…to R. Scott Appleby, a professor of American Catholic history at the University of Notre Dame, the bishops’ timing makes perfect sense. “What they’re trying to do in restoring exorcisms,” said Dr. Appleby, a longtime observer of the bishops, “is to strengthen and enhance what seems to be lost in the church, which is the sense that the church is not like any other institution. It is supernatural, and the key players in that are the hierarchy and the priests who can be given the faculties of exorcism. It’s a strategy for saying: ‘We are not the Federal Reserve, and we are not the World Council of Churches. We deal with angels and demons.’ ”

To paraphrase Dr. Appleby, Catholic bishops and priests want to be seen as players in an ongoing supernatural battle. Conference organizer Bishop Paprocki told CNN that discussions about the devil and exorcisms were a small but “regular part of our faith.” Of course, he also said that the force behind sexual abuse lawsuits against the Catholic Church were “none other than the devil.” Further, Paprocki has at least one theory as to why there’s been an increase in demand for exorcists.

No one knows why more people seem to be seeking the rite. Paprocki said one reason could be the growing interest among Americans in exploring general spirituality, as opposed to participating in organized religion, which has led more people to dabble in the occult. “They don’t know exactly what they’re getting into and when they have questions, they’re turning to the church, to priests,” said Paprocki, chairman of the bishops’ committee on canonical affairs and church governance. “They wonder if some untoward activity is taking place in their life and want some help discerning that.”

What Paprocki dances around, others, like Father Thomas Euteneuer, state more baldly.

“Father Euteneuer does not speak as a theorist. Since 2003 he’s had extensive experience ministering to those possessed by demons … Father Euteneuer told me possession is almost always a result of someone getting involved in some sort of occult practices, such as witchcraft, Wicca, tarot cards, and Ouiji boards. ”Harry Potter and these Twilight vampires glamorize the power of evil,” Father Eutenener explained, “and this has lead to many, many cases of possession among young people.” It may begin with a child or teenager simply “playing around” with the occult, but that seemingly harmless act is “opening a window” to possession.”

So what does this matter? Why should Pagans even care what sort of rites Catholics perform? When European bishops warn against “esoteric religiosity”, or the Pope warns of “subjugation to occult powers” in his encyclical on love, does it have an effect on our lives? There’s been a marked rise in the popularity of exorcism and spiritual warfare of late, not just with Catholics, but with Pentecostal and evangelical Christian groups as well. While still a small percentage, some of these fringe groups have powerful allies in political circles. Further, professor Ebony Utley says we should take “all the silly devil talk” seriously.

Conspiracy theories ebb and flow in waves associated with how confident people feel about their social environments. When times are hard and unemployment rates are high, individuals get creative in where they look for explanations. Joshua Gunn, author of Modern Occult Rhetoric explains, “Whenever there’s a sense of social anomie and crisis these things do tend to flair up.” He also noted that “white guys who feel disempowered in some way” are most likely to be conspiracy theorists.

Another clue that many of these claims are catch-all conspiracy theories is the conflation of disparate vocabularies. Occult — a word which simply means secret, or hidden — is not a term necessarily linked to evil. The negative connotation has been added over time. The claimants also conflate masonry, Egyptian mythology, Satanism, and the Illuminati, as if they were all the same.

Right now we have a simmering pot of assumptions, prejudices, conspiracy theories, and demonization that only occasionally bubbles up into something truly worrisome; but as economic hard times continue to drag on, and fringe ideas about spiritual warfare and exorcism start to become mainstreamed, we increase the likelihood of a new moral panic breaking out. Right now some folks (and media outlets) are torn on whether Pagans are harmless eccentrics or dangerous cultists, but that calculus can always change. Few could have thought that a pulpy book on a secret Satanic underground could help spark a panic that imprisoned dozens and ruined the lives of many more. By essentially facilitating the mainstreaming of exorcisms these bishops and priests are playing with fire, but perhaps not the sort of spiritual fire they imagine.

“They have protested at Pagan events at the Fellowship. Repent Amarillo is apparently a very small organization whose members also use the name “Raven Ministries.” Their respective websites are fairly clear on their agenda, but their efforts have had the unintended effect of drawing positive attention to our Fellowship; many of our newer members and guests learned of the Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship due to Repent Amarillo’s well-publicized activities and website.

