Wesley A. Swift

Wesley A. Swift was one of the original leaders of the racist and antisemitic Christian Identity doctrine which William Branham would later rebrand as "Serpent's Seed".[1] Swift either influenced or worked directly with several men associated with William Branham's ministry, including the Rev. LeRoy Kopp who would become an icon in Branham's "Message" sect for his interview with William Branham in the video "Twentieth Century Prophet".[2]  Swift was present at the Little Rock Nine incident in Civil Rights,[3] which was heavily influenced by Roy E. Davis' Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.[4]  Over time, Swift became an "authority on the subject of race",[5] and his national lectures and radio broadcasts quickly spread Christian Identity theology.

Swift was a student at the Angelus Temple Bible School[6] during the time LeRoy Kopp was working with the Angelus Temple as a leader in the Foursquare Church sect led by Aimee Semple McPherson.[7] Kopp would later become the leader of the Angelus Temple Evangelists,[8] and finally, the head pastor of the Calvary Temple[9] which would frequently host William Branham's revivals.[10]  While studying in the church, Swift's wife was nearly kidnaped by men who claimed Swift was a member of a wealthy family from Chicago.[11] Swift began shooting at the kidnapers, sparking an investigation by the Los Angeles police.[12]

Swift also studied at Philip E. J. Monson's "Kingdom Bible College" where he was trained in a white supremacy version of British Israelism[13] that included the "Two-Seed Theory" which asserted that Eve mated with the Serpent from the Garden of Eden to produce two races of people, and which Branham would later re-brand as his "Serpent's Seed Doctrine".[14] Philip Monson was the District Superintendent and California State Secretary of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, managing the Pacific Coast, with authority over California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Monson combined white supremacy with the British Israel doctrine, which had a profound influence on Swift. Monson first introduced the two-seed Doctrine as early as 1928 and republished it in literature multiple times in the 1930s.[15]  

Swift was also strongly influenced by Gerald Burton Winrod,[16] an extremely vocal white supremacist and anti-Semite with deep connections to several key figures in William Branham's inner circle.  Winrod held several meetings and revivals spreading Christian fundamentalism mixed with white supremacy, some of which were youth rallies in collaboration with McPherson.[17]  

The form of British Israelism that Rand and Monson taught deviated sharply from the versions preached by Californian Christian leaders like Joe Jeffers, Gene Scott and the Armstrongs. Unlike original British Israelism, which claimed modern-day Jewish people – “the tribe of Judah” – were related to Saxons and Celts via the “Lost Tribes of Israel”, Rand and his followers taught that the Jews of the 20th Century were Canaanites – descendants of Isaac’s son Esau, who had lost his birthright as Patriarch of the Israelites to his brother Jacob, and had married outside the Abrahamic lineage. As a result, so-called “Jews” were actually Semitic impostors, whereas the true Israelites had been dispersed into Northern and Western Europe, and were the White race of today – a Chosen People blessed by God to dominate all His Creation.  Married to this was an even more sinister concept: the so-called “Two-Seed Theory”. In Randian British Israelism, this was the idea that Adam and Eve were the first true humans, created by God in about 7400 BC to have dominion over “the beasts of the field” – the prototype pseudo-humans who preceded them in the six days of creation, and who were identified with the non-White races. The fall from Eden came when Eve, yielding to the temptations of either Satan or a demonic entity in the form of the Serpent, mated with the creature and birthed Cain, the murderer of Adam’s birth son Abel. [18]

Swift was also a leader in the Anglo-Saxon Christian movement[19] based on British Israelism theology, a theology that Branham's campaign manager, Gordon Lindsay was a strong proponent of and advocated for during speaking engagements.[20]  Similarly, Clem Davies who was involved with early promoters in William Branham's ministry held speaking engagements and published books intended to establish "Anglo-Saxon Christians" as a basis for Christian Identity.[21] Swift's Bakersfield church was named, "Anglo-Saxon Christian Church".[22]

Swift's usage of the "Two-Seed Doctrine", however, would become a much bigger threat to the political and religious landscape of the 1950s and 1960s.  Combined with the fears of nuclear war, communism, and other concerns of the era, the Christian Identity doctrine became a fundamental platform for white supremacist and anti-semitic groups to base religious and political theology.  Before William Branham added his fuel to the already burning flame with "Serpent's Seed", Swift made huge strides towards embedding the doctrine in mainstream Christianity.  Combined, the two had enough influence that Christian Identity quickly became a "cult for the racist right".[23]

That's the mother race of the Anglo-Saxon people, in England. That's right. And don't think…You don't have to go to England, just go down here in the southern states, you'll find the same thing.
- William Branham[24]

When Roy E. Davis and William D. Upshaw[25] set up their base of operations in San Bernardino collecting money for the Ussher-Davis Children's orphanage that fronted their work towards sparking the Third Wave of the Ku Klux Klan, Swift was working with Detroit pastor Gerald L. K. Smith to revive the KKK in California.[26]  Swift was Smith's bodyguard.[27]  When the California Klan became public in April of 1946, Swift took the lead in a cross-burning rally held in the Big Bear Valley.  He said, "The Klan is here in Big Bear Valley to stay.  We intend to form restrictive covenants here and elsewhere in order to hold the line of pure Americanism".[28]  It should be noted shortly prior to the California revival of the Klan, Upshaw held conventions on subjects such as "Americanism that will save America"[29] and Upshaw was the head of the "department of Americanism"[30] in Davis' orphanage that fronted his funding for the Klan.  According to witnesses that testified against Upshaw and Davis, Upshaw helped Davis pose as a federal agent to create assumptions of federal authority.[31]

Also during this time, Foursquare minister Herrick Holt began raising funds to erect an orphanage in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.  Holt was also a leader in the Foursquare Gospel sect led by Aimee Semple McPherson, [32] and began plans to open his "Sharon Orphanage" in May 1944.[33]  In the late 1940s this orphanage, its leaders, and its students became the flame that ignited William Branham's ministry and his "Latter Rain" doctrine.[34]  Once it was established, Roy E. Davis relocated to Fort Worth, Texas[35] where he would promote Branham's ministry through The Voice of Healing[36] and lead the southern branches of the Ku Klux Klan as the Imperial Wizard of the Original Knights of the Ku Klux Klan[37] and the president of the Oak Cliff White Citizens Council.[38]

Swift's right-wing religious theology was, like many other ideologies William Branham propagated and taught others, very militant.  The religious leaders at the Sharon Orphanage, for example, formed "Joel's Army".  This group of religious extremists created a militant form of Christianity opposed to both government and Christian denominations.[39]  Like Swift, Branham began preaching sermons exciting crowds about a "super race"[40] that would overthrow the United States Government. 

Swift:
"If you believe the Bible, you are going to be a segregationist.  If you believe the Bible, you are not going to work out any deal of coexistence in the devil's kingdom, because your Race was sent down here to overthrow it".[41]

Branham:
"Here not long ago I preached on the—the subject there in my own hometown. They had them all out, and I preached on the overthrow of the United States government."[42]
"We give them integration. Now it's worse than it ever was."[43]

Swift is linked to several extremist groups.  His "Church of Jesus Christ Christian" was renamed by Richard Girnt Butler to "Church of Jesus Christ Christian - Aryan Nations", later shortened to "Aryan Nations" and bearing the Third Reich symbolism.[44]  Through Butler Swift's sect would become hyper-militant terrorism.[45]  Convicted bank robber Morris Gulett, also linked to Swift's sect, organized the "Skinheads", "Klan-connected 'Knights'", and outlaw-biker "SS-MC" splinter groups.[46]