9.25.2008
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
Over at the On Faith site, the panel weighs in on abortion. Pagan panelist Starhawk gives her take on "abortion and The Goddess".
"Women are moral agents, and in the Goddess and Pagan traditions, we are each our own spiritual authority. We have a right to wrestle with these issues ourselves, not have them predetermined for us by government authorities. We have a right to determine what goes on inside our bodies. To deny that right to women is to invite government intrusion into all kinds of private and personal choices. Overturning Roe vs. Wade would open the door to state control of our most intimate and tender decisions, and be a step closer to a totalitarian regime."
She also quotes from the excellent book "The Pagan Book of Living and Dying". In other Starhawk-related news, she has posted a six-minute video clip of Reclaiming's annual Spiral Dance ritual to her web site.
For information on this year's Spiral Dance ritual, click here.
Over at the Nation, Max Blumenthal writes about infiltrating Sarah Palin's former church, and gets his hands on video footage of the now-infamous "blessing" done by anti-witchcraft crusader Thomas Muthee on Palin in 2005. Guess what? Muthee didn't just pray for her to become governor, he also asked for her to be protected from "witchcraft".
"Muthee's mounting stardom took him to Wasilla Assembly of God in May, 2005, where he prayed over Palin and called upon Jesus to propel her into the governor's mansion -- and beyond. Muthee also implored Jesus to protect Palin from "the spirit of witchcraft." The video archive of that startling sermon was scrubbed from Wasilla Assembly of God's website, but now it has reappeared."
So much for claims that Palin was ignorant or non-compliant in that church's ongoing and active participation in Third-Wave "spiritual warfare" tactics. One wonders what "spirits of witchcraft" Palin needed protection from? Are there fortune tellers in Wasilla causing car accidents?
The brutal beating of a woman in Florida by a cult group has produced some of the worst journalistic accounts I have ever read. Fueled by incomplete information, this gang is painted as some sort of Santeria-Voodoo-Pagan-Satanic hybrid. With guns.
"Wood told investigators she was once a member of a Santeria voodoo group in Flagler County. She said Sunday's abduction and beating were not the first she had suffered in recent days as a result of her leaving the group last year to become a Christian ,,, Wood also told investigators the men and a petite blonde woman named "Sky" took her to an open field near a home where a bonfire was burning. They were "preparing" for the autumnal equinox, she said." "They needed me to help call the spirits," Wood told investigators, indicating it was something she had done when she was a member of the group."
It seems to me there is some vital information missing here. It's also troubling that the only "expert" quoted in any of the linked articles is a cult "exit counselor". So far the only part of her story that has been confirmed is that a local church was helping her. Here's hoping that whoever did beat her goes to prison, and that some less sensationalist light is shed on this cult/group.
In a final note, the Covenant of the Goddess has sent out a press release in support of same-sex marriage in California and Massachusetts.
"Covenant of the Goddess has, since its inception in 1975, had clergy willing to celebrate the religious if not the legal joining of two members of the same gender. While we respect the right of the individual clergy within COG who may choose not to perform such a ceremony, we are in support of marriage between two committed adults of any gender, and a majority of our celebrants are willing to perform such ceremonies."
The release, which hasn't been posted to their web site yet, also goes into the history of same-sex marriage in pagan cultures, and the social and legal importance of allowing marriage rights to same-sex couples today.
That is all I have for now, have a great day!
Labels: abortion, Christianity, COG, GLBT, marriage, On Faith, Pagan News of Note, Paganism, Santeria, Sarah Palin, Satanism, Starhawk, Thomas Muthee, Voodoo
7.02.2008
Gay Marriage: The Pagan Difference
As I have pointed out before, laws against legally recognized gay marriage unfairly benefit those religious traditions who have a vested interest in GLBT folks remaining second-class citizens. The melding of a civil contract and (mainly Christian) religious ceremony in America has created the erroneous idea that the State should have some role in defining and blessing (with legal benefits) which two consenting adults should be able to be joined before their god(s). In a theocracy that might be understandable, but in a theoretically secular nation (one that harbors a vast diversity of religious viewpoints) such "traditions" of mixing religious law with secular law are absurd at best, and harmful at worst.
