One of the greatest barriers to meaningful interreligious learning is the oversimplification, or ignorance of the internal diversity, of religious traditions other than our own. It comes out in the many stereotypes and misconceptions we have about others: “all Catholics are against birth control,” “all Jews observe kosher,” “all Mormons and Muslims refrain from alcohol,” and so on. We probably all do this—usually not out of malevolence, but rather simply out of ignorance. Misconceptions can carry significant weight, such as “all Muslims are terrorists,” “all Christians hate homosexuals,” and “all Heathens are white supremacists.” Parts I and II of this three-part series discussed welcoming marginalized traditions to the table of interreligious engagement in general, and contemporary Paganisms in particular. Part III calls on Abrahamic traditions, and/or those with power and resources, to share the burden of these traditions in their exhausting task of separating themselves from loud extremist groups that perpetuate misunderstanding. This task is not unique to any one tradition, for all religions have histories of extremism, violence, and oppression.
Jennifer Snook and Karl E. H. Seigfried provide courageous models for us (Heathen and non-Heathen alike) to confront the troubling tendencies that lurk in all of our traditions. Heathenry, in this context, refers to the reconstruction and living out of pre-Christian European religious and cultural traditions, usually polytheistic in theological outlook. Heathen should not be confused with the generic, and often derogatory, sense of “non-Abrahamic.” In his chapter “Ásatrú and Hindu: From Prophecy to Dialogue,” Seigfried, scholar and Pagan chaplain, teaches that Heathenry is “an umbrella term for modern religions that revive, reconstruct, or reimagine pre-Christian Germanic polytheistic religions – not only Icelandic and Norse beliefs and practices, but also those of the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, and other ancient groups that spoke Germanic languages.” Since there was not a word denoting this old religious practice in the Germanic languages prior to encounter with the new religion of Christianity, “the term Heathen (Old Norse heidinn, Old English hǽden, Old High German heidan) was used for those who believed in the old way, and it is in this sense that it is used by modern practitioners.” Today, Heathen is “commonly used as a self-identifier by practitioners of Ásatrú, a new religious movement that revives, reconstructs, and reimagines Norse polytheism as a living religion in a modern context.”[1]
Contemporary retrieval and reconstruction of this ancient Nordic worldview and lifeway began in the 1970s Iceland, but has since spread worldwide, especially in Europe and North America. In Iceland, Ásatrú has been an officially state-recognized religion since 1973, and after the Christian traditions (and the unaffiliated), it remains the second largest religion (but the fastest growing). Heathenry is also recognized in the United States with the Department of Veterans Affairs having approved Thor’s hammer (Mjölnir) for use as a religious symbol on government grave markers in 2013.[2] Ásatrú’s customs, practices and beliefs vary widely “from humanism to reconstructionism, from viewing the gods as metaphorical constructs to approaching them as distinct beings. Deities venerated in Ásatrú include Freya, Odin and Thor, but respect is paid to a large number of gods, goddesses and other figures (including elves and land spirits).”[3]
Like all religious and cultural traditions, Heathenry has its oppressive and fringe aspects to deal with. Snook, sociologist of religion and author of American Heathens, writes, “My inquiries into Heathenry as an ethnic folkway have forced me painfully through the muck of reality that illustrates that racism in American Heathenry is indeed a fact.”[4] By recognizing the disturbing reality of racism that lurks within her tradition, she does not, in any way, endorse it. Rather, she shines a light on a movement that needs countering. This is nothing new to the living religions of the world. Stephen Prothero raises this concern with respect to Christianity and other religions in the “Toxic and Tonic” section of his bestselling God is Not One,[5] and Cawo Abdi calls out Islamic extremists in her widely read CNN article, “Where is my Islam?”[6]
While these tendencies exist across religions, Heathens and Muslims in the West often bear a disproportionate burden of needing to actively disassociate themselves from minority factions that commit violent, hateful, and racist atrocities in the name of their traditions. A recent article in The Atlantic, “What to do when Racists Try to Hijack Your Religion,”[7] addresses the problem of racism in Ásatrú Heathenism. It is no secret that negative stories about religion get more attention than positive ones. “If it bleeds, it leads.” Heather Greene, managing editor of The Wild Hunt, likens “the media and cultural problems faced by Heathens …. to [those] faced by Muslims.” She argues:
