Regulars

29 April 2006

Folker than thou, v2.0

I've been giving more thought to "The Folkish Thing", especially after listening to a talk by Steve McNallen of the AFA on the "Odin Lives" radio show. A lot of what Steve said made my heart glad--his vision of reintroducing the Gods to the folk and making Asatru a stronger alternative to mainstream religion, the idea of reintroducing to humanity that which has been lost to the followers of the desert god, and providing a place for descendants of the original folk to come to know their ancestral faith.

HOWEVER:

I find the denigration of "universalism" to be a little irritating, especially because it implies that--despite statements about free will and freedom of choice--if you're "not folk enough", then you aren't allowed to come to know the Gods.

That right there just isn't reaching me. If somebody who is of Hispanic extraction comes to me and tells me that he's feeling drawn to the Gods and wishes to know of them, I'm to just turn them away withand tell them to go worship gods that may not be speaking to them? I don't get it.

I can see preaching diversity. I get that. I support that. I support respecting others' cultures and belief systems (which is why I don't do as some do and put down Christianity). But that shouldn't mean that I have to turn away out of hand somebody who has a genuine desire to know the Gods, just because that person may not have "enough" of the blood of the Northern Folk in him. I'd rather tell him of the Gods, introduce him to the Lore, and let him come to his own decision through prayer and meditation.

I mean, that's pretty much what happened to me.