I have two Gerald Gardner-related news items for you today. First, “Britain’s Wicca Man,” the first documentary to focus exclusively on this foundational figure within Wicca, now has a trailer out.

“Britain’s Wicca Man tells the extraordinary story of Britain’s fastest growing religious group – Wicca – and of its creator, an eccentric Englishman called Gerald Gardner. Historian and leading expert in Pagan studies, Professor Ronald Hutton, explores the unlikely origins of modern pagan witchcraft and experiences first hand its growing influence throughout Britain today. Gardner’s story and the story of Wicca itself is a bizarre one. Born of a nudist colony in 1930s Dorset, Wicca rapidly grew from a small new forest coven to a worldwide religion in the space of just 70 years. Its a journey that takes in tales of naked witches casting spells to ward off Hitler, tabloid hysteria about human sacrifices and Gerald Gardner himself appearing on Panorama. The film tells of a peculiar man who saw that the world was ready for a new religion based on magic, sex nature and ritual – and gave it to us. In doing so, he created in Wicca, the UK’s first religion, one that has taken on a life of its own and is today counted amongst one of the fastest growing faith groups in the world. Through interviews and encounters with Wicca followers, experts and these who knew Gardner, Professor Hutton delves into this unusual world and the story of how its eccentric founder created a religion that is today increasingly seen as a valid alternative to the more orthodox faith groups.”

As noted in the promotional text, the hour-long documentary is hosted by historian Ronald Hutton, author of “The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft,” and deeply knowledgeable on Gardner, the history of Wicca, and the climate in which modern Pagan Witchcraft arose. Also promising is the fact that Philip Heselton, author of “Gerald Gardner And the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft,” appears in the documentary. So it appears that this special couldn’t have better source material to work with. “Britain’s Wicca Man” was commissioned by Channel 4 in Britain, and is scheduled to be aired sometime in 2012.

The second item, is that the aforementioned Philip Heselton has just released a two-volume biography in ebook format on Gardner entitled “Witchfather: Into the Witch Cult” and “Witchfather: From Witch Cult to Wicca” (you can also pre-order printed copies).

“From the author of the highly acclaimed “Wiccan Roots”, this is the first full-length biography of Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964) – a very personal tale of the man who single-handedly brought about the revival of witchcraft in England in the mid 20th Century.”

Ronald Hutton calls the biography: “humane, intelligent, compassionate, shrewd, and based upon a colossal amount of primary research,” so it looks like it will quickly become a must-own for scholars, Wiccans interested in the roots of their religion, and anyone curious as to how Gardner helped jump-start the modern Pagan movement.

So it looks like 2012 is shaping up to be a year of revived attention to, and interest in, Gerald Gardner. I’m looking forward to both this documentary, and the biography. I anticipate that both will be lasting contributions towards understanding the importance of this figure in our collective history. I’ll be featuring updates, and hopefully reviews, of both in the coming months.

British tabloid The Daily Mail’s website has become the most-visited newspaper site in the world, surpassing The New York Times (though the Times disputes those numbers). Analyzing the rise of the Mail Online, Will Oremus at Slate.com notes that the site drifts away from the xenophobic nativism of its print version to focus on anything that will generate more hits.

“This is not news, really. It’s click bait, the stuff pageviews are made of. There’s no parochialism, no xenophobia, no mock outrage, and almost no politics—nothing that could limit the potential audience for these pieces, which is, in short, the entire English-speaking online world.”

The Mail’s online publisher, Marin Clarke, attributes the site’s rise to just publishing the news “that people want to read.” But the vision of a scrubbed and inoffensive Mail posited by Oremus isn’t quite true. The site has no trouble whatsoever taking regular aim at modern Pagans on their website, often distorting facts and writing lurid headlines to generate outrage (which generates hits). Some example headlines involving Pagans include: “Pagans are on the march – but are they harmless eccentrics or a dangerous cult?,” ”God save us from the crazy religious privileges in jails that cost the taxpayer millions,” “How to cure a witch: Catholic Church issues guide in Britain to turn the tables on Harry Potter,” and “Pagan prisoners given time off to worship the Sun God.”

