Church of Jesus Christ–Christian
American white supremacist church
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The Church of Jesus Christ–Christian, formerly the White Identity Church of Jesus Christ–Christian,[1] is an American Christian Identity, white supremacist church, which was founded in 1946 by Ku Klux Klan organizer [citation needed] Wesley A. Swift in Lancaster, California. Swift was the son of a Methodist Episcopal Church, South minister and is considered a significant figure in the early years of the Christian Identity movement in the United States.[2] Swift's work and copyrights are carried on by Kingdom Identity Ministries.
History
The church was originally known as the Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation in Lancaster, California, assuming its present name in 1957.[3] The hyphenated name would seem unobjectionable to an outsider, but was used to express the Identity belief that Jesus was not a Jew.[4]
After Wesley Swift's death in 1970, the ministry was continued by his wife Lorraine Swift. Roy Gillaspie was in a leadership position between 1950 and the 1970s.[5]
In February 2001, the names Church of Jesus Christ–Christian and Aryan Nations were transferred to Victoria and Jason Keenan when the Keenans won a US $6.3 million lawsuit against the organizations after being attacked by Aryan Nations paramilitary soldiers; the Aryan Nations compound was also transferred to the Keenans.[6] In March 2001, the Keenans sold the compound to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Carr Foundation, a human rights organization which plans to build a human rights center on the property.[7]
The church resurfaced in August 2009, five years after the death of Richard Butler, who resumed the ministry after the death of Swift.[citation needed] The church is now headed by a council of three men, including Senior Pastor Paul R. Mullet.[8]
Further reading
- On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left by Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth, 2000