The Pagan attitude towards gay marriage is a very different one than the so-called 'Judeo-Christian' attitude that rigidly defines a sacred bonding, a marriage, as only possible between mating couples of the opposite sex. An example of this difference recently popped up in an Icelandic newspaper, where a former Asatru high chieftain blasted his government for its double standards concerning the legal status of gay and straight marriage in his country.
"Jörmundur Ingi Hansen, former high chieftain of Ásatrúarfélagid (a religious organization for those who believe in the pagan Icelandic/Nordic gods), has criticized the new laws on religious associations being able to confirm cohabitation between individuals of the same sex for being too vague and not really including marital rights. “The laws on confirmed cohabitation are mostly an optical illusion,” Hansen told Fréttabladid. “They neither give gay people nor straight people any rights to my best knowledge.” “Various people have claimed they give the same rights as marriage, but that is unfortunately not true. They do not include a reversionary right and do not provide the kind of safety that marriage is supposed to provide,” Hansen explained."
While Iceland has long had civil unions for gay couples (called "registered partnership"), they have steered clear of allowing "marriage" for gay couples. The situation Hansen describes, is in regards to a new law that allows religious institutions to solemnize a "confirmed cohabitation". While some are calling it "marriage", others, like Hansen, point out that it doesn't grant the same rights and status as a straight marriage.
"Separate laws are valid for the confirmation on cohabitation for straight and gay couples and the traditional definition of marriage, as a union between a man and a woman, remains unchanged. In October 2007, the State Church decided not to change the traditional definition of marriage. “I think it is poor behavior to make people believe that this is marriage when it isn’t,” Hansen said, adding, “If confirmed cohabitation is supposed to be such a good thing then why can’t priests confirm the cohabitation of straight couples?” “Until now I have not had the right to confirm the cohabitation of a man and a woman. There is no law that states that the cohabitation of two individuals of the opposite sex can be confirmed,” Hansen claimed. “I just don’t understand what the legislator is trying to achieve with this. It is like a band-aid for an undefined wound,” Hansen concluded."
What these Icelandic issues illustrate is that "separate but equal" civil union compromises usually only emphasize the "separate", and hardly ever confer true "equality". Civil unions for GLBT folk in America might be seen as a step forward for awhile, but eventually those "not-marriage" contract compromises will start to chafe.
"We are all the same people, all of us. You're no different than I am. Our love is the same. To me -- to me, what it feels like -- just, you know, I will speak for myself -- it feels -- when someone says, 'You can have a contract, and you'll still have insurance, and you'll get all that,' it sounds to me like saying, 'Well, you can sit there; you just can't sit there.' That's what it sounds like to me. It feels like -- it doesn't feel inclusive...It feels -- it feels isolated. It feels like we are not -- you know, we aren't owed the same things and the same wording." - Ellen DeGeneres
The solution is either for the government to allow true marriage equality and allow the solemnizations done by Pagan priests for gay couples to be just as legal as a Christian wedding of a straight couple, or for the government to get out of the marriage game altogether and establish only civil unions for everyone. Anything else creates a moral hierarchy with the traditional Christian definition of marriage at the top, and anything deviating from that below it. Thia marriage debate isn't just about legal rights for gay couples, it is about respect, and true religious equality. So long as Pagan marriages and handfastings of gay couples aren't legally recognized, the American government is participating in the sort of religious favorites-playing the separation of Church and State is supposed to prevent.
Labels: Christianity, GLBT, homosexuality, marriage, Paganism, Religious Freedom
6.01.2008
(Pagan) News of Note
I'm back! Did you miss me? I had a lovely vacation at my undisclosed location, and I would like to give a huge thank you to my amazing guest bloggers, who went above and beyond the call of duty to write some wonderfully challenging, moving, and insightful things. I urge my readers to add their blogs (found in the blogroll to your right) to your daily Internet travels, in addition to checking out the many published works they have produced.
