• The home of traditional 19th century Irish healer Biddy Early is up for auction. Current property owner Billy Loughnane is hoping that someone with a strong interest in Early will purchase the land, restore her cottage, and preserve it as a tourist spot. Biddy Early is perhaps one of the most famous of the female cunning folk, and her legend has only grown over the years.
• In June a new group blog, Feminism & Religion, launched. The main contributors are all feminist theologians and scholars, and was founded “in the hope that feminist scholars of religion — and all who are interested in these issues — will use this forum to share their ideas, insights, and experiences, so that this community of thinkers will be nurtured as we explore diverse and new directions.” Plenty of posts of interest to Pagans, Goddess worshipers, and feminist theologians to be found.
• Slate’s legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick, referencing a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, explains why you can’t simply vote for sectarian prayers at government meetings: “It doesn’t matter if only 4 percent of the community is expressly excluded by references to a certain deity. It also doesn’t matter if only 1 percent of the community feels that way, or even if only two “hypersensitive” non-Christians object. The Bill of Rights is not subject to popular referendum. That’s why it’s called the Bill of Rights and not, say, American Idol.”
• Scholar danah boyd explains why “Real Names” policies on social networking sites are an abuse of power. She notes that: “people who most heavily rely on pseudonyms in online spaces are those who are most marginalized by systems of power.” Considering the large number of Pagans who operate under pseudonyms on the Internet (and in their day-to-day lives) I can see this becoming an issue for our communities. For more on this check out the “My Name is Me” advocacy site, explaining the number of reasons why individuals should be free to choose their own names on the Internet. More from boyd on “radical transparency.” I’ll be following up on this issue soon.
• Here’s your Pagan facepalm for the weekend: two inebriated Odinists in the UK climbed up the scaffolding surrounding a Christian church, claiming they were holding a protest. “A witness said he heard police telling the pair it would have been a more effective protest had they not been drunk.” The younger of the two protesters refused an offered ladder and jumped down from ten feet, hurting his leg in the process.  No one was arrested, and no damage seemed to have been done (except to the one Odinist’s leg).
• Shock Till You Drop interviews writer/director Robin Hardy about “The Wicker Tree,” the themes running through it and its spiritual predecessor “The Wicker Man,” and the upcoming third film “The Wrath of the Gods.” The last film sounds very Wagnerian, and “the gods themselves get sucked into the melee.”
• The perfect storm for sensationalist coverage: A porn star gets busted for animal cruelty by leaving animals he was planning to sacrifice in a Santeria ceremony inside a hot van. Here’s the TMZ version of the same story.
• More on the Hindu America Seva Charities (HASC)  first-ever White House conference.
• Starting yesterday, a week of actions are planned to protest the expansion of the Snowbowl ski resort on the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, which includes the pumping of treated wastewater up the mountain to make fake snow. A coalition of local indigenous groups and Tribal Nations see this as a desecration that would be “like putting death on the mountain.” You can read my recent coverage of this issue, here.
• Here at Patheos, P. Sufenas Virius Lupus explains the dangers of one-stop shopping, especially when it comes to religion: “For polytheists, and I would suggest for Pagans more generally, there are no shortcuts. One never gets, in a metaphorical sense, to kill two birds with one stone with one’s daily activities and one’s spiritual life. And, I would argue, this is a very good thing.”
• Also at Patheos, columnist Gus diZerega responds to Christina Oakley Harrington’s talk on Pagan in Britain today, with some thoughts of his own.

That’s it for now! I may not be near a computer for much of today as I’ll be visiting one of Oregon’s sacred sites, so please forgive me if I don’t respond to comments or emails in a timely fashion. Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

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.

“We used to spend a lot of time in our yard, and now there’s bongos and loud singing, and we just don’t feel good about it anymore,” he said. “We’re not prejudiced. We’re very fair. Take that stuff outside of town.”

Meanwhile, another neighbor has contacted PETA (People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals) who called the cops on their behalf, and is “staying in contact with authorities” concerning the matter.

