By Victor Omondi
Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) in Murdock, Minnesota has recently been accorded a conditional use permit to open a church and practice its pre-Christian religion that originated from northern Europe.
The permit gives the church the liberty to not admit black people once it opens its doors. According to Allen Turnage, a member of the church’s board, blacks wouldn’t be allowed into the church because they’re not of “Northern Europe descent.”
AFA was granted the permit after a unanimous vote by the town’s officials. The church is turning an abandoned Lutheran Church that it acquired earlier in the year into a place of worship.
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In Murdock, Minnesota, the Asatru Folk Assembly was granted a conditional use permit to open a church there that operates on pre-Christian beliefs.
According to
NBC News, one of those beliefs is that their congregation is for whites only. A council vote approved the decision to allow the assembly to open, however residents of the small town are pushing back. The news outlet reported the farming town with a population of about 280 people has launched an online petition which earned about 50,000 signatures to prohibit the religious institution from calling their city home.
Longtime residents believe the church assumed that their presence in the the small town would not get any attention or response.
Whites-only group gets permit to use church in tiny Minnesota town
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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.
Small town APPROVES whites-only church which envisions a future of blond hair and blue eyes despite fears it would become the hate capital of Minnesota
Murdock, Minnesota s City Council voted 3-1 to grant permit allowing Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) to gather at former Lutheran church
AFA practices a pre-Christian, European spirituality that revolves around Norse gods; it only admits white people with northern European descent
Southern Poverty Law Center has added AFA to its list of hate groups
Critics of AFA have launched an online petition seeking to stop it, which so far has drawn more than 123,000 signatures
Murdock officials said rejecting AFA s permit request could have violated its religious rights and led to an expensive legal battle
By Cherranda Smith
Dec 23, 2020
The Asatru Folk Assembly in Murdock, Minnesota was granted a conditional use permit to open a church there where only white people will be allowed.
The Asatru Folk Assembly is a pre-Christian religion that has origins in northern Europe. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as a “neo-Volkisch hate group” that expresses “their bigotry in baseless claims of bloodlines grounding the superiority of one’s white identity.”
Murdock residents, however, are staunchly opposed to the group opening a church in their town. “I think they thought they could fly under the radar in a small town like this, but we d like to keep the pressure on them,” longtime resident