Wyatt C. Kaldenberg (born 1957) is an American white supremacist and a supporter of Tom Metzger's Neo-Nazi White Aryan Resistance (WAR) organization. He was the managing editor of their paper WAR. He is also an Odinist (a type of Germanic neopaganism), and an author of several books.
Early life
Kaldenberg was born in a working-class Mormon family in a small California town in the Mojave Desert. As a teenager he was associated with the Young Socialist Alliance, a Trotskyist organization.[1]
Enrolling in a Job Corps training programme in Salt Lake City in the 1970s, Kaldenberg became "aware of racial realities" after having fights with blacks and Muslims.[1]
White Aryan Resistance
In the early 1970s Kaldenberg joined Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance. He was the managing editor of their paper WAR[2] until 1989[3] and Metzger's bodyguard.[4] His articles promoted white supremacist paganism or Odinism.[2][5] Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke described his articles for the newspaper as "spew[ing] a stream of abusive misanthropy and violent rhetoric to promote a white revolution".[6] His articles provoked criticism from Christian Identity adherents.[7]
SPLC lawsuit
In October 1990, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League won a civil judgement against Metzger and WAR on behalf of the family of Mulugeta Seraw, who was murdered by white power skinheads associated with the group. Metzger then encouraged his supporters to send donations to Kaldenberg rather than to him or to WAR, in order to avoid paying the judgement. In January 1991, Kaldenberg was the subject of a court order freezing his funds, pending court review.[3] Just hours after the order was issued, he began withdrawing money from the frozen account, and was ordered to return it by a San Diego municipal judge. When Kaldenberg refused to obey the order, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for contempt of court.[8]
Odinism
Kaldenberg was briefly involved with Stephen A. McNallen's Ásatrú Free Assembly but left when McNallen ejected Nazis from that organization.[9] Kaldenberg and other "Aryanists" who left the AFA at that time went on to found the Greater Los Angeles area chapter of the Odinist Fellowship.[9]
After leaving the AFA, Kaldenberg developed a distinct variety of Odinism. He devalues spirituality and ceremony and rejects Judeo-Christianity. According to Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Kaldenberg's version of the ideology is "chiefly a cult of aristocracy, power and the propagation of the white race."[9]
Kaldenberg began publishing Pagan Review in the 1990s which was described as "a voice of Eurocentric polytheistic communities."[9]
Written works
- Odinism: The Religion of Our Germanic Ancestors in the Modern World (2011)
- Odinism in the Age of Man: The Dark Age Before the Return of Our Gods (2011)
- Perceived Heathenism and Odinic Prayer: A Book of Heathen Prayer and Direct Contact with Our Living Gods (2011)
- Folkish Odinism (2013)
- Why Nazism and White Racism Suck And Do Nothing But Empower Leftists And Hurt The White Race (2011)
- A Heathen Family Devotional: Odinism Begins at Home (2011)
- Heathen Family Prayer for Beginners: A Collection of Odinic Prayers for Families New to Odinism, Volume 1 (2011)
- Odinism: Inside the Belly of the Beast: Essays on Heathenism inside The New World Order (2011)
- Skertru Now: Issue 2, April 2013, Volume 2 (2013), with Skergard, Volundr Lars Agnarsson, and Skuli Magnusson
- The Oera Linda Book: A Neo-Pagan Fantasy Novel (Introduction)
- Early Writings that Helped Shape American Odinism, Volume 1 (2012), with other writers
- 9 Worlds of Hex Magic paperback by Hunter Yoder (featured interview)
- The Death of the White Race
References
- 1 2 Gardell 2003, p. 177.
- 1 2 Gardell 2003, p. 178.
- 1 2 "Assets of White Supremacist Are Target of Legal Maneuver". New York Times. December 25, 1990. p. 8.
- ↑ Frank Fuller (2009). Studies in Criminal Justice, Terrorism, and International Political Conflicts. Universal-Publishers. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-59942-923-6.
- ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2002, p. 262.
- ↑ Goodrick-Clarke 2002, p. 262–263.
- ↑ Gardell 2003, p. 221.
- ↑ John Snell (February 2, 1991). "Metzger Aide Jailed for Contempt After Taking Funds from Account". The Oregonian. p. B02.
- 1 2 3 4 Goodrick-Clarke 2002, pp. 262–264.
Works cited
- Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-8450-2.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2002). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3124-6.
Further reading
- Dobratz, Betty A., Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile, The White Separatist Movement in the United States: "White Power, White Pride!", The Johns Hopkins University Press, 200
- Reviving Paganism, Intelligence Report, Winter 2003, Issue Number: 112 - SPLC