(ChurchLeaders) To the dismay of many residents of Linden, North Carolina, a white supremacist group now owns a building that had served as a Methodist Church for almost 150 years. The Asatru Folk Assembly, a pagan group that strives to preserve “Ethnic European Folk,” established a hof, or meeting hall, in what was formerly Parker’s Grove United Methodist Church. Town officials say they’ve received complaints from concerned citizens but can’t control who buys property.
Asatru, which has about 500 members throughout the United States, also owns buildings in Brownsville, California, and Murdock, Minnesota.