Will Libertarians Move from Barr to Johnson?

December 29, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 30 Comments

In 2008 the Libertarian Party nominated former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr as their candidate for President of the United States. Many modern Pagans who consider themselves libertarians/Libertarians were displeased by this turn of events, as Barr had notoriously tried to ban Pagans from serving in the military, claiming that equal rights for Wiccans and Pagans set  “a dangerous precedent that could easily result in the practice of all sorts of bizarre practices being supported by the military under the rubric of ‘religion.’ ” However, what was acceptable behavior in the Republican party of 1999 wasn’t going to pass muster with Libertarian live-and-let-live notions of freedom, and so Barr kinda-sorta recanted his position.

“I got to ask Barr a question I’ve wanted to ask him for quite some time. He’s repudiated and apologized for many of his previous positions and I asked him if he would repudiate his absurd anti-Wiccan crusade of 1999, when he wanted all Wiccans banned from the military. He said yes, with a bit of hemming and hawing. He said that he had reports from several military leaders that Wiccans doing rituals on military bases were causing problems and that’s why he did what he did, but that since that time it’s become clear that there are no problems with allowing Wiccans to serve and to practice their religion on military bases like any other religion. I did ask him for any specific problems that were reported to him back in 1999 by these military leaders, but he said he didn’t want to get into specifics. I’m sure that’s because there are no specific incidents and those military leaders who complained to him did so out of bigotry, or because the problems it caused were really caused by bigotry against Wiccans.”

Sadly, this change of heart seemed to only last as long as the presidential campaign, once he no longer had to curry political favor his obvious scorn for modern Paganism reemerged. Barr’s moral compass seems more guided by what will enrich him at any moment, than from a recognizable ethical philosophy, and his ongoing prominence within the Libertarian Party no doubt continues to keep many small-l libertarian Pagans at arms length from the party that purports to represent their views.

Johnson and Barr on Fox News together in 2010.

Johnson and Barr on Fox News together in 2010.

Now, it seems, there might be an alternative for Pagan libertarians/Libertarians in the form of former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, who just announced that he’s abandoning his bid for the Republican presidential nomination to run on the Libertarian Party ticket.

“This was both a difficult decision – and an easy one,” Johnson said. “I have a lot of Republican history, and a lot of Republican supporters. But in the final analysis…I am a Libertarian – that is someone who is fiscally very conservative but holds freedom-based positions on the issues that govern our personal behavior.”

You can read his full statement, here. Johnson, in stark contrast to Barr, openly courted modern Pagans in a now-famous press conference with Pagan and Hindu media representatives (The American Spectator calls him a “pro-choice pursuer of the pagan vote”). I saw it as a hopeful harbinger that our political system could embrace the full religious and philosophical diversity of our county.

“What does it all mean? I think it represents two opportunities. First, there’s an opportunity for politicians to realize that America’s religious diversity isn’t simply a stock phrase to pull out when describing the virtues of our country. According to the Pew Forum, 16.1 percent of Americans claim no formal religion, while another 2.3 percent are part of religious tradition outside the Christian-Jewish-Muslim monotheistic paradigm. Those aren’t insignificant numbers, and they put the often lumped-together “other/unaffiliated” category on a statistical par with evangelical and mainline Protestants. Despite this, moral debates are almost always framed along a left-right Christian axis; Rick Warren gets to interview Obama and McCain, while Hindus, Pagans, Buddhists, and practitioners of indigenous traditions rarely get to ask questions on a national stage. Gov. Johnson’s courage in talking to religious minorities might have been driven by a modicum of desperation in getting his message out, but it should be seen as a harbinger of what campaigning to religious groups will be like in the future.”

Already, some are wondering if a Johnson Libertarian run could act as a spoiler for the Republicans in 2012, though a Libertarian spokesperson pointed out that (aside from the libertarian-beloved Ron Paul) “you can’t spoil tainted meat.”

“All of the Republican Party presidential candidates ” except for Ron Paul ” have a track record of voting for higher levels of government spending. Many have raised taxes, supported bailouts, and/or voted to expand Big Government.

The mere fact that two Libertarian presidential candidates, one past, and one potential, could have narratives so entwined with modern Pagans is remarkable in of itself. Add to that fact that if Barr should run for the LP nomination again against Johnson (though he endorsed Newt Gingrich, so maybe he won’t) it stands to reason that their respective attitudes towards minority religions will no doubt come up in debates and news stories. Pagan leaders and media should prepare themselves now for mainstream reporters looking into the “Pagan angle” of the Libertarian Party’s 2012 candidate. At the very least libertarian/Libertarian Pagans should be pleased that the party may be moving from Barr to Johnson in 2012, one wonders how many conservative Pagans will jump ship from the Republican Party to support Johnson’s candidacy. Interesting times are ahead.

