A few quick updates on previously reported stories.

Who’s the Victim? Talk radio host Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, came under public scrutiny last week for a hateful anti-Native editorial that claimed American Indians were “morally disqualified from sovereign control of American soil” because they “continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition”. After waves of criticism, the AFA took the editorial down, perhaps realizing that their star pundit had gone too far. However, rather than an apology, or even some sign of contrition from Fischer over his editorial, he has instead posted a new editorial claiming Americans aren’t “mature” enough to have the conversation he wants to have, and essentially stating that he is the true victim on his talk radio program.

“The column generated an incredible amount, so much intense, vitriolic and profane reaction - in fact, we had the woman here that monitors comments, she had to say “look, you have to get somebody else to do this, the things that people are saying about Bryan are so vulgar, they are so vile, they are so profane, they are so blasphemous, I can’t take it any more.” That’s how much hate there was, and yet we’re the ones that are accused of being the hatemongers.“

Nothing like playing the “we’re the real victims here” card, is there? But just to recap, here’s a video of Fischer reading from his controversial editorial, along with some bonus triumphalist rancor.

Does that sound like a victim? Someone who is trying to have a “mature” discussion? Or does it sound like someone speaking from a place of power and privilege about a people he most likely has little first-hand knowledge of? I guess his form of Christianity means never having to say you’re sorry.

James Arthur Ray’s Bad Business: With jury selection starting today, and trial slated to begin on March 1st in the matter of three deaths that resulted from a sweat lodge ceremony led by New Age guru James Arthur Ray, NPR’s Morning Edition looks at the “fading aura” of Arizona’s spiritual tourism market.

But business has dropped for many of them, including bookstore owner Luci Guadreau. A retired teacher, Guadreau has had to dip into savings to keep Golden Word, her store of spiritual and metaphysical books, afloat. ”I literally see people walking around with their cell phones, adding up prices, and deciding which of the things they’re going to buy,” Guadreau said. “When we first got here I did not see [that] at all.”

The debate now is whether the drop-off in spiritual dollars comes from the recession, or from Ray’s “negative energy”. A question that was recently taken up by the New York Times as well. The NPR report also notes that Angel Valley Retreat Center, where the now infamous sweat ceremony was held, has been hit with 10 lawsuits from sweat participants, and family members of the victims. The facility has seen a 50% drop in business last year.

Some Bad Press For the Exorcism Business: It couldn’t have happened at a more inopportune time. Just when Catholic exorcisms were having their mainstreaming moment thanks to Anthony Hopkins vehicle “The Rite,” and the subsequent media outreach by real-live exorcist Father Gary Thomas, along comes a exorcist sex-scandal from one of the practice’s most outspoken proponents. Father Thomas Euteneuer, a star in the Catholic pro-life activist ranks, and vehement anti-Pagan exorcist, recently admitted to having sexual relations with at least one of his clients. Politics Daily religion reporter David Gibson looks at the fall-out of this scandal, and how it has shaken the Catholic right.

Some of Euteneuer’s avid disciples continue to praise him as a prophet who confessed to a single and very human failing, while others feel betrayed and say the priest and his organization are so hypocritical they have hurt the sacred cause of protecting the unborn. Critics also say that the full story of Euteneuer’s misdeeds has still not been told, and that policies on exorcism must be tightened to prevent further abuses.

“In my opinion, from now on, for the good of the faithful, all exorcisms should be done in the presence of at least one other person besides the priest,” Matt Abbott, a Catholic columnist for the conservative website RenewAmerica.com, wrote in an e-mail. “That person, or persons, should be vetted by the Church and law enforcement and should not be a personal friend of the priest performing the exorcism.”

Will the still-secretive Catholic exorcist community actually adopt anti-abuse reforms in the wake of the Euteneuer scandal? We’ve seen how slow-moving the Church has been with its sexual abuse crisis, will they learn their lesson this time and act swiftly to create an ethical guide towards Catholic exorcism? One that provides direct oversight to the ritual? As for Euteneuer, expect him to lay low for awhile, especially since there’s been wide talk of “additional allegations” against the priest. On a personal note, I can’t say I’m too sorry to see an anti-Pagan hater pulled to the sidelines. Between that and the revelation that Father Gary Thomas is a Satanic Ritual Abuse believer, one who thinks that being a Pagan or Witch “immediately disqualifies” you to run for public office, perhaps this latest exorcism boom will stay in the theaters.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

