I’ve seen some pretty bizarre reporting and editorializing in my day, but this particular instance exists on a plane all its own. Remember my story last week criticizing how assumptions were made by law enforcement concerning Santeria and animal sacrifice? At the time I dinged the Newport Beach police for chalking up the dumping of several dead animals on the beach to Santeria (and then ignoring the matter on “religious grounds”) despite a scholar warning that the deaths were inconsistent with Santerian ritual.

“Paul Apodaca, who specializes in folklore, mythology, American Indian studies, and California, Southwestern and Mexican culture at Chapman University, said the inconsistencies in the incidents raises questions. “The different manners of the disposal of the remains of the animals, some careful, others not, some beheaded, some not, some interred with other materials, some not, makes this description seem not to be a Santería ceremony carefully following a ritual but someone with a disturbed personality making personal variations,” he said. “Bona fide religious sacrifices are highly ritualized methods and the remains of the animal are carefully disposed of to preserve the sanctity and affective power of the ritual.” Police said Apodaca is entitled to his opinion, but there’s nothing to lead police to believe the killings are malicious and they are not investigating the incidents.“

So the same paper that ran the initial story, The Daily Pilot, then decides this would be a great opportunity to ask the following question to a Religious Science New Age church leader, a United Church of Christ pastor, and a Jewish Rabbi.

“Recently, the remains of a few animals have been found in Newport Beach. Officials say they were likely beheaded as part of a Santería religious ceremony that includes animal sacrifice. Authorities say they won’t intervene because the courts have protected this sort of practice. What do you think of this and should the law regulate this sort of ritual?”

Notice that the question doesn’t mention the fact that an expert (quoted in their own paper) thinks these killings were done by a disturbed individual and not Santero/as, only that “authorities” think it’s “likely” they were part of a Santeria ceremony. So how does this panel of people, who know next-to-nothing about Santeria, respond to “what they think” and if the practice should be “regulated”? The Religious Science pastor gives a rather hedged defense, but claims Santeria will have to eventually change its practices, the UCC pastor (who seemed to actually read the initial report) has “mixed feelings”, while the Jewish Rabbi unleashes with both barrells at those evil, evil, practitioners of Santeria.

“The rituals of the remains of animals is familiar to what the Germans did to the Jews years ago. The experiments carried out by German scientists on Jews who then were considered to be sub-human animals is thus come to life again. Both cases are cruel and inhumane, not to speak of immoral. For obvious reasons, such acts today should be stopped by us. They are unethical, unhealthy for our planet and serve no purpose but to disgust people. Foolish experimentation or sacrifice of parts of animals is barbaric. Human rights are being flagrantly disregarded, and such acts should be stopped immediately: No cruelty to animals. The atrocities committed by the German in World War II of experimentation and mutilation should be so abhorrent, we should never consider using similar rituals ever to be repeated on animals in our society today. Also, the animal’s remains is a violation of Earth Day as well. I feel that appropriate laws should be enforced to stop the performance of these disgusting rituals.”

Do Jewish Rabbis get some sort of special dispensation for making reductio ad Hitlerum arguments? I think this may be the first time I’ve seen practitioners of Santeria compared to Nazi scientists. It is also strange that this outraged religious leader doesn’t mention the fact that his own faith practices ritual slaughter on a massive scale. Too bad the paper didn’t think to let him in on the fact that there is some doubt that these killings were even performed by a Santero/Santera, and that the cops may be claiming “religious exemption” to avoid doing a lengthy investigation, his response might have been a bit more measured in tone concerning a faith he obviously knows nothing about.

Before I was simply criticizing the police for chalking up these animal killings to “Santeria”, but now this newspaper is culpable in damaging relations between faiths by blithely spreading misinformation in order to spice up an editorial feature. How many people are now going to be convinced that pracitioners of Santeria are lawless amoral killers? This is highly irresponsible journalism, even for an editorial feature. How will this affect the law-abiding Santeros/Santeras who quietly practice their rites in private? There a serious consequences for labeling every dead and dumped animal as beloning to a “Santeria” (or “Voodoo”) ritual, and we are starting to see the fruits of that lazy reporting.

Back in February I highlighted a quote from an opinion piece by Margaret Caldwell, the world’s oldest newspaper columnist, who mused that “perhaps I am Wiccan” when pondering her religious beliefs. Now, in an Easter-themed column, she expands on that “perhaps” a bit more.

