Sgt. 1st Class Erick Studenicka / Nevada Army National Guard / AP
This August 2019 photo provided by the Nevada Army National Guard shows Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Hopper of the Nevada Army National Guard at a deployment ceremony in Nevada. Hopper, who is serving in Afghanistan, received a uniform religious exemption to sport a beard based on his Norse pagan beliefs. He is the first guard soldier to receive a religious accommodation for a beard.
Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Two guardsmen who follow the Norse Pagan religion were kicked out of the Georgia National Guard for their ties to a white supremacist organization last month. But a Nevada National Guardsman who also is Norse Pagan strongly denies any ties to extremist, white supremacist or bigoted ideologies.
In December, the Nevada Guard granted Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Hopper a religious exemption to wear a beard out of respect for his adherence to Norse Paganism, a polytheistic religion based on pre-Christian Germanic beliefs from Scandinavia. Currently deployed in Afghanistan, Hopper said via a statement that the beard is sacred to Norse Pagans and an important mark of Pagan “masculine men.”
“My personal faith is deeply tied to the modern warrior lifestyle that I have been able to live during my military career,” Hopper said. “In short, it is honoring the pillars of heathenism (and) our ancestors, ancient gods and way of life.”
Although most Norse Pagans adhere to inclusive, anti-racist ideologies, a small number of followers and sects have been associated with white supremacy and other forms of bigotry. In late December, the Georgia National Guard kicked out Norse Pagans Dalton Woodward and Brandon Trent East after an antifascist organization exposed their involvement in the Asatru Folk Assembly, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Hopper, who has been a Norse Pagan for two decades, denounced “random internet commentary” he has seen equating his beard and religion with white supremacy in response to an earlier article about his religious accommodation. He is not involved in Norse Pagan groups such as Asatru Folk Assembly that are associated with white supremacism, he added.
“On official record, I am absolutely not a member of, nor have I been, part of any type of hate or extremist organization ... Prejudice is in no way or form aligned with my values or ethos,” Hopper said.
Public affairs officer Sgt. 1st Class Erick Studenicka said that while he is familiar with the case in Georgia and other incidents identifying individual Norse Pagans as white supremacists, the topic previously never came up in conversation with Hopper.
“I do not know of anyone being investigated for supremacist activities in the Nevada Guard,” Studenicka added.
Hopper is the first Nevada guardsman to obtain a religious accommodation for a beard, Studenicka said. Two other Norse Pagans are also seeking the right to wear a beard. Eight Nevada guardsmen list paganism as their religion, Studenicka said.
While there is a growing movement among Norse Pagans in the military for the right to wear a beard, not all Norse Pagan and related Heathenry groups agree on its religious significance. Joshua Heath, co-director of the Open Halls Project that supports Norse Pagans in the U.S. military, said his organization does not condone the rise in requests for beards from pagan military personnel.
“The Open Halls Project would be comfortable if the Department of Defense got rid of beard styling requirements for all service members,” Heath said. “But because there’s no religious requirement in our faith for a beard, we feel it’s more important for service members to follow the regulations as they’re set and not attempt to get a waiver for this particular item.”
Ethan Stark of Heathens Against Hate, an organization that aims to educate people about inclusive heathenism in light of the rise of extremist fringe groups, also disagrees with the notion that beards are part of the religion. Because some of the extremist and bigoted Norse Pagan groups have promoted beards as part of the religion, the Nevada National Guard could have benefited from doing “a little more digging” into whether its own Norse Pagan followers are white supremacists, Stark said.
However, a request for a beard accommodation alone does not signal that any individual Norse Pagan is bigoted or hateful, he said.
“The beard exemption doesn’t raise any red flags,” Stark said.
Hopper said he wanted past reporting on his beard to educate others about the poorly understood Norse Pagan religion and the process for obtaining a religious accommodation in the military. He lamented that the previous story brought attention to the extremist and hateful sides of the religion, which Heath said represents the minority of Norse Pagans.
Anti-racist pagans are vocal in pushing back against the racist fringe sects in society and the military, especially because Norse Pagan symbolism is being adopted by some white supremacists. “There’s a loud minority in the military that are also white supremacists, but they’re loud, and that’s part of the problem,” Heath said.