Typical Daily Mail headline about Pagans.

The Mail’s lurid sensationalism in regard to Paganism is longstanding, and often I found myself responding to, and correcting, their shoddy “reporting”. There was the “British schools teach Paganism” distortion, the “BBC is too Pagan friendly” pile-on, the “museums are changing their policies because they are afraid of Pagans” exaggeration, and the scathing anti-Pagan vitriol from Melanie Phillips when The Druid Network won charity status. It  reached a point where I simply had enough, vowing to never link them again, and urging others to do the same.

“So that’s it. To quote a famous Bond villian: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action. Five times in the span of three months? It’s a paranoid unhealthy obsession. They can’t seem to actually write something fair-minded about our faiths, as if the mention of Paganism, Druidry, or Wicca sparks some sort of Pavlovian urge to cast themselves as Sgt. Howie in The Wicker Man (sans the ending, of course). They are an unwitting parody of conservative thinking, a reactionary journalistic Chicken Little constantly warning of the sky falling, knowing that eventually something they scream about will be correct.

I’d call for a boycott, or angry letters, but that just feeds the beast. They thrive, crave, our attention. The outrage-baiting headlines, the choppy barely-rewritten-from-the-newswires prose interspersed with distortions and clumsily obscured personal opinion, it’s all an attention-generating machine. So it stops here. No more links. No more attention. Let’s stop pretending they are “news”, and deny them the page-views they so desperately desire. Don’t forward them, respond to them, Tweet them, or share them on Facebook. If you must comment on a story they do, find the kernel of a real story and report on that. Dig deeper. Don’t provide them with any more fuel. They are a parody of the news, but that joke isn’t funny anymore.”

For the most part, I’ve kept my promise to not link them. Though exhortations to my fellow Pagans haven’t really taken hold, and their articles are often forwarded through social media sites, and linked to on Pagan blogs. I can’t really blame them, the Mail Online works very hard to titillate or infuriate, making it hard to not engage.

The point, however, is not to simply renew my call for Pagans to deny the Mail linking oxygen, but to ask a larger question. If the Mail Online is now the most popular Internet paper in the world, how does that affect how people see modern Paganism? I posit that it reinforces the opinion that Pagans are strange outsiders who make unreasonable demands on government, undermine society, aren’t to be taken seriously, and are a symptom of societal collapse. Even when they aren’t openly villainizing Pagans, and simply rewriting reporting from other papers, it’s balanced out with stories about “black magic rituals” forcing the closure of woodland caves. In short, Pagans are only paid attention to when its a controversy.  To the Mail, we are either “harmless eccentrics” or a “dangerous cult,” there’s no in between.

When we interact with, and create, media, Pagans need to be more savvy than ever before. We have to think about how a story will play out in all kinds of outlets, and what the ramifications of our every word will be. We can’t control the hits-hungry amoral ethic of the Mail, but we can refuse to participate in their business model, deny them pull-quotes for their sensationalism, and work instead with outlets that have built a track record of responsible reporting. Better still, we can continue to work on lifting up our own media, so that there are strong advocates for Pagan voices on the Internet.

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.

