The Asatru Folk Assembly was granted a permit to use this old church in Murdock, Minn., for a regional gathering site. Photo courtesy of Baldurshof: Third Hof of the Asatru Folk Assembly/Facebook
Dec. 24 (UPI) -- City council members in Murdock, Minn., population 273, have approved a permit allowing a Whites-only group to use an abandoned Lutheran church as a regional site to gather.
The 3-1 vote on Dec. 9 to approve a request by the Asatru Folk Assembly for a conditional use permit had nothing to do with beliefs or race, according to a statement by Murdock Mayor Craig Kavanagh. He said the council felt legally bound to approve the permit after being advised by "multiple legal sources" that denying the request could be a violation of the AFA's religious rights.
"This vote was about a zoning permit to let an old abandoned church be used for exactly what it was built for -- 'a church,'" Kavanagh said in the statement, which was posted on the city's Facebook page.
In his post, Kavanagh included comments he had made at the beginning of the meeting:
"We as the leaders of the City of Murdock want it to be known that the City of Murdock condemns racism in all of its forms: conscious, unconscious, any place, any time, now and in the future. We are committed to building a community that promotes equal justice and opportunity to every single person regardless of their race."
Area residents who oppose the AFA assert that its members are White supremacists. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups and other extremists, lists the organization as a neo-Volkisch hate group.
The SPLC says the AFA distorts pre-Christian Norse traditions and spirituality with ideas about White racial superiority and ethnocentrism. The AFA promotes honoring its followers' Northern European ancestors - whom the group refers to as "ethnic European folk" -- and limits its membership to White people.
The AFA says it is not a hate group and denies that it believes any other race or ethnicity is inferior.
However, its code of ethics says, "We in Asatru support strong, healthy, White family relationships. We want our children to grow up to be mothers and fathers to White children of their own. We believe that those activities and behaviors supportive of the White family should be encouraged, while those activities and behaviors destructive of the White family are to be discouraged."
Opponents outraged
Opponents of the decision expressed their outrage on the city's Facebook page, many saying the council should have stood up to the AFA, despite the possibility of a lawsuit. Some argued the group's message is hate speech and that the AFA is not covered by the First Amendment.
A few backed the council, with one commenter saying its members made the only decision that was responsible in a very difficult situation.
Fueling the anger was the inability for online attendees of the Zoom council meeting to know that night how members voted. The camera was turned off and a voice vote was conducted, rather than a roll call.
Minutes posted online the next day showed that Council Member Stephanie Hoff was the one who voted against approval of the permit.
Kavanagh apologized for technical issues and said Murdock is not set up with the best tools to hold virtual meetings.
Matthew Flavel, who became the AFA church leader in 2016, thanked the council on Facebook for its vote, saying, "We know there was a lot of pressure on you to deny us our permit and right to worship. We appreciate your fairness and this opportunity."
Asatru roots
The AFA was formed in 1995 as a successor to the Asatru Free Assembly, which was founded in the late 1960s and dissolved in the 1970s. The group's members worship multiple gods, including Thor and Odin, and its website says that as sons and daughters of "Angles and Saxons, Lombards and Heruli, Goths and Vikings," they are united by ties of blood and culture.
The SPLC alleges the AFA co-opted the word "Asatru" to mask a White supremacist ideology. It says the AFA has chapters, which members refer to as kindred, in 22 states and is growing.
Some of that growth comes from skinheads joining the AFA because their own movement is losing popularity and the neo-Volkisch groups have a more acceptable veneer for a racist to hide behind, the SPLC says.
Allen Turnage, an attorney who is the AFA's "lawspeaker," disputes the SPLC's characterization.
"The SPLC and their comrades brand anyone to the left of Mao as a racist, solely to further their own agendas," Turnage said in an email to UPI. "We are not White supremacists, any more than any other ethnic religion is a WHATEVER supremacist. Our enemies label us because they cannot win a debate using reason or history. If you call a tail a leg how many legs does a dog have?"
Turnage included a link to a Wikipedia entry that lists ethnic religions and wrote, "Here, contact a practitioner of each of these ethnic groups and ask if you can join their tribal religion."
Third location
The AFA's first "hof," or meeting place, was established in Brownsville, Calif., and serves as the group's headquarters. A building purchased in Linden, N.C., earlier this year became its second meeting place in the United States, and the old church in Murdock will be its third.
The white church building, at 700 Main Ave., is in a residential part of Murdock, which is about 115 miles west of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the AFA needed the conditional permit to use the property for religious services and fellowship.
James Diederich, a Murdock City Council member, says the AFA has said the building will be a meeting place for people in the region, including those living in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. AFA members who are fixing up the church have kept a low profile, he said.
"In the last three months or so, we know when they're in town only because they have out-of-state license plates," Diederich said. "Otherwise, they've kept to themselves."
The city resolution approving the permit says the AFA is presumptively protected by the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The act prohibits implementing any land use regulation that imposes a "substantial burden" on the religious exercise of a religious assembly or institution except where justified by a "compelling governmental interest."
There is not enough evidence to overcome the presumption that the AFA is a bona fide religious assembly and denying the use permit request would effectively prohibit the group from practicing its religion, according to the resolution.
In addition, the resolution points out that the First Amendment also protects speech that someone might consider to be hate speech. Speech that contains actual threats or is likely to provoke the listeners to resort to immediate violence is not protected, but those matters are covered by laws, not zoning ordinances, the resolution says.
Heathens Against Hate
The pushback against the AFA in Murdock began as soon as residents learned about plans for the hof earlier this year. A group called Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate formed and lobbied against approval of the permit.
Advocacy group Heathens Against Hate also was part of the opposition and says it is continuing that work. Plans include holding virtual meetings to answer questions about the AFA and looking for potential legal assistance for the city, said Ethan Stark, HAH administrator and a spokesman for the organization.
HAH is encouraging community members not to direct their anger toward the city council.
"Murdock is a small town and they're absolutely right when they were saying they were fearing any kind of litigation that would drain the town finances," said Stark, who describes the AFA as an extremist sect with a toxic ideology. "There's a reason why hate groups move into small towns. They thrive on the chaos and the hardship. It could be financial hardship or social hardship."
A Change.org petition is calling on the Murdock City Council to stop the AFA from setting up an all-White church in town.
