Ben Klassen
Ben Klassen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Pontifex Maximus (of the Church of the Creator) |
| Personal | |
| Born | Bernhardt Klassen February 20, 1918 Rudnerweide (Molotschna), Ukrainian People's Republic (present-day Ukraine) |
| Died | August 6, 1993 (aged 75) Otto, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Resting place | Otto, North Carolina, U.S. 35°03′36″N 83°23′16″W / 35.0600921°N 83.3876547°W |
| Religion | Creativity |
| Nationality | American |
| Senior posting | |
| Period in office | 1973–93 |
| Predecessor | None (founded religion) |
| Successor | Richard McCarty |
Ben Klassen | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Broward County district | |
| In office November 1966 – March 1967 | |
| Occupation | Religious leader, writer |
|---|---|
| Language | 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 |
| Subject | Racism, religion |
| Spouse | Henrie Etta Klassen (née McWilliams) |
| Children | Kim Anita Klassen |
Bernhardt "Ben" Klassen
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Klassen was a Republican Florida state legislator, as well as a supporter of George Wallace's presidential campaign. In addition to his religious and political work, Klassen was an electrical engineer and he was also the inventor of a wall-mounted electric can-opener.[3][4][5] Klassen held unorthodox views about dieting and health. He was a natural hygienist who opposed the germ theory of disease as well as conventional medicine and promoted a fruitarian, raw food diet.[6]
Early life
 |
Klassen was born on February 20, 1918, in Rudnerweide (now Rozivka in Chernihivka Raion in Zaporizhzhia Oblast), Ukraine, to Bernhard and Susanna Klassen (née Friesen) a Russian Mennonite Christian couple. He had two sisters and two brothers. When Klassen was nine months old, he caught typhoid fever and nearly died. Due to the Russian 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 to Herschel, Saskatchewan, Canada. He attended the German-English Academy (now Rosthern Junior College).[7][1]
Entrepreneurship
Klassen established a real estate firm in Los Angeles in partnership with Ben Burke. Believing that his partner was prone to drinking and gambling, 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 in Nevada. Klassen and Peek started a partnership called the Silver Springs Land Company, through which they founded the town of Silver Springs, Nevada.[8] In 1952, Klassen sold his share of the company to Phillip Hess for $150,000 and retired.[1]
On March 26, 1956, Klassen filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office to patent a wall-mounted, electric can 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.[5][1]
Political career
Klassen served Broward County in the Florida House of Representatives from November 1966 – March 1967,[3] running on an anti-busing, anti-government platform.[9] He campaigned for election to the Florida Senate in 1967, but was defeated.[10] That same year, he was vice chairman of an organization in Florida which supported George Wallace's presidential bid.[4]
Klassen was a member of the John 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 towards Jews. In November 1970, Klassen, along with Austin Davis, created the Nationalist White Party. The party's platform was directed at White Christians 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 about Christianity to his connections through letters. These letters were not well received, and they effectively ended the influence of the Nationalist White Party.[1]
Church of the Creator
In 1973, Klassen founded the Church of the Creator (COTC) with the publication of Nature'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 in Otto, 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."[11]
In July 1992, George Loeb, a minister in the church, was convicted of murdering a black sailor in Jacksonville, Florida.
Klassen appointed himself Pontifex Maximus of the church until January 25, 1993, when he transferred the title to Dr. Rick McCarty.[1][14]
Racial holy war
Ben Klassen first popularized the term "Racial Holy War" (RaHoWa) within the white nationalist movement. He also consistently called
In his 1987 book Rahowa – This Planet Is All Ours he claims that Jews created Christianity in order to make white people weaker, and he said that the first priority should be to "smash the Jewish Behemoth".[16]
Personal beliefs
Klassen was a natural hygienist who promoted a back to nature philosophy that espoused fresh air, clean water, sunshine and outdoor exercise.[6][17][18] He recommended a raw food diet which consisted of fruits and vegetables and believed that medicine and processed foods create cancer 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."[18]
Klassen promoted "racial health" and natural hygiene principles, and he was influenced by the works of
Klassen firmly opposed religion because he believed it was superstitious, and he described Christianity as a "Jewish creation" which was designed to unhinge white people by promoting a "completely perverted attitude" about life and nature.[17] He rejected the afterlife as "nonsense".[17] 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 of civilization and all of the advanced civilizations which existed in antiquity were created by white people but they were destroyed because they practiced miscegenation.[17]
Death
Possibly depressed after the death of his wife, the failure of his church
Selected publications
- Natures Eternal Religion (1973)
- The White Man's Bible (1981)
- Salubrious Living (with Arnold DeVries, 1982)
- Expanding Creativity (1985)
- Building a Whiter and Brighter World (1986)
- On the Brink of a Bloody Racial War (1993)
References
- ^ ISBN 9780813033501.
- ^ Fletcher, Michael A. (6 July 1999). "Behind the Hate: A Racist 'Church'". Washington Post (Archives). Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
- ^ US: House of Representatives, archivedfrom the original on 24 September 2018, retrieved 27 October 2011.
- ^ a b Hesser, Charles F (7 Dec 1967), "Wallace Men Feud in Florida", The Miami News, p. 6–A.
- ^ a b US patent 2789345, Ben Klassen, published 1956-03-26
- ^ ISBN 978-1438462035. Archivedfrom the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ISBN 978-1403389640.
- ^ Silver Springs Chamber of Commerce (https://web.archive.org/web/20150224024854/http://silverspringsnevada.org/home-history.htm) Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ "News", Sarasota Herald Tribune, archived from the original on 2023-02-03, retrieved 2020-12-07.
- ^ "Ben Klassen", Sarasota Herald-Tribune (obituary), p. 6B, 10 Aug 1993.
- ^ Klassen, Ben (September 1983). Racial Loyalty Issue 4 - September 1983. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
- ^ "White Supremacist Convicted in Death Of City Serviceman". The Oklahoman. Associated Press. 30 July 1992.
- ^ Smothers, Ronald (20 May 1996). "Supremacist Told to Pay Black Family". New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
- ISBN 9781555533328
- ^ Klassen, Ben (1973). Natures Eternal Religion. Church of the Creator. p. 31.
- ISBN 978-0-78640647-0. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- ^ ISBN 978-0822330592
- ^ ISBN 0-415-94414-7
- ISBN 978-0-8156-3544-4
- ISBN 978-0739191040. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- ISBN 978-0415944144. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- ISBN 978-0766013711. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- ^ Ellison, Quinton (February 2, 2011). "Hate by any name is still hate". Smoky Mountain News. Archived from the original on March 31, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0813033501