While Theodism appears to have a patriarcal hierarchy, like really, so what? So do lots of religions.

At least here SoCal, various Druidic, Norse and related groups have no issue admitting people of color to their groups. It’s a belief system, not a race thing.

There are lots of Pagan groups to choose from, some exclusively male, some exclusively female, some which emphasize African or Native Peoples’ original faiths. Others go more European, or Greco-Roman, some do Pick what resonates with you.

But in NO WAY are the majority of Pagan groups racist, fascist or anything else, and I wouldn’t cast Halloran’s faith as anything more than a magical working group that uses the Norse pantheon as opposed to the Celtic or Greek or whatever. Not everyone who uses the Norse pantheon is a white supremacist, and to imply that is narrow minded and bigoted.

You’ll notice, if you research modern Nordic religionists even a little bit, that it’s a white-people-only thing. This guy may be a stalking horse for the corps of fascistic Republicans who lean toward white-identity politics, neo-nazi in philosophy, beliefs that are steadily gaining in power within the party.

What I tried to convey is that the Nordic white separatist religionists already form a small but vibrant core of the U.S. white fascist racist movement – now, this day – in the U.S. even outside of prisons, and as you say in Europe/Russia already. It shouldn’t be ignored and downplayed.

To overlook that knot of highly motivated and organized followers is to overlook the overall cohesion they embody and a throbbing growth engine that the white power movement can feed off of. From that tight kernel (nut, if you will) can easily come a much bigger exponential increase.

All it takes is for a certain few power brokers/corporate backers to silently shift to positions of support of the semi-respectable political face they show to the public. That’s how movements grow. That’s how it has grown in Europe. And the U.S. is not immune. Especially with the financial collapse reshuffling the deck in ways we haven’t begun to fathom yet.

Watch Europe and Russia. The nordic white separatists and their fellow haters are gathering a focused yet manic energy that proved unstoppable in the 1930s. The U.S. had its lesser version then as well and had better be prepared to deal with it at home and abroad. Otherwise we’ll wake up one morning with a Republican government returned to power that is peppered with even worse racists and with thinly disguised white separatists and even cleaned-up neo-nazis. Then it will be too late.

It can happen here, and it’s incipiently happening “over there” already.

Otherwise, we will wake up one day under a Republican government that is not only the usual vile and vindictive GOP that we know and loathe, but will be teeming with neo-nazi functionaries at all levels of that government. That has happened to a very limited extent already, even moreso with Bush II than those that came before, but if we let them slip into the cracks of the mainstream unacknowledged and unchecked, then we are heading for a hell of a nasty ride.

This applies across the world as well, especially in eastern Europe and Russia, where neo-nazis and other anti-semites and fascist racists have been simmering toward a boil since the early 1990s. The economic conditions and the concomitant tilt rightward there presages a nasty turn, making it that much more important that the U.S. hold the course against fascism and racism at home.

Otherwise, we’re heading toward a terrifying world war the outcome of which is far from guaranteed.

NewsNag – you are putting forth a religious stereotype that is incorrect and irresponsible.

This article helps explain what the religion is and the problem that they have faced by hate groups looking to corrupt the religion.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/asatru.htm

It’s hard to get a religious argument out of the books unless you’re part of the same fundamentalist culture that was busy spreading rumors in the 80s that Smurf toys were possessed by demons, causing many fundamentalist parents (including mine,) to throw away the Smurf toys of their very disappointed offspring (including me.)

Also, Lisa, minor quibble: it’s Asatru, rather than Astaru. But otherwise, thanks for writing about this like you did.

Intolerance is being persecuted against. When did anyone on the left try to ban anyone from attending church or practicing their faith?

In all but a few states in this country, same sex relationships aren’t recognized. The federal government doesn’t recognize legally-sanctioned relationships of that kind. That’s intolerance.

Lots of people on the left view all holy books just as fictional as Harry Potter, but that doesn’t mean they’re intolerance. Tolerance is accepting and refusing to persecute those who are different. The Left of this country, for all intents and purposes, does that with a flourish.

Last I heard, Mammon was a pagan god, and no cult is more widely and faithfully followed in this country than that of Mammon.