Now, let's catch up on the news...
The Libertarian Party has picked its nominee for President of the United States of America. Former congressional Republican Bob Barr. A puzzling choice considering that Barr's record isn't one that lends itself easily to Libertarian values of a small and un-intrusive government.
"Barr not only wrote and sponsored the Defense of Marriage act, but also voted for the Patriot Act; proposed the Pentagon ban a religious group from practice in the military: Wicca; and advocated complete federal prohibition of medical marijuana—succeeding in this last with his "Barr Amendment" - which also forbid any future law that would decrease penalties for marijuana use."
Barr is widely famous as an anti-Pagan bigot who tried to ban the military from allowing equal access and freedoms to Pagan soldiers, which he claimed set a "dangerous precedent" and that toleration of Paganism led to youth violence. This no doubt leaves many libertarian-leaning Pagans in a quandary, since a vote for Barr is a vote for someone who has actively worked against equality for Pagans.
Another religious freedom battle involving Santeria is brewing. Santeria priest Ernesto Pichardo is threatening litigation if the police dept. in Coral Gables, Florida doesn't release their records of an incident that occurred last summer.
"Ernesto Pichardo, president of the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, has been trying for almost a year to obtain records relating to the interruption of a Santeria ceremony by police last summer. An attorney he recently hired, David Aelion, has filed a public records request for any documents relating to the incident, which took place June 8. Aelion has requested all the incident reports, any internal investigations reports and communications between officers the day of the incident, as well as photographs taken at the scene, inventory reports and all city communications referring to the scene. 'We want to find out why they were there for quite a few hours holding them [the practitioners] against their will,' Aelion told The Miami Herald Friday. 'It is pretty clear that the U.S. Supreme Court allows them to practice their religion freely. Why did it take many officers and that long to find out that they had no right to be there and no right to bother them?' He said he was preparing for a possible civil rights violation case."
According to reports, around two dozen officers with guns drawn interrupted an initiation ceremony after a neighbor reported that he could hear animals suffering. Why dozens of cops with guns drawn were necessary to investigate an animal cruelty complaint remains unknown.
Is the Crowley-inspired horror film "Chemical Wedding" so bad its good?
"Fans of terrible movies shouldn't miss Chemical Wedding, which contains so many wooden performances it should really have been thinned before release by the forestry commission. Director Julian Doyle shoots the whole thing as though it is a Hammer horror film, and most of the actresses have the Hammer hallmark of being extraordinarily unfit for acting. Most of the cast underact. The one, big - and I do mean big - exception is Simon Callow, who appears to have been taking acting lessons from Brian Blessed and, possibly as a result, gone stark staring bonkers."
Other reviews seem to be sounding similar notes. All we need is some audience participation, and a regular midnight showing, and we're good to go! But while "Chemical Wedding" turns Aleister Crowley into a serial-killing horn-dog, works in other mediums are seeking to redeem the great beast, and paint him as a vilified patriot.
"Using documents gleaned from American, British, French, and Italian archives, Secret Agent 666 reveals that Crowley's clandestine service linked him to the sinking of the Lusitania, a plot to overthrow the government of Spain, the thwarting of Irish and Indian nationalist conspiracies, the Communist International, and the 1941 flight of Rudolf Hess. Author Richard Spence, a professor of History at the University of Idaho, argues that Crowley--in his own unconventional way--was a patriotic Englishman who endured years of public vilification in part to mask his role as a secret agent."
Did Crowley court public infamy to cover up his dealings with the government? If so it would certainly cast a new light on some of his actions, and make some detractors re-think his motivations.
Archie Bland of the Independent explores the ramifications of the new laws governing psychic practitioners in Britain. Bland wonders in the article if we aren't asking the wrong questions as to who is a "bad psychic".
"...perhaps the question should be recast to consider responsibility. Like the doctor, the sensible psychic's first rule is probably to do no harm, and while there may be no such thing as a good medium to the ardent materialist, the contrast between those who have a code and those who don't - between the tactful and the terrifying, the reasonable and the rip-off - is obvious to anyone."
