The November Murdock City Council meeting and public hearing concluded around dusk. During the meeting, people gathered inside of Murdock City Hall, in a large gym and community space, to question members from the Asatru Folk Assembly, who are requesting a conditional use permit for the Calvary Lutheran church that the group purchased in June 2020.
The AFA is a whites-only, white supremacist, extremist offshoot of the Asatru belief system.
The City council's lawyer emphasize that the church will not be rezoned from its residential designation. However, because of the church is located in a residential neighborhood in Murdock, a town of approximately 265 people, the AFA needs a conditional use permit in order to gather for their ceremonies.
Allen Turnage is a bankruptcy lawyer from Tallahassee, Florida, and also represents the AFA. He was present and spoke on behalf of the organization before answering questions from citizens at the at-capacity meeting. The AFA didn't realize that they were going to need to request the permit and bring attention to their move into town.
"I apologize for bringing the community together in this example way. This is certainly not the kind of attention that we want, and I know it's not the kind of attention that you want," he said, standing in front of the group of people. "We didn't anticipate the zoning issue or the use permit issue. It had been a church ... for about a hundred years before it was residential for a short period of time. So we just didn't anticipate that problem, and our realtor didn't identify it for us."
None of the AFA representatives present were from Murdock. Mr. Turnage came from Florida and the other two representatives were from Bloomington, Minnesota. Mr. Turnage anticipated that the church building, or hof, would be used approximately once a month for their ceremonies, drawing people from about a two hour radius, but would otherwise remain empty. The AFA liked this location because it's in a midwest central spot.
The Asatru Folk Assembly is an ethnic based whites-only organization, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a neo-Völkisch hate group. The folk assembly branch has also been denounced by other followers of universal Neopagan and Heathen religions because only people of Northern European or Germanic ancestry can join. According to the Southern poverty law Center's website, "Present-day Folkish adherents also couch their bigotry in baseless claims of bloodlines, grounding the superiority of one's white identity. At the cross section of hypermasculinity and ethnocentricity, this movement seeks to defend against the unfounded threats of the extermination of white people and their children."
Although, the group claims they're not racist. A resident of Murdock who attended the council meeting asked why it's important for them to protect the white family. "Why is it important for your group that white people marry other white people and have white children?" she asked.
Turnage took a long pause — waiting 10 seconds before answering: "Because a hundred thousand years from now I want there to be blond hair and blue eyes."
The woman countered, "Why is that important, that there's blond hair and blue-eyed people?"
Turnage responded, "Because my family has blond hair and blue eyes. It's like any other tradition, I want it preserved. And it's worthy to be preserved, our own heritage and our own people are worthy of preservation."
A white supremacist organization got approved by Murdock City Council to gather.
The history of white power movements, MAAAH & inclusive vs. exclusive Heathenry.
The Mayor of Murdock on granting the CUP to the AFA and a look at the First Amendment.
Their permit request and presence in Murdock was met with opposition by area residents, including those involved with the newly formed Murdoch Area Alliance Against Hate. Victoria Guillemard is one of the founders of the MAAAH and said that the night was all about letting the public have their chance to be heard. During the public hearing, Guillemard took the mic at the front of the room and addressed the council members. "This is one of the three hofs in the entire country. It's going to put Murdock on the map, and this is just the beginning because more people will find out about this."
Another attendee and resident of Murdock named named Pete Kennedy took his turn addressing the council members. "We don't want this church to be used as a regional center by people from North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, to come to Murdock and practice hate. We don't want to be known as the hate capital of Minnesota."
Mr. Turnage said that there are a lot of lies circulating about the Asatru Folk Assembly, and that they're misunderstood. He said that even though they only allow people who can trace their ancestry back to Northern Europe to practice their religion, that they are good neighbors. "The next step is, we look forward to getting the conditional use permit and complying with those conditions," Turnage said. "Then proving all these people wrong and showing that we are good neighbors and that we're not what we are portrayed to be."