Gay Unions!

Check out Fafblog for this recent interview with Dr. James Dobson…



FB: But how did all of this happen Dr. James Dobson?

JD: Really? I hadn’t thought of that.

Jesus!

I have tried to avoid this story, it has been well-covered and well-documented elsewhere and I wanted to highlight things that don’t get looked at as much. But when a religion story involving a modern pagan garners this much controversy and ink you can’t help but throw in your two cents.

It all boils down to a pagan Priestess who wanted to be a part of the rotating opening prayer at her City Council. She was told she couldn’t and prayers to a certain Jesus the Christ continued. This seemed against Constitutional principles so she sued, and won.

But the members of the council are defiant and it looks like they will appeal and it may just go to the Supreme Court. Where I suppose we will learn once and for all if indeed non-Christians and Atheists have to hear people natter on about this Jesus fella and pretend that this is a “Christian Nation”.

At the end of the day, I feel that this only damages relations between Christians and pretty much anyone who isn’t. If I was a Christian I would be worried about the constant wedges driven between my faith and the faith of my neighbors and community members. I think I’ll leave this article with a series of quotes from the relavant parties and you tell me how clear they are thinking. Should Jesus come before the rights of people who don’t believe he’s their savior?

“Those atheists on the Supreme Court, don’t they know the air they breathe comes from my Lord,” – Wellford Mayor Sallie Peake

“I always take it as a message of togetherness” – Councilwoman Debbie Ritter refering to the Council prayers to Jesus

“We’ve got some courts and some judges making some really bad decisions. As a conservative and as a Christian, I am really about fed up with all these liberal rulings getting handed down. I’m tired of what I consider to be the folks in the minority trying to dictate to the folks in the majority what our beliefs are.” – Robbie Templeton, chairman of Greenwood County Council

“Just because one person says they don?t want to hear it, why do you tell everybody they can?t hear it? You’ve got the right to do what you want to do, but you don?t have to participate if you don?t want to.” – Mayor Tim Griffin (forgetting that he’s referring to a City Council meeting and not a Church)

“When you pray, you pray to Jesus” – Greenwood Mayor Floyd Nicholson

Ongoing Wave of Christ-like Love 2

The Arizona Summer Wildcat (a student paper) talks about new rules about proselytizing on campus.

“The University Religious Council is reminding students that “no” should be enough, and has identified lines that religious organizations shouldn’t cross when proselytizing on campus. URC secretary Randi Kiesel, said last year certain groups went too far in their recruitment efforts, generating complaints in the offices of the president, the dean of students, and with the university religious council.”

Violations of the new protocals include failing to identify the group’s identity or intentions, making persistent unwanted phone calls or visits and trying to pry personal information out of you.

As someone who actually lives in a college town I can tell you that the campus Christians pretty much use every resource at their disposal including the deep pockets of their sponsors to snare more sheep for the flock. Most of it is merely annoying but some of it truly does enter into abusive territory. To the “youth leaders” the ends sadly justify their means.

No doubt certain Christians will see this as a suppression of their rights, while many freaks, geeks and outcasts can perhaps breath a sigh of relief and not have to worry about their “Christian buddy” calling them to invite them to a special “party”.

The Ongoing Wave of Christ-like Love

Zenit interviews Father Ra?l Berzosa Mart?nez author of “Ten Challenges to Christianity from the New Emerging Culture,” and what are those ten challenges?

The new millennium, Europe, postmodernity, globalization, neo-paganism, new technologies, human evolution, New Age, interreligious dialogue and ecology.

Got that? If are a pagan, or into anything resembling it, or attempt to enter into a dialogue with a Christian or if you want to preserve your enviornment you are now a “challenge” to all of Christendom. Just thought you should know.

Ouch!

This is a little off my beaten path, but there is an interesting study about people who manifest the stigmata.

“Although I shook Bernas’s bloody hand, I obtained a better look at a wound shortly before, when she hugged the woman in front of me and thus placed her hand virtually under my nose. I noticed that the actual wound looked like a small slit, but surrounding that was a larger red area; this appeared to have been deliberately formed of blood in order to simulate the appearance of a larger wound, like one formed by a Roman nail.”

