8.15.2007
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
An inebriated woman from Waukesha (in Wisconsin, near Milwaukee) was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after neighbors complained that her "Witch chants" were too loud.
"When an officer arrived, he heard the woman yelling in the backyard and found her wearing headphones, a T-shirt and underwear, Babe said. The officer tried to get her attention by shining a flashlight on her but she continued yelling her chants. At one point she poured lighter fluid on the fire, which was 10-feet from her residence, he said. She was burning rubber car mats and a cooler, Babe said. When the officer was able to get the woman's attention she refused to cooperate telling the officer she was performing a religious ritual. She continued to be belligerent and the officer could smell alcohol on the woman's breath, Babe said."
Brenna K. Barney (aka Brenna Raven Moonfire) is claiming that the police were infringing on her religious beliefs, but I haven't found any new moon ritual that calls for the incineration of plastic coolers or rubber car mats. Maybe it's a Waukesha thing.
If you want Pagan-themed vanity plates in Vermont, better not get your hopes up. A Federal Magistrate has ruled that the Vermont DMV hasn't discriminated against a local Christian for refusing a Bible-themed vanity plate on the grounds that the DMV refuses all religiously-motivated vanity plate requests.
"Niedermeier also wrote that the state DMV has not singled out Byrne based on his religious belief and properly applied the statute prohibiting religious statements on state vanity plates. "Since May 2004, the DMV has rejected plates referring to the Bible, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Wicca," the magistrate judge wrote. Byrne sued the DMV in federal court in January 2005 after the agency rejected three of his requests for a vanity license plate."
Of special note is the fact that the Alliance Defense Fund is representing the Christian motorist. The ADF is also the legal team for the preachers who are filing suit in Michigan after cops told them to stop harassing a Pagan event.
Prospect Magazine's August issue features an essay from philosopher Roger Scruton on why Atheists are wrong when they question the existence (and worth) of God, since religion is really about the human need for sacred experience.
"Nor do you have to accept the cosmology of monotheism in order to understand why it is that this experience of the sacred should attach itself to the three great transitions - the three rites of passage - which mark the cyclical continuity of human societies. Birth, copulation and death are the moments when time stands still, when we look on the world from a point at its edge, when we experience our dependence and contingency, and when we are apt to be filled with an entirely reasonable awe. It is from such moments, replete with emotional knowledge, that religion begins. The rational person is not the one who scoffs at all religions, but the one who tries to discover which of them, if any, can make sense of those things, and, while doing so, draw the poison of resentment."
I appreciate the fact that Scrutun moved (a bit) beyond the restraints of monotheism in making his arguments, even if he most likely sees modern Pagan religions as "superstitious cults".
Speaking of superstition, former Irish pop star Shane Lynch (from a boy-band called "Boyzone", a sort of Irish 'N Sync) has found Jesus and talks of his harrowing experience with the world of Witchcraft!
"Mr Lynch, who was born and raised a Catholic in Dublin, also talked about his problems with violence and alcohol which followed his success and about how he became involved with witchcraft. "It was destructive," he said. "I was into Ouija boards, tarot cards, seances and worse. I was in a really bad place." But he said that, five years ago, finding God turned around his life. "I was anti-God when I was involved in the demonic side of things," he said"
One shudders to think at what was "worse" than playing with tarot cards, perhaps he was engaging in common demonic Witch activities like attending festivals or arriving late for ritual.
In a final note WorldNetDaily, that bastion of balance, defends the honor of Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho), who has come under fire for intolerant comments he made concerning Rajan Zed's prayer before the Senate. Unlike the "left-wing bloviators", WND isn't going to resort to distorting the truth in order to score rhetorical points!
"Hindus believe in a virtually infinite number of gods and worship cows, monkeys and snakes. Our Founding Fathers, on the other hand, believed in one God: The Creator God revealed in the Old and New Testaments, the God who is the source of our inalienable civil rights and liberties ... India, the prime example of a society shaped by Hinduism, is a land of wrenching poverty and mind-numbing filth and disease, which is why Mother Theresa, animated by the Spirit of Christ, went there in the first place."
So you see Hindus worship snakes and monkeys and it is their FAITH that has created all the misery and torment in India. Obviously generations of interference, oppression, and colonial rule by "good Christians" had NOTHING to do with the social problems they are facing now. Good thing WND is around to set the record "straight".
That is all I have for now, have a good day.
Labels: Alliance Defense Fund, Christianity, Hinduism, Paganism, Religious Freedom, Wicca, Witchcraft
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