Wesley A. Swift was a former Methodist minister from Southern California. In the 1940s, Swift started his own church, later known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian.

He was active in extreme right-wing groups, including the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

, and developed a close friendship with prominent postwar anti-Semite, Gerald L. K. Smith

Gerald L. K. Smith

Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith was an American clergyman and political organizer, who became a leader of the Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depression and later the Christian Nationalist Crusade...

. Because of the activities of Swift and associates such as Bertrand Comparet and San Jacinto Capt, Christian Identity

Christian Identity

Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...

 increasingly became linked with extreme right-wing ideologies. Richard Girnt Butler‎, founder of the Aryan Nations‎, was a close California disciple of Swift.