2.03.2008
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
I know I just did a Pagan News of Note a few days ago, but quite a few interesting articles and stories have popped up, and I didn't want to ignore any of them. To start off, we have some coverage of last nights Pagan-led protest of the Miss Toronto Tourism Pageant. It seems the pageant's board is trying to now deny religion had any influence in their decision to reject Stephanie Conover as a judge, and in turn paint the protesting Pagans and bullying thugs.
"But Miss Toronto Tourism board member Ainslie Baillie denied Conover's rejection was tied to Wiccan beliefs. 'This pagan conference was calling up our sponsors and threatening them,' she said. 'I was just told that she wasn't qualified. A lot of it has to do with judging experience, not religion.'"
Religious bias will be a hard thing to deny since Conover has it in writing. It should be interesting to see how this shakes out once the snubbed Wiccan beauty queen files a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission next week.
Meanwhile, Chas Clifton reports that Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum will be a participant in an upcoming panel briefing for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
"He will talk about the differential treatment that Wiccans and Pagans receive in government institutions and programs, with the hope that our legislators will enact new policies to further pluralism and end religious discrimination. This briefing will be held in Washington, D.C .on February 8th, 2008 and will become an official part of the Congressional Record. This is obviously an incredible honor and it will be the first time in US history that a Wiccan has been selected to present a briefing to advise the United States Government. He reports he will also be sworn in to the Goddess, which is also an important first."
This is a big deal, a milestone. You'll hear more from me on this issue in the near future, be sure to check back to the USCCR site since they usually post reports on all briefings.
For a little theological exercise, check out the latest issue of Zeek, a Jewish journal of thought and culture, where author Jay Michaelson explores polytheism and nonduality.
"With this understanding, polytheism and polymorphism are more accurate, not less, than traditional monotheism, because they recognize that whatever the ultimate is, it cannot be expressed in a single manifestation. Again, this is not necessarily radical: the psalmist knew this, the ancient polytheistic Israelites knew this, and anyone who is willing to be curious about spirit can know it as well. The pious may label some of these instantiations of the divine as demons, or foreign gods, or worse, but to the nondualist, these are all, from the sublime to the sinister, pathways of knowledge of the one."
It is rare that we get serious theological explorations of polytheism, so I urge my readers to head over there and take in the whole article.
The Times posts a book review of "AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State", by Charles Freeman, the author of the controversial book "The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason". AD 381 refers to the year in which the Emperor Theodosius required all his Christian subjects to believe in Nicene orthodoxy as opposed to Arianism (ten years later he go on to stamp out the last vestiges of paganism in the Roman Empire). According to the book, it was around 381 that Christianity became a "servant of an authoritarian state" and began in earnest the persecution and destruction of those who had once persecuted them.
"The Jesus of the gospels, poor, outcast, uncontaminated by worldly power, had been an apt figurehead for a persecuted religion. But he now seemed a less appropriate role model, and the church's response was to upgrade his divinity, equating him with the angry, bellicose God of the old testament, who seemed likelier to prove an effective ally in the empire's military engagements. The persecution not only of heretics but of all non-Christians was a natural result of Theodosius's policy. The pagan gods were reclassified as evil spirits, and their shrines demolished. Synagogues, too, were destroyed, and it was decreed that no more should be built. Jews were debarred from all honours and dignities and from public office. The threat of eternal punishment in hell for heretics and unbelievers entered Christian doctrine, a refinement, Freeman notes, unknown to religious thought in the classical world. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, declared, when plague broke out in the city, that it should be welcomed because Jews and pagans would now be thrown into hell more quickly, while Christians would speed to heaven."
The book is being released on Feb. 7th in the UK (I don't have a release day for the U.S.), I'm sure it will be a big hit with the Christian book-buying public.
In a final note I wanted to plug the new blog, Women and Spirituality, which gathers a number of prominent members of the women's spirituality and Goddess movements including Carol P. Christ, Charlene Spretnak, Donna Read, and Starhawk. The most recent entry is from Starhawk who discusses the festival of Brigid, and how it became a politically oriented ritual within Reclaiming.
"That tradition started back the year Ronald Reagan was elected, in 1980. By Winter Solstice a number of us were talking about our feeling of political despair. We decided to do a ritual about it, on Brigid's feast, as she seemed to preside over things that were relevant to our fears about nuclear weapons and the erosion of care. We had a beautiful ritual, in which we all spoke of our fears and sense of powerlessness over bowls of salt water, transformed the energy, and then one by one lit candles at a cauldron and danced with them. The ritual also transformed us: a few months later we were deeply involved in a nonviolent direct action at a nuclear power plant. By the next year, we were blockaded a nuclear weapons lab. Had we been able to foresee the events of the next few decades, our despair might have overwhelmed us. Instead, we became activists, around nuclear weapons, then nuclear war and militarism, around issues of human rights and women's rights and gay rights and anti-racism and AIDS and the environment and the list goes on and on..."