Time and time again, I’ve attacked the notion that dead animal parts, especially dead animal parts left lying around in public, were the result of Santeria or Vodou rituals, instead of an individual’s distressed mind. This is not just my opinion, officials within the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have noted that such actions “are most often the work of religious novices, teens or satanic dabblers.” Yet, the allure of some dark cult littering animal parts in various places endures within modern journalism, despite often flimsy or circumstantial evidence. So I think a recent story from WAVY in Virginia is most illuminating as to exploring the type of person who (allegedly) slaughters someone’s animals, leaves the heads in strategic places, and vandalizes local churches.

Accused pig killer and vandal Ashley Marie Fowler.

“The woman accused of killing and maiming two pigs, then leaving one of the pig’s heads on its owner’s front porch last week is in trouble again. Police say 21-year-old Ashley Marie Fowler was arrested at her place of employment last Wednesday after they found evidence in her car linking her to a recent church burglary.”

Another key ingredient to this story comes a bit further down.

“On Monday, warrants were secured for Fowler for the burglary of Northwest Baptist Church. She now faces one count of burglary and one count of grand larceny in addition to two felony counts of killing/maiming livestock, one count of vandalism and one count of prescription pills.“

So we have a young woman, seemingly abusing prescription narcotics, clearly suffering some sort of mental distress, allegedly acting out in a violent and confused manner. Barely covering her tracks, and allowing the police to easily track the evidence to straight to her.  This is the true face of most “occult” crime. The perpetrators of wantonly violent acts against Christian churches and animals. Troubled kids. Despite the mounting evidence that this wasn’t some sort of “Satanic” or “occult” crime, Animal Control officers and detectives are still “investigating” that possibility. Why? Because of “occult crime” experts who need for every animal death, every broken church window, every spray-painted pentagram to be connected to some illusory network of occult or religious practitioners. The men and women (but usually men, it must be said) who travel the country, spinning yarns about the “growth” of occult crime, who seemingly feel no remorse or sense of responsibility for their part in the last wave of moral panics that ruined the lives of thousands of people.

I know that human beings love a good conspiracy, and many media professionals spend a great deal of time giving the people what they want, but sometimes (to paraphrase Freud) a lone nut is sometimes just a lone nut. Or in this case, a troubled young person, is simply a troubled young person.  The more we allow law enforcement and animal control officials to be trained by these “occult” experts, the more “occult” crime they’ll see.

Just a few quick news notes to start off your Monday.

American Mystic Director on Pagan Centered Podcast: The Pagan Centered Podcast has just posted its latest episode, featuring an hour-long discussion with Alex Mar, director of the new documentary “American Mystic”. You can download the program, here.

“The PCP Crew interviews Alex Mar of American Mystic, the first movie branded as a Pagan movie to be released to the general public in theaters! The crew discusses their thoughts about the movie with Alex and we all explore the movie at a greater depth. Don’t worry, even though we screened the full movie, we were able to negotiate the right to release the trailer to you as part of this episode so you will have some idea about what we are talking about. Special thanks again to Alex Mar and Empire 8 for making this happen on such short notice!”

Alex and “American Mystic” has been making the rounds of Pagan media lately, doing interviews with The Modern Witch Podcast (not to mention The Wild Hunt), and receiving positive reviews from a number of national Pagan outlets. The DVD will be available for sale at PantheaCon, and will be distributed exclusively to the Pagan community for a few months, before going “wide” this Summer on Netflix and iTunes. This year’s Pantheacon will feature a special screening of “American Mystic”, which will be followed by a Q&A led by me with the director, Morpheus Ravenna, and members of Stone City Pagan Sanctuary.

Witch School Names New President: The Internet-based WitchSchool has named Rev. Anna Rowe, Head of School for Europe and the UK, as the learning institution’s new president.

“Towards the end of January Ed Hubbard CEO of Witchschool asked me to consider the position of President of Witchschool. Ed has said that he has faith and trust in me to do the job so therefore I accepted. I have an extensive knowledge of how Witchschool works from the bottom up as I have been a member of Witchschool since it was originally just the Daily Spell going out via email. [...] I hope that every member of Witchschool will support me in our continued effort to provide anyone, anytime, anyplace with a Magical, Pagan and Wiccan Education. Witchschool is a valuable and growing aspect of the Pagan and Wiccan community and we are open to anyone who wishes to become a member and participate in our peer to peer learning.”

