We've been rounding up the loose ends of an investigative story as the week winds down and so another news digest of items that have caught our fancy.
Murdock organizer exercises free speech
Last July, Bluestem Prairie broke the story about the Asatru Folk Assembly, a whites-only pagan group, purchasing a former church in tiny Murdock, Minnesota and setting up shop.
At the Star Tribune, Strib Guy John Reinan reports in Whites-only church in west-central Minnesota tries to silence critic, is rebuffed by judge:
A judge has rejected an attempt by the priest of a whites-only church to silence a critic who has spoken out against the arrival of the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) in Murdock, Minn.
In her ruling, issued Thursday, Kandiyohi County District Judge Stephanie Beckman wrote that criticism of the controversial church is "a matter of public concern," and that critics were engaged in "education and outreach."
Jason Plourde is the priest of the AFA, a Nordic heritage religion that opened a "hof," or church, last year in an abandoned Lutheran church in the Swift County town of about 275 residents some 115 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.
Members have been renovating the building, and no services have been held there yet.
The AFA, which allows only white members of European descent, has been identified by religious scholars as a white supremacist group. It has been denounced by other heathen religious groups for its views.
Last year, as city officials debated whether to grant the church a permit to operate, local residents formed a group called Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate (MAAAH).
Led by one of the organizers, Victoria Guillemard, the group spoke out against the Asatru and Plourde. As Plourde aggressively networked in the area, Guillemard approached businesses and local organizations to inform them of who he was and what she believed his church stood for.
Plourde responded last month with a petition for a harassment restraining order in Kandiyohi County District Court. In it, he claimed Guillemard was targeting him because of his faith. Guillemard and others were "spamming" his social media pages, he said, as well as launching character attacks against him with local businesses and organizations.
In her ruling, Beckman said there was no evidence that Guillemard "engaged in harassing conduct or that her speech rises to the level of harassment."
Read the rest at the Star Tribune.
Closer to Murdock, the West Central Tribune's Tom Cherveny reports in Judge denies restraining order against Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate organizer:
Jason Plourde, a priest with the Asatru Folk Assembly, sought a harassment restraining order against Victoria Guillemard, who helped organize the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate. The judge found that Guillemard was exercising her rights to speak about a public concern, and had not targeted or harassed Plourde.
A district judge has denied a harassment restraining order sought against Victoria Guillemard, who helped organize the Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate.
District Judge Stephanie Beckman ruled April 29 that Guillemard was exercising her right to free speech about a public concern, and that there was no evidence that she targeted or harassed Jason Plourde. . . .
Read the rest at the West Central Tribune and consider subscribing (you'll get access to all Forum Communications papers in Minnesota and the Dakotas--a bargain). The ever-helpful paper embeds the court document itself:
Guillemard Plourde Order uploaded by West Central Tribune
MNSenate bill's subtext about Historical Society management of some sites
Back in 2019, we published Welcome to Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote, or maybe not under Christian right's Project Blitz.
We were reminded of that when retired GAC prof and general good citizen Max Hailperin posted on Facebook today:
The Senate version of the state-government omnibus would transfer responsibility for state historic sites away from the Minnesota Historical Society. I've highlighted a delicately mentioned elephant in the room, namely the apparent but unstated reason why such a bizarre change would be made.
Here's the entire letter:
MHS memo on State Government Finance Conference Committee Provisions relating to the MHS uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
What's the elephant in the room, according to Max? From our 2019 piece:
Bluestem is quite late to Frederick Carlson's June 24, 2019 A Recent Local Controversy Reveals the Theocratic Heart of ‘Project Blitz,’ but since our romantic partner's great-grandfather Charles R. Crawford spent some time at a camp there one winter, we've been following that local controversy.
The reaction of Minnesota Senate Republicans to the Minnesota State Historical Society signage was baffling to both of us, since Michael's family stories (which he heard from his father in Dakota) include the Bdote name. Carlson writes:
The Christian nationalist intentions of Project Blitz have also received much attention, but a remarkable episode in Minnesota this past state legislative session may be a harbinger of a more profoundly theocratic politics on the horizon.
Much has happened since RD broke the story last year of Project Blitz—a stealth state legislative campaign of the Christian right that framed much of their agenda in terms of religious freedom. Controversies over legislation based on model bills have broken out across the country on issues ranging from LGBTQ civil rights and discrimination in adoption and foster care, to abortion access, and teaching the Bible in public schools. The Christian nationalist intentions of Project Blitz have also received much attention, but a remarkable episode in Minnesota this past state legislative session may be a harbinger of a more profoundly theocratic politics on the horizon.