While we might keep a wary eye on Repent Amarillo, they have not prevented us in the least from growing and moving forward into an exciting future. We’ve discovered that plenty of folks in the Amarillo area are seeking a place to share a progressive, tolerant, and welcoming religious experience.”

So it looks like their intimidation tactics haven’t been as effective, and may actually be backfiring, in regards to the UU Fellowship and the Pagans who call it home. As Green points out, this doesn’t mean there is no threat, or that we shouldn’t be watchful, only that they haven’t found the same traction in attacking the religious “other” as they have with swingers and strippers.

Meanwhile, Rachel Tabachnick at Talk To Action examines Repent Amarillo’s origins and affiliations, and gives a history of the spiritual warfare technique known as “spiritual mapping” that these groups engage in.

“Repent Amarillo’s spiritual mapping and militant spiritual warfare tactics have drawn attention, but they are not much different than those being practiced by “prayer warriors” all over the country.  The spiritual mapping techniques are the same as those introduced by C. Peter Wagner and other New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) leaders.  Pastor Bohn actually appears to disagree with much of the NAR theology but, like many aggressive ministries, has adopted their unorthodox methods nevertheless.”

It’s an interesting essay, and Tabachnick is quick to warn us against complacency simply because groups like Repent Amarillo tend to be small and isolated, pointing out that these warfare groups are spreading quickly, and she predicts a rise in “spiritual” Christian vigilantism in the years to come.

“I’m flattered and grateful they think I’m that caliber of a candidate,” Halloran said. “But right now I’m worried about running the district. I just came off a cycle in a bitter election, so I’m not ready to run another race.”

Of course, like any good politician, he did leave the door of opportunity open just a crack, in case the situation changes.

“I’ll sit down and talk to [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.], but I’m not inclined to run … I haven’t ruled it out, but Gary Ackerman has tremendous financial and political resources. My big picture right now is the state of the city and that our district gets its fair share of money.”

So if Ackerman should experience a scandal, or a big drop in popularity, he might change his mind (but then, so might a lot of other people). In the meantime, I think it’s smart of Halloran to demure from attempting to jump from City Councilman to Congressman so quickly, it shows that he’s thinking about the long-term future, and his constituents.

In Other News:

Mambo Racine on Max Beauvoir: Vodou “supreme chief” Max Beauvoir has been getting the lion’s share of press attention as the voice of Vodou in post-earthquake Haiti. That’s certainly been true here, as much as anywhere else, due to the lack of press attention to divergent opinions and groups inside Haiti (with the occasional exception). Now Mambo Racine, from the Roots Without End Society, gives her take on the enigmatic leader that has captivated the press.

“Max Beauvoir is a Houngan. He is the head of a secular organization of Vodouisats called KNVA, of which most Vodouisants are NOT members. He keeps making these power grabs, he thinks if he proclaims himself the “head of Vodou” enough times, people might believe him. He is a sexual predator. He takes money from people with AIDS, when he knows he can’t cure them. I don’t think highly of him … It is courageous of him to speak out against violence against Vodouisants, even though it was cowardly of him to threaten Haitian President Rene Preval with “death wanga” a year or so ago when Max was not given the post on the Electoral Council that he wanted. And it is idiotic and inflammatory for him to call for “open war”, instead of “self-defense”. He’s a real mixed bag, and I think we need to recognize that he is a man like any other man, not a god, not the “Pope of Vodou”, not the head of all Vodouisants in Haiti, but a man.”

So if his power base is so small, as Mambo Racine hints, why does he get so much attention? Partially it comes from his willingness to seek out reporters and talk to them, but it also come from the status accorded to him by the New York Times, who dubbed him “Vodou’s Pope” and the “supreme master” of Haitian Vodou. There’s nothing a busy reporter likes more than a centralized leader who can speak for a whole faith or class of people. Interestingly, both Racine and Beauvoir, in their own ways, are outsiders who converted to Haitian Vodou and now hold positions of authority. Their non-Vodou pasts, willingness to self-promote, and familiarity with Western media, may go a long way towards explaining how they became two of the most well-known Vodou practitioners in North America.

