Defense of The Creativity Movement

Declaration of Ken O. Damlice:                                                                                                                                                                  It would take me about one year to respond to the document submitted by Susan Prose trying to undermine The Creativity Movement also known as The World Church of the Creator or The Church of the Creator. Let me respond to her criticisms and those of others who do not accept TCM as a legitimate religion.                                                                                                                                                                                        No metaphysics.  The claim is made that TCM has no metaphysics. We should not expect a religion like TCM, which teaches that nothing transcends nature, to have a metaphysics.  Judaism does not have a metaphysics. If it does would someone please name for me five Jewish theologians who have written substantial metaphysical works. There are none. Does this mean that Judaism is not a religion?                        Does not address existential concerns. This is simply not true. TCM has an overarching concern with the continued existence of the white race. This is an existential concern by definition.                              No moral code. The morality of TCM is simplistic: the defense of white supremacy. Hinduism does not have a moral code that Hindus can point to—like the Jews have the Ten Commandments and the Christians have the Sermon on the Mount. Does this mean that Hinduism is not a religion?                                          No worship. TCM does not worship anything yet is deeply religious. Zen practitioners will tell you that they do not worship anything-not even Buddha. Does this mean that Zen is not a religion.                     Hatred. The claim is made that TCM is not a religion but a hate group. The 30 Years War (1618-1648) in Europe between the Protestants and the Catholics resulted in the deaths of more than a million by all estimates and possibly as many as 11 million people. The two clashing groups obviously hated each other with a passion. Was either of these two groups a hate group and not a denomination of Christianity?                                                                                                                                                                       Violence.  I know that TCM is peaceful because Matt Hale wrote me in the 1990s that it was urgent to get unstable people out of the Movement because they were capable of committing violence. James Logsdon, the longtime head of Security for TCM said the same thing to me a few years ago. Is Christianity violent? While Jesus did say that we Christians must love our enemies and turn the other cheek and he also said that those who live by the sword perish by the sword—the Gospels are not consistent on Jesus and non-violence. Luke quotes Jesus saying in the Parable of the Long Journey: But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them-bring them here and kill them in front of me (Luke 19:27 NIV). While Jesus was talking about the king in his parable commentators agree that he was referring to himself.                                                                                                                                                                                                  Instead of rushing to the unabridged dictionary for a definition of religion as Susan Prose has done let us try something more sophisticated. Two famous theologians of the modern period have given precise definitions of religion in highly influential works. In his seminal work The Christian Faith Friedrich Schleiermacher defines religion in general before describing the Christian faith in particular. He defines RELIGION as the FEELING of ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCE. While Ben Klassen makes it clear in The Klassen Letters that Creators do not worship anything—not even nature– his works are permeated with the FEELING of ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCE on the ETERNAL LAWS of NATURE. The eternal laws of nature are referred to every several pages throughout his works—they are a true mantra. The equally famous 20^th century Protestant theologian Paul Tillich wrote in The Dynamics of Faith that Faith is an ULTIMATE CONCERN. Certainly Creators believe that the survival and expansion of the white race is their religion or their ULTIMATE CONCERN. I think that if Schleiermacher and Tillich were alive today they would classify TCM as a religion.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Matt Hale asked me in my Declaration to say something about my background. I graduated from college in 1968 having taken the course in World Religions. In 1980 I graduated from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis with a Master of Divinity (Cum Laude). CTS was then and is now accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and can be found at www.cts.edu In 1985 I began my career cataloging original records of foreign language theology books for Princeton Theological Seminary. I did one book after another for 23 years—retiring in 2008. For this work I had active standing as a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) with responsibilities other than preaching (OP). I did well over 10,000 works and assigned a class number and subject headings for each. I cataloged the first work we ever received by Ben Klassen, i.e. Expanding Creativity.  The choice of class numbers for this book was easy because the Library of Congress 1975 Classification Schedule had a number under religious cults just for The Church of the Creator. So apparently the prestigious religion subject specialist for the Library of Congress believed that The Church of the Creator was a religious cult.                                                                                                                                                       But that is enough concerning the exercise of the mind.  You can’t really judge a cult as either religious or secular on the basis of intellect.  Religion is a matter of feeling and experience. You must enter into a cult sympathetically to make a judgment concerning its claim to be a religion. If someone were to participate in TCM and later conclude that it is not a religion that would have credibility with me. Susan Prose’s analysis has no credibility with me because she does not have a feel for TCM. She has been paid to make a negative judgment from the outside.  I have been an Official Supporter of TCM since 1993. I have been corresponding with Matt Hale since that time.  I have read all the writings of Ben Klassen at least once. I have communicated with Head of Security James Logsdon for several years. I am a Facebook friend of his so I have been involved in intra-church dialogue. A few years ago when Sabrina Fulton was pontificating on the virtues of her son Trayvon Martin with Christian language I decided to convert to Creativity as a religion for white people exclusively. I corresponded with Matt Hale with my concerns. I did not take the final step of becoming a member because I felt that I had been a Christian for too many years. Needless to say I considered TCM to be a full-fledged religion. I not only thought but FELT based on my experience that Creativity was a religion.                                                                                                                I, Ken O. Damlice, hereby swear under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.  Sincerely, Ken O. Damlice, August 7^th, 2017.