Asatru Folk Assembly

McNallen's Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) has been an important presence in modern heathenry due to its visibility, theology, and leading popularity in the folkish and white separatist communities. McNallen himself has made public statements endorsing the "14 words" of David Eden Lane founder of violent Pagan extremist organisations The Order and Wotansvolk. In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated the Asatru Folk Assembly as a hate group. Since McNallen's retirement in 2016, the organisation has emphasised its ultra-conservative and exclusionary rhetoric under the stewardship of Matt Flavel. The organisation is particularly focused on outreach among military veterans, current and former prisoners, and prioritises money collection to purchase buildings to serve as temples and community centres. The AFA owns several temple properties and, after funding from members life size bronze statues of McNallen and his wife were made and placed in a field at one of the AFA properties. The AFA is also notable for owning the rights and publishing many of the works of influential heathen and runic occultist Stephen Flowers (aka Edred Thorsson). The Asatru Folk Assembly was formally founded in 1992, as declared in his publication The Runestone in winter 1994 by Stephen McNallen and gained tax exempt status as a religious organisation (501(c)(3)) in 1997 EIN: 68-0386731. However, McNallen's activities, his vision and his network were actually established in as the Viking Brotherhood, perhaps as early as 1969 although McNallen's earliest publications had very limited numbers and seem to only first appear in 1971 and the AFA precursor organisation the Viking Brotherhood gained tax-exempt status in 1972, this seems to have ended with the Asatru Free Assembly in 1987. In October of 1996, the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) filed a complaint against the Army Corps of Engineers seeking an injunction to prevent handing over a recently discovered ancient skeleton referred to in the media as the Kennewick Man over to the Umatilla Tribes under the Native Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The AFA claimed the Kennewick Man was white and therefore an ancestor, the AFA were arguing for possession of the skeleton in the same way as the Umatilla Tribes. This debacle and subsequent media attention helped publicise the AFA. The AFA was investigated in Sacremento by the FBI as a hate group, but the case was dropped in 2002.