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From: athletics@vanguard.edu

When the church doors open, only white people will be allowed
inside.

That’s the message the Asatru Folk Assembly in Murdock,
Minnesota, is sending after being granted a conditional use
permit to open a church there and practice its pre-Christian
religion that originated in northern Europe.

Despite a council vote officially approving the permit this
month, residents are pushing back against the decision.

Opponents have collected about 50,000 signatures on an online
petition to stop the all-white church from making its home in
the farming town of 280 people.

“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,”
said Peter Kennedy, a longtime Murdock resident. “Racism is not
welcome here."

Many locals said they support the growing population of Latinos,
who have moved to the area in the past decade because of job
opportunities, over the church.

“Just because the council gave them a conditional permit does
not mean that the town and people in the area surrounding will
not be vigilant in watching and protecting our area,” Jean
Lesteberg, who lives in the neighboring town of De Graff, wrote
on the city’s Facebook page.

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Asatru Folk Assembly
as a “neo-Volkisch hate group” that couches “their bigotry in
baseless claims of bloodlines grounding the superiority of one’s
white identity.”

Many residents call them a white supremacist or white separatist
group, but church members deny it.

“We’re not. It’s just simply not true," said Allen Turnage, a
folk assembly board member. "Just because we respect our own
culture, that doesn’t mean we are denigrating someone else’s."

The group, based in Brownsville, California, says teachings and
membership are for those of strictly European bloodlines.

The church was looking for a new church in the eastern North
Dakota region when they came across Murdock. It’s unknown how
many members they have worldwide or how many people will attend
the new church.

“We do not need salvation. All we need is freedom to face our
destiny with courage and honor,” the group wrote on its website
about their beliefs. “We honor the Gods under the names given to
them by our Germanic/Norse ancestors.”

Their forefathers, according to the website, were "Angels and
Saxons, Lombards and Heruli, Goths and Vikings, and, as sons and
daughters of these people, they are united by ties of blood and
culture undimmed by centuries."

“We respect the ways our ancestors viewed the world and
approached the universe a thousand years ago,” Turnage said.

A small contingent of church supporters in Murdock said the
community should be open-minded and respectful to all.

“I find it hypocritical, for lack of a better term, of my
community to show much hate towards something they don’t
understand. I for one don’t see a problem with it,” Jesse James,
who said he has lived in Murdock for 26 years, wrote on Facebook.

“I do not wish to follow in this pagan religion, however, I feel
it’s important to recognize and support each other’s beliefs,”
he said.

Murdock council members said they do not support the church but
were legally obligated to approve the permit, which they did in
a 3-1 decision.

“We were highly advised by our attorney to pass this permit for
legal reasons to protect the First Amendment rights," Mayor
Craig Kavanagh said. "We knew that if this was going to be
denied, we were going to have a legal battle on our hands that
could be pretty expensive.”

City Attorney Don Wilcox said it came down to free speech and
freedom of religion.

“I think there’s a great deal of sentiment in the town that they
don’t want that group there," he said. "You can’t just bar
people from practicing whatever religion they want or saying
anything they want as long as it doesn’t incite violence.”

Stephanie Hoff, whose council term ends this month, cast the
only dissenting vote.

“I know that we have the legality standpoint, and I personally
felt we had a chance to fight it. I think we could have fought
it had we went to court,” she said, basing her argument on
proving municipal harm. “I felt that we had a case with the
emotional and mental well being of the city of Murdock.”

The farming town about a 115-mile drive west of Minneapolis is
known for producing corn and soybeans, which are shipped across
the country. Latinos make up about 20 percent of Murdock's small
population. Many are day laborers from Mexico and Central
America, city officials said.

"We’re a welcoming community,” Kennedy said, rejecting the
Asatru Folk Assembly's exclusionary beliefs. “That’s not at all
what the people of Murdock feel. Nobody had a problem with the
Hispanics here.”

The AFA purchased its building this year on property in a
residential zone. Constructed as a Lutheran church before the
zoning was changed, it was later converted to a private
residence. The folk assembly needed the permit to convert the
residence back to a church.

The vote has drawn national attention and condemnation.

“It’s ironic the city council didn’t want to commit
discrimination against the church, but the church is
discriminating against Blacks," said Abigail Suiter, 33, of
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "It’s very telling of where the priority is
and whose lives matter.”

Prominent lawyers disagree on the council's options heading into
the vote. Some of the debate centered on the federal Religious
Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects
religious institutions and churches from unduly burdens and
discriminatory land-use regulations.

The law prevents municipalities from discriminating against the
placement of churches in residential neighborhoods, said
attorney Brian Egan, a municipal law expert on Long Island, New
York.

“It’s a tightrope for municipalities to walk,” Egan said. “One
man’s religion of hate is another man’s religion of love.”

Other lawyers said the property's zoning was enough to reject
the permit.

“They could have said the whole area has become residential, we
don’t want churches in a residential area because it’s
incompatible with our comprehensive plan," said David Schultz, a
constitutional law professor at the University of Minnesota, "
... because at that point they’re not making a decision based
upon the viewpoint or content of speech."

Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard
University, said the council might have been able to prevent the
private sale of the property, had it known about it, through
laws focused on forbidding racial discrimination in property
transactions.

“No institution that proposes to exclude people on account of
race is allowed to run an operation in the state of Minnesota,”
Tribe said.

Kavanagh said he stands by the council vote "for legal reasons
only."

“The biggest thing people don’t understand is, because we’ve
approved this permit, all of a sudden everyone feels this town
is racist, and that isn’t the case,” he said. “Just because we
voted yes doesn’t mean we’re racist.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-permit-approved- whites-only-church-small-minnesota-town-insists-n1251838
 
--
Jimmy Galligan - I’m going to remind myself, you started
something,’ he continued. ‘You taught someone a lesson.’

You're right Jimmy. No matter what you do, this petty little
act will be part of your pedigree. Social media now lives
forever and you will hereafter be known forever as vindictive
hypocritical scum for the remainder of your life.

TAGS: Leesburg VA, Mimi Groves, social media, negro, Jimmy
Galligan, Vanguard, California, Hypocrisy
 

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)