Inclusive Heathenry and the Paradox of Tolerance 

"I advise you, Loddfáfnir, to take this advice:

it’ll help, if you take it,

do you good, if you get it:

when you recognize ill will, speak out against ill will,

and grant no peace to your foes."

-Hávamál, Stanza 127

   The concept of Inclusive Heathenry is not new. The fight against bigotry in Heathen spaces is ongoing and introduces many difficulties. How do we approach these issues while maintaining the safety of our kindred and how do we reconcile being tolerant in the face of intolerance?

The Paradox of Tolerance

   Tolerance is the process of enduring acts, ideas, organisations, and identities that you do not agree with. In this sense, Inclusive Heathenry is not practicing tolerance because we do not object to these ideas or identities in the first place. If we are extending a welcoming hand to people of all races, we aren't tolerating them, we're accepting them. 

Where tolerance becomes problematic is when intolerant views, such as racism, sexism, or homophobia, demand to be tolerated themselves. This is what philosopher Karl Popper named the Paradox of Tolerance. Popper wrote that if intolerant ideas and practices were allowed unchecked expression that they could exploit an open society and eventually destroy tolerance. He argued that a society should suppress intolerant ideologies as the only way to protect itself from oppression. 

Where the paradox comes into play is in the conflict between our need to combat intolerance and our society's liberal idealism. Our ideal is to allow freedom of speech, but extending that freedom to oppressive and violent ideologies puts our most vulnerable neighbors in danger. The solution to this paradox lies in Social Contract Theory.   

Social Contract Theory is a philosophical theory. It posits that society is held together by social contracts between citizens and the state. Through the lens of Social Contract Theory, tolerance is seen not as a moral principle but rather an unspoken agreement between the members of society. We have a contract to tolerate one another, but acts of intolerance break the contract and place those actors outside of its protections. The act of intolerance makes the actor an outlaw, and allows society to correct the intolerance through suppression by reason—or even force, if necessary. 

Inclusive Heathenry

Modern Heathenry's origins have provided many hurdles to clear in our race to create an inclusive religion. Born out of Germanic Nationalism, Heathenry has weathered Romanticism, Nazism, folkism, and Neo-Nazism, and has endured bigotry in all its varied forms. Inclusive Heathenry is the belief that our religion shouldn't be limited to certain races, genders, affectations, or certain levels of class or ability. A diverse community is strong because of the lessons learned from a variety of life experiences and worldviews, and it would be a mistake to reject this diversity.  

Efforts to create Inclusive Heathenry began with denouncing racism and white supremacy. Groups like the Ásatru Folk Assembly made their racist positions clear, and with Declaration 127, inclusive Heathens denounced those racist positions. Based on stanza 127 of the Hávamal which reads ¨Where you recognize evil, declare it evil, and give your foes no peace,¨ Declaration 127 made it a standard position of inclusive Heathens that bigotry was not to be tolerated in our communities. Further documents, such as the Declaration of Deeds and the Declaration of Flames, have expanded on the first by deepening the context and increasing the scope of action. The work is ongoing.

Criticism of Inclusive Heathenry

It would be easy to make our declarations of inclusive intent, pat ourselves on the back, and then wait for the diversity to arrive, but inclusion and anti-bigotry is very much an active process. A common criticism of Heathen organizations is that they've failed to move past the basics of creating inclusive spaces. We've denounced bigotry and worked to fix the public image of Heathenry, which often focused on the racist and Nazi groups that make headlines, but done little to combat racism outside our organizations. We've placed inclusion as an ideal without always doing the work to make the structures of our organizations reflect this. We've failed to recognize that we're a minority religion, and that our rights are intertwined with those of all other minority groups. In short, we've neglected to act in solidarity with those oppressed peoples in our community. What I hope is that we can move from Inclusive Heathenry to Activist Heathenry. 

Activism

The first task at hand is to make sure we all recognize the wide range of activist actions we can take. Not everyone can march in the streets or risk arrest, injury, or death when the police suppress a protest, but there are many support actions that need to happen to make a protest movement work. Gathering supplies, raising funds, providing transportation, advocating, educating, letter writing, petitioning, and serving your community are all actions that promote change and can empower the most vulnerable among us. Heathens, in this way, could take a lesson in community action from Christians. The best Christians I know provide food and support to the poor and use their religious beliefs to support the rights and equality of all people. We do not need to be a missionary religion to see the benefit of these actions. 

Conclusion

We are the future of Heathenry. What we choose to make important will affect our religion in ways that we cannot yet understand. It is my sincere hope that we begin the hard work of becoming activists, for the sake of both our communities and ourselves. In an uncertain future, we have every reason to fight for the rights of all people. After all, we too enjoy the rights of a free and tolerant society.