bludhammer

Okay, first question is one that has been around for several years  We as heathens believe we are descended from Rigg/Heimdall as described in the Lay of Rigg from the three families ultimately created by Odin, Villi and Ve.  We believe that we are literally the children of our Gods. 

Now the question that runs among many heathens and one of the lines we draw between us is:  How much blood does it take to be considered one of the Nordic peoples?  Does one drop of blood (One ancestor of Northern European blood) create enough of a bond to be called by the Gods?   The Folkish people say- no.  They don't always give a percentage of what they believe is correct, but the purer the better.  The Universalists- many of whom for which I have a great deal of contempt as they are simply trying to make Asatru into Wicca with swords- say the Gods call whom they choose.

Now there are arguments for both sides.  Let me deal with the Universalist argument first.

I think a great deal of their argument comes from a desire as to not be considered a racist.  These days, you can do more damage to a person by accusing him/her of being a racist than you can by accussing him/her of being a murderer.  Too many white people are willing to accept the racial gult that certain groups are more than willing to pile on.  I'm not one of them.  I won't base my arguments on a desire not be called a racist. As Neal Boortz once pointed out, the belief that one group of people is genetically superior to another is the real definition of racism, and nobody with and IQ greated than the average house cat really believes that.

However, because this question deals with race, it tends to set off alarm bells in peoples heads- usually brain-dead people who wouldn't know a real discussion if it came up and bit them on the ass- which is a pretty good description of most universalists.  They'd rather offend a God than be accused of racism.   They do have ONE point I will concede- the elderkin ARE GODS!  They can call whomever they damn well please, and it's not our place to judge that.

That being said, though- we are a Northern European tradition.  We don't mix our beliefs with Native American spiritualism, with Santaria, with Voodoun, or Pastafarians.   We are descended from a specific set of Gods and we belong to them.  A great deal of Western Civilization- specifically French, British, and American, not to mention the Germanic peoples, and even some Eastern European culture owes it's existence to the Nordic traditions.

The concept of a limited government and the rights of the individual come from the Nordic peoples. It is not Christian, it is not Asian, it is not Native American, and it is certainly not African.   That is the biggest gift our ancestors gave the free world- the concepts of freedom that eventually led to the Magna Carta, English Common Law, and ultimately the US Constitution.  This is a HEATHEN concept, and it is a concept that we should be proud of.

The concept that women are not property and have rights and responsibilities dates back to TWO Nordic cultures- the Vikings and the Celts.  Hmmm once again, these concepts come from the Northern Europeans- not the Native Americans, not the Asians, the Africans, not the Christians, and certainly not the muslims. 

Whether a great deal of people want to admit it or not: Freedom is a European- specifically Northern European concept, and it is one for which we should be proud to have given the world.  But anyone who mentions will imediately have the S word thrown at them: Slavery.

Let's look at that concept:  The vikings and the Celts all practiced a form of slavery- but it was not slavery based on the color of skin- it was based on wealth. It was not unheard of for a nordic man to gamble his whole family into thralldom.  They didn't care about the color of the person's skin, they cared about their actions. 

However, the muslims and the Africans gave us racial based slavery.  When Europeans went looking for slaves, the Africans didn't want a bunch of white men with guns roaming around their countryside. (I'm not really sure why- after all, packs of black and brown men with guns have done far more damage to Africa than Europe ever did- look at Darfur, Somalia, and Ethopia.)  Instead, they ran down and captured their enemies, people from other tribes and even each other and gleefully sold them to the Europeans.

When it came time to end slavery, it was not these African tribes who fought the war in the US to end it.  It wasn't even the slaves themselves- for the most part.  There were a few slave regiments in the war, but for the most part they had little impact on it.  It was the primarily white males who fought and died to end slavery.   

When it came time to end the Jim Crow laws in the South, the black community did not stand in a vacuum and demand that it end. They walked, protested, and were killed shoulder to shoulder with far more white people than black.  It was the REPUBLICAN Party that forced LBJ to sign the Civil Rights Act.

So, the tribalist and the folkish have at least one thing right in their concerns over blood.  People of Northern Europe have much to be proud of, and they rightly should be.  Add into that the question of orlog and the momentum of luck passing down the generations, the modern attempt to dilute that blood with former slaves MAY have a detrimental affect on the body of Heathenism as a whole.  But of course mention that idea and watch the universalists toss out the racist card.

If you believe in orlog, then that is a logical conclusion.  If you don't believe in orlog, thene what the Hel are you doing calling yourself a Heathen?