There are real factions of society who are claiming to be ‘true’ practitioners of the religion, and who commit atrocities in the name of that religion. Overall, these factions are minorities, but they are loud, and they are aggressive, and they are violent. Like many in the Muslim community, Heathens are looking for ways to solve this problem, and protect their religious practice from the inevitable backlash, trauma and bad press.[8]
Greene calls attention to an organization called Heathens Against Hate (HAH), whose mission is “to remove the unfair stigma of racism from the Heathen religious identities while undertaking efforts to combat the ignorance and fear that lead to racism and hate within our own communities.” HAH aims to engage in constructive interreligious outreach. For example, in the wake of a 2015 event in which two Virginia men associated with Heathenry were arrested for conspiracy to possess firearms after being discovered by the FBI to “burn and bomb Black Churches [and] Jewish synagogues” (among other crimes), HAH declared, “The people in the churches and synagogues are not our enemies. The enemies are those who bring shame to our communities through reprehensible actions. Heathens Against Hate is thankful that the FBI thwarted the efforts of these men and that no one was injured.”[9] Greene’s report reminds readers that major inclusive Heathenry groups exist, such as The Troth and the Alliance for Inclusive Heathenry, which both actively participate in the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Seigfried often finds himself on the frontline of defending his tradition against being labeled as racist. In a recent address, titled “A Better Burden,” in Germany to fellow Heathens at the first international conference on inclusive Ásatrú and Heathenry, he acknowledged the importance of this work and also offered encouragement to take control of the narrative. Seigfried said,
As Heathens of positive intent, we are disgusted by the mutual embrace between white nationalist Heathens and the latest version of neo-Nazis.… these are the people determining the interface between Heathenry and the larger society. These are the people interviewed by journalists, featured in media reports, and covered by academics. These are the people who our non-Heathen friends and colleagues see and read about. These are the people who are the public face of Heathenry. [10]
If the inclusive brand of mainstream-majority Heathenry that exits worldwide is to take control and put their public face forward, Seigfried argues, they need more than just repeated reactions to these extreme-right fringe Heathens, which only allows the racists nationalists “to set the parameters of public discussion.” He does not advocate refraining from denouncing the extremists but rather calls his co-religionists to “something more.” His challenge to them is to join him in producing “A new Ásatrú theology,” a proactive effort to supplant extremists by drawing on the rich intellectual and spiritual wellsprings of lived Heathenry. Inspired by the great Catholic liberation theologians of twentieth-century Latin America, Seigfried challenges his fellow practitioners to immerse themselves into the ills of the world, engage their historical and intellectual tradition in the context of their own concrete religious experience, and offer constructive paths forward—and not only for the internal direction of mainstream Heathenry, but also to teach the world the mainstream inclusive narrative of what it means to be a Heathen in religiously plural world. Seigfried is confident that by doing so, Heathens “should be able to offer new perspectives and solutions” to the contemporary problems plaguing the world. Moreover, he believes there are universal implications for Heathens that carry this out.[11]
Seigfried and his community walk the walk, to be sure. Just this month, his local Ásatrú community in Chicago took a public stand against racism by organizing a fundraising team to walk in the Ricky Byrdsong Memorial Race Against Hate, an annual event founded in “memory of Ricky Byrdsong, former Northwestern University Basketball Coach, Vice President of Affairs at Aon Corporation, and Skokie resident who was murdered by a white supremacist on Friday, July 2, 1999 while walking in his Skokie neighborhood with two of his young children.” The shooter later wounded six Orthodox Jews, killed a Korean American, and wounded an African American minister before taking his own life.”[12]
To his fellow Heathens, he says, “this transformation gives us insights into today’s events that are valuable and deserve to be heard—not just by other Heathens, but by all the children of Heimdall”:[13] that is, by everyone in the world.
* * *
This three-part series calls attention to the unheard voices of the marginalized religions. It is a call for those within the tent of Abraham to listen to, learn from, and share the burden of those in marginalized traditions. It is a call to allow those outside the tent of Abraham to lead; especially those groups about which we know little or are confused. It is a call to learn from the model of the inclusive Heathenry groups cited above, and to learn from other traditions as, perhaps, they have learned from ours (e.g., Seigfried learning from Catholic liberation theologians).
