed to unhingewhite people by promoting a "completely perverted attitude" about life and nature.[23] He rejected theafterlife as "nonsense".[23] He argued that man's morality and sense of purpose is based on the laws of nature and racial loyalty. Klassen believed that the white race was the sole builder ofcivilization and all of the advanced civilizations which existed inantiquity were created by white people but they were destroyed because they practicedmiscegenation.[23]
Following the death of his wife, the failure of his church[5][28] and a diagnosis ofcancer, Klassen took an overdose ofsleeping pills in an apparentsuicide either late on August 6 or early on August 7, 1993.[29][30][31] Klassen was buried on his North Carolina property in an area which he had previously designated "Ben Klassen Memorial Park".[32]
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