“Of course we’re against religious sacrifice,” Martin Merserau said. “We’re against animal abuse in many forms, whether you’re dragging a knife across the throat of an animal for quote-unquote religious purposes or not.”

PETA, perhaps feeling that their racist, sexist, sizeist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and transphobic campaigns haven’t been going far enough, they now feel the need to attack minority religions as well by getting involved in a local spat. Never mind the sheer hypocrisy of calling animal sacrifice “abuse”, while they “humanely” euthanize thousands of healthy unwanted animals, and have even had employees charged with illegal disposal of animal corpses. I guess context is king. All I know is that I’ve been a vegan for years, and I’ve never supported this group. As for Marquez, considering the recent win for Jose Merced in court, it’s going to be increasingly hard to enforce animal slaughter laws against Santeria practitioners.

More Fodder for Sharkey’s Ever-Hungry Ego: Joseph Laycock, author of  “Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism”, decides to give more attention to Jonathon ‘The Impaler’ Sharkey for an essay at Religion Dispatches. Why? To make the point that Sharkey’s buffoonish extremism now seems almost normal in today’s ultra-polarized political landscape.

“The Impaler” arose during the Bush Administration, seeking popular appeal by promising to kill an unpopular president. And while he has continued this strategy during the Obama era, sadly he no longer seems nearly as crazed and peripheral next to the extreme fringes of the Tea Party movement. Simply put, violent rhetoric has become more acceptable. Progressives have criticized Sarah Palin for a political “hit list” on her Facebook page that features gun crosshairs over the home states of targeted Democrats. Sharkey and Palin are in effect both catering to the same sentiment. While Palin has never called for the impalement of Harry Reid, her supporters might not take offense if she did.

I suppose I see the point he’s trying to make, but I object to giving this criminal, who has shown a pattern of having inappropriate, and sometimes threatening, interactions with young girls, any more media-driven oxygen. I almost didn’t comment on this story because I want nothing more than to see Sharkey fade off into obscurity until he’s finally imprisoned for stepping too far over the line. Of course he’s calling for Witch-hunts! He is desperate for our attention, because without it, he’ll be forced to face the life he’s created for himself. So barring some truly newsworthy event involving Sharkey, the topic will no longer come up at this blog, and I urge everyone in the Pagan and Vampire communities to follow suit. As for Laycock, check out the interview with him about modern Vampirism at the always-excellent TheoFantastique blog.

Starhawk and Social Justice: In the wake of the Glenn Beck/Jim Wallis spat, author, activist, and On Faith panelist Starhawk weighs in on “social justice” in the context of modern Paganism.

“While Pagans do not have a set creed or unified code of beliefs, our traditions hold in common the understanding that we are all deeply interconnected, all part of the sacred weave of the world. The Goddess is immanent in this world and in all human beings, and part of our service to the sacred is to honor one another and take care of one another, to fairly share nature’s bounty and to succor one another in facing the hardships of life. We must create justice in this world, not wait for redress of grievances in the next. No one person or group has the right to commandeer nature’s resources, which are the underpinnings of all wealth. Generosity, justice and fairness are old Pagan virtues…”

I’m personally all for social justice, but then I’ve never been all that offended when people called me a socialist because of it. Which I suppose makes me one the 36% of Americans who have a favorable opinion towards the ideology. Not that social justice has to be equated with socialism, but I’m not the one blurring those lines in order to score political points.

South African Pagans and Inclusion: The Richmark Sentinel focuses on South African Pagan Council’s (SAPC) quest for representation at the country’s national multi-faith organizations.

The South African Pagan Council says its being ignored by the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM), National Religious Leaders Forum (NRLF) and National Interfaith Leaders Council (NILC) … Asatruar Charles van Bergen, the representative of the South African Pagan Council (SAPC) tasked with negotiating the inclusion of Pagan religious leaders to both the NILC and its forerunner the National Religious Leaders Forum (NRLF), thinks South Africa is not achieving its stated intention to facilitate cooperative inter-religious participation. “Organizations such as Home Affairs and SARS have been forced to abide by the laws pertaining to such things, but other than that an active policy of passive-aggressive exclusion of Pagans is the status quo countrywide.”

