Michael Luo reports on the new documentary by Andy Deemer, “My God”. The film focuses on how new religious movements start and take hold and follows some would-be prophets as they try to take their personal beliefs to the next level (with the help of five thousand dollars starting capital). In the process Luo crows about all the faiths that New York has spawned.

“The New York City area has long been a hotbed for new religions, as well as the staging ground for overseas religious movements trying to make the leap into America, Dr. Melton said. New religions tend to form in urban areas, where it is much easier to gather an initial group. Some of the movements that began in this country in the New York City area include Hare Krishna, modern incarnations of Wicca and an array of guru-centered groups.”

All fine and good except that this statement isn’t true. Both Wicca and Hare Krishna are deliberately imported faiths, the first from England (read all about it in “Her Hidden Children”) and the second from India. While both faiths got their initial American toe-holds in New York neither “formed” (evolved, changed, and experienced schisms perhaps) in America. Furthermore what does the phrase “modern incarnations of Wicca” even mean? Considering we have no solid proof of “ancient incarnations of Wicca” all permutations of Wicca are “modern” in one form or another.

While I admire Luo’s propensity towards civic pride in his home state, he should do a little more research before making claims that are easily disproven by a google search. The documentary seems interesting at any rate.

When you turn a culture’s gods and spirits into it’s devils and demons it is only inevitable that something like this happens.

“Canada’s only major Arctic petroglyph site — a 1,500-year-old gallery of mysterious faces carved into a soapstone ridge on a tiny island off of Quebec’s northern coast — has been ransacked by vandals in what the region’s top archeologist suspects was a religiously motivated attack by devout Christians from a nearby Inuit community…Daniel Gendron, chief archeologist with the Inukjuak-based Avataq Cultural Institute, the key promoter of indigenous history and identity in Nunavik, said the latest vandalism at Qajartalik follows the pattern of previous attacks by members of what he called “a very strong movement” of conservative Christians in Kangiqsujuaq and several other Inuit communities in northern Quebec.”

The saddest fact is that this didn’t have to happen. A community can become Christian (or any other faith) without destroying the past (Ireland for example). This is the work of the men who converted them, and the teachings then passed down from generation to generation. We here in the west like to think we are so superior to those Islamic fanatics who destroyed the stone Buddhas in Afghanistan, but when things like this happen you have to wonder if the ideological distance* is so great after all.

* I’m not comparing radical terrorists to Christian vandals, I’m only pointing out that both of these roads to the destruction of ancient sacred art started out with the demonization of the ideological “other”. I suppose we should consider ourselves’ “lucky” that our secular culture of tolerance keeps the evolution of such expressions here in check.

Ellen Leventry at the Idol Chatter blog wonders if Sesame Street’s newest Muppet Abby Cadabby is a stealth Pagan!

As she wills so mote it be?

“Abby Cadabby, a fairy-in-training. Abby, who hails from Fairyside Gardens, Queens, is young, eager to learn, and has been described as a feminist who also likes being a “real girly-girl.” Looking different than your typical Muppet, Abby was conceived as a strong female character who is “someone from a different culture, without having consciously to introduce somebody from Indonesia or India.” According to the Muppet Wiki, “Her design was originally very earthy.” Earthy? Could that be a code word for Pagan? Certain Earth-based sects hold a belief in fairies, or the Fae, as they are known. And, like Abby, they work magic, although Abby’s repertoire is currently limited. Plus Abby embodies the strong feminist message often espoused by pagan groups.”

Leventry also wonders if the “feminist” fairy could be a stealth homosexual. Despite mentioning both Paganism and homosexuality in regards to a children’s program it seems the commenters aren’t too worried about the hidden messages of the Muppet.

“As an extremely active member of a Baptist church and a mother of two kids under the age of 4, one might assume that I may have a problem with Abby’s paganism. Give me a break! I can’t imagine a more ridiculous notion than caring what religion/origin/preference (of any kind) a Muppet is. Sesame Street has a vampire (as noted before), main characters who are monsters, Wanda the Word FAIRY (by the incomparable Andrea Martin), and a 7-foot-tall bird of heretofore undisclosed classification! The biggest threat to our kids is NOT Sesame Street. Anyone who would attack a puppet instead of addressing poverty (which, by the way, Jesus had a LOT more to say about than people who weren’t like him!) and the lack of preschool programs for ALL our kids should be ashamed of themselves.”

Which I suppose says it all, really.

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

The Herald Sun in Australia expects a big boost in the Pagan population come the 2006 census.

“Between 40,000 and 70,000 people are expected to identify themselves as witches in the 2006 census, up from 20,000 in 2001.”

The Hollywood Reporter interviews Neil LaBute about the forthcoming Wicker Man remake.

“I started even with the (local) industry, which was apples, originally. I said, ‘I like the idea of honey and I want to make this a matriarchy.’ So it all fit with the idea of honey because of the colony and the queen bee. I just shifted the entire gender and kind of central hierarchy to be this world of women. I thought that would be a really interesting place. In the original there was this clash of religions, of basically paganism and Christianity, and then this kind of look at fanaticism. I thought, ‘Well, they did it very well and that’s not something I necessarily (want to do).’ While I’d been interested in religions, myself, I’ve always been interested in this loose clash between men and women.”

Salon.com answers the real pressing questions about Pluto’s recent planetary demotion by interviewing astrologer Cheryl Lee Terry.

“It really doesn’t matter, because there are a lot of heavenly bodies floating around that we count in our equations. Astronomers give names to planets — we just consider them heavenly bodies that we interact with. If the astronomers want to say it’s not a planet, that’s great, but it’s not going to change Pluto’s influence. So we believe in Pluto. It’s really been active. This has been a pretty bad month, and Pluto has been one of the instigators.”

The Connecticut Post reports that famed ghost hunter Ed Warren has passed away. Warren is most famous for being the real-life investigator of the Amityville haunting.

“Ed Warren made a living from a world that most people today don’t admit or believe exists ? the world of ghosts and malevolent spirits. He had said he lived in a haunted house as a child, which began a lifelong quest into the paranormal.”

In the Pagan blogosphere Arachne discusses what it is like being a Pagan in Abrahamic dominated enviornments (divinity school and the recent ProgFaithBlogCon).

“There are the basic situations. The standard assumption that I’m a Christian (“Funny, you don’t look Pagan…”) is the first: Unless I bring it up, I am ‘Christian by default.’ My faith just doesn’t register as one of the first options…I think that our presence–Pagans in particular, but also minority faiths in general–forces a reevaluation of what faithfulness and religion have to mean. An interfaith group can’t just keep widening the circle from “ecumenical” to “Judeo-Christian” to “Abrahamic” in the face of a culture full of Sikhs, Asatruar, Buddhists, Swaminarayan Hindus. They have to do something bigger than basing criteria on scripture or history–they have to entirely rethink what constitutes faith. What counts as religion. And that is a scary discussion to have, but a sorely needed one.”

In a final note, the Wiccan/Pagan Times has new interviews up with authors Liz Pilley and Barbara Ardinger.

That is all I have for now! Have a good day.