White Worship

THE WORLD Church of the Creator is a group of white supremacists with 3,000 followers, a website but no actual church, treading a fine line between political rhetoric and inciting physical violence.

It was founded in 1973 by a former Florida state legislator, Ben Klassen. It faded after his suicide in 1993, but was recently revived by an aspiring lawyer, Matt Hale. Hale, 27, recently appealed against a decision preventing him from practising law. Hale's bedroom is adorned with swastikas and the Israeli flag is used as a doormat. Smith, the suspect in the shootings, paid $35 to join the "church" last summer.