Matt Hale'S Gospel Of Racial Hate

The Hartford Courant/August 22, 2000

Nothing mandatory about it -- it was just a suggestion, said Matt Hale, genially. But it was probably better if I didn't keep calling him Matt. Matt explained it like this:

Given that he is to the World Church of the Creator what the Pope is to Roman Catholics, my asking, "Hey, Matt, how's it hanging" at the start of our interview was kind of like saying "Yo, John what's up?" during an audience with the Pope.

Not that Matt minded the familiarity -- but his followers would perceive it as disrespect.

Pontifex Maximus (highest priest) was such a mouthful. Mightn't Pont do for short? "Just call me Rev. Hale," he laughed. Rev. Hale then, because far be it from me to provoke the wrath of his followers. Not that they are many, but most are armed and some are dangerous.

Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, for instance, whose two-state shooting spree over the 1998 July 4 weekend killed an African American ex- Northwestern University basketball coach and a Korean doctoral student, and wounded nine other assorted Jews, blacks and Asians.

A misunderstood guy, according to Hale -- but he'll set that record straight in Connecticut this week as his show "White Revolution" is broadcast on public access TV in New Haven area towns. Smith, who killed himself after the shooting spree, "was just a regular guy ... pushed to the limit by the constant persecution white activists have to face."

In particular, Smith was enraged that Pontifex Maximus Hale was barred on moral grounds from practicing as a lawyer in Illinois after his 1998 graduation from law school. But uh ... these authorities who wouldn't let Hale practice -- white men, presumably? "Of course," Hale replied.

And Smith, 21, shot all nonwhite, nongovernmental employees. "Point well-taken," Hale said. "We hate the politicians and the government as much as anybody else, but we don't tell our members who to go out and shoot -- we tell them not to shoot anybody."

And if it happens that they are Asians, African Americans and Jews, well ... "You have to understand," Hale said. "Our religion doesn't believe in compassion for the mud race." Well then -- that makes it all okey-dokey.

Connecticut already has three World Church "chapters" (one post office box in Fairfield, one in the Hawleyville section of Newtown and one in Wallingford), but I am going to be hopeful and presume that each has one member and that most of you shall be shocked by what I am about to say:

This fellow Hale? Regardless of the evil he speaks, you wouldn't believe how likable he seems. This RAHOWA salute -- sure, it means Racial Holy War, but he chirps it to me breezily, as if it was Aloha!

Not knowing, of course, that I have a toehold in several of the "mud races" he so despises (Irish/Iraqi/German, probably Jewish) because I don't tell him. It's too much fun making him guess. What's a white person, I ask. Many of the most up-to-date geneticists say there no scientific basis for the concept of race, so how does he know who's who?

"Europeans, gosh," he replies.

What about Spaniards? "White Spaniards, obviously, are white."

What about Italians of Sicilian descent, who tend to be swarthier, possibly because Sicily is closer to Africa? "Our basic rule or test is you can tell a person is of another ethnicity if they have kinky hair and a flat nose." What about Arabs? "I don't think people have ever considered Arabs to be white. You look at Saddam Hussein, you know he is not white."

But some Persians have complexions the color of snow and hair close to Asian in straightness.

And what of Cubans, Turks, Argentinians and others? Physical appearance can vary kaleidoscopically among countrymen.

Hale offers that, although there is some point where the oceans run together, doesn't mean there isn't one called the Atlantic and another called the Pacific.

Well, I ask him, what about me? Though my parents were of Italian- American descent, I am adopted, of mixed-lineage origin, checking "other" wherever race is required.

"Send me your picture so I can tell you whether you are white or not," Hale responds. "Don't you want to know?"

I don't, even if I believed in such a thing -- but the absurdity of having Hale "decide" for me was irresistibly appealing. Am I one of "Nature's Finest Creatures," or a contaminant of their Eden, until such time I am purged in their Racial Holy War?

Says Hale, "Connecticut is going to be a very good state for us to fight for the white people whose future is being sold out." But he's never been here -- or many other places.

The world headquarters of the World Church of the Creator is a room inside the house of his father, a retired cop in East Peoria, Ill. And though one of World Church's first orders of business to new members is to go forth and multipy, Hale has yet to manage it.

At 25, he married a 16-year-old WCOTC member, but she left him three months later. ("I divorced her," he says.) In 1998, he placed a personal ad on the Aryan Dating Page Web site for "a young, attractive, positive, dependable, creative, intelligent and open-minded white woman," but he hasn't found that special person yet.

Do you have a thing for blondes, I asked him. "No, why?" Because your World Church Web site has a couple of cartoon-like illustrations of the blonde, babelicious Pamela Anderson variety, the kind that makes boys say hook-me-up-with-some-of-dat.

The Skinhead Frequently Asked Questions page also would have appeal for the younger generation. There was heavy stuff of course, such as:

Q: Every time I go to a skinhead concert, I hear Sieg Heil, 14 words, 88 and ZOG. What do those words and numbers mean?

A: Sieg Heil means Hail Victory in German. The 14 words are, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and 88 means: the eighth letter of the alphabet is H, so HH, Heil Hitler. ZOG means Zionist Occupational Government in regard to the federal whores who enjoy burning innocent women and children alive. "As creators, we prefer to simply use `JOG' for Jewish Occupied Government. Straight to the point."

But there were other questions indicating there was some fun to be had:

Q: What would be your favorite beer?

A: "All skinheads know their beer and many have varieties but we can all agree on Guinness beer being the all-time best!" Amazing, isn't it, how the World Church of the Creator just knows this kind of stuff?

You'd figure Hale's hatred was based on some kind of personal ill done to him or his family. Nope. "That's the beauty of what I feel," he says. "I want to see white culture remain white."

And I want to see how you do in Connecticut, I told him. "Don't worry, I'll be calling you anyway to let you know what color you are."