• The case of Forsyth County, North Carolina v. Joyner, which ultimately ruled that opening invocations and prayers before government bodies cannot be overwhelmingly sectarian in nature, is now being used to challenge the sectarian prayers in North Carolina’s State Legislature. The ACLU is threatening litigation if North Carolina doesn’t change its policy. As I’ve pointed out here before, this case rests heavily on precedents involving Pagans who’ve challenged government invocation policies.
• DNAinfo reports that the Wiccan Family Temple in New York is holding a fundraiser entitled WitchsFest USA, with proceeds going towards a permanent temple space in Manhattan. The best part? They’ve got a band called Witches in Bikinis playing for them, a high-concept beach-party-horror-film rock n’ roll group. Here’s a promo video of them in action. How did I not hear about them before? In any case, the fundraiser is on July 8th, and you should definitely check it out.
• February isn’t just for Groundhog’s Day, in Brazil adherants of Candomblé celebrate Iemanja Day, which honors the Queen of the Ocean, perhaps better known as Yemaja to many Pagans.
• In the “living traditions update their imagery” files is the story of how Chinese families are now offering up replica paper iPads to their ancestors for an annual festival. Quote: “Apple’s iPad 2 shortage has spread to the afterlife as Chinese families in Malaysia rush to buy paper replicas of the popular new gadget to burn for their dead as part of a centuries-old rite. During the Qingming festival, also known as the tomb sweeping festival, Chinese communities in Asia honour their ancestors by burning fake money or replicas of luxury items such as flashy cars and designer bags.” Fun fact: spirit iPads have an “888 gigabyte capacity.”
• Religion Clause reports that the Sister Wives‘ challenge to Utah’s anti-bigamy statute will go forward. Back in July of 2011, I wrote an article on challenges to polygamy laws and how that might affect polyamorous Pagans.  A recent high-profile challenge to Canadian polygamy law failed to overturn the ordinance, though it did seem to carve out exceptions and a road-map for future litigation. No doubt Pagans in multiple-partner relationships will be watching this challenge closely to see how its ramifications might affect their lives.
• Also from Religion Clause,  O Centro Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal, who won a landmark Supreme Court case regarding the importation and use of entheogens for religious purposes, is filing a land use lawsuit against Santa Fe County, New Mexico for denying them a permit to build a new temple to replace their old one (which they have outgrown). UDV was also recently involved in the major ministerial exception case decided early this year.
• President Michel Martelly has named Sean Penn as Haiti’s ambassador at large.
• Is being an atheist in the United States worse than being a Pagan? Julian Baggini at Slate.com explores why the U.S. won’t accept its atheists, though many of the experiences conveyed here sound awfully familiar. Quote: “I used to be a good running friend with somebody who doesn’t live far from here. I mentioned on one occasion that I was an atheist and I’ve never seen him again … I came here knowing this was the Bible Belt, but I didn’t realise it was a more like a totalitarian Christian society: you’re either one of them or you’re not and there’s no in between. So I’ve learnt this lesson, to keep it to myself as much as possible.”
• A short video documentary about Oberon Zell-Ravenheart.
• New research is out about how entheogenic mushrooms affect our brain.

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.

NPR correspondent Eric Weiner is the latest in a long line of journalists to temporarily embed themselves within a Pagan practice in order to explore our religions first hand. In Weiner’s new book, “Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine,” he engages with a number of different religious traditions in order “to better understand faith, and to find the god or gods that speak to me.”

“Weiner, a longtime “spiritual voyeur” and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he’s never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine.”

Like a growing number of writers, Weiner decided to give Wicca a try, the largest and most accessible modern Pagan religion. While he seems to give the practice a sincere shot, he’s haunted by his monotheistic upbringing, and ultimately dismisses modern Paganism’s lack of transcendance, its polytheism, and his perception that Wiccans “are so busy pulling rabbits out of hats that they never stop to look carefully at the rabbit, or the hat for that matter, and contemplate the miracle that is its existence.” To be fair, Weiner also says some very nice things about Wicca.

“Is Wicca for me? Have I found my God and is He a They? There is a lot to like. I like the way Wiccans create fresh ritual. I like the way they eschew temples and doctrine in favor of a forest and liturgy penned on the fly. I like the idea of a world infused with magic. I like the idea of a religion with no sin. [...] Wiccans are many things – wacky, rebellious, frequently kind, occasionally naked. They are not indifferent. They engage in wonder and awe on a regular basis. It that’s not religion at its best, I don’t know what is.”

I never seriously considered the idea that Weiner would convert to Wicca, as a New York Times review notes, “we never believe, for example, that Weiner is genuinely drawn to the spirit world of shamanism or the spooky ceremonies of modern-day witchcraft.” Dabbling with Pagans was more a bit of spice in a trip through the modern religious marketplace, and he’s in good company. In recent years writers like Jeff Sharlet and J.C. Hallman, in addition to BBC television presenter Peter Owen Jones, have also given some attention to modern Pagan faiths as part of a larger exploration of religion. None, to my knowledge, ever seriously considered a true conversion. The only journalist or writer  that I can think of who did convert was Stewart Farrar, who was sent to cover Witch-king Alex Sanders and ended up becoming a prominent Witch himself (Weiner’s fellow NPR correspondent Margot Adler was already “one of us” when she wrote and published the hugely influential “Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America”).