Why does the SAPC want a voice in predominately socially conservative and anti-pagan multi-faith organizations? To remind the leaders of the dominant faiths in South Africa that other opinions exist and should be respected.

“I believe the SAPC’s presence on both the NILC and the NRLF will ensure that religious policies and dialogue maintain respect for the rights of minorities who do not necessarily agree with the conservative views and positions expressed by members of these organizations. We’d like the right to participate and contribute constructively to our Nation’s spiritual and moral values.”

The SAPC is currently involved in supporting the 30 days of advocacy against witch-hunts campaign, and is one of three legally recognized Pagan organization in South Africa (along with The South African Pagan Rights Alliance and the Correllian Nativist Tradition S.A.). I wish them luck in trying to change opinions concerning modern Paganism in South Africa.

Ongoing Tensions in Haiti: Reporters from the Miami Herald look at the ongoing tensions and deteriorating relations between faiths in post-earthquake Haiti, and mention that a human rights lawyer went before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights last month, calling for an investigation into anti-Vodou attacks.

Last month, Mario Joseph, a Haitian human rights lawyer, went before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights seeking an investigation of attacks against Vodouists after several were stoned by Evangelical pastors in the Cité Soleil slum. “In other zones of the country,” he told the commission, “particularly in the commune of Verrettes in the Artibonite, literal witch hunts have been launched against priests and practitioners of this religion.”

This news of “literal witch hunts” is deeply troubling, and there seems to be no real investigation of this by the press, many of whom have moved on now that the initial disaster is over with. In the chaos, with international eyes turned elsewhere, and the government still powerless, is there a quiet campaign of violence and intimidation against Vodou practitioners under way?

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

“The officers found what was believed to be a human skull, but it turned out to be fake. But they did find what appear to be the remains of small monkeys. “The house was covered in bones,” Bengal said … Bengal said the man who lived at the house and probably performed many of the killings is believed to now be in Mexico. However, his wife may still be in the city and she is being sought for questioning, Bengal said.”

From the very beginning I’ve been skeptical of the reports I’ve been receiving because George Bengal, director of law enforcement for the Pennsylvania SPCA, has said some things to the press in the past that make me think he may have some biased notions of what adherents of Santeria (not to mention Satanists) actually do.

“Mr. Bengal said there is usually an increase in ritual animal sacrifices at this time of year because of  “a lot of high holidays that different groups celebrate.” But he said most of those sacrifices involve goats and chickens.”

Then, a commenter on this blog, who claims to know Ramon Cruz, spoke out on the matter.

“Baba Ramon is a highly respected Babalawo. He is not in this country and the person that was watching his dogs for him lost the only key to the house in this country and didn’t know what to do. PSPCA has been called out to Baba’s house in the past so this was no “huge find” for them nor anything that the organization was not clearly aware. They have personally walked through this same house before. It is a nosey neighbor that does not understand our religion that constantly calls PSPCA. This was not an intential act of animal cruelty. Baba Ramon loves his family pets and is completely beside himself that he’s unable to come back stateside to clear this up. This is clearly a case of media hype and public ignorance of our spirituality.”

Since this story emerged, it has now gone international. Getting coverage at CNN, and the Herald Sun in Australia (who re-inserted claims of “Satanism”). We also have more pictures from local news affiliates, though, again, they are more speculative and sensationalist than conclusive as to the true nature of the house.

So we have two competing narratives. One, is that Ramon Cruz, and possibly some others, have been engaged in a twisted orgy of animal sacrifice. Leaving an offal and blood-encrusted house that simply confounds local animal welfare officers.

