The people of Murdock, Minn., will be getting a new neighbor.
The City Council voted Wednesday night to grant a permit allowing the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) to use an abandoned Lutheran church in the Swift County town as its third "hof," or gathering hall, in the United States.
Meeting online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the council kept its video camera turned off, meaning that other meeting attendees couldn't see the members' faces. Despite repeated requests from the online audience, council members refused to identify who voted for or against the permit, passing it on a voice vote without a roll call. One member on the five-person council could be heard voting no.
"We as leaders of the city of Murdock want people to know that we condemn racism in all forms," Mayor Craig Kavanagh said before the council voted in favor of an organization that religious scholars have identified as a white supremacist group.
Before the vote, council members heard from Don Wilcox, the city attorney, who told them that they faced possible legal jeopardy if they voted against the AFA based on its beliefs.
"There are certain constitutional protections that apply to religions," Wilcox said. "I haven't seen any evidence sufficient to overcome the presumption that they are a religion, whether you agree with it or not.
"There's not a compelling interest in keeping that building from being used for meetings," he added. "Just because you don't like it doesn't mean they can't do it."
The AFA is among a growing number of groups that seek to practice a pre-Christian, European spirituality. The AFA is unabashedly pro-white, according to statements on its website.
"We in Asatru support strong, healthy white family relationships," according to the group's statement of ethics. "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."
Scholars who study pagan religions have identified the AFA as a racist fringe group, said Holli Emore, executive director of Cherry Hill Seminary in South Carolina, a seminary for pagan and Earth-based spiritualities.
"They hold white supremacist beliefs," Emore said. "It is widely accepted."
At a previous council meeting in October, AFA national board member Allen Turnage, an attorney who lives in Florida, defended the group's beliefs under aggressive questioning from community members who urged officials not to allow the group in town.
"We happen to believe that Asatru is specifically a northern European religion, and that's it," Turnage said. "We think our faith is worthy of honor and respect like anyone else's."
Turnage said the AFA would not admit a Black person "because they're not of northern European descent."
The group's arrival sparked a wave of activism in this farming community along U.S. Hwy. 12 about 115 miles west of the Twin Cities. After the AFA purchased the church earlier this year for $45,000, area residents formed a group called the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate and have held several protests against the group, including one Wednesday night.
John Reinan • 612-673-7402
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