CEO Ed Hubbard commented that this move shows “that Witch School can develop global Pagan leadership.” While WitchSchool has drawn quite a bit of criticism and controversy during its existence, it has also developed a truly global network of students and practitioners, boasting ties from India to Brazil. Will the appointment of a president outside the United States denote a new focus on its international students? How will this affect their Salem campus? I’ll be paying attention as these issues develop.

A (Witchy) Romanian Valentine For You: The Canadian Press notes that a number of Romanian witches, led by Witch Queen Mihaela Minca, have performed a public ritual to help you find love on this Valentine’s Day.

“Joined by a handful of apprentice witches, queen witch Mihaela Minca led Monday’s outdoor ceremony, casting spells with peacock feathers and rose petals. The witches wore colorful, glittering robes in freezing temperatures to perform the ritual in the lakeside village of Mogosoaia.”

In addition to these amorous actions, Minca has been vocal lately in opposition to Romania’s new laws regulating witchcraft and fortune-telling. An issue I’ve covered quite a bit recently. Under proposed new regulations, could she be penalized if you fail in your romantic pursuits? It seems a silly thing to conceive of, but that’s exactly the road Romania’s been traveling down lately.

That’s all I have for now, have a great (Valentine’s) day!

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Valentine aka St. Valentine’s Day, and this year, as in many years before it, there have been several articles mentioning the Pagan origins of the romantic holiday. Take this example from NPR.

From February 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain. [...] Later, Pope Gelasius I muddled things in the fifth century by combining St. Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals. But the festival was more of a theatrical interpretation of what it had once been. Dr. Lenski adds, “It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn’t stop it from being a day of fertility and love.”

As much as I love a good “Christians appropriate pagan holidays” story,  in reality, St. Valentine’s Day most likely isn’t the holiday created to replace Lupercalia. When Lupercalia observances were suppressed by Pope Gelasius I in 494, the pre-existing Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (which in the Julian calendar fell on the same day as Lupercalia) was promoted in Rome as the purification of the Virgin Mary (later called Candlemas, a holiday Pope Innocent XII believed was created in opposition to Roman paganism). Since the month of February and Lupercalia were seen as times of purification by the Romans (indeed, February was a month full of celebrations and observances in ancient Rome), the new emphasis on Mary’s purification makes perfect sense. The Feast of St. Valentine, established two years later by Gelasius doesn’t seem to have much to do with the replacement of Lupercalia.

If you want to blame someone for equating love with St. Valentine’s Day, you’ll most likely have to blame Geoffrey Chaucer (who hath a blog). As for the festival of Lupercalia, the ancient Roman observance of fertility and the coming spring, it should not to be confused with the commercialized martyr’s celebration. Though, while equating Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia is incorrect, the yearly press blitz has done more to further awareness of ancient (and modern) Paganism than any Pagan advocacy group could hope to attain. So perhaps, as more people grow sick and tired of the Valentine’s Day expectations, perhaps I’ll be hearing more “blessed Lupercalias” in the future.

Instead of branding Valentine’s Day as ours, we should instead take a cue from P. Sufenas Virius Lupus and look to reviving some other Roman festivals from February, like The Parentalia, a major festival honoring the ancestors, or the movable feast of Fornacalia, where we clean and bless our baking ovens. Truly, we are spoiled for choice. So let Halmark have Valentine’s Day, we’ve got plenty of other festivals and holidays to celebrate or revive.

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.