An interesting and sympathetic look at psychic practitioners and the people who frequent them from an unbiased journalist.
The New York Times has a very nice piece on the dedication of a new Hindu temple on Staten Island in New York (the first for that community).
"For Staten Island's growing Hindu population, a couple of hours more was not long to wait to finally have its own major temple. After 10 years of worship in private homes and community meeting halls and the not-quite-finished structure of the temple itself on Victory Boulevard, the Staten Island Hindu Temple was formally consecrated in a clangorous three-day ceremony that ended on Sunday. For the 500 Hindu families from all over India who live scattered across the island, the days of having to travel to Queens or Edison, N.J., to worship are over."
Perhaps we will someday be reading similar stories about the dedication of Pagan temples.
In a final note, the recently renewed gay marriage debate has caused some to connect it with the slow move into a truly post-Christian society. For example, conservative Christian commentator Rod Dreher claims we are living in a "pagan" sensate culture that will inevitably allow for gay marriage and that the best conservative Christians can do is move to a "defensible position" and wait it out.
"Well, it's cold comfort, but this can't go on forever. [Pitirim] Sorokin argues that once sensate culture plays itself out, people will have to yield to an ideational model of some sort. It is doubtful that any culture can long survive without strong, traditional families and durable moral norms based in a transcendental source. Our civilization's prosperity has masked its social weaknesses."
Of course there is no promise that any future dominant "ideational" culture will be a Christian one. There are myriad ways to approach perceived "social weakness", and for thousands of years before Christ was born, those ways were "pagan" ways. Meanwhile, Nick Street at Religion Dispatches argues that the battle over gay marriage has little to do with a moral marriage crisis and a lot to do with the erosion of Biblical authority over American culture.
"...the impulse behind the movement’s anti-gay activism doesn’t really have much to do with marriage and sexuality ... The real issues are the authority of the Bible and the nature of revelation ... a lot is at stake in a political initiative with deep roots in the foundations of canonical Christianity. If religious conservatives can't persuade a majority of Californians to heed one element in an otherwise obscure list of purity codes in Deuteronomy - and that Jesus' preaching in the gospels isn't really complete without Paul's finger-wagging in Romans - the stitching that holds together the disparate parts of the Good Book will have subtly but irrevocably loosened, along with the Bible's centuries-old grip on American public life."
Christian conservatives are using their remaining weapons of fear-mongering and moral revulsion to hold back the post-Christian tide (of which gay marriage is a potent symbol), but it seems that just about everyone agrees that while Christian activists may win the constitutional battle in California, the larger war is all but lost.
That is all I have for now, have a great day!
Labels: Aleister Crowley, Bob Barr, Chemical Wedding, Christianity, Hinduism, homosexuality, law, Libertarian, litigation, marriage, Pagan News of Note, Paganism, Presidential election, psychics, Santeria, UK
5.21.2008
Pagans and Gay Marriage
"Let my worship be with the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you." - Doreen Valiente, "The Charge of The Goddess"
"I celebrate the California Supreme Court decision. It's just, and it affirms an even deeper principle: that civil rights belong to everyone, not just those groups whose behavior meets popular approval. That principle protects us all." - Starhawk, "A Sacred Choice and a Civil Right"
In the wake of California's decision to allow gay marriage (at least until a proposed Constitutional amendment gets voted on), many from the theological right have been wondering about their "rights" and their "voice" in a world where gay marriage is allowed. A position given much sympathy by the Get Religion blog, who has devoted several posts empathizing with the poor, marginalized, anti-gay marriage religious traditions.
"What are the rights, in terms of free speech and religious liberty, of the people and voluntary associations who continue to hold traditional Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc., doctrines on the moral status of sex outside the state of marriage, as traditionally defined?"