A Pagan Military Wife: Alison Buckholtz writes an appreciation of military wife blogs for Slate.com, including Just Another Snarky Navy Wife, a blog written by a Pagan.

“My favorite blogger, Just Another Snarky Navy Wife, is based in Monterey, Calif. After bitching about TriCare, the military insurance system, which “sucks the balls of hairiness” because it declined to pay for her anesthesia during a gum graft, she writes about the difficulty of living a double life. “It’s hard being a liberal Pagan milspouse,” she confesses. Like many of these bloggers, she prefers to stay anonymous for her husband’s sake: In this case, “He’s shouldering enough just being a liberal service member with a penchant for logical thought in socio-political discussions.” But her problem, in a nutshell, is that members of the nondenominational, otherwise open-minded church she joined to find community off the base are giving her the stink eye for being married to the military. She wants to tell the hippies who founded the church that she has more in common with them than they think, but she’s furious with them for judging her harshly based on the fact that her husband is a service member.”

I can imagine it’s hard to be a “liberal Pagan milspouse”, especially when it comes to finding community, so let’s give her some appreciation and love. Add her to your blogroll, subscribe to her feed, and leave some supportive comments. You may also want to thank Alison Buckholtz and Slate.com for including a Pagan military voice in their article.

In Defense of that Wiccan Altar in Shop Class: The DesMoines Register features a guest editorial by college student Kat Fatland that chastises the closed mind of Dale Halferty, industrial arts teacher at Guthrie Center High School, who’s been suspended for refusing to allow a Wiccan student to build an altar table.

“If Dale Halferty, the Guthrie Center teacher who banned his student from creating a Wiccan altar in shop class, actually believes his own words, that “this witchcraft stuff… is terrible for our kids. It takes kids away from what they know, and leads them to a dark and violent life,” then Halferty should not be a teacher.”

I can only agree, and Fatland’s editorial may be prophetic if Halferty decides to turn this issue into a stand-off.

More on Repent Amarillo: Since my spotlight article Wednesday on the anti-Pagan militant group Repent Amarillo, the word has continued to spread throughout the blogosphere. This Christian cult is so extreme that Little Green Footballs calls them the “Texas Taliban”. Meanwhile, local citizens are starting to organize against them as the hate-organization picks a new target.

“They showed up at Cheetahs, a local strip club, to tell people they were going to hell … They told the manager, who is a mother of 3 that she is going to hell and they used their PA system and mega-phone to tell people going into the business. The Amarillo cops were called, but they did nothing.”

Such brave Christian soldiers. You have to wonder how many of them were, or are, patrons of that same establishment when they aren’t busy protesting it. I wish the locals every bit of luck in fighting this disturbing group, and will continue to monitor their activities here at this blog.

That’s all I have for now, but before you head out, let me second Chas Clifton’s recommendation that you check out the Pagans for Archaeology interview with Australian Pagan scholar David Waldron, author of “Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Study in Local Folklore“. Lot’s of great insight into folklore, pagan survivals, and dogs.

Have a great day!

Repent Amarillo became an almost-constant presence, shouting through bullhorns, blasting Christian music, haranguing club members, following swingers in vehicles and sticking video cameras into people’s faces. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has been called out twice. Police records show that nearby businesses have called frequently with noise complaints. Repent even showed up on occasion when the Route 66 building was rented out for non-swinger events. “They have been here every time we open our doors, regardless of what kind of functions we have, whether I’m down here doing maintenance, cleaning, whatever,” Mac says. “They don’t have a life. Well, I guess we are their lives. We’re their blood. At three or four in the morning, we’ll open the door, and there they are. They come waddling out of their vehicles with their cameras.”

Lives and livelihoods were destroyed, and local officials took a decidedly “hands off” approach to their borderline legal tactics. So with this “victory” under their belt, who are they going after next? It’s hard to say since they have so many targets. But in a television interview from last year, it’s clear that their leader, David Grisham, has a special obsession with Paganism.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLC9R5mu2b4

If you look at their “warfare map”, you’ll see a whole category dedicated to “Occult Witchcraft”, which includes a local nature center, a UU church, palm readers, and shops that sell Pagan “paraphernalia”. So expect a campaign against a relatively defenseless target, maybe a local psychic, sooner rather than later.