“I have a daughter, not the dear one who lives with me, but one I adopted about 15 or 16 years ago. She is Wiccan. Some years ago she was going to attend an all-night celebration for Wiccans on Mount Shasta. When I said “I would love to go,” she said, “Then come. You can you know, if you really want to be there.” I went. It was real. In the night I saw her, and a number of men and women who chanted and danced in a grove of fragrant pine trees. I wore a red dress. When next we met, I told her I had been to the Wiccan celebration. “I know you came”, she said. “You wore your new red dress.” “Why did you not let me know you saw me?” She just looked at me and I got it. It was totally a spiritual thing – a real Wiccan spiritual happening. I shall never forget it. This is my Easter story.”

Stories like this help remind us that the appeal of Wicca isn’t simply a youthful rebellion against Christianity, or the passing fancy of a “spiritual but not religious” seeker, but a living and breathing faith that contains a deep current of sacredness and awe. A faith that can even appeal to a 102-year-old newspaper columnist who wants to remind the world that the earth is holy and that “an old crone is a wise old woman.”

The Marshall University student paper The Parthenon lets us know that Marshall University’s Pagan Association has ceased meeting. Why is this small bit of news relevant? Because this was the group that made national headlines for prompting the university back in 2007 to allow excused absences for Pagan holidays (I even got interviewed by the AP about it).

“Marshall University’s Pagan Association, which once received national media attention, no longer meets on campus. Marty Laubach, professor of sociology at Marshall and faculty advisor for the Marshall Pagan Association, said no one from the association has contacted him this semester and the members may no longer be together as a group. He said the association most likely did not drift apart due to conflict within the group, but because members have become more involved with their studies. George Fain, former president of the Pagan Association, worked to establish the pagan group at Marshall in spring of 2007, Laubach said. A September 2008 story in The Parthenon reported that Marshall received national media attention for recognizing Paganism as a religion.”

While some would still question if this is development was truly “newsworthy”, I think it does convey an important truth about modern Paganism: that small Pagan groups often disband or drift apart, and that this is a normal thing. It is an important fact to know, because journalists used to the congregational model of worship might think a group disbanding might be sign of ill health within the faith itself. Instead, it is just a side-effect of our strong individuality. Indeed, according to the Pagan group’s former faculty advisor, we’re “notoriously” ephemeral when it comes to working together.

“Pagan groups are notoriously unstable,” Laubach said. “Smaller groups come and go very quickly. Groups will last as long as the people can get along together.”

This isn’t to say that there aren’t Pagan groups and organizations that have managed to exists for decades, to the contrary, just that the typical expectations for what constitutes a “healthy” Pagan community varies widely from what might be considered healthy within a Christian or Jewish community. A “typical” Pagan community might see a few groups that have survived the years, as well as an ever-rotating and shifting assortment of ad-hoc groups and short-term alliances that change as the needs of the particpants change. So the Marshall University Pagan Association ending might not be news, but it’s the kind of “not-news” that may trigger some better reporting on Pagan communities in the future.

It’s time to revisit a hoary chestnut within Pagandom, getting an apology from the Catholic Church for their role in the witch trials of Early Modern Europe (and for other ills against pre-Christian religious adherents). Some of you may remember that this was quite the big deal back in 2000, when the Catholic Church celebrated its Jubilee Year and then Pope John Paul II issued a series of apologies for sins committed by the Church.

“Christians have often denied the Gospel; yielding to a mentality of power, they have violated the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and shown contempt for their cultures and religious traditions: be patient and merciful towards us, and grant us your forgiveness!  We ask this through Christ our Lord … let us pray for women, who are all too often humiliated and emarginated, and let us acknowledge the forms of acquiescence in these sins of which Christians too have been guilty.”

In the lead-up to these apologies a group of prominent Pagans (including Selena Fox, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, and  Philip Carr-Gomm) asked the Pope to apologize to “Witches and Pagans” harmed by the Inquisition.

“…for more than a year now, the Vatican has publicly indicated that the Pope plans to make a broad-ranging international as well as interfaith apology for the Inquisition. According to press coverage, this Vatican-initiated apology is to be to Protestant Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others. Thus far, Pagans have not been specifically named, even though practitioners of Pagan folkways in Europe were prominent among those persecuted by the Inquisition—especially on charges of witchcraft. Pagans, scholars, Christian clergy, and others have joined together in writing the Pope with hopes that this historic international interfaith apology is indeed inclusive, and that the apology extends to Nature religions practitioners as well as to Christians, Muslims, and Jews.”

It is highly debatable that there were scores of “Witches and Pagans” (as we understand the term) still around during the time of the Inquisition to be tried for heresy so their “prominent” victim-hood is rather in doubt, but this was 1998-99 before the dramatic rise of (readily available) Pagan scholarship and books like “Triumph of the Moon” and various witch-hunt debunking books seeped into the general Pagan consciousness. Still, the group claimed a victory of sorts for the apology to “ethnic religions” and the whole issue generally faded into the background.

