Jamey Martin

2016-09-02 11:09:37 -0400

I have been involved with Germanic identity here in North America, in the former of “Asatru” or “Germanic Heathenism” for some 25 years now. While I had begun honouring the gods of my (Germanic) ancestors some years earlier in isolation of greater “Heathendom” several years earlier, and certainly had no spread of available organizational options laid out before me, I stepped into Heathendom under the aegis of the organization known as the “Ring of Troth” … now called simply “the Troth” (damn those acronyms,eh! lol). It was simply the only org. with a (p.r.) reach beyond it’s region in those pre-internet days. It also represented one side of the divide that existed in American Asatru since it’s earliest days and represented P.C. or universalist Asatru (ie. open to everyone regardless of <>; in contrast to “folkish” Asatru (ie. Asatru is the ethno-cultural belief of the <>.



Beyond being my only perceivable option at the time, the RoT was also had (surprise, surprise) a strongly academic slant at the time; for all that it also brought with it the “campus culture” (of p.c.). And for the most part, having been raised a fairly typical product of a lower income, single parent Canadian family, and nursed on regular viewings of Star Trek, and thus inline with the more benign image of (the inherently malevolent) political correctness, it was an ok fit for a time.



Anyway, during my time, I’ve heard plenty of different people accuse plenty of others of being “racists”. And despite my initial reactionary desire to clearly disassociate myself from anything that might be perceived as “racist” (lol), I had been called a racist a time or two myself, so inevitably it began to dawn on me that some of these accused might not in fact be racist themselves. What a novel idea.



And so I inevitably took the opportunity to contact and some of these folks out on the matter; not at all shy to mention my dash of Mi’kmaq blood, my good dose of maternal Slavic blood, and of course my views on tolerance and the right of people and groups to chose their associations without being maligned and alienated for doing so. Not only did I receive a conscientious response in all instances, but, where applicable, membership pamphlets. Not that I haven’t ever come across a collection of racially fixated douchebags within Heathenry, but they are few and far between … unless of course we count the universalists, whose community is absolutely burgeoning with racially fixated douchebags of its own variety.



In my experience the word racist is the most ill-defined, shamelessly subjective, potentially all-encompassing, emotionally charged, and therefore completely insidious word that has ever existed in the English language. Indeed, if such things as “hate crimes” and “hate speech” must exist at all — must they??? — such talk as this should most certainly be recognized as a form of it. I mean, it preys upon the emotions to illicit a kneejerk reaction that stirs contempt toward those it is being hurled at. And like an accusation of, pedophilia for example, the thought that we might disbelieve an accusation only to be wrong, is too much … so we default to belief without those so slandered, in regards to racism, ever receiving their day in court.



The use of the term racist is an indicator of a severe character flaw and an utter lack of integrity. And of a variety that flies directly in the face of such liberal ideals as fairness, equality, and tolerance … the latter of which might be defined by the limits of traditional law, ie. if you’re obeying the law I owe you at least my tolerance.



“King Penda himself did not forbid the preaching of the Faith to any even of his own Mercians who wished to listen; but he hated and despised any whom he knew to be insincere in their practice of Christianity once they had accepted it, and said that any who despised the commandments of the God in whom they professed to believe were themselves despicable wretches.” — Bede, the Ecclesiastical History of the English People

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