Certainly a blog worth checking out, and adding to your blogroll.
That is all I have for now, have a great day!
Labels: books, Canada, Charles Freeman, Pagan Blogs, Pagan News of Note, Paganism, Patrick McCollum, Polytheism, Starhawk, Stephanie Conover, theology, Wicca, Women and Spirituality, Zeek
2.02.2008
Update on Snubbed Canadian Queen
Since the story first emerged concerning the religiously-motived snub of a plus-sized Toronto beauty queen, it has gained national attention in Canada, sparked protests from the Canadian Pagan community, and generated loads of negative publicity for the Miss Toronto Tourism Pageant. Follow-up stories on the snub of Stephanie Conover, Miss Canada Plus 2007, for her interest in tarot cards and adherence to Wicca, have appeared in The Toronto Sun, The National Post, and The Globe and Mail.
"Stephanie Conover has been making headlines lately, but it's not in her capacity as Miss Plus Canada 2007. Rather, it's her connection to another beauty pageant - Miss Toronto Tourism, which takes place tonight at Harbourfront's Radisson Hotel Admiral - that has been in the news. At one time, Ms. Conover had been invited to be a judge for the pageant, but that was before organizers asked her to submit a biography. It was in that description of herself that she listed Reiki and tarot reading among her interests. "They said that I would be unacceptable as a judge because I don't possess an upstanding reputation because of these hobbies and that I should repent," Ms. Conover says. She has since been dismissed as a judge and is considering legal action for what she considers to be religious discrimination."
Stephanie Conover
While Conover considers if she should take legal action, protests from the Pagan community (and no doubt the scads of negative press) have been quite effective in hobbling the "multicultural" Miss Toronto Tourism Pageant.
"Ralph Hamelmann, who runs The Psychic Brunch, said 16 of 18 sponsors have withdrawn their sponsorship of the pageant."
Ouch! That includes the hair and makeup sponsors, which means the contestants will have to do their own hair and makeup. The only sponsors left at this point are a limo service and a local fitness center. In addition, The Wiccan Church of Canada, and The Toronto Pagan Conference are organizing a picket line for tonight's festivities.
"We're going to have people from different religious organizations - Christians, Muslims and Hindus - as well as Wiccan groups," said Tracey Hayes, a practising Wiccan and protest organizer. "We're also mobilizing the gay community because we believe two of the organizers are members of an anti-gay organization. We're getting support from right across the country. This is a human rights violation."
Some reports claim they might even give tarot readings. It looks like the Toronto Tourism Pageant (which isn't actually affiliated with Toronto in any form) should have thought twice before casually insulting an invited judge. For a pageant that claims to not be religious, it seems like a silly thing to dig your heels in on (even the pageant host, Elvis Priestly, is confused by it). After the dust has settled, do you think the winner tonight will want to put this win on her resume?
Labels: Canada, Miss Canada Plus, Paganism, Stephanie Conover, Wicca, Witchcraft
1.27.2008
Snubbed Canadian Queen Comes Out of The Broom Closet
The Toronto Sun reports on a controversy within the world of beauty pageants. Stephanie Conover, who was crowned Miss Canada Plus 2007, was invited to be a judge at the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant. Everything seemed to be going fine until Conover received a letter un-inviting her because of the interests listed on her bio.
Stephanie Conover
"Upon receiving her bio," it said, "we have decided against her being a judge. We need a judge who has an upright reputation, (who) we would be proud to introduce to the audience. She states that her hobbies are yoga, reiki and tarot card reading. Our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and ... not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians."
The pageant, which isn't officially affiliated with Toronto in any way, claimed that some were afraid she would use tarot cards to choose a winner. Despite this religiously-motivated snub, Miss Toronto Tourism officials claim they are not a "religious pageant".
"We are not a religious pageant," director Karen Hunter assures me. She says folks of many backgrounds will be at the waterfront Radisson Admiral hotel on the big night. "We don't want to offend anybody."
It seems a little late for that. As for Stephanie Conover, she decided to use this opportunity to out her own religious preferences.
"Oh, and she's a Wiccan. Yep, she tells me, she's a witch. A good witch. 'I don't commune with dark forces.' So no need to hang garlic in the pageant ballroom. 'We don't even believe in the devil,' says Stephanie. 'We believe whatever you send out into the world, good or bad, comes back to you, times three.'"
So there you have it, the first openly (to my knowledge) Pagan beauty queen. One only hopes that organizers of the larger conventions and festivals in North America will take advantage of this potential public relations coup. Have Miss Canada Plus 2007 speak at your event!
Labels: Canada, Miss Canada Plus, Paganism, Stephanie Conover, Wicca, Witchcraft
