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When the church doors open, only white people will be allowed inside.
That’s the message the Asatru Folk Assembly in Murdock, Minnesota, is sending after being granted a conditional use permit to open a church there and practice its pre-Christian religion that originated in northern Europe.
Murdock council members said they do not support the church but were legally obligated to approve the permit, which they did in a 3-1 decision.
“We were highly advised by our attorney to pass this permit for legal reasons to protect the First Amendment rights," Mayor Craig Kavanagh said. "We knew that if this was going to be denied, we were going to have a legal battle on our hands that could be pretty expensive.”
City Attorney Don Wilcox said it came down to free speech and freedom of religion.
“I think there’s a great deal of sentiment in the town that they don’t want that group there," he said. "You can’t just bar people from practicing whatever religion they want or saying anything they want as long as it doesn’t incite violence.”
After permit approved for whites-only church, small Minnesota town insists it isn't racist
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 23 2020, @03:04AM
I think you've conflated two things here.
One -- the church itself. Clearly, yes, the church itself is without question racist
Two - the town govt. that approved the church permit. The town govt. is a different entity from the church. And the town govt. was caught between a rock and a hard place. They could deny the permit, and face legal issues on freedom of religion grounds, or they could approve the permit, and face reputation issues by being called racists.
It looks like the town govt took what, to them, appeared to be the less costly option in dollars, by approving the permit to avoid the possibility of an expensive legal battle that might have granted the permit anyway. But choosing to take the less money expensive route, when given only two terrible choices from which to pick, does not, per. se. mean the town govt. themselves are also racist.