The real question is if these embedded journalists writing about us is a helpful phenomenon. Does it humanize us to the wider public to read about these outsiders chanting and dancing with us in various circumstances, or does it simply make us another punchline or amusing anecdote for folks like Weiner to share at talks and interviews?

I think there’s a point where we have to question how we interface with and “embed” writers looking for a Pagan experience. I have no problem with them writing about “going skyclad” or exploring their feelings about polytheism, but I also think that we need to convey that modern Pagan faiths face serious issues that should be addressed. Whether that’s the distribution of religious materials in public schools, “occult” filters in public libraries, or equal treatment from our government. I’m fine with writers deciding Pagan religions aren’t for them, but I do hope they will come away from their experiences with a sense of the challenges we face, and a willingness to stick up for us in the public sphere. I also hope that any Pagan or Pagan group approached by an aspiring writer will have  a serious conversation with them about what their expectations are before allowing unfettered access.

This past December, North Carolina Pagan Ginger Strivelli challenged her child’s school’s policy regarding the distribution of religious materials. Strivelli felt that the manner in which Gideon Bibles were made available violated the Establishment Clause, and ostracized non-Christian students who didn’t want to use a special break to obtain a Bible. The school claimed their policy of distribution for religious materials was open and neutral, but when tested with Pagan books the school’s tune quickly changed. The Buncombe County School Board now said their policy was under review, while Strivelli received a death threat for speaking out. Last night, the school board held a meeting to unveil (but not vote on) a new distribution policy for religious materials. In a packed room, a climate of fear and anger held sway, according to Angela Pippinger of The Pagan Mom Blog.

A view of the Buncombe school board meeting.

“For awhile there seemed to be a balance of people who supported and opposed the policy. But then some preachers got up and made direct personal attacks to Ginger. They claimed she was the only one with a problem with the bible distribution. Little do they understand how many pagans in the county that fear coming out and speaking up. And after that meeting, I completely understand!  Then it got even worse when a preacher spoke up that only bibles should be allowed in schools. And that is when the preaching began. People after people felt the need to quote scripture. One guy even read from the bible and stated that if we were real pagans that our ears would burn after listening to the scripture.

All through this we quietly sat and allowed people to speak their minds. While I fully support freedom of speech, this was quite difficult. It was off topic. It was all about the “us vs them” mentality. I wanted to speak because it had been so long since anyone from the pagan community spoke. But I was scared. Yep, you read that right. The hostility was so thick that I wasn’t sure that I could handle standing before those people and be subject to a possible attack. When Ginger spoke about her feelings of being bullied and that she was the only one brave enough to stand up to the masses, the crowd rebuked her. The same crowd we respectfully allowed to speak their minds now could not handle her speaking her own. I will speak at the next meeting. I have things to say and I need to stand by my desire for a strong interfaith world by standing up and speaking.”

Ginger pointed out that she has felt bullied. Crowd told her she didn't have to be here.

February 2, 2012 6:09 pm via txtReplyRetweetFavorite

@APippinger

Angela Pippinger

Regarding the proposed policy, it states that school officials  “while acting in their official capacities shall not use their positions to endorse, promote, or disparage a particular religious belief, viewpoint or practice.” It also requires ongoing training to staff, and to have principals consult the superintendent over any instance that might violate the Constitution. Local activist and Pagan leader Byron Ballard called the proposed policy “fair,” but also commented on the atmosphere of the meeting, saying it “was like an audition for preachers,” and that many in attendance seemed “desperate and fearful.”

As for Ginger Strivelli, she bravely faced the crowd, telling them that “I am the only one who is courageous enough to stand up to your bullying,” and that “this is not a church [...] this is a public school board meeting.” What she is doing is not easy, but her work, along with the work of Byron Ballard, is slowly changing the culture in Buncombe County. Next month the school board will likely vote on the new rule, Byron Ballard suggests sending them an email of support.