Earlier this year, Minnesota state Sen. John Marty was perplexed during a committee hearing. State Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, the Republican chair of the Senate State Government Finance Committee, had proposed a $4 million cut in the budget for the Minnesota Historical Society that might have resulted in significant layoffs around the state. Asked by a Democratic senator why she proposed such a steep cut, Kiffmeyer said it was because of “controversy,” though she refused to say what the controversy consisted of.
Marty, following up on his colleague’s questioning, wondered aloud what it even meant to have “a secret controversy,” when one of Kiffmeyer’s Republican colleagues stepped in to explain that it was about, what he called “revisionist history” at the 200-year-old Historic Fort Snelling. There had been a flap over how the historical site had expanded its educational mission beyond the fort’s military history, to include the Dakota name for the area, Bdote, “with history spanning 10,000 years,” including “Native peoples, trade, soldiers and veterans, enslaved people, immigrants, and the changing landscape.” Some Republican legislators didn’t like it.
While the cut passed the Senate, it was ultimately blocked in budget negotiations with the house. Now, it turns out that Fort Snelling was not the only controversy on Kiffmeyer’s mind. In December 2018, Kiffmeyer along with 25 members of the Minnesota Legislative Prayer Caucus—the state action arm of Project Blitz—had written to the nonprofit Minnesota Historical Society, objecting to a talk scheduled for March 2019 by a distinguished scholar and law professor, Steven K. Green, on the theme of his 2015 book, Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding. They claimed that the Society was “promoting a narrative about our nation’s history and founding that is patently false,” and that it would be “prudent” for the Society “to cancel Prof. Green’s presentation or, better yet, allow us as Christian legislators in Minnesota, to debate this issue with Prof. Green.”
Green later recounted the episode in Church & Statemagazine, noting that “the Caucus objected to my upcoming lectures, calling my book biased and one-sided—though admitting they had not read it.”)
Minnesota Historical Society Director Kent Whitworth replied that Green was a respected scholar (detailing how that was so) and would welcome respectful questions and dialogue. But that wasn’t good enough. Although the Prayer Caucus reiterated their demand in another letter, the program proceeded as planned. Afterward, Prayer Caucus state director, Rev. Dale Witherington, along with several Caucus members wrote again, this time demanding that the Society schedule someone who represented their point of view (which they had been casting as the “truth”) to speak or debate before “we begin reviews of the budgetary requests of the MHS.”
Witherington wrote that “we are here to encourage prayer, and to defend our religious freedom. The third pillar for the existence of our Caucus is to preserve our Judeo-Christian heritage. Prof. Green’s argument is a direct attack on that pillar. We cannot let that go. We will not be silenced.”
Sen. Marty*, who is a Democratic member of the finance committee, thought it was odd and concerning that the letter came from Witherington. “The minister, who is director of their prayer caucus,” he told RD, “is not a member of the legislature, is not a state employee, and should have no control over the state budget for the Historical Society.” . . .
The secret controversy then, is actually that the Minnesota Legislative Prayer Caucus made good on their veiled threat: that they would axe the budget unless the Historical Society acceded to their demand to commandeer the program. That the effort to punish the Historical Society in this way failed, should not obscure the fact that they tried.
Read the entire, well-documented backstory at ReWire. It's particularly obnoxious that Kiffmeyer made the Dakota part of the Fort Snelling area the "revisionist" history whipping post, when documents show that the implied threat was created over another matter entirely. . ..
There's more in the post. We hope the Senate conferees give it a rest.
The Hill: Court sets in motion EPA ban on pesticide linked to developmental issues
Speaking of conference committee content, Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Chair Rick Hansen tweeted this article about chlorpyrifos:
Court sets in motion EPA ban on pesticide linked to developmental issues | TheHill 🧪🔬🧪🔬🧪⏰ #mnleg https://t.co/htZllggkbP
— Rep. Rick Hansen (@reprickhansen) April 29, 2021
Earlier this year, we posted Session Daily: Pesticide scrutinized for affecting child brain development could be banned and Pollinator advocates sting #mnleg; or, pollinators need more than a scratch ticket to survive.
Chlorpyrifos is not good for children and other living things.
Photo banner: Welcome to Murdock, where free speech is still free.
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