Smith Described Racist Hate in 1998 Interview

by Lisa Sorg

Indiana University sophomore August Smith doesn't look like he's brewing with malice but his hate list is lengthy: African-Americans, Hispanics, Christians, Jewish people, gays and lesbians.

As a member of the World Church of the Creator, a self-described "race religion" that espouses racism and totalitarianism, Smith is on a mission to whiten America.

Based in Peoria, Ill. the church claims 7,000 members nationwide, but the Bloomington congregation is small. Although Smith declined to divulge exact numbers, there are at least three, including a woman who heads the church's Women's Frontier.

Creativity's creed is simple, Smith says, "White people are best and they deserve the best. We don't believe all races are equal. We see all inferior races breeding, and the number of whites is shrinking. The mud people will turn this world into a cesspool."

When Smith speaks about his "faith," he speaks articulately, calmly, yet with a guarded flatness in his voice. A criminal justice major, he transferred from the University of Illinois to IU in June 1998 and immediately fired up his propaganda and membership campaign.

About three or four times a week -- until IU officials clamped down -- he walked around campus and Bloomington and tucked leaflets under car windshield wipers, earning him the moniker "the flier guy. "If we do nothing, we will condemn our children to live in an Alien Nation where there is no place to escape these non-White invaders," the fliers stated. "There is nothing wrong with wanting America to remain a racially and culturally European nation."

On campus, Smith says he's "trying to get equal rights for white students to organize a white student union. We want to show people that liberals like Clinton are destroying the racial basis of this country." But race isn't the only issue within the church. Members also oppose "rule by the masses." "We're not a big fan of democracy," Smith says understatedly. "We believe in totalitarianism."

That form of concentrated power can be found in the church, which was founded by Ben Klassen in 1973. He led the organization until his suicide in 1993. Interest in the church waned until 700 "Guardians of Faith," the most devoted church members, elected Illinois attorney Matt Hale as "Pontifex Maximums," to lead the organization.

Smith met Hale -- who inspired him to study criminal justice and pre-law -- last week."He told me to basically keep up the good work."

Despite Hale's grip on the church, even within the organization there is division over where to put the non-whites, once the proposed takeover is complete.

Although there's no timeline except "as soon as possible," the ex-patriots want to parcel the U.S. among the races, keeping the best land for themselves. "We want the Midwest. It has the most fertile land and is the best basis for a new nation," Smith says.

Others want to export non-whites to other countries. "Send the blacks back to Africa, the Asians back to Asia," Smith says. "They probably won't be very happy about it but they'll probably end up wanting to leave."

Smith differentiates the Creativity movement from several other white power groups in that it isn't rooted in Christianity. "It's not blacks and Jews, but Christianity is our biggest obstacle. It caters to the weakness of man and humble him," he says, adding the church has its own bible, Nature's Eternal Religion. "Creators don't have to be concerned with the next life."

Originally from Wilmette, Ill., a northern Chicago suburb, Smith began his personal journey to white supremacism when he entered college. "I looked through Aryan stuff and realized historically nations function best when there's one race. Otherwise it's a power struggle," he recalls. "I saw the influx of taxpayers paying for minorities. This country was founded for and by whites and that's when I decided I had to become an activist."

That decision cost him his friends -- although he says he's made new ones -- and has strained his relationship with his parents. Although he and his parents still speak to each other, he says, "My friends were race traitors and non-believers."

Although the church's Web page states that it will accomplish its goals without violence Smith says there could be circumstances where it could be called for. "We believe we can legally come to power through non-violence. But Hale says if they try to restrict our legal means then we have no recourse but to resort to terrorism andviolence."

After run-ins with the city and campus police over flyering, Smith has laid low in the late summer, concentrating his efforts in Indianapolis. "Indy's a big target for us. There are a lot more open minds. This community is la-la land."

But with the students returning for fall semester, Smith says he's re-energized about bringing his racist campaign back to "la-la land." He plans to start an official student organization -- although he'll need a faculty or staff adviser to sponsor it -- so "then I'll have the right to post things. Hale said if we need support he'll have 7,000 protesters here. It's freedom of religion."

Since he lists his phone number on the fliers, Smith says he often receives death threats. After a leafleting campaign in Martinsville, a man allegedly approached him with a baseball bat and later Smith received a call warning him, "We're not going to tolerate you putting something out in Martinsville."

Smith says he's undaunted by those threats. "I'm more afraid for my race than myself. Nature isn't concerned with the individual but the species."