This sort of active militancy isn’t unique. Colorado’s New Life Church (formerly headed by disgraced pastor Ted Haggard), during its ascension into power, orchestrated a cleansing of Colorado Springs, driving Witches and New Agers from their homes with tactics very much akin to Repent Amarillo’s.

“He move the church to a strip mall. There was a bar, a liquor store, New Life Church, a massage parlor. His congregation spilled out and blocked the other businesses. He set up chairs in the alley. He strung up a banner: SIEGE THIS CITY FOR ME, signed JESUS. He assigned everyone in the church names, taken from the phone book, they were to pray for. He sent teams to pray in front of the homes of supposed witches - in one month, ten out of fifteen of his targets put their houses on the market. His congregation of “prayer-walked” nearly every street of the city.”

Repent Amarillo is a fringe group, but the New Life Church was once a fringe group. We once dismissed the rabid prayer-warriors that clustered together in a New Apostolic Reformation (born in Colorado Springs) , until we saw one of their number gain the Republican vice presidential nomination. We can no longer ignore these militaristic “prayer warriors” simply because their numbers are small, that just empowers them to pick off weak targets (like the swingers) and grow in status and power.

That doesn’t mean we need to out-militant them, but it does mean that Pagan communities, especially small and vulnerable Pagan communities, need to prepare for the coming storm. They need to come out of the “broom closet” now to their employers and family before they are outed by these “soldiers”, they need to be prepared when the faux-military trucks and loud-speakers roll up to their events, they need to know the law and how to use it, and they need to be ready to network with the larger Pagan community and other sympathetic minority faiths so we can get the word out, show solidarity, give aid, and withstand these bully tactics. They may have come for the swingers first, but if we show no shame, and stand up, it can end with the Pagans.

The Osun Grove in Osogbo had become a world-class tourism site under her supervision, and had been listed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s World Heritage List in 2005. The Ataoja of Osogbo, His Royal Majesty, Oba Jimoh Oyewale Matanmi, said Suzanne Wenger lived a fulfilled life and arrangements have been made for her burial, saying the burial rites had begun.  The Jaguna of Osogbo, second in command to the Ataoja, said Adunni Olorisa, had said that no tomb should be built for her saying “She said she wouldn’t want any white people to turn her tomb into a tourist attraction. She has laid a solid foundation for the arts and culture in Osun State. Her works will never perish,”

I linked to a BBC profile of Ms. Wenger from September of last year (which I highly endorse reading). It is of no doubt that she’ll be feted in Nigeria for her work in establishing the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove as a World Heritage site, and for her ardent and deep connection to Yoruba and the goddess Osun. May she rest in the otherworld, and return to us again.

In sad news of an entirely different variety, a local Texas paper reports on a fringe “spiritual warfare” Christian group that’s making a map of prayer “targets” in their area. Needless to say, anything even vaguely Pagan-sounding or sheltering is making the hit-list prayer map.

The Wildcat Bluff Nature Center is on the prayer map. Repent Amarillo Director David Grisham says since they have a “Earth Circle” they are connected to a pagan group with the same name.  “These things are linked pagans are earth-based religions along with Wicca and other forms of witchcraft are earth-based religions and earth circles are part of that,” Grisham said.  But Wildcat Bluff Nature Center Supervisor Rhoda Breeden says they are completely wrong. “There aren’t any pagan rituals or ceremonies that happen out here so I was really surprised that they were falsely identifying us,” Breeden said. The 806 coffee shop and bar is also on the list. Repent Amarillo says they’re praying for the pagan groups that meet there but employees like Matthew Domzalski, a barista at The 806, says its not his place to discriminate.

This Christian malicious magic-cult is recruiting “soldiers” and intercessory prayer “warriors” to undertake “missions” (that are sometimes “undercover”) to (spiritually) tear down the “demonic strongholds” of Pagan worship. Let’s hope this all stays in the purview of prayer, and doesn’t inspire some of these soldiers to go further. The language of militancy can sometimes blur the distinctions between spiritual action and physical action.