“Chicken feathers covered the scene, and among the remains were satanic books, buckets of blood and approximately 100 knives, MyFox Philadelphia reported. It was not a one-time act. George Bengal, a director of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told reporters he couldn’t even identify some of the carcasses because they were so badly decomposed. Officers also found an AK-47 assault rifle at the Feltonville, Pennsylvania two-story house, though it was not clear that it had been used to kill any animals, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. “There’s all kinds of stuff in there,” Officer Jerry Czech of the Pennsylvania Game Commission told the paper. “Dead animals, dead critters, wax, feces, candles. It’s a nightmare.” It is not illegal to sacrifice animals for religious purposes as long as it is done humanely, Mr Bengal told reporters.”

The other narrative is that Cruz’s house has long been a target of the PSPCA, and that the malnourished dogs were the casus belli they were looking for in order to take down a known center of Santeria worship. So we have to decide, bloody death-pit, or anti-Santeria vendetta by biased officials? Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between? Reports say that Cruz has been out of the country for nearly a year, could the current state of the house be because no-one was taking care of the place while he has been stuck in Mexico? That certainly makes him negligent, but it also may explain reports of people going through the house, and remains scattered and “smeared” everywhere. Was his house vandalized? Answers may be months in coming. In the meantime, local media are feeding off the controversy, rarely seeking out alternative narratives.

“There were lit candles and tribal drum music playing from a portable stereo, indicating that somebody was there not long before the humane officers appeared, said George Bengal, director of law enforcement for the PSPCA. The officers found what was believed to be a human skull, but it turned out to be fake. But they did find what appear to be the remains of small monkeys. “The house was covered in bones,” Bengal said … Bengal said the man who lived at the house and probably performed many of the killings is believed to now be in Mexico. However, his wife may still be in the city and she is being sought for questioning, Bengal said.”

So certainly more than one person? A local ABC affiliate gives us some more information on the man who lives at the house, who is currently believed to be in Mexico.

“Investigators believe the animals were sacrificed as part of religious rituals. Neighbors tell Action News Ramon Cruz lives here. He calls himself a high priest of Santeria, a religion of West African and Caribbean origin. One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, says the stench emanating from the house was unbearable. She never saw the sacrifices, the blinds were always drawn, and Cruz always kept the place protected with security cameras. “I saw 7 cases of live chickens delivered every week.” Authorities are now trying to track down Cruz. They believe he’s in Mexico. They’ve received reports he’s ill with swine flu and unable to re-enter the country but when he does he faces several counts of animal cruelty charges.”

So it is Santeria? But is abusing animals and keeping a bone-yard of dead remains and filth common behavior for a Santero, or adherents to Santeria? Philadelphia Inquirer staff writers Robert Moran and Kia Gregory do the responsible thing and ask an expert.

Bill Ellis, professor emeritus of English literature at Pennsylvania State University at Hazleton, said that in Santeria, devotionals to a deity often include the ritual sacrifice of a goat or a chicken, “but not in a wasteful way” because these are later cooked and eaten. “So, whenever you see a wanton act of animal cruelty, it probably doesn’t lie in religion at all,” Ellis said, “but with people with very serious psychological problems.”

There you have it. The general expert consensus about cases like these that I’ve been maintaining all along. Even if Cruz was or is a practicing Santero, this behavior is aberrant, the product of psychological problems, not a product of the religion. Whether that message sinks through to PSPCA officials, who seem almost excited by their “huge find”, remains to be seen.

“Police are investigating a case of possible animal cruelty after the remains of 75 animals and a large altar composed of primate skulls were found today inside a house in the city’s Feltonville section. The animals are believed to have been sacrificed as part of satanic worship and Santeria rituals, investigators said. Pentagrams were also seen in the house … George Bengal, director of law enforcement for the Pennsylvania SPCA, said the agency’s officers had entered the living room and found an altar constructed of about 50 primate skulls. “This is a huge find,” Bengal said. Those involved in the rituals “usually take the skull and the feet and the blood and drain the blood from the animal. They’ll drink the blood and use the skull and feet as part of the altar.” Neighbors said that a man in his 50s or 60s lived at the property, but that they had not seen anyone there for months.”

