5.09.2008
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
DVD Talk reviews the documentary series "Women and Spirituality", which was recently released in the DVD format.
"There's little doubt that goddess worship has actually picked up significant cultural steam since the original release of these pieces close to 20 years ago. While they're all a little dated, they provide an earnest look into the history and continued observance of gynocentric worship practices and will be appreciated by those interested in the history of religion and especially women's movements. Recommended."
The Women and Spirituality project also maintains a blog featuring several participants from the original documentary series.
Religion Dispatches looks at the recent (somewhat controversial) appointment of a "Supreme Chief" within Haitian Vodou, and the ongoing quest for respect by practitioners.
"Voodoo suffers from a flaw built into both scholarly and popular typologies of religion, that of hierarchical thinking about religions. Beauvoir argues that Voodoo's character derives from its location as a "popular religion." But lacking a sacred text, law codes, or traditions of written commentary, Voodoo is a marginalized tradition - marked as "primitive," as if religions evolve along a given trajectory-compared to those "world religions" that come to dominate empires."
While a tiny, and until recently, officially unrecognized, religion, the article points out that Vodou has a "capacity to persist" that may allow the faith to weather the current social and political storms raging in their country.
The caretaker of a Taoist temple in Taiwan has a problem. Too many deities!
"Yang Liang, who takes care of the small Suxi Temple, said yesterday he used to tend to only five land gods, the lowest deities in folk Taoism. Last February, Yang said, he found two statues of Avalokitesvera, or the Goddess of Mercy, abandoned in front of his temple in west Suao ... Sheltering the abandoned Goddesses of Mercy probably encouraged those who wanted to get rid of their deities to dump them at the temple ... Altogether 12 statues, ranging from Avalokitesvera to Third Prince or San-tai-zhi, were left at the door of the temple Monday. "I can't take care of that many gods," Yang protested."
Yang has posted bulletins around his village imploring locals to please take their gods back, as he doesn't have the space and resources to care for them all. Perhaps he could ship them to willing polytheists outside Taiwan?
As modern Paganism continues to grow, more local journalists start to notice the Pagans in their own backyard. This coverage starts with the inevitable "meet the Pagans" piece. Here, we have a classic example of this phenomenon from Great Falls, Montana.
"...like the others [Melinda Berry] keeps her faith to herself around here. "I came from California, where no one really cares," Berry said. "In the UK they were really open and didn't care. In the military no one really cares. In Great Falls, Montana, people care." But there is a growing pagan population locally and around the state. At least five to 10 people regularly attend the monthly Great Falls Pagans meetings at Hastings. Some area gatherings have drawn upward of 40 people..."
Though "people care" if your a member of a minority faith in Great Falls, Montana, this introduction is far more friendly than the one that arose in Great Falls, South Carolina.
Following up on a story I blogged about a year ago, the Delhi High Court in India has ruled that naked paintings of Hindu goddesses aren't necessarily blasphemous.
"Maqbool Fida Husain, 92, a Muslim who has been dubbed "the Picasso of India", was served with seven private criminal complaints by Hindu groups for the painting Bharat Mata (Mother India), a work representing the nation as a nude woman. The Delhi High Court judged that the picture, for which Mr Husain has apologised, carried no religious content and could not be construed as offensive. "A painter has his own perspective of looking at things, and it cannot be the basis of initiating criminal proceedings," Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said."
This is a big step forward for artistic freedom in India, where Hindu-nationalist "moral police" (essentially the Indian equivalent to the Religious Right in America, only more powerful) are on the constant lookout for violations against their conception of "cultural purity". These Hindu-nationalist groups vow to keep on fighting against Husain and others who transgress against their moral outlook.
That is all I have for now, have a great day!
Labels: art, goddess, Hinduism, law, M.F. Husain, Max Beauvoir, Pagan News of Note, Paganism, Taiwan, Taoism, The Goddess, Vodou, Voodoo, Women and Spirituality
1.06.2008
Interfaith Tensions in Malaysia
Tensions are building in Malaysia between Muslims and Taoists over the erection of a statue depicting Mazu, goddess of the sea.
Mazu
"The construction of the world's tallest Taoist Goddess of the Sea statue has set off the latest row over religious freedom in Malaysia. The 36-metre (108-foot) statue of Mazu, known as Tin Hau in Hong Kong, should be erected in the fishing village of Kudat on Borneo Island. So far only the platform has been set; the statue itself is waiting some 200 km away in the port town of Kota Kinabalu. Local authorities had approved construction in December 2005 but Sabah state authorities stopped construction saying that the statue was 'offensive to Muslim sensitivities.'"
Apparently the statue is deemed "offensive to Islam" because it is "too close" to a mosque. A Taoist official has resigned in protest, and religious minorities are voicing fears of "Islamisation". Local Taoists are puzzled by the sudden hostility towards one of their most beloved goddesses.
"All we want is for Mazu Goddess to protect us when we are at sea and our Muslim countrymen have nothing against"
Malaysia's official State religion is Islam, and the country has strict rules concerning the 'propagation' of religions other than Islam. In addition to the blocking of the Mazu statue, Hindu activists have been jailed after a mass-rally protesting discrimination against ethnic Indians, and the government temporarily banned a Catholic newspaper from using the term "Allah".
Articles like these starkly show the problems of establishing a state (or "official") religion. When a single religious viewpoint dominates politically (especially if that religion claims to be the only true path), there is always the risk of the government being overrun by extremists. One hopes these growing tensions in Malaysia will not degrade into all-out violence, but the country's Muslims seem hesitant to enter into any sort of interfaith compromise. As for Mazu, there is legal action pending, and it remains to be seen if the statue will ever be installed.
Labels: goddess, Islam, Malaysia, Matsu, Mazu, Religious Freedom, Taoism
10.01.2007
How to Study a Goddess
The Taipei Times reports that an international conference sponsored by the Academia Sinica (the national academy for Taiwan) will be held to look into belief in the Taoist sea goddess Matsu.
A shrine to Matsu in Taiwan.
"Academia Sinica is organizing an international conference next month to discuss belief in the goddess Matsu and her connection with the Matsu Islands, officials with the Lienchiang County Government's Cultural Affairs Bureau said yesterday. The officials said that Academia Sinica's Institute of Ethnology would invite 40 academics from Taiwan and abroad to participate in the conference on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 at the Matsu Folklore Culture Museum in Nangan, one of five major islands in the Matsu archipelago ... Today, Matsu has become the most widely worshipped deity in Taiwan, with temples dedicated to her seen in almost every township and city."
Matsu ("Mother-Ancestor") is a deified human once known as Lin Moniang. According to the stories, Lin Moniang was the daughter of a fisherman who used her affinity with the sea to help people in her village, at the age of 28 she was taken to heaven and became a goddess (though other stories say she drowned, then became a goddess). As the article mentions, Matsu is the most popular deity in Taiwan.
Reading this story you can almost envision a world where European paganism never diminished, and international conferences at Cambridge or Harvard would be called to discuss belief in Brigantia or Athena.
Labels: academia, Academia Sinica, goddess, Matsu, Paganism, Taiwan, Taoism
