A Brief History of Asatru in the United States: Part 4 Declaration 127

One thing about living in a bubble for a decade is that when you come out, you are not jaded or tainted by all the events that happened. You have a perspective that can see both sides of the coin and be objective.

Havamal 127 reads, "Wherever you know of harm regard that harm as your own; give your enemies no peace.", this was basis for Declaration 127. The declaration condemned the Asatru Folk Assembly’s stance on ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. Heathens around the world signed a petition condemning the AFA and their actions. The AFA stance has always been that Asatru is an ethnic religion that should be mainly practiced by those with a Northern European heritage. However, the AFA had not stated that Germanic heritage was a requirement. In the past the belief was that you should be of Germanic heritage, but it was not a requirement to practice Asatru. When I was involved with the AFA we had many debates on this topic. Most of us agreed that having Germanic heritage may bring you closer to the gods, but that did not mean that someone else without the same Germanic blood could not have the same relationship with the gods. To some extent McNallen maintained that stance for a very long time and the AFA’s documentation never stated directly you had to be a white, heterosexual, and of Germanic ancestry. Well, that all changed. The AFA’s Declaration of Purpose now states, “Let us be clear: by Ethnic European Folk we mean white people.”

When Matthew Flavel took over leadership of the AFA (at McNallen’s appointment) things took a turn for the worst with the AFA. I remember Matt, and I even spoke with him a few times by phone. McNallen was grooming him for the takeover as far back as 2010. The funny part about these folks is that they come off as kind, understanding people who are openminded and somewhat tolerant. During my time with the AFA not on single person I spoke with or interacted with exhibited any neo-Nazi, white nationalist, or racist bullshit, not a single one. That is because radicalization is a mind game. The AFA had already turned to radicalistic white nationalism when I became involved with them, they just hid that part in the back room. It is my belief that McNallen stepped down in order to appear to distance himself from this position. By the time this happened I was gone. As early as 2013, I could smell the hate and I was not having it.

Declaration 127 denounces the AFA and its stance on ethnicity, sexuality, and gender identity, it does not condemn folkish Asatru, and it does not include any other white nationalist (neo-Nazi) Asatru organizations. What about the Asatru Alliance? The Asatru Alliance has been ruled over by a former member of the American Nazi Party, Mike Murry, since its creation. When McNallen started his Asatru media blitz, he succeeded in making Asatru a legitimate religion. A lot of us bought into it, praised McNallen in his efforts, and while doing so we missed the signs. McNallen was talking out of both sides of his mouth, he was trying to justify his white nationalism while denying it as racist. We saw what we wanted to see in McNallen. We overlooked the racist tomes and tried to find a justification, a reason why McNallen was not a racist. Stephen McNallen is not a neo-Nazi, or if we what to get technical a racist. Racism is defined as such, “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.” McNallen insists that his support for racial separatism does not necessitate a "dislike, much less hatred" for other racial groups (Dobratz & Shanks-Meile, 2000). The problem is that saying whites only is racist, and in my opinion not a Heathen ideal.