On The Streets

For those curious about the exploits of The Pagan Cluster at the RNC Protests you can keep track of them at their “phone blog” featuring Pagans calling in from the streets of New York. In related news the Cluster is getting mentions in news stories, most likey due to the “strange” name.

Save Me! Save Me!

Chas Clifton has the straight dope on a Crisis magazine article on evangelizing Pagans.

“It all comes down to the usual stuff: Jesus trumps the Horned God. Catholics should set aside any distaste with Paganism long enough to drag us back into the True Church.”

I Come To Praise You

Christianity Today has a wonderfully engaging article on Jesuit scholar Walter Ong. For me the “money” quote of the article is about Ong’s take on the evolution from an oral culture to a literate one.

Some romantics nostalgically long for the old oral culture, filled with noble savages living close to nature. Technophiles believe that any new development means human betterment. Ong transcended the oversimplifications of these starkly opposed positions.In looking at the change from oral culture to the world of literacy, Ong achieves a beautiful equipoise. As Ong notes, those who live in oral cultures are deeply torn by the promise and peril of literacy. “This awareness is agony for persons rooted in primary orality, who want literacy passionately but who also know very well that moving into the exciting world of literacy means leaving behind much that is exciting and deeply loved in the earlier oral world,” Ong observes. “We have to die to continue living.”

A piece well worth the read.

Who Are We Voting For?

The Witches’ Voice is currently running a poll entitled “If the US Presidential Election were held today, whom would you vote for?”, this is interesting in that TWV is the biggest and most-visted Pagan site on the net. So far the results (as of Sunday Aug.29 1pm CDT) are running pretty much how I would have called them.

John F. Kerry (D) 74.1%

Michael Badnarik (L) 5.8%

George W. Bush (R) 5.5%

Ralph Nader (I) 4.7%

Other 4.1%

Eligible – Not Voting 3.8%

David Cobb (G) 1.7%

Michael Peroutka (C) 0.3%

Unsurprisingly Kerry has a huge lead, but the interesting thing is in the rest of the numbers, the Libertarian candidate has a slight lead over Bush supporting my theory that most conservative pagans and heathens tend towards the libertarian and “paleo-conservative” values rather than the social conservatives and neo-cons in power today. Nader polls just under them most likely for his strong stances on eco-issues, while “other” and “Not voting” are whupping the actual Green candidate David Cobb. I’ll most likey check back in when the poll is finished.