Murdock City Council approves controversial church to open, restricting minorities

The Murdock, Minnesota City Council approved on a 3-1 vote Wednesday night a conditional use permit for Asatru Folk Assembly to open a church in their community.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the ASA group as a hate group, according to their website.

“Everybody all of a sudden thinks that the council is racist, and everybody’s racists, that’s not the case," said Murdock Mayor Craig Kavanagh.

The council’s action was to approve the permit to allow the church to open in a zoned residential area.

“I just want people to realize that we are just doing what we are told legally that we needed to do,” Kavanagh said. “That doesn’t mean we’re for exactly their beliefs, but we’re not against them either. Everybody’s got their own first amendment rights and I respect that."

"There’s also been a lot of people who have stated until they see us do something hateful, they are going to treat us fairly, and we really appreciate that. We’ve always wanted to be good parts of the community," said Matthew Flavel, the top official, or Alsherjargothi, with the Asatru Folk Assembly.

Flavel said their pre-European faith believes in Norse deities, but he claims they are absolutely not a hate group, which they have been called by some.

"We are absolutely proud of who we are and we are an ethnic faith, but we don’t denigrate any other groups of people and we’ve never done that,” Flavel said.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked Flavel if someone who was Black could join their religion.

Flavel replied, “No,” to the question about who could join.

The Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate group fought the AFA’s efforts to open in the town of fewer than 300 residents in Swift County.

"I’m really saddened, I understand that they [City Council] had a very difficult decision ahead of them but I was hoping that they would vote in the best interest of Murdock and Murdock safety," said Victoria Guillemard, co-founder of the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate. “I believe their [City Council] vote last night was based solely on the fear of litigation."

The Asatru Folk Assembly said they aren’t sure yet when their gathering site will open. It would be their third location in the world of a faith of around 740 members.

For a more detailed look at the final resolution filed Wednesday night, the document can be seen below.