Now, flash forward to Pope Benedict XVI issuing recent apologies for clergy sex abuse scandals and promoting a Holocaust denier, prompting Pagan activist and On Faith panelist Starhawk to enter the apology queue.

“…if apologies are being given out, Witches would like one. It’s more than time that the Catholic and Protestant Churches both apologized for centuries of persecution of Witches, Pagans and those they deemed ‘heretics’ for believing something different than standard dogma. How about an apology for the Papal Bull of Pope Innocent the Eighth, in 1484, that made Witchcraft an heresy and unleashed the Inquisition against traditional healers, midwives, and any woman unpopular with her neighbors for being too uppity? It’s high past time to apologize for the Malleus Maleficarum, a vicious document written by two Dominican priests in 1486 that created a whole mythology of Satan worship, attributed it mostly to women, and unleashed a wave of accusations, torture, and judicial murder that have haunted us ever since. An apology won’t do much good, now, to those accused, tormented, and destroyed because someone coveted their property or needed a local scapegoat, nor to their children left motherless or fatherless centuries ago. But it might clear some air.”

This leads religion writer and Catholic convert (and Beliefnet blogger) David Gibson to accuse Starhawk of wrapping herself in a cloak of victim-hood, distorting history, and ignoring the Jubilee apologies. He also, strangely, makes this all about the witch-related killings in Africa (which Benedict XVI recently commented on).

“But it is also important to examine one’s own conscience before judging another. And while “witches” (or those who are slottled in various related categories) are too often victims, and the pope acknowledged that in Africa, the “imagination, intution, and magic” that Starhawk cites also fuel terrible abuses and horrific crimes against innocents in Africa and elsewhere. The pope also spoke against that. Did Starhawk? Perhaps she or her clan spoke out against abusive withcraft and superstition and neo-paganism during the papal visit to Africa, but I didn’t see it.”

Gibson making this about African witch-related killings when Starhawk never brings up the subject makes him seem a tad defensive (and he’s also wrong that modern Pagans haven’t addressed the issue), and his blog post prompts resident Beliefnet Pagan blogger Gus diZerega to weigh in on the subject.

“And so I am not convinced that the African examples Gibson would have us denounce are properly criticized.  Maybe, maybe not.  All I know of them is what their detractors have said. When those describing them are also associated with an institution having a long history of distorting and maligning indigenous spirituality, I’ll reserve judgment as to whether we are getting accurate information on those African examples … I think while we all must acknowledge the dark sides of our respective histories in order to inoculate ourselves against the disease of self-righteousness, the true task of our time today is to build our communities on what is best in our own traditions, and let others do the same in theirs, relying in Interfaith to promote mutual respect, while enabling friendly relations with different religions to marginalize those within any particular tradition who seek to gain power within their own community  through sowing divisions and distrust towards others.”

Gus diZerega’s reasonableness seems to disarm Gibson a bit, making him take a more thoughtful tone.

“Beliefnet’s own Gus diZerega, author of “A Pagan’s Blog,” has a very thoughtful (he’s nicer than I am, that is) response to my post below on Starhawk calling on Pope Benedict XVI to apologize for the church’s persecution of witches. I appreciate his response, both spirit and in content … in his wrap up I was put in mind of how all religions can get tarred by the actions of the few, especially leaders, or the misdeeds (or worse) of those fringe or even mainstream few who claim to be acting in the name of their tradition. Even though they are hardly doing so.”

If I were to take a meaning from these recent exchanges, perhaps it would be that the age of Pagans demanding apologies from large Christian institutions should come to a close. Instead, we should take the example of Gus diZerega here and focus on mutual communication, responsiveness, and understanding (facilitated in part by a new-media paradigm that encourages more open discourse). Demanding respect and equal treatment because we exist here and now in secular societies that guarantee us religious freedom, not because we might have existed during a time of persecution hundreds of years ago. I’m far more worried about injustice now than whether some poor woman persecuted centuries ago was really a Witch or not. I don’t need a persecution narrative in my Paganism.

For as long as I can remember Pagans of various stripes have been quick to point out that they don’t recognize the existence of (or worship) Satan, that an embodiment of pure evil just doesn’t fit into a nuanced polytheistic (or pantheistic, or duotheistic) model of the divine. Well it seems that we aren’t the only ones, according to the evangelical polling outfit The Barna Group, most Christians don’t believe in Satan either.

“Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan.”