It is not enough to demand these groups condemn, on their own, the extremist atrocities committed in the name of their traditions. For instance, Todd Green’s forthcoming book argues Why We Shouldn’t Ask Muslims to Condemn Terrorism. He offers several reasons apart from the obvious: “All of us should condemn terrorism—whether the perpetrators are Muslim extremists, white supremacists, Marxist revolutionaries, or our own government.” In particular, Green argues, the question (a) “wrongly assumes Islam is the driving force behind terrorism,” and (b) “ignores the many ways Muslims already condemn terrorism.”[14] Likewise, to require inclusive Heathens to bear the burden alone of denouncing racism (a) wrongly assumes Heathenism is the primary force behind racism and (b) ignores the many ways Heathens already condemn racism. For Christians especially, this is a call to learn from Jacqueline Bussie’s forthcoming book to Love Without Limits in the way of Jesus, which includes those groups that our traditions have tiresomely deemed “theologically out of bounds.”[15] Many traditions already possess the internal theological resources to justify greater openness to other traditions. Those resources offer a good place to start.[16]
Image: ©Hans Gustafson, 2006
Note: A version of part I of this series was published in adapted form to www.theinterfaithobserver.org under the title “Sharing the Burden” on July 15, 2018.
Endnotes
[1] Karl E. H. Seigfried, “Ásatrú and Hindu: From Prophecy to Dialogue,” Learning from Other Religious Traditions: Leaving Room for Holy Envy, edited by Hans Gustafson (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 70-71.
[2] Seigfried, “Ásatrú” entry in Religion Stylebook: A Free Resource from Religion Newswriters by journalists for journalists, accessed June 25, 2018, http://religionstylebook.com/?s=asatru.
[3] Seigfried, “Ásatrú.”
[4] Jennifer Snook, American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religious Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015), 183
[5] Stephen R. Prothero, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 10.
[6] Cawo Abdi, “Where is my Islam? The identity crisis of 21st century Muslims,” CNN, August 24, 2015, accessed September 20, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/24/opinions/islam-identity-crisis-cawo-abdi/.
[7] Sigal Samuel, “What to do when Racists Try to Hijack Your Religion,” The Atlantic, November 2, 2017, accessed March 26, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/asatru-heathenry-racism/543864/.
[8] Heather Greene, “Heathens Respond to Media Reports on Foiled Plot in Virginia,” The Wild Hunt: Modern Pagan News and Commentary,” November 13, 2015, accessed October 14, 2016, http://wildhunt.org/2015/11/heathens-respond-to-media-reports-on-foiled-plot-in-virginia.html.
[9] Greene, “Heathens Respond to Media Reports on Foiled Plot in Virginia.”
[10] Karl E. H. Seigfried, “A Better Burden: Towards a New Ásatrú Theology,” The Norse Mythology Blog, Thursday, October 12, 2017, accessed Mar 21, 2018, http://www.norsemyth.org/2017/10/a-better-burden-towards-new-asatru.html.
[11] All quotes in this paragraph are from Seigfried, “A Better Burden: Towards a New Ásatrú Theology.”
[12] “History of the Race Against Hate,” Race Against Hate website, accessed June 25, 2018, http://events.ywcae-ns.org/site/TR?sid=1022&pg=informational&fr_id=1071.
[13] Seigfried, “A Better Burden: Towards a New Ásatrú Theology.”
[14] All quotes from publisher’s website for Todd Green’s forthcoming Presumed Guilty: Why We Shouldn’t Ask Muslims to Condemn Terrorism (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2018); accessed Mar. 26, 2018, http://fortresspress.com/presumedguilty.
[15] Jacqueline A. Bussie, Love Without Limits: Jesus’ Radical Vision for Love with No Exceptions (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2018), vii. Bussie’s book expresses her love and appreciation for her Muslim friends and her LGBTQ friends. Her initial Christian publisher refused to publish the book because they deemed it “theologically out of bounds.” They asked her to remove or rewrite whole chapters. Shocked and disappointed, Bussie refused and found a new publisher.
[16] It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that constructive and respectful interreligious dialogue need not, nor should not, ever condone or justify groups that promote direct and intentional hatred, violence, racism, and oppression toward others.