Asatru Folk Assembly

The Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is a white supremacist[3][4] international Ásatrú organization, founded by Stephen A. McNallen in 1994. Many of the assembly's doctrines, heavily criticized by most heathens,[5] are based on ethnicity, an approach it calls "folkish".[6] Once headquartered in Grass Valley, California,[7][8] with chapters worldwide, the AFA is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization.[9][10]

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The interlaced horn design from the Danish Snoldelev stone was adopted as the official symbol of the Ásatrú Folk Assembly in October 2006.[1][2]

History

The AFA's roots are in the Viking Brotherhood, founded by McNallen in 1972. McNallen was one of the earliest advocates in the United States of reconstructing Germanic Paganism. The Viking Brotherhood evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly in 1974, and was disbanded in 1986, splitting into two successor organizations, the "folkish" Ásatrú Alliance, and the "universalist" Troth.[11] In 1986, the Asatru Free Assembly ceased operations, due to burnout and disputes about polygamous relationships within the membership. According to accounts by McNallen, it was not due to racial politics, but because administration was time-consuming and the membership rejected a request seeking pay for religious work.[12]

McNallen founded the Asatru Folk Assembly in 1995 as the successor organization to the Asatru Free Assembly. The defunct Asatru Free Assembly and Asatru Folk Assembly are sometimes called the "old AFA" and "new AFA", respectively. From 1997 to 2002, the AFA was a member of the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance.[13]

McNallen believes in an "integral link between ancestry and religion, between biology and spirituality"; according to Jeffrey Kaplan, the organization was founded in part to counteract rumored "universalist" tendencies he discerned in Ring of Troth.[14]

In 1999, the AFA almost acquired land in northern California, aiming to base a communal project with room for agriculture and religious worship.[8] But it never held legal title to the land. Upon promises that the land would be donated, some AFA members built a simple hof there, after which the land's owner chose not to donate it.

In the late 1990s, the AFA got involved in a protracted fight over the remains of the Kennewick Man: members claimed that these were the remains of a European ancestor; they were allowed to approach, but not touch, the coffin holding the Kennewick Man.[15] Later testing showed that Kennewick Man is "very closely related to the Colville" tribe in northeast Washington.[16][17]

In May 2017, Facebook deleted the AFA's primary social media outlet, citing hate speech as the reason.[18] In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the AFA to its list of hate groups as part of a new category called "neo-Völkisch".[19] The Anti-Defamation League lists the AFA as an "extremist group".[20]

In December 2019, two members of the Army National Guard received a general discharge after their involvement as leaders of "Ravensblood Kindred," an extremist group that shared ties with the AFA, were revealed. Both had previously attended a rally by Richard B. Spencer. One was on active duty in Afghanistan and one worked as a jailer for the Haralson County Sheriff's Office until the broadcast of their involvement, at which point the employment was terminated.[4]

Activity
Baldrshof, Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly, Murdock, MN

Since 2013, the AFA has owned rights to many of the books of "Edred Thorsson" (a pen name of Stephen Flowers).[21]

In August 2015, the AFA acquired a former Grange Hall in Challenge–Brownsville, California, about 40 miles from Grass Valley, where the group was founded. The hall was built in 1938, and was purchased to be used as a hof and community center under the name Newgrange Hall Asatru Hof.[22][23] It was previously the Youth Center of the Mountaintop Christian Academy of California,[24][25] and at another time the Marge Moore Youth Center.[26] This first hof has since been named Odinshof, in dedication to the god Odin.[27][28]

In April 2020, the AFA acquired a former church in Linden, North Carolina, which has been turned into a heathen hof serving AFA members in the Southeastern United States.[29] This second hof is named Thorshof, in dedication to the god Thor.[30][31]

In June 2020, the AFA purchased a former Lutheran church in Murdock, Minnesota, to be used as gathering place for AFA members of the Northern Great Plains.[32] In December 2020, the Murdock City Council gave the AFA conditional approval to use the church.[20] More than 120,000 Minnesotans have signed a petition to stop the group's use of the building.[3] This third hof is named Baldrshof, in dedication to the god Baldr.[33][34]

In 2022, the AFA purchased a former church in White Springs, Florida, to serve as a hof for AFA members in the Southern United States. A monthly food pantry for the local community is operated by the AFA at this location.[35] This fourth hof has been named Njordshof, in dedication to the god Njörðr.[36]

