Asatru In Prisons Poses Concerns

An AP story yesterday discusses the growing problems within American prisons posed by prisoners' practice of Asatru-- a pagan religion with roots in Viking mythology. Attention has been focused on the religion as Michael Lenz is scheduled to be executed in Virginia later this week. During an Asatru worship ceremony, Lenz thought that another inmate, Brent Parker, had committed blasphemy, and so he killed him to protect the honor of the gods. The religion is sometimes associated with beliefs in White supremacy, though that connection is disputed by most of its leaders. Britt Minshall, a Baltimore pastor who ministers to inmates, says that some white inmates who felt threatened by black prison gangs formed their own gangs and then found Asatru as a belief system to provide additional security.