"Traditionally" here means "between one man and one woman". This situation is a perfect example of how religious conservatives define "religious liberty" differently than just about everyone else. For while Catholics, Muslims, and other religious groups opposed to gay marriage are raising forth the specter of being "forced" to marry gays (a virtual impossibility), or having to treat homosexuals equally in their social services (a somewhat more likely scenario), these same groups have never cared a whit for the "religious liberties" of Pagans and other religious groups who have collectively supported gay marriage for decades.
"We respect the Roman Catholic Church's desire to speak in a public forum about this, but it has come to a point where their advocacy about same-sex marriage has come to impinge on our own religious practices, because not everyone believes same-sex marriage is wrong or sinful or against religious beliefs..." - Rev. Tiffany Steinwert, a United Methodist minister, and pastor of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries
The fact is that many Pagan clergy, from an assortment of traditions, have been solemnizing gay marriages for years now. Yet their definition of a real and sacred set of vows hasn't been acknowledged as valid by the law. We have been told, in essence, that our marriage ceremonies "don't count" in a civil, legal, sense. Instead, a Biblically-justified standard of civil marriage has been maintained (often to the detriment of religious minorities), a standard that many Pagans don't see as a valid. Yet, the "defenders of marriage" and religious liberty have never come to our defense.
"In Paganism, there is no sense of a norm in terms of a handfasted relationship. While the Church, and others keen to hold to a status quo, have been fearing for the future of marriage and the family with gay weddings and extended legal rights for couples cohabiting, the Pagan perspective is quite different. Tribe and family are of paramount importance, yet far more worrying that the increase in 'different' household arrangements is the ongoing decline in people's ability to craft intimate relationships at all." - Emma Restall Orr, "Living With Honour: A Pagan Ethics"
So I must admit to feeling unmoved by the cries of religious conservatives afraid that a world of gay marriage and gay social equality will be thrust upon them. Their rigidity in refusing to dismantle the last entanglements of church and state in America (in this case, marriage laws) have created an edifice worn with cracks, slowly crumbling around the edges. In its place will be a land where a single religious tradition doesn't get to define the social contracts and moral choices of those outside its natural purview. A place where Pagans will be treated with real religious liberty, not liberty as defined by the dominant monotheisms.
Labels: Christianity, homosexuality, marriage, Paganism, Religious Freedom
2.16.2008
South African Pagans Gain Power to Solemnize Marriages
A modern Pagan group in South Africa has been granted official recognition under the Civil Union Act. This will allow designated members of SAPRA (South Africa's Pagan Rights Alliance) to legally perform marriages and civil unions for gay and straight couples.
"If your religious festivals follow lunar phases and seasonal solstices, you will be happy to know that marriage under pagan rite and ritual is now a possibility for South Africans ... Sapra has nominated 13 pagans to become religious marriage officers. Once their registration is complete, traditional ceremonies will be legally recognised. To qualify the nominees must write a test set by home affairs within six months of Sapra's registration."
The Civil Union Act is opt-in for any religious group who wants to participate. Dissenting religious organizations (such as the Catholic and Anglican Churches) can still operate under the older 1961 Marriage Act, which defines a marriage as between a man and a woman. The Reforming Church in Pretoria, a gay-friendly Christian church, has called for the older Marriage Act to be gradually phased out in order to avoid the inadvertent establishment of "straight" laws, and "gay" laws.
"The old Marriage Act of 1961 is actually outdated and should gradually be phased out, so that there is only one Act under which couples can marry ... Most people wrongly assume that the Civil Union Act is intended for same-sex couples only. It is not. What is more important is that the underlying principle of the kind of relationship between the two parties is one of equality."
South Africa's shift to civil unions represents an ethic where each religious body can decide for itself what sort of marriages and unions it can perform. A far more sensible approach than in America, where (predominately) Christian conceptions of what is a "moral" or "proper" marriage is imposed on modern Pagans and other groups open to broader definitions. SAPRA has taken an important step into a post-Christian world. A world where Pagan clergy and adherents can determine their own morality and destiny.
Labels: civil unions, handfastings, marriage, Paganism, SAPRA, South Africa
