The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/racism/page/2)
A savory fritter has become a symbol of resistance in Brazil’s fight against religious intolerance and racism. As evangelicals seek to erase Afro-Brazilian traditions, the Axé community stands firm, demanding religious freedom and cultural respect in a nationwide movement for justice and solidarity.
Like a “Sunday Catholic” who is extremely devout on Sunday mornings but lives a decidedly un-Christian life for the rest of the week, we can all too easily make grand speeches over the drinking horn at blót but neglect to put intention into action when we step out into the wider world. Are we honoring the ancestors in our lives? Or are we dishonoring them?
The more of Romero’s films that I watched – and especially the more of his novel that I read – the more I also found a theology bubbling up through the blood that aligns with my own theology of Ásatrú, a modern religion that revives, reconstructs, and reimagines the ancient polytheism of Northern Europe.
This is why I no longer wear the hammer in public. There’s just too much darkness lurking below the surface, across the board.
Here is the lesson. Without positive action, comparative mythology is (at best) a dry academic amusement and (at worst) an exercise in colonialist cultural appropriation. Rather than taking from Hinduism and calling it Heathenry, I suggest that we learn from a closely related tradition that has much to teach us.