The Asatru Folk Alliance defined what Asatru was, by dominating google, for a long time. Stephen McNallen is little more than a joke. Besides fighting with indigenous Americans for the remains of one of their ancestors, he has a blustery record including popularizing White Genocide and a firmly held belief that Mexico is directing a “Rape War” against white American women. His leadership of the AFA and it’s politics are what has led to the labeling of Heathenry as a hate group. The AFA are why many Heathens do not tell others of their beliefs.

Huginn’s Heathen Hof is spearheading a signatory effort to counter the AFA. And good for them to performing this, literally the least you can do, effort. Signing a sheet and putting your organizations name on there doesn’t counter the racists that have seized our religion to cover their bigotry. In short, the problem with Declaration 127 does not go far enough. Denounce and disassociate until you’re blue in the face and it won’t actually help. Any effort made to counter the AFA is wasted if it does not address the ideological underpinnings of their White Supremacist interpretation of our religion and their misunderstanding of our shared history.

You can not have your cake and eat it too. Denouncing the AFA does nothing. They know what they are. Disassociating? When everyone sees their members claiming your faith and being bigots, they’ll associate that with you. We’ve been here before, right? Heathens must not denounce and disassociate from the AFA. We need to actively push them away. We need the signatories of Declaration 127 to push content creators to drop the AFA. But what we really need, is Asatruar out there writing and publishing and defining our faith in a way that counters the AFA at an ideological level. We don’t need groups, we need individuals.

I’ve seen this first hand, sharing the good Dr Seigfried(@NorseMythNews) at every opportunity to turn perspectives. I’ve witnessed Erika Sorensen(Erika ⚧⚡✰ Sorensen) engage one on one with others. I have done this. What Heathenry needs is individuals going out of their way to contradict the hatred spread by the AFA. We shouldn’t cloister whilst guffawing about bigotry. If you really care about countering the AFA get on there and counter them. Pitch articles about heathenry. Open a youtube channel. Challenge them by not allowing them to define our faith.