British Israel leader In the 1940s, Swift founded his own church, Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation, which he renamed the
Church of Jesus Christ–Christian in 1957. The church's website states that "Wesley Swift is considered the single most significant figure in the early years of the Christian Identity movement in the United States." Most sources give 1948 as the year in which Swift incorporated his church, but one source reported 1946.
Michael Barkun described Swift as the "central figure" in Christian Identity between the 1940s and his 1970 death.
Ku Klux Klan In 1946, while living in Lancaster, California, Swift was taken in for questioning by police in connection with a cross burning near San Bernardino. Swift denied being involved in the Klan at the time. Swift was involved in the revival of a branch of the
Ku Klux Klan in California during the mid-1940s, helping to establish the short lived California Klan.
Roy Elonzo Davis and
William Upshaw were in California at the time and they assisted in fundraising efforts for the Klan. Swift worked closely with
Gerald L.K. Smith, an American Nazi sympathizer and politician during the 1940s. Swift was billed as a speaker at the
Little Rock Nine protests, but did not speak and instead served as one of the hooded klansmen escorting and protecting Gerald Smith during one of his speeches.
Christian Identity pioneer "Swift pioneered a particularly insidious form" of racism which became "the most distinctive element" of Christian Identity theology: the belief that non-whites and Jews are the "biological offspring" of Satan (the
serpent). Swift combined the two-seed-line teaching of British Israelism with
Russel Kelso Carter's theory about the sexual nature of Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden. He concluded that "the violation of Divine law by Lucifer" was caused by the "
interbreeding" of "the peoples of earth". He insisted that all of the non-white races were the products of interbreeding between the peoples of the Earth and Cain's descendants. Swift believed "that the only descendants of Adam are the white men", and he also believed that "the rest of the beings represent the agents of evil because of their direct link with the fallen angels". Swift continued to promote some classical British Israelite beliefs. He believed that the United States was the true Land of Israel and he also believed that the Anglo-Saxon race constituted the true descendants of the ancient Israelites, stating "This great nation of ours is one of the great nations of Israel." Swift deviated from traditional British Israelite thought by associating God's "divine covenant" with a
race, rather than a
nation.
William Potter Gale was a disciple of Swift who grew in importance in the group. In a 1965 report, the
Attorney General of California named Swift as the leader of the California Rangers and the
Christian Defense League, paramilitary organizations for white supremacists. Swift spread his teachings through recorded tapes of his sermons and tracts. Swift did not create a systematic theology. Beyond his racial views, he did not offer any other significant religious views. Swift claimed that his teachings were the true successor of British Israelite thought. He traced himself in a line of succession back to the earliest teachers of the ideology through his teacher, Phillip Monson, to
Howard Rand, to
C.A.L. Totten, to
Edward Hine. Gerald Smith publicized Swift's ministry through his publications in which he advertised Swift's tracts and recordings on Christian Identity topics beginning in the 1940s. Smith also assisted Swift by organizing speaking tours and conventions for British Israelite and white supremacist communities during the 1940s and 1950s.
William Branham, who was influenced by Swift's teachings, re-branded elements of Christian Identity as the "
Serpent Seed" and from 1958, he spread it among his followers. Several figures associated with Swift were also key members of Branham's campaigning team. Swift's ideology has influenced generations of white supremacists. By 1966, Swift had established a chain of churches throughout the United States, and as a result, some of his churches were located in California, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Florida, and Washington. In the United States in the 1990s, 245 ministers and groups were reportedly promoting the Christian Identity teachings which he espoused in 41 states.
David Duke and
Tom Metzger were heavily influenced by Swift's teachings and were major promoters of his teachings in the 1970s and 1980s. After Swift's death, the headquarters of Swift's church was moved to Idaho and renamed
Aryan Nations by his successor,
Richard Girnt Butler. Butler built on Swift's teachings to build what he called a "white bastion" in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Swift collapsed and died of a heart attack in a Mexican clinic on October 8, 1970, while he was waiting to receive treatment for kidney disease and diabetes. ==References==