Asatru Folk Assembly

The Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is a white supremacist international Ásatrú organization, founded by Stephen A. McNallen in 1994. Its racist doctrines are based on ethnicity, an approach it calls "folkish".[3] Headquartered in Grass Valley, California,[4][5] with chapters worldwide, the AFA is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization.[6][7]

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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]

In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the Asatru Folk Assembly to its list of hate groups, describing it as a "neo-Völkisch hate group".[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

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.

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.[11]

In 1999, the AFA almost acquired land in northern California, aiming to base a communal project with room for agriculture and religious worship.[5] 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: it claimed that they were the remains of a European ancestor and were allowed to approach, but not touch, the coffin holding him.[12] Later testing found that the Kennewick Man was genetically similar to Native Americans and Ainu people.

In May 2017, Facebook deleted the AFA's primary social media outlet, citing hate speech as the reason.[13] 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".[14] The Anti-Defamation League lists the AFA as an "extremist group".[15]

In December 2019, two members of the Army National Guard received a general discharge after their involvement as leaders of an AFA group in Alabama and Georgia was brought to light. 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.[16]

Activity

Since 2013, the AFA has owned rights to many of Edred Thorsson's books.[17]

In August 2015, the AFA acquired a former Grange Hall in Brownsville, California, built in 1938, to be used as a hof and community center under the name Newgrange Hall Asatru Hof.[18][19] It was previously the Youth Center of the Mountaintop Christian Academy of California,[20][21] and at another time the Marge Moore Youth Center.[22]

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 U.S.[23] This second hof is named Thorshof, in dedication to the god Thor.

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 plains.[24] In December 2020, the Murdock City Council gave the AFA conditional approval to use the church.[15] More than 120,000 Minnesotans have signed a petition to stop the group's use of the building.[25]

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. Gardell 152, 261.
  4. "Obituaries, Death Notices and Memorials for Nevada City and Grass Valley California". Theunion.com. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  5. Gardell 261
  6. "AFA - Member Services". Member.asatrufolkassembly.org. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  7. "Asatru Folk Assembly - 501C3 Nonprofit - Nevada City, CA - 680386731". Taxexemptworld.com. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  8. SPLC. "Neo-Völkisch". Online. Accessed 6 August 2018
  9. Strmiska, Michael (2005). Modern paganism in world cultures: comparative perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-85109-608-4. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. "Pagan Community Notes: Nathan Smith, AFA, Niagara Cannabis Club, and more". The Wild Hunt. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  14. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/neo-volkisch, accessed 6 Aug 2018
  15. Kay Jones and Leah Asmelash. "City approves conditional permit to allow use of church building by a Whites-only group". CNN. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  16. "2 kicked out of National Guard over white supremacist ties". ABC 6 NEWS. Associated Press. December 26, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  17. Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  18. "Newgrange Hall - Asatru Hof". The Crowdfunding Center. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  19. "NewGrange Hall - Asatru Hof". Indiegogo. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  20. "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  21. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  22. Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine
  23. "Thorshof in Linden, North Carolina". Pagan Places. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  24. "White heritage religious group takes root in Minnesota". Star Tribune. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  25. The Hill, Celine Castronuovo. "More than 120,000 signatures collected to stop 'whites only' church in Minnesota town". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-12-23.

Bibliography
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