Satanism? Santeria? The “altar” found in the house, and the supposed rituals described in making it, don’t follow traditional practices for either faith (indeed, most modern Satanists don’t even sacrifice animals). I’m also curious as to why this is a “huge find” for them. Because it involves so many animal corpses? Or is it because it fits into certain preconceived notions about what those faiths do with animals? Remember, the George Bengal quoted above is the same George Bengal who recently warned of mysterious Winter “high holidays” where animals were sacrificed in large numbers.

“An animal welfare official says a beheaded dog and cat found in Philadelphia appear to be the result of a ritual sacrifice. George Bengal, Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals director of investigations, said the dog and cat were found … near a bike path in Philadelphia’s Olney neighborhood along with three beheaded chickens. He said he believes the animals were killed elsewhere and the remains dumped where a passer-by found them. Mr. Bengal said there is usually an increase in ritual animal sacrifices at this time of year because of “a lot of high holidays that different groups celebrate.” But he said most of those sacrifices involve goats and chickens.”

So never mind that various experts in religion and animal abuse cases agree that “huge finds” like this usually aren’t manifestations of Santeria or Satanism, but of disturbed individuals (often teens) who usually construct a hodge-podge of half-understood ritualism to justify their aberrant urges and behaviors. Why go with the boring old truth when you can create a darkly sinister religious “other” to battle? Why listen to experts when you can hector innocent Satanists on bogus abuse charges instead? I would really like to know who exactly is training animal control officers and local ASPCA officials in Pennsylvania concerning ritual sacrifice. Do they even know what a normal Santeria ritual is like? Have they even met a real Satanist? This current trend could be heading for a train-wreck of racial and religious profiling that could seriously damage the effectiveness of animal control officials among minority faiths. After all, why report a co-religionist who’s abusing animals if they’ll just think you’re in on it too?

“An animal welfare official says a beheaded dog and cat found in Philadelphia appear to be the result of a ritual sacrifice. George Bengal, Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals director of investigations, said the dog and cat were found … near a bike path in Philadelphia’s Olney neighborhood along with three beheaded chickens. He said he believes the animals were killed elsewhere and the remains dumped where a passer-by found them. Mr. Bengal said there is usually an increase in ritual animal sacrifices at this time of year because of “a lot of high holidays that different groups celebrate.” But he said most of those sacrifices involve goats and chickens.”

Despite George Bengal’s bizarre statement about Winter-holiday animal-killings, most experts, including officials at the ASPCA, agree that dead animals left in public places usually aren’t put there by Santeros, Pagans, or Satanists, but by disturbed individuals and messed-up kids.

“According to experts, like local anthropologist and folklorist Dr. Eoghan Ballard, and Dr. Randall Lockwood, senior vice president of anti-cruelty services for the American SPCA, sacrificial remains found in parks, especially those adorned with talismans like candles or pennies, are most often the work of religious novices, teens or satanic dabblers.”

Yet, in the same article, a PSPCA official warns adherents of faiths that practice animal sacrifice that there is no  “free pass on animal cruelty issues”, as though all the very public court battles over the issue were simply done so these priests and priestesses could secretly torture animals with impunity. Do Pennsylvania SPCA officials have some sort of special hostility towards minority faiths? That seems to be the assertion of the Rev. Jack Winters, who claims a Humane Society Police Officer and member of the Lycoming County SPCA, while investigating a report that he mistreated his pets, repeatedly stated that Satanists sacrifice animals while noting Winters’ Satanic-themed decor.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD7gqT-gCcU

Is it just some sort of strange synchronicity that all of these quoted SPCA officials are from Pennsylvania, or is there something else at play here? Are these PA organizations being fed misinformation by  the sort of “cult experts” in “ritualistic crime” thoroughly debunked by Pagan activist, and former Vancouver police officer, Kerr Cuhulain? Or is it a case of fossilized “common knowledge” passed down from the Satanic Panic era? Whatever the case may be, one has to wonder how many animal welfare agencies across this country have been tainted by bad information, superstition, and religious bias. How many officials are out hunting for Satanists or Santeros when they should be paying attention to the neglected and abused children most likely to engage in animal abuse. Just think how much good they could do solving these cases if they weren’t so busy telling police to round up the usual suspects.