@martillini You could send them an email of support. Put "I support Policy 652" in the subject line. http://t.co/B5xhhxOt

February 3, 2012 7:36 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ByronBallard

Byron Ballard

I am expecting an official response from Ginger and Byron’s media liaison on last night’s events, and I will post that here as an update once I receive it. You can be sure I will be keeping an eye on this situation, and will report on any progress or developments.

UPDATE: The Lady Liberty League’s Education Task Force has issued a press release with statements from Selena Fox, Byron Ballard, Ginger Strivelli, Lady Miraselena, and Lady Arsinoe Meri Ma’at. Here’s Selena Fox’s statement on behalf of the Lady Liberty League:

“Having liberty and justice for all in this country may be in the Pledge of Allegiance, but it is not an automatic reality. The large volume and intensity of sectarian religious rhetoric in the February 2nd meeting proves the necessity to have a religiously neutral public school policy, It also demonstrates that, all of us, need to be vigilant and willing to work together to make this happen wherever discrimination occurs. And, we have been very pleased to see that Pagans and those of other beliefs have been collaborating, networking, and speaking out in favor of the separation of church and state in this Buncombe County public school situation. We ask that you continue to send support to Ginger, Byron, and others who are on the front lines of this quest. We will post any updates on the Strivelli Family Support and Lady Liberty League Facebook pages.“

In her statement, Ginger Strivelli simply adds: “Thanks to everyone who has been giving us support.”

I have a semi-official policy of ignoring Christian media mogul Pat Robertson whenever possible. You can set a clock by how often he says something stupid, insensitive, outrageous, or inadvertently amusing about any belief system that doesn’t walk lockstep with his own. He’s a calculating offender who knows that causing controversy is good for his business. I frankly have no idea how the folks at Right Wing Watch or Talk to Action manage to cling to sanity in their daily trawl through the seamy underbelly of conservative Christianity.  Surely that much Pat Robertson isn’t healthy for anyone? In any event, the folks at RWW reported on yet another stupid observation on Robertson’s 700 Club, this time from current Roberston sycophant Kristi Watts.

Robertson’s cohost Kristi Watts mockingly asked that since the Wicca religion “believes in the environment and believes that trees are there God,” then “why are these atheists not saying we should cut down every tree because it’s offensive?”

Luckily, Heathen political commentator Hrafnkell Haraldsson jumps in to tear Watts bizarre argument apart.

“The obvious answer to this is that Wiccans don’t worship trees. This is more of the ever-popular  Old Testament dumb idol meme, the hatred of the Yahwists for trees as representative of goddesses, and repeated all through early Christian history (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12:2), where Pagans become people who worship rocks and trees rather than seeing in nature the divine all around us. On a whole, this is roughly analogous to and about as accurate as saying Christians worship a cross.

Although, it wouldn’t surprise me if even militant atheists aren’t too worked up about Wicca, which like other Pagan religions, eschews proselytization and preaching to “non-believers” like Kristi Watts’ own religion. Pagans also aren’t known to be busy either trying to deprive atheists of their right to not believe. But then, comprehension of causation is not a strong suit for those who believe their god’s will decides everything, including who is born to whom and when.”

Since Hrafnkell has done such an able job of dismantling the anti-Pagan (and anti-atheist) religious hit-job on Robertson’s program, I’ll instead bring up one other point. Atheists aren’t gunning to chop down all the trees us Pagan tree-huggers hug because they predominantly believe in environmental and climate science, and know that cutting down “every tree” would destroy our ecosystem, and life on earth itself (sadly, ski resort Jesus statues don’t absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen). To some Christians climate change initiatives and environmental regulations aren’t a matter of responsible stewardship, but a form of “paganism” in of itself. However, interestingly, Robertson isn’t one of them.

“They have broken heat records in a number of cities already this year and broken all-time records and it is getting hotter and the ice caps are melting and there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the air. We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. If we are contributing to the destruction of the planet we need to do manage about it.”

