Prison Ministry Revisited

An argument is breaking out on a mailing list I read. One member who has "convict" in his screen name posted, asking about blots and other events in his part of the Southeast and saying "I have been away from my people for too long". The response was light, and I didn't bother responding to him at all because it was pretty clear to me that he was more than likely in the joint.

Day before yesterday, he posts the following:

hope all had a great blot and plenty of mead. hail the 14 words and
hail odin.

The response he got from another listmember was rather..."forceful". Simply put, he was told where to go and what to do with his "fourteen words" when he got there--a sentiment that I agree with, to be honest.

(For those who don't know: "The Fourteen Words" refer to the white supremacist slogan "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children." It's often shortened to 14W, and is sometimes paired with "88", which is shorthand for "Heil Hitler"--H being the 8th letter of the alphabet.)

This has sparked a great uproar, with several people defending the racist and saying that those of us who flamed him aren't being hospitable. One of those people is a member of a group that has a very active prison ministry--which readers of this blog know is something that I am dead-set against--so of course his comments didn't exactly win me over.

So I find myself forced to wonder: when, pray tell, did it suddenly become okay to welcome outlaws into our midst? Outlawry certainly does still exist, folks; the only difference between outlawry today and outlawry 1000 years ago is that today's outlaws are sent to prison rather than left to the less-than-tender mercies of whoever happens to come across them.

Were I in prison, would I want access to a godhi/gydhja and ritual items? Of course--but I certainly wouldn't expect them, and I'd know full well that as an outlaw, the gods wouldn't want anything to do with me. I know my ancestors certainly wouldn't! Prison ministry is a fool's errand, in my opinion. I don't want to be associated with outlaws and dirtbags, and the responsible thing for any heathen to do (in my opinion, of course) is to stand up and tell these luckless pieces of garbage "Sorry, but you're on your own until you have paid your debt to society."

Just because Hospitality is a virtue of our folk, that doesn't mean that we have to be hospitable to outlaws.

Meet the new boss, just the same as the old boss.

In the last few weeks, I've been pondering Forseti--or, if you're Frisian, Fosite.

Forseti, so the Eddas tell us, was the arbiter of the Gods. The other Gods could go before Him with their disputes, and he heard both sides and reached a decision that all sides agreed was fair. The Great Mediator, Stiller of Strife. He was the wisest and most eloquent of the Gods, and it's said by some that he was a god of truth just as much as he was concerned with justice--for without truth, one cannot have justice.

The truth, however, is rarely gentle or free from pain. The search for truth is something that I hold dear--whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth (to steal a quote from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"). Sometimes, I wonder if I don't wield the hard truth of what I see like a woodsman's axe, hacking through things willy-nilly in an attempt to get people to understand the truth that I see.

I'm far from eloquent, and not as wise as I wish I was--but I try to live an honest life.

And sometimes, truth and its brother honesty are a little hard for some to take.

Comfortably Numb

A friend of mine asked me once if I was secure in my faith. I replied with "yes, I believe I am" (the first time I've ever been able to say that, by the way).

So then she asked me "Then why are you so antagonistic towards Christians?"

And the more I thought about it, the more I understood her point; why go out of my way to antagonize those whose faith is so antipathetic to my own, if I'm secure in my belief system?

Does that mean that I can't or won't defend myself if I come under attack? Of course not. Several times I've come under attack, and several times I've replied the way my ancestors would have: "You've got your religion and I've got mine--you go worship your god and just leave me be."

Mind you, this doesn't always work and I have to get more politely forceful with those who refuse to take the hint and continue babbling at me about their desert god...but I no longer feel the need to go on the offensive.

Of course, this makes me wonder why the worshippers of YHVH-1 are so adamant about aggressively spreading their faith like a virus throughout all of creation. Are they that insecure in their beliefs that they feel the need to aggressively attempt to stamp out and oppress other faiths?

They've got their religion and I've got mine--as long as they stay away from me and my kin, we won't have a problem.

Ah, bigotry. Gotta love it.

Convicted murder suddenly decides he's Tru, files suit asking for Llewellynized "ritual implements".

I personally don't know what's more sad: the lawsuit, the bulk of the items being asked for in the lawsuit, Asatru "prison outreach" to begin with, or the steady stream of effluvium issuing forth from the keyboards of the Christianists and other assorted ignorami in their haste to bash us.

It's hard to refrain from giving in to my baser instincts and leaping headlong into the fray, but really what is there to say? Nothing. I even agree with those comments that point out that the guy is a murderer who really doesn't deserve the time of day, much less "dragon's blood incense", "abalone shells", and "a wooden wand". I mean, did we read "Rites of Odin" a few too many times? Seriously, I'd like to know.

In any event: the sad hilarity of the article and its complete and total ignorance of what Asatru even is gets totally overshadowed by the complete and total idiocy of the commenters who do their level best to show off their gross ignorance by spraying such wonderful things as this:

"What color do you have to be to be included in this "religion?" I have been "inside" and have seen these Asatru followers, and they were all white. But then again, so were the Klu Klux Klan. Go figure?"

Because of course, Nidhoggr-fodder like Michael Lenz and various members of white supremacist organizations is such a representative sample right?

I don't see the point of "prison outreach", in any event. Very few and very far between are those inmates who aren't violent offenders, murderers, wife-beaters, robbers and all-round thugs. Why are we tru folks "reaching out" to them? Why are we going against everything that the ancestors believed in by "ministering" to those who would have been bog-fertilizer a few centuries ago?

Why? Why can't we just let the Christianists have them?

Somebody explain this to me, please.

Problem Children

(This post was originally made to my personal livejournal back in November 2006)

I just....I am so irritated right now.

Actually, that's not the right word. Discomfited would probably be better.

There's a mailing list thread going on right now about Loki--the conversation turned, briefly, to whether or not he should actually be worshipped....and it made me wicked uncomfortable.

In a nutshell (for those not up on the Eddas): Loki is a Jotun. He's also Odin's blood-brother and he hangs with the Aesir. He's commonly referred to as a "trickster", he's very chaotic, and not only was he directly responsible for the death of Baldr but he's also going to turn on the Gods come Ragnarok. Basically he's an outlaw at worst and a celestial con-artist at best. I mean, he walked into Aegir's mead-hall, killed one of his servants, and then proceeded to insult everyone in the place and fucking BRAG about his part in Baldr's death.

"Oh, but what about all the gifts he gave to the gods? What about Sif's golden hair and Frey's ship and Thor's hammer and Sleipnir and blahblahblahblah..."

What about them? They're schilder--they were given to keep the other gods from kicking the crap out of him. This isn't a Hermes we're dealing with here. This is a liar and a cheat and a general no-goodnik....and people worship the guy?

I'm with the Theodsmen on this one. Loki doesn't deserve worship. I acknowledge his place in the Lore, I acknowledge his power, but no way will I make a faining to him--especially because every time I even so much as talk about him at length, bad shit happens to me.

If I wind up in the hospital tonight, you know why.

I just don't get why there are people that insist on worshipping Loki. I just can't wrap my brain around it, unless I come to the conclusion that it's just some sort of knee-jerk reaction to perceived "Christianization" of Loki as the Devil. Then I can understand why people do it--but that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable for me. I just...yarrgh. Why would you want to embrace something that's brought more pain and sadness than anything else?

At the same time, I can see how he would be seductive, how one would be tempted to hail him as a balancing force--order balanced with chaos and keeping the wheel turning.

But he's not for me. I seek my balance in other more constructive ways, thanks.