• Elysia Gallo at Llewellyn showcases the latest addition to the Pagan convention circuit, Paganicon, held on March 25th-27th in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The guest of honor this inaugural year is John Michael Greer, Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America.
• Over at The Revealer Jack Downy suffers through all 12 parts of the Christian anti-environmentalist opus “Resisting the Green Dragon,” where he learns that “Paganism, atheism, deep ecology, pantheism, panentheism (thought of as a sort of gateway drug for backsliding soon-to-be-environmentalist Christians), and animism are all interchangeable spiritual orientations.” For more on the “Green Dragon” see my posts here, and here.
• The Maetreum of Cybele responds to the recent New York Times profile of their multi-year battle with the Town of Catskill over religious property tax exemptions, noting that the town’s legal councel had indeed questioned the legitimacy of their religion despite protests to the contrary. For tips on how to help, see here.
• Jim Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives (now the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships) during the George W. Bush era has been named president of the traditionalist-minded Ave Maria University, a culturally and theologically conservative private school founded by Tom Monaghan (of Domino’s Pizza fame). Towey was made (in)famous to modern Pagans for his 2003 comment that “fringe” religions like Paganism aren’t predisposed toward charity, and that he’d never encountered a Pagan group that cared for the poor.
• The Associated Press covers the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “National Standing on the Side of Love Day.” An event inspired by the 2008 shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, an attack that was motivated by the hatred of liberal and Democratic policies. Events will be held this Sunday and Monday. FAQ for those interested in learning more or participating.
• M. Macha Nightmare remembers and honors former coven sister Bone Blossom (Ardath Elizabeth Saunders Stanford), a member of the Holy Terrors coven (along with Sophia Sparks and Cerridwen Fallingstar) and founder of Ouroborous Isis Gnosis coven, who crossed the veil two days ago.
• TheoFantastique Podcast, Vol. 2, no. 1 features a special emphasis on exorcism film “The Rite,” with contributions from Douglas Cowan (“Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen”), Paul Meehan (“Horror Noir: Where Cinema’s Dark Sisters Meet”), and Scott Poole (“Satan in America: The Devil We Know”). For more on “The Rite” and the priest who inspired it, see my post, here.
• British actor, mixed-martial-artist, and reality show contestant Alex Reid went to Stonehenge recently to “find peace and draw energy from the earth,” after a public breakup with wife Katie Price. Reid reportedly donned a “druid-style hood” for this process.
• Belgorod province in Russia is urging bans on Halloween and Valentine’s day as “measures to provide for spiritual security,” an effort blessed by the local Russian Orthodox Bishop. The Russian Orthodox Church has been getting increasingly political and heavy-handed in its efforts to control the religious destiny of Russia.
• Will drumming sessions help heal the vandalised Holy Thorn in Glastonbury?
• More testimony in the alleged Thelemic pedophile cult case.
• Can a Witch help the Cleveland Cavaliers win?
• Kali gets a credit card.

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

A few quick news notes to get you through your Friday.

Sacred Tribes Explores Dark Green Religion: Sacred Tribes, an academic Christian journal for the study of new religious movements, has released a special edition devoted to Bron Taylor’s book “Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future”. Taylor’s work has gained attention for its thesis that the future of religion may be nature religion.

“…traditional religions with their beliefs in non-material divine beings are in decline. The desire for a spiritually meaningful understanding of the cosmos, however, did not wither away, and new forms of spirituality have been filling the cultural niches previously occupied by conventional religions. I argue that the forms I document in Dark Green Religion are much more likely to survive than longstanding religions, which involved beliefs in invisible, non-material beings. This is because most contemporary nature spiritualities are sensory (based on what we perceive with our senses, sometimes enhanced by clever gadgets), and thus sensible. They also tend to promote ecologically adaptive behaviors, which enhances the survival prospects of their carriers, and thus their own long-term survival prospects.”

The bulk of the special edition is a long interview with Taylor [PDF] that travels through his evangelical Christian past, his entrance into the environmentalist movement, and the religious “social phenomena” of “dark green religion.”

“Such nature spirituality is often rooted in an evolutionary understanding that all life shares a common ancestor, and it generally leads to kinship ethics, namely, felt ethical responsibilities toward and empathy for all living things who, like us, evolved through what Darwin aptly called the struggle for existence. Such perceptions generally lead people to see more continuities than differences between their own species and other ones, and this in turn tends to evoke humility about one’s place in the grand scheme of things. I label such religion “dark” not only to emphasize the depth of its valuing of nature (a deep shade of green concern) but also to suggest that such religion may have a shadow side—it might mislead and deceive; it could even precipitate or exacerbate violence. Since there is no religion without dangerous manifestations, I believe, it is important to be alert to the dangers of religion, of whatever sorts they might be.”