Interestingly, roughly half of the Christians who don’t believe in a literal Satan do believe that there are “demons” or “evil spirits” that can play havoc with your life. Does this mean that in a sizable portion of the Christian mind a pantheon of spiritual forces (good and evil) seems more likely a single living embodiement of supreme evil? Looks like Pagans and Christains have more in common than I thought! Not that it is helping us have better relations, only 5% of Christians have a positive view of Wicca (and by extension, I assume other Pagan faiths) while a whopping 55% percent don’t like us one bit. Still, it does open some interesting doors for conversation don’t you think?

Amazon has released a bit more data concerning the “gay glitch” that de-ranked several gay and lesbian-themed books. According to a new statement, it was a massive “ham-fisted” cataloging error that affected over 50,000 titles.

“It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica.  This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally.  It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.”

A process of re-ranking books is now underway, not only are popular titles like “Brokeback Mountain” and “Heather Has Two Mommies” back to normal, but the Pagan-themed books I linked to yesterday have all had their rankings restored. According to the L.A. Times Amazon.com will be releasing more information about this “glitch” soon. Meanwhile, the Internet is buzzing over various theories concerning whether Amazon.com was hacked and the company is trying to cover it up (a school of thought that has mostly been debunked at this point). Over at the Making Light blog, Tor book editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden has no problem whatsoever believing this was indeed a massive cataloging error.

“If you don’t think this kind of clusterfark is entirely possible, you probably haven’t worked in a large organization. I don’t mean any of this as special pleading on Amazon’s behalf (although, full disclosure, obviously they’re one of Tor’s largest customers, so you may dismiss my views if you so desire). I just find it implausible that Amazon would want to alienate GLBT readers and their friends, who form an enormous and valuable segment of both their customer base and (surely) their own organization. Indeed, I suspect that dozens of Amazon executives and PR professionals will be having hurried meetings in Seattle this Monday morning, and that consumption of antacids at those meetings will be at an all-time high.”

None of this means that Amazon.com shouldn’t be sorry about the chaos and hurt they’ve caused (on the contrary), only that Amazon.com probably didn’t have any  nefarious anti-gay (or anti-Pagan) scenarios in mind when this massive de-ranking occured. There are plenty of reasons to not like Amazon.com (or any giant faceless corporation for that matter), but actively hating on minority groups is probably not one of them.

If you were anywhere near Twitter or the LGBT/feminist blogosphere over the weekend you probably heard about the “gay glitch” (aka “#AmazonFail”), where several titles (predominately gay and lesbian-themed) were removed from the Internet book giant Amazon’s search results and ranking system.

“A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy.”

While Amazon’s PR flacks are now saying it was all a “glitch”, previous contacts with customer services reps portrayed it as a new policy toward “adult” material on the site. Meanwhile, some claim that this process of de-ranking “adult” (read: gay) books has been going on quietly since earlier this year. Whether new policy or “glitch”, popular mainstream titles like Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain”, and resoundingly non-adult children’s fare like Leslea Newman’s “Heather Has Two Mommies” are still de-ranked on the site. Currently, when you search the site for “homosexuality” the top result is “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality” (something I certainly wouldn’t let a child read without adult supervision).

It’s obvious that Amazon will be backtracking under the glare of bad press and Internet groundswell, but while the “glitch” remains I wanted to see if it affected any books aimed at Pagans. Sure enough, “Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe” by Christopher Penczak, Jennifer Hunter’s “Rites of Pleasure: Sexuality in Wicca and Neo-Paganism”, LaSara Firefox’s “Sexy Witch”, Vicki Noble’s “The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power”, and “Lesbian Rites: Symbolic Acts and the Power of Community”, edited by Ramona Faith Oswald (and featuring contributions from Ruth Barrett and other Goddess-worshiping women) are all, at the time of this writing, without an Amazon sales ranking. No doubt there are even more that are escaping my notice (you can find a running list of de-ranked titles here).

What does it mean to be without a sales ranking? Or to not have your book show up in certain keyword searches? In basic terms it makes it harder for customers to find your books on the site, and thereby reduces potential sales and visibility of your title(s). You could be selling thousands of copies, but if you aren’t ranked, you won’t show up in the bestseller lists. Your book is swept under the metaphorical rug. Funny how a “glitch” managed to do that without targeting heterosexual “adult” material. I’d have to agree with author Lilith Saintcrow who exclaims “this is not a glitch” (or, as Twitter puts it, “#GlitchMyAss”). While this “glitch” may be “fixed” in the near future, I can’t imagine those affected will be satisfied until a real answer for how this happened emerges, along with safeguards put in place to ensure such “glitches” are avoided in the future.