Opposition

As a result of the discriminatory activities of the AFA, numerous Heathen and neo-pagan organizations sought to produce a document refuting these beliefs and the characterization that they represented these faiths.[5] The product was Declaration 127, which specifically condemned the AFA. This declaration has been criticized for its specific focus on the AFA, and efforts taken to expand it.[37] One alternative to Declaration 127 is the "Declaration of Deeds," a much wider-ranging statement against discrimination and hate in Heathenism.[38]

See also

References

Notes
  1. "Asatru Folk Assembly - The Asatru Folk Assembly's Symbol". 9 July 2011. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  2. Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  3. The Hill, Celine Castronuovo (23 December 2020). "More than 120,000 signatures collected to stop 'whites only' church in Minnesota town". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  4. "2 kicked out of National Guard over white supremacist ties". ABC 6 NEWS. Associated Press. December 26, 2019. Archived from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  5. "Letters to the Editor: Enacting Declaration 127 | Culture, Paganism". 21 April 2019.
  6. Gardell 152, 261.
  7. "Obituaries, Death Notices and Memorials for Nevada City and Grass Valley California". Theunion.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  8. Gardell 261
  9. "AFA - Member Services". Member.asatrufolkassembly.org. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  10. "Asatru Folk Assembly - 501C3 Nonprofit - Nevada City, CA - 680386731". Taxexemptworld.com. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  11. Strmiska, Michael (2005). Modern paganism in world cultures: comparative perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-85109-608-4. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  12. Stephen A. McNallen, "Three Decades of the Ásatrú Revival in America", in Joshua Buckley & Michael Moynihan (eds.), TYR: Myth - Culture - Tradition, Volume 2 (Atlanta: Ultra, 2003-2004), p. 208-9.
  13. "Asatru Folk Assembly". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  14. Kaplan, Jeffrey (1997). Radical religion in America: millenarian movements from the far right to the children of Noah. Syracuse UP. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-8156-0396-2. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  15. Bay-Hansen, C. D. (2002). Futurefish 2001: Futurefish in Century 21: The North Pacific Fisheries Tackle Asian Markets, the Can-Am Salmon Treaty, and Micronesian Seas, 1997-2001. Trafford. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-55369-293-5. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  16. "DNA From Ancient Skeleton Shows Ties To Native Americans". Archived from the original on September 15, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  17. Rasmussen, Morten; Sikora, Martin; Albrechtsen, Anders; Korneliussen, Thorfinn Sand; Moreno-Mayar, J. Víctor; Poznik, G. David; Zollikofer, Christoph P. E.; Ponce de León, Marcia S.; Allentoft, Morten E.; Moltke, Ida; Jónsson, Hákon; Valdiosera, Cristina; Malhi, Ripan S.; Orlando, Ludovic; Bustamante, Carlos D.; Stafford Jr, Thomas W.; Meltzer, David J.; Nielsen, Rasmus; Willerslev, Eske (June 18, 2015). "The ancestry and affiliations of Kennewick Man". Nature. 523 (7561): 455–58. Bibcode:2015Natur.523..455R. doi:10.1038/nature14625. PMC 4878456. PMID 26087396.
  18. "Pagan Community Notes: Nathan Smith, AFA, Niagara Cannabis Club, and more". The Wild Hunt. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  19. SPLC. "Neo-Völkisch". Online. Accessed 6 August 2018
  20. Kay Jones and Leah Asmelash (10 December 2020). "City approves conditional permit to allow use of church building by a Whites-only group". CNN. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  21. Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  22. "Newgrange Hall - Asatru Hof". The Crowdfunding Center. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  23. "NewGrange Hall - Asatru Hof". Indiegogo. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  24. "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  25. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  26. Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine
  27. "Odinshof • Pagan Places". 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  28. "Odinshof". Óðinshof. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  29. "Thorshof in Linden, North Carolina". Pagan Places. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  30. "The Family of Thor". Thors Hof. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  31. "Thorshof: Seconf Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly". Þórshof. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  32. "White heritage religious group takes root in Minnesota". Star Tribune. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  33. Compass | Murdock City Council approves permit for white supremacists | Season 5 | Episode 3 | PBS, retrieved 2023-03-15
  34. "Baldrshof | Asatru Folk Assembly | Murdock, MN". Baldrshof. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  35. "Njordshof Food Pantry - FoodPantries.org". www.foodpantries.org. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  36. "Njordshof: Fourth Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly". Njörðshof. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  37. "Declaration 127 v. 2.00". 18 March 2021. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  38. "Let's talk Declaration 127". 11 September 2019.

Bibliography
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