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The Church of Jesus ChristâChristian is an American Christian Identity, white supremacist church, which was founded in 1946 by Ku Klux Klan organizer [ citation needed] Wesley A. Swift in Lancaster, California. Swift was the son of a Methodist Episcopal Church, South minister and is considered a significant figure in the early years of the Christian Identity movement in the United States. [1] Swift's work and copyrights are carried on by Kingdom Identity Ministries.
The church was originally known as the Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation in Lancaster, California, assuming its present name in 1957. [2] The hyphenated name was used to express the belief that Jesus was not a Jew. [3]
After Wesley Swift's death in 1970, the ministry was continued by his wife Lorraine Swift. Roy Gillaspie and Arnold Murray were in leadership positions between 1950 and the 1970s. [4]
In February 2001, the names Church of Jesus ChristâChristian and Aryan Nations were transferred to Victoria and Jason Keenan when the Keenans won a US $6.3 million lawsuit against the organizations after being attacked by Aryan Nations paramilitary soldiers; the Aryan Nations compound was also transferred to the Keenans. [5] In March 2001, the Keenans sold the compound to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Carr Foundation, a human rights organization which plans to build a human rights center on the property. [6]
The church resurfaced in August 2009, five years after the death of Richard Butler, who resumed the ministry after the death of Swift.[ citation needed] The church is now headed by a council of three men, including Senior Pastor Paul R. Mullet. [7]