So even if Wiccans worshiped trees as their “god,” I think both Robertson and the straw-man atheists described on his program would agree that a policy of cutting “down every tree because it’s offensive” wouldn’t be in their best interests. It’s a shame that Robertson didn’t correct his sidekick on this simple point of logic.

Today the political elite of the United States engaged in an annual tradition, the National Prayer Breakfast, attended by every president since Eisenhower, and held up by supporters as a peace-making, problem-solving moment of unity.

President Obama at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast.

“The purpose of the National Prayer Breakfast, which will be held for the 60^th time on Thursday, is to attempt to bridge political and even religious differences through what is called “the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth” in order that leaders consider a Higher Authority to Whom they are ultimately accountable and answerable. [...] One can debate whether the National Prayer Breakfast engages in a type of “civil religion,” but there is much good that emerges from it. For at least a short time, politicians — from the President of the United States on down — acknowledge they are not as powerful as the Almighty.”

However, as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) point out,  the organizers of this event, the Fellowship Foundation (aka “The Family”) use its influence to further a noxious agenda.

“Outside of Washington, “The Family” has used its government clout to facilitate backdoor meetings between U.S. and foreign officials, and has persuaded members of Congress, including Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), to engage in Fellowship-sanctioned evangelizing while traveling at taxpayer expense.  Salon.com uncovered, revolting detail, the lengths to which members of “The Family” went to help Laurent Gbagbo, the now former president and dictator of the Ivory Coast, hold on to power.  Mr. Gbagbo is now in The Hague awaiting trial by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.  “The Family” has also supported abhorrent anti-gay legislation in Uganda.”

Journalist and author Jeff Sharlet, who as written two important books about this organization, “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” and “C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy,” says that the Fellowship Foundation has been waging a war on the United States’ Establishment Clause since its formation.

“Domestically, The Family have long been at the heart of the Christianist assault on the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause – “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion” – which is the guarantee of the Free Exercise Clause that makes America free (in theory, at least) for Pagan. In 1953, The Family established the National Prayer Breakfast; in 1954, Family politicians led the fight for “Under God” in the pledge and “In God We Trust” on our currency. More recently, Representative Tony Hall, a conservative Democrat from Ohio, made the National Day of Prayer a fixed, permanent affair, with White House observance orchestrated by Shirley Dobson – wife of Christian Right leader Jim Dobson.”

The fact that a group tied to abhorrent and lethal anti-gay legislation in Uganda, and committed to an agenda that mocks our constitution, is still awarded such position in our society says much about the venality of our political climate and the clout this group has been allowed to cultivate. Instead of an interfaith event, or secular gathering, our nation’s moment of unity is interpreted through the lens of Christianity, and a limited, conservative, empire-minded, Christianity at that. This audacious enforcement of a Christian America technically side-steps constitutional issues by being a “private” event, a fact that allows smaller, local, prayer breakfasts to invite notoriously controversial figures while avoiding litigation.

This year, thanks to Occupy Faith D.C., there’s an interfaith People’s Prayer Breakfast that calls on Americans “to pray and to stand in unity with those suffering economic hardship and inequality in our nation.”

“…where people of all faiths can both listen to and offer up the prayers of the poor. It’s an event where all are welcome, but we especially invite those who are impoverished or work with impoverished people groups to come and bring their prayers. We will offer up the prayers of children in the form of artwork on the theme of “enough for everyone”, first to God, and then to the attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast.”

So here we have two competing Prayer Breakfasts, and two competing views of our nation. One favors gathering power and establishing Christianity as the focal point of national unity, while the other opens its doors to all faiths, and concerns itself with those who aren’t being served or supported by our current system. One is about back room deals, while the other is about “breakout sessions.” Only one of these visions is one in which modern Paganism has a place at the table, and its that vision that our interfaith efforts work on building. As our community, our movement, continues to grow, we need to work on growing institutions and events that are inclusive, open, and support our core values. Eventually, with enough work, perhaps we can build a large enough interfaith coalition to challenge The Family’s Prayer Breakfast, to provide a robust counter-narrative that is truly in the grand spirit of our secular nation.