The interview is followed by responses from Loren Wilkinson [PDF], editor of “Earthkeeping: Christian Stewardship of Natural Resources,” and Peter Illyn [PDF], founder of the Christian environmental group Restoring Eden. You may also want to read the introduction to this edition of Sacred Tribes [PDF] by editor John W. Morehead. The material is definitely worth an in-depth read. For a Pagan interaction with Taylor and his material, I recommend heading over to Anne Hill’s wide-ranging radio interview concerning “dark green religion.”

Kern County Victims Seeking Recompense: The Bakersfield Californian and the Associated Press are reporting that Grant Self, who was a victim of a giant dragnet that imprisoned dozens of innocent men and women during the height of the Satanic Ritual Abuse panic of the 1980s, is filing suit  against the County of Kern for damages.

“Grant Self was convicted and spent decades in prison before he was granted parole in 2000. Then he was classified as a sexually violent predator and sent to a state mental hospital, said Chief Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations. Nations, who will defend the county in the case, said Self’s conviction was eventually overturned after the Kern County District Attorney’s office refused to produce the one remaining witness who had not recanted his accusations against Self. ”The judge would not not consider his lack of recantation without access to him,” Nations said.”

The widespread abuses of the Kern County arrests, led by the infamous Ed Jagels, were documented in the chilling 2008 film “Witch Hunt”. One of the individuals profiled in that film, John Stoll, won a 5.5 million dollar settlement with the county in 2009. As for Jagels, he has remained unrepentant about the lives he ruined, and remained district attorney until his retirement in 2009. It is my personal hope that Kern County is made to account for all the lives ruined, and years lost, due to these false convictions. Hopefully 2011 will also see more overturning of convictions that were based on little more than discriminatory profiling and moral panic.

Being Gay Within Vodou: Theologian and writer Rev. Irene Monroe has contributed an essay to the New England publication Bay Windows discussing how Vodou has created safe spaces for GLBTQ individuals in Haiti.

“But with the ancestral religious belief that behavior is guided by a spirit (loa), gay males in Haitian Vodou are under the divine protection of Erzulie Freda, the spirit of love. And as a feminine sprit, gay males are allowed to imitate and worship her. And lesbians (madivins) are considered to be under the patronage of Erzulie Dantor, a fierce protector of women and children experiencing domestic violence. Erzulie Dantor is bisexual, but she prefers the company of women. [...] poorer classes of LGBTQ Haitians have at least two ways to openly express and celebrate who they are — in Vodou and in Rara festivals. At Rara Festivals, a yearly festival that begins following Carnival belongs to the peasant and urban poor of Haiti. The Rara bands come out of Vodou societies that have gay congregations where gay men are permitted to cross-dress with impunity.”

The issue of sexual orientation and gender identity within Vodou is no doubt a complex one, and I’m sure some of my Vodouisant readers will want to chime in on the issue, but I do think Monroe makes an important point about Vodou creating room within certain societies for the open existence and acceptant of GLBTQ individuals. I also agree that opportunities for this oft-misunderstoond faith to be “lifted up” should be taken.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater’s ongoing tax battle with the Town of Catskill, covered several times here at The Wild Hunt, has made the New York Times. The usual arguments are repeated, centering on if their house/Maetreum was directly tied to a religious purpose, or if it’s simply a living dwelling with incidental religious trappings. A battle that’s been played out in Catskill for decades, as they try to increase their tax revenue by targeting minority religions, since they’ve openly admitted they lack the resources to go after bigger targets. In this latest article, reporter Peter Applebome notes that the Maetreum “might not be Sunday church religion,” but is clearly religious all the same, and that the law seems to favor them if they can hold out.

“There are, of course, all kinds of questions that can be asked about religious tax exemptions over all, but the Maetreum’s $5,400 tax bill is unlikely to rival the multimillion-dollar exemptions of conventional religions. Still, with unconventional religions on the rise, it poses issues that go beyond the old inn here. The Cybelines are facing possible foreclosure proceedings for the $13,800 they owe and appealing for money. But in the smorgasbord of religious law, they may also have weapons of their own if they want to pursue a discrimination claim. They say they just want to get back to where they were.”

It truly seems that this battle will hinge over who runs out of resources for this fight first. The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater are clearly the underdogs, holding continual fundraisers to offset their mounting legal bills, but the Town of Catskill has also stripped its budget for these kinds of cases bare. The question now is who will blink first? With the New York Times writing a sympathetic article about the tax-fighting Goddess worshipers, it may not be in the town’s best interests to continue.