We don’t get too much of this sort of thing in modern paganism, I just couldn’t picture someone claiming to manifest the rope burns of Odin or Herne The Hunter.

Pagan Band Profile #4

As part of the lead-up to my annual Darker Shade of Pagan radio special (coming in August) I will be profiling some pagan and occult bands that have gotten my attention lately.

BUTTERFLY MESSIAH

Shannon Lyn Garson of Butterfly Messiah

Band Bio:

Hailing from unlikely Tampa, Florida, the band have created their own distinctly original sound, unlike any band that has come out of that state. “It is mostly industrial metal or alt rock (in Florida),” keyboardist Josh Harrington tell us, “we didn’t really fit into that mold.” Merging (as mental references, not mimicry) apects of 90′s era Depeche Mode, a dash of electropop, the occasional hardness of Prodigy or the artiness of Bjork, tempered with the uniquely gorgeous voice of Shannon Garson, who has been compared to Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) and Katherine Blake (Miranda Sex Garden, Medieval Babes). The vocals are a highlight of contrasting beauty; an emotion laden purging of humanness standing stark against a foreground of electronic wizardry – original and inspiring to say the least. – Butterfly Messiah Website

Reviews:

“I still maintain that Butterfly Messiah is one of the most interesting and promising new dark music acts active today. The band?s name is starting to become more familiar to those within the scene. Their tracks are starting to pop up on various DJ playlists, as well as on club request sheets. And rightfully so. This Floridian trio provides a seamless and impressive fusion of chilling Gothic atmosphere with pulsating synth pop/electro elements. Though my interests in organic Goth Rock will reveal my bias, I am not indifferent to the current crop of electro pop pervading dark music clubs. I just rarely hear anything that stands out in my memory or stirs my emotions. Ultimately, it?s just a matter of taste, and as they say, to each their own. But this single, the band?s first release since ?Priestess,? their debut full length for Fossil Dungeon early last year, contains what very well may be the first truly great potential club anthem of 2003.” – Starvox

“Imagine a mixture of lush female vocals that soar to angelic heights and slink to earthy lows, mixed with intense, sometimes spoken, sometimes sung, lyrics and chants and you have an idea of the magic that is weaved by Butterfly Messiah. With complex lyrics that often contain multiple meanings and touch on issues of both spirit and society they entrance the listener on many levels. Butterfly Messiah has been gaining a large following lately with their unique combination of electronic beats, gothic atmosphere and ethereal bliss. A little to driving too ritual to, “Priestess” is a great album to inspire a witchy mood and an even better album to experience on the dance floor.” – newWitch magazine

“Butterfly Messiah continues to live up to their name to some degree, as they are constantly in a state of metamorphosis. Their recordings are never rehashes of past successes, so essentially it is like hearing a new band each time. The one constant is Garson’s ethereal punctuations which is almost a trademark with the band at this point. One can hear twenty tracks, but will instantly know it is a Butterfly Messiah track by the way she and Davis construct a song to give just that much of a dark angelic hint.” – Legends Magazine



Further Reading:

Check out an interview with the band over at CHAIN DLK.

MP3s

You can download four full-length songs at Electromancer.

Is She or Isn’t She?

Chas Clifton comments on a Get Religion post on Jewish identity and brings up everyones favorite pagan activist Starhawk.

“I guess people like Mimi “Starhawk” Simos belong in a “hard-to-define, niche spirituality” to newspaper religion writers, to quote Mattingly’s blogging colleague, Douglas LeBlanc.” – Chas Clifton

In further Starhawk news, she is urging people to come to the RNC to protest.

“We can offer an alternative: embodying in our organizing and our actions the values we stand for: compassion, diversity, nonviolence, freedom, creativity and love, embodying a vision of a society based on real democracy, on liberty and justice, not for a privileged few, but for all.” – Starhawk

…and where Starhawk goes, there is a good bet the Pagan Cluster will also be there.