The white supremacists have opened a church just down the road from me, about 40 minutes down the road, between Benson and Willmar. It’s another religion, Asatru. Here’s how the SPLC describes it:
A neo-Pagan religion drawing on images of fiercely proud, boar-hunting Norsemen and their white-skinned Aryan womenfolk is increasingly taking root among Skinheads, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists across the nation.
Asatrú leaders have opened prison ministries in at least five states recently, and their many jailed followers are heavily white supremacist.
Here’s how they describe themselves:
The Asatru Folk Assembly was formed by Stephen McNallen in 1994 as a successor to the Asatru Free Assembly, which dominated the Asatru scene in the United States from its inception in the 1970’s until its dissolution in 1986. Since it’s inception, the AFA has been the premier force in the development and practice of Asatru. The AFA is committed, today and everyday, to building strong and lasting communities and families, embracing traditional values and venerating our holy Gods.
In the late 1960’s, Stephen McNallen embraced the Gods and founded the modern religion of Asatru. In short order, Alsherjargothi McNallen started the Viking Brotherhood which quickly evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly. The Asatru Free Assembly began publishing “the Runestone” magazine as well as starting the first Asatru gatherings called Allthings.
Asatru grew and developed throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. In 1986 the Asatru Free Assembly was disbanded. In the late 1980’s and early 90’s the original values and aims of Asatru were growingly subverted by the decay of cultural marxism [emphasis added] Alsherjargothi McNallen knew he must once again take up the banner and save what his vision and initiative had put into motion. The Asatru Folk Assembly was founded from that day forward to be a solid spiritual force for our Ethnic European Folk and our Ethnic European Faith.
That “cultural marxism” remark is a dead giveaway — it’s a racist, right-wing organization.
For completeness sake, here’s a link to their website. I don’t recommend reading it, because it was designed to kill you. ALL-CAPS white text on a background photograph of light green grass and grey-white stones? OMG, that alone convinced me to embrace cultural marxism. My ancestral forebears apparently had no design sense at all.
any time people are talking about “Marxism” without any connection to seizing the means of production, you know they have no idea what words mean
Well, we can’t say that all of the racist organizations are Christian, can we?
Slightly off-topic, but I can tell that you live in a more spread-out, thinly populated part of the country than I do by the fact that you consider 40 minutes’ drive to be “just down the road” from you. I would think of “down the road” as a 5 or maybe 10 minute drive.
Accckkkk! Asatru. They claimed “Kennewick Man” as kinfolk. They are real nuts. Dr. Chatters didn’t help, either.
Leaving all the petty real-world shit wrong with this, Odin is the Allfather, not the SOMEfather.
Sounds like someone grew up watching the film called ” The Vikings ” starring Kirk Douglas ,and Tony Curtis .
According to that bloke Magnus Magnusson ,them Vikings didn’t spend all their time ravishing and pillaging .
What To Do When Racists Try To Hijack Your Religion (November 2017):
I haven’t quite deciphered who “the Canadian group” and “the Finnish organization” are — there are lots of splinters and factions… a Judian People’s Front type situation.
Lots more at the link.
… the Viking Brotherhood which quickly evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly.
If they’d stuck with the V-name, they could’ve roped in a crowd of football fans.
Even if, maybe especially if, Scandahoovians got organized to defend their ethnic heritage against demeaning corporate exploitation, like certain more intelligent nationalities.
I’m not saying this group is not dangerous or benign. They are, like any right-wing organization. They need to be watched closely and called on.
But just like all religions (and Organized Atheism) there will be internecine squabbles, egotistical stupid assholes rising to top leadership, schisms, and eventual irrelevance. It may take a while, and they’ll do plenty of mischief, but they will
eventually disintegrate into toxic waste.
blf at 8:
I get the impression that Soldiers of Odin was a loose movement or “brand” of white supremacism that lost any coherence after it gained some popularity internationally (or at least in Canada).
Here in Finland they were apparently never more than a handful of neonazis organizing thug “street patrols”. Their initial recruitment campaign got some mainstream media attention, but then they faded into obscurity when it became apparent they didn’t have enough people for effective street terrorism. (Only later I heard of the existence of the Canadian branch) I don’t remember anyone here framing them as a “religious group” despite the name.
It would be quite a shame should a pitchfork wielding mob burned that shit to the ground.
Most Asatru are decent people who despise the racist crowd, but there’s a disturbing number who use it as cover for their despicable beliefs and attitudes. Sadly, Thor won’t be coming around to kick their arses, and Odin has always been the type to approve of that business.
I want to re-start the religion of the old Olympian pantheon. The universe is run by a committee and its members are working at cross purposes. It’s the religion that best fits the facts.
You should see northern Canada. :). My girlfriend, when her ex was up doing railroad work for CN, came up with a phrase I think should have caught on: “he’s up in Jaboof”.
When I read the title, I thought you were going to talk about a group of violent, anarchist spiders building nests in your yard and driving off the law-abiding spiders.
I wonder how they deal with Loki? Not exactly the most cishet of the Gods.
The white racist version of Asatru is the opposite of the original Icelandic version.
The Icelandic version of Asatru is humanistic and compares well with the Unitarian Universalists.
@4: Probably related to Piltdown Man as well. @6: A great movie, nonetheless.
Then I pray Loki has a field day with these racist religion-hijacking muppets.
Surely there’s a white Evangelical Christian church closer than that? Perhaps an LCMS* church?
*Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
Well he would say that, wouldn’t he? Magnus Magnusson was Icelandic by birth, and genetic studies have shown that while Icelandic Y-chromosomes are pretty much exclusively Scandinavian in origin, a lot of Icelandic mitochondrial DNA is not. I suppose some of the women whom the Viking men took to Iceland may have been volunteers…
You’re too late!
I think I get it now.
My cardboard cutout of a Governor has been making pleasing noises about letting former felons vote, rather than continuing their punishment indefinitely despite the cruel and unusual. It seems that it has all been an exercise in foot dragging because they know that U.S. prison populations are predominantly minorities.
I’m certain there are backroom discussions about how they can separate the racists from the rest. The Florida poll tax model that our Supreme Court ignored has been suggested.
Picking a nit: Strictly speaking the body text isn’t all caps — it’s caps plus small caps. (Which means the small caps have been entered unshifted.)
It’s fascinating, my first introduction to the Asatru religion was through an old Harry Potter/Marvel crossover fanfiction. The version used in that one had seemed fairly benign, but it’s been many years now, and I have to wonder where the creator got their inspiration from… So strange how things click together sometimes. O.o
“Cultural Marxism…” as opposed to cultural Stalinism? Or “cultural Maoism?”
@21 You take thing to heart too much .
Kinda off topic, but I am a little curious about the burnings of BLM signs in Morris?
https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/hrg9c4/blm_signs_are_being_burned_in_peoples_yards/
Just by the by, the mainstream groups of Norse Paganism have quite vigorously condemned and separated themselves from the white supremacist group (there are probably some other little white supremacist groups and sects here and there.) The name “Asatru” itself isn’t owned by that particular group, it just refers to worship of the Aesir, the sky-god pantheon of Norse Paganism.
Personally, I’m a Lokean. (As it goes, Loki wasn’t allowed to be honored by the biggest Norse Pagan group at their meetings for the longest time, although they’ve since mended their ways. Not somebody you want to piss off.)