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A Small Break in the BloggingFYI, I will be out of town from Friday morning until Monday so don't expect any blogging activity during the weekend. I will be at Convergence 10 one of the largest " Goth" gatherings in the country. I will be DJing at this event on Sunday night so wish me luck! While I'm up there I plan to hit the big Art Chicago event on Navy Pier (not to mention some great restaurants and maybe a hoodoo store as well). So see you next week, have a good weekend!
What?!?!?!It looks like the movie adaptation of Troy has left the gods out of the picture!!! "Troy" is "inspired" by "The Iliad," Homer's epic poem about the Greek siege of Troy. The filmmakers chose that word carefully. Not only does much of their story derive from ancient literary sources other than Homer and the script often take extreme liberties with Greek mythology, but Petersen and writer David Benioff jettison Zeus and the whole Olympian cosmos. Yes, this version of "The Iliad" is godless. - Kirk Honeycutt Gah! This is intolerable, how can you tell a tale of the ancient Greeks without mentioning religion? I let it slide when I saw Gladiator but to tell the tale of the Trojan War with not a mention of the gods? I dare say it's blasphemy, it's like telling bible stories without mentioning God, imagine a scene in the bible where some saint in trouble instead of getting a bit of divine intervention escapes using some sort of MacGyveresque escape method and then talks about how the only thing he believes in is his abilities.
Random Updates of NoteRenee From Ohio continues her coverage of the National Day of Prayer scandal, pointing out that the majority of events are being run by far-right Christian groups. There is a review up of the book "Naked: Witers Uncover The Way We Live on Earth" that sounds somewhat interesting. Google is now a god worthy of worship, proof that the web is polytheistic place. I'm waiting for the official Legba website! Also, I can't wait to see this film.
What The NDP Should Be LikeSome groups are taking it on themselves to hold truly ecumenical National Day of Prayer events like The Mainstream Baptists in Oklahoma who are... "Weary of the partisan political overtones and the narrow religious cast to the National Day of Prayer, a group of progressive religious leaders and church-state separation activists in Oklahoma City will hold an inclusive celebration of religious freedom this year."The event includes pagans, Christians, Native Americans, Jews and Unitarians and more. Here is the flyer. The story from AUThe story from Ethics Daily
New collaborative blogPresenting: The JugglerA new collaborative pagan blog featuring myself, The Zero Boss, Jet Blackthorn, and Shylah and maybe more in the future. I'm hoping that this will help broaden the blogo-sphere religious conversation from the pagan angle, expect conversations about politics, culture and more from a pagan perspective. There is still room for more, so if you are interested feel free to drop me a line.
Voodoo Priests Could Help Fight HIV/AIDS in Haiti"Voodoo priests in Haiti "could make all the difference" in the country's fight against HIV/AIDS by directing clients to clinics for testing and treatment, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports. Many of Haiti's approximately 400,000 HIV-positive residents believe that the symptoms of their illness are the result of a curse and that voodoo can solve medical problems, according to NPR. Patricia Lawrence, who directs AIDS outreach programs with La Fondation Esther Boucicault in St. Marc, Haiti, said that providing voodoo priests with HIV/AIDS education information could "significantly lower" the country's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate."Here is the full audio piece.
A Problem For The Pagan WorldIssac Bonewits writes on his webpage: "Something that is perhaps more important than responding to one Pagan elder’s plight, however, is the now obvious and growing need to set up long term solutions to help all of us old coots who have worked so hard for this community. If we are to be a healthy and functional family of religions, we can’t just use up and throw away our elders, whether they are sages or crones. It is way past time to begin setting up Pagan Old Folks Homes and other Pagan charities all around the U.S., Canada, Australia, the Celtic Isles, and elsewhere."As the much larger second wave of modern pagan leaders enter retirement age how will those who didn't score a lucrative publishing career or some other form of safety net be taken care of? Currently our collective community because it is so diverse (and is many cases anti-establishment) has a hard time building infrastructures to take care of the people who have helped shape our collective faith(s). Pagan leaders of all stripes for the most part do not have the luxury of spending their days lecturing or writing memoirs or overseeing the next generation of leaders, most of their time is spent working "mundane" jobs to keep themselves afloat. When they become too old or infirm to juggle such a hectic schedule they usually drop off the pagan map and in many cases are quickly forgotten. But perhaps if we are ready to have seminaries maybe we are ready for some fledgling groups who take care of our heritage.
More on Pagans at the March For Women's LivesYou can find a lengthy article at Witchvox about the Pagan Drum Corps at the March For Women's Lives last week. "Finally, a March organizer shooed us along the route as we were falling behind. We danced shamelessly along Pennsylvania Avenue as a colorful Pagan herd, sharing our rhythmic power. A single line of fundamentalists stood at the side of the street, shouting at us. Our marchers stood in front of the fundamentalists, holding up pro-choice signs to conceal the anti's pathology lab photos. There were literally a thousand of us for each of them. I rattled and sang to detoxify the current of anger the anti-abortion marchers projected." - Caroline Kenner
A day for whose prayer?Renee from the Village Gate remarks on how The National Day of Prayer is only open to the followers of Christ "NDP Event Coordinators are subjected to a Christians-only religious test. The NDP Task Force website solicits volunteers to sponsor local events, but the application makes it clear that only certain Americans are welcome. Applicants must describe ?My Personal Testimony (How did you come to know Jesus as your Savior?)."I would say that I'm surprised, but in our current climate where everything is becoming more polarised and hostile there is little room for nice ecumenical gestures from the government. Bush and his cronies have been openly dismissive and hostile to the modern pagan movement for years, as I said in an earlier entry, the most we hope for is a politician who isn't openly hostile. While I'm at it I would like to thank Renee for giving a nod to Beltane, happy Beltane is just fine thanks!
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