A Military Pagan Rejects The Iraq War

“I don’t regret my action.” – Spec. Blake Lemoine

“Spec. Blake Lemoine, 23, of Moraville, La., serving with the 5-96th Maintenance Company of the 16th Combat Support Group, was sentenced to seven months in prison and ordered him discharged with bad conduct. Lemoine said he had asked to leave the Army after returning from a yearlong tour in Iraq. He gave several reasons for his decision at a news conference last week that was sponsored by several anti-war groups. In particular, he argued that his duties as an ordained pagan minister were in conflict with his job in the Army. Lemoine said he had launched a hunger strike, which he vowed to continue while in prison.” – Melissa Eddy, AP

“LeMoine has been on a hunger strike for 41 days in protest against the Army’s refusal to discharge him” – American Views Abroad

…more as I find it

Something Deeper

Gawker reviews the show Topic A With Tina Brown (and not in a positive light I might mention) and gives us this interesting tidbit from an interview with Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor of Seventeen magazine.

Tina: Why are kids religious?

?Toosa: ?Oh, absolutely.?

How to even parse this. Youth religion is an untapped market? Passion gifts for red-state kids and pentacles for the blue-state kids? Kids are embracing Wicca because of 9/11? Whatever it means this much is certain, religion (to them) is seen as just another product to sell to kids. Parents (and kids) in states red, blue or purple need to keep this in mind and always question those who are making a buck off of faith. The real thing doesn’t cost a dime no matter what path you follow.

A Very Pagan Easter

“Twenty-seven-year-old Brandi Pettit of Stevens Point has no problem at all with the presence of pagan symbols in Easter. As a pagan, Pettit says, she views eggs and rabbits as symbols of life and renewal. Although she has been a pagan for the past 3 1/2 years, Pettit sends her children to Methodist services with her mother every Sunday. The two religions share more in common than just a few symbols, she said. ‘If you take all the world’s bigger religions, they all have a lot of similarities,’ Pettit said. ‘Whatever you call the holiday, the heart of it is still the same.’“ – Alex Shaine, Stevens Point Journal

“Though the Christians tried to take over Easter and make it their own, what they really did was to legitimize and assure the survival of a whopping big collection of pagan tradition and ritual, which works fine for me since the pagan elements which we’ve preserved are a lot more fun than the crucifictional alternative. So after the easter egg hunt on Sunday we’re off to a local Renaissance Festival – where better to frolic with the pagans – because apparently the church pretty much says it’s okay to be a pagan at least this one day of the year.” – Dave Nalle, Blogcritics.org

“I decided to forgo the bunnies and chocolate this Easter, and, instead, explore my Ukrainian roots by learning about pysanky – the ancient art of egg decoration. The intricate patterns in my mother’s collection captivated me as a girl. Historically, these decorative eggs were first used in pagan spring rituals as a fertility symbol and were later incorporated by the Christian church.“ – Jennifer Parks, Edmonton Sun

“Many people ask, what does Passover mean to Judaism? Other people ask, what does Easter mean to Christianity? A growing number of people are now asking, what does Ostara mean to Paganism? Paganism, or Earth-Spirit worship, is a path that finds everything in nature sacred, and everything sacred, divine.” – Olive Berrwick, Santa Cruz Sentinel

“To Christians the Easter egg represents re-birth or resurrection, but it was also a cherished symbol for the ancient Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Egyptians, Persians and the Chinese. The holiday itself falls on the northern hemisphere’s Spring Equinox, and the name Easter derives from the old Anglo-Saxon name for the fertility goddess of Spring, who happened to be symbolised by a rabbit, hence, the Easter Bunny. And as Peter Lee observes, it may be that Easter could be leaning back towards old-fashioned pagan-style hedonism.” – Nick Grimm, AM (Australia)

“The Christian Easter tradition has actually been piggy-backed on to pre-existing heathen rituals. These pagan placeholders on the annual circle of life illustrate our deep need to mark the passage of time, and the seasons, with events organised around a relevant theme. This need remains today but we don?t really connect with it any more. In the old days, these instincts connected with the cycle of nature. We were just as much a part of seasonal change as the woods, the fields and the beasts. We held our rituals to clarify with actions and symbols the changes that we felt were happening within us.” – Benjamin Fry, The Times Online

No matter what form you celebrate your Spring rejuvination/ressurection in, have a happy and fulfilling one.

Pre-Easter Propaganda

I love the smell of triumphalism in the morning!

“Spring was the perfect time for the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When Jesus made his advent, the world lay in a state of spiritual darkness and was held in the cold and deadly grip of sin. Hope was as dead as winter in its most dormant state, and mankind as a whole was steeped in superstition, idolatry and paganism. For more than 400 years, the prophets of God were silent. The world lay in utter darkness.“ – Alyce Faye Bragg, Saturday Gazette-Mail

“how a Christianity which has grown weary of faith has abandoned the Lord: the great ideologies, and the banal existence of those who no longer believing in anything, who simply drift through life, have built a new and worse paganism, which in its attempt to do away with God once and for all, have ended up doing away with man” – Card. Joseph Ratzinger, from this years meditation on the Way of the Cross

Not bad, not bad. But I was wondering if a commentator could bring up Paganism, Jesus, Easter and the Terri Shiavo case.

“Believe me when I remind you that the same Easter God on behalf of Jesus is very much involved on the deepest levels in Terri?s surrendered Christian commitment. Let it be so. Believe it to be so. Thank God that she [Terri Shiavo] is not pagan but Christian. Give praise to Jesus that she is His daughter of grace and mercy and not sold out to the unbelieving clot of this planet. Let your heart then rise heavenward in gratitude that the woman we pray for has already been embraced by the Lord who owns her battle ? from start to finish.” – J. Grant Swank, Magic City Morning Star

We have a winner! So for those of you who don’t feel like the time before Christ’s death and ressurection was as “dead as winter”, or that a “new and worse paganism” is threatening to destroy us all, or that the Terri Shiavo case is somehow really a battle between Pagan and Christian forces I wish you a happy holiday tomorrow.