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , , , 30 Comments

The Unholy Alliance of Baby Doc and Bob Barr

January 23, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 89 Comments

One week ago, former Haitian dictator/”president-for-life” Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to Haiti from exile in France. There’s been much speculation as to why Duvalier, the son of the infamous François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, chose this time to return. Whatever the reason, two days later he was charged with corruption by a Haitian court, though human rights organizations also want him charged for his role in the torture and death of thousands of Haitians. Duvalier, while president of Haiti, was head of a paramilitary force known as the “Tonton Macoutes,” who enforced the will of their leader and used Vodou as an element of psychological warfare against the populace.

Vodou leaders were also members, giving what came to be called the Militia of National Security Volunteers (known as MVSN, for its French acronym) an almost-religious aura. Opponents were killed in the night and their bodies were often placed on public display. “The Duvaliers are estimated to have ordered the deaths of between twenty and thirty thousand Haitian civilians,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement this week.

Employing vodou leaders and illiterate peasants was integral to the Duvalier’s method of overseeing the torture and murder of political opponents and robbed public funds, biographer Elizabeth Abbott writes in Foreign Policy. “Duvalier’s genius lay in how he designed their hierarchical structure, chose their (usually humble) social origins, and included priests (voodoon and Christian) and rural section chiefs who ruled their fiefdoms with iron fists and reported personally to him any subversive activity or even thought.”

Despite this, some Haitians, including Vodouisants, have welcomed the return of Duvalier, seeing his family’s reign as a time of relative stability, and preferable to the policies of left-leaning president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (currently in exile) and his supporters. That number may include Max Beauvoir, the appointed “supreme master” of a coalition of Haitian houngans, who has been linked to Baby Doc by the New York Times.

“Voodoo and politics have long been intertwined in Haiti, with some past leaders reaching out to voodooists as a way of burnishing their populist credentials. Beauvoir has himself been linked with François Duvalier, or Baby Doc, the dictator who fled the country in 1986 after a popular uprising against him. And Beauvoir opposed Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s rule, becoming a hated figure among loyalists of the former Catholic priest.”

So the return of Duvalier has introduced a new element of instability in an already unstable situation. Dredging up a past that is still fresh for many Haitians. Into this morass comes conservative Libertarian politician Bob Barr, who is now acting as the former dictator’s “voice to the world.”

“Now, with Duvalier once again seeking to become a public figure in Haiti, he is working to rebuild his public image in the eyes of both Haitians and the international community. In order to do this, he has enlisted the help of numerous U.S. attorneys, including none other than former Libertarian Party presidential candidate and Clinton impeachment champion former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA). Barr will serve as the former dictator’s “voice to the world,” and he told CNN that he plans to bring Duvalier’s “message of hope to the world“ [...] One has to wonder how Barr — who ran for president in 2008 to “deliver a refreshing message of liberty” — can reconcile his supposed right-libertarian beliefs with being on the payroll of a notorious autocrat who shut down elections and the free press and tortured nonviolent dissidents.”

Barr is a known quantity to many in the modern Pagan community for his 1999 campaign to have Wiccans banned from military service. A stance he (somewhat) recanted in 2008 when running for president on the Libertarian party ticket, only to re-embrace it once he longer had to curry political favor.

“… if I were in the Air Force and was being commanded by an officer who practices hedonism as a religion (another part of the definition of “pagan”), and who dances around a circle of stones in the woods carrying a lighted candle, I would be more than a little worried about following him into battle.”

So it seems that Pagans serving in (and receiving fair accommodation from) the United States military is something he doesn’t like, but acting as an ambassador for an ousted ruler who happily employed practitioners of Vodou in a paramilitary organization that terrorized Haiti is just fine. As for the well-documented crimes against humanity and his country perpetrated by Duvalier, they are, according to Barr, mere “allegations.”

Barr, who represented Georgia’s 7th District from 1995 to 2003, and was the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, said Saturday that the allegations against Duvalier are just that. ”I deal with allegations all the time,” he said. “They are the cheapest commodity on the market.”

What we are witnessing is a desperate PR campaign by a fallen dictator, one who is already cynically manipulating an already desperate people. Whether Duvalier came of his own accord, or was manipulated into place by the Haitian government or the international community, few can determine what the results of introducing this wild card may be. However this goes, his presence does not signal the salvation of any community in Haiti, certainly not those who practice Vodou, and his alliance with Barr should raise many troubling questions as to how this came about and who exactly benefits.

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , 89 Comments

Jonathon Sharkey Goes Over the Edge and other Pagan News of Note

February 19, 2010 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 11 Comments

Top Story: It seems like every time I think I’m done mentioning the antics of  Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, that subject of documentary filmmakers, and founder of the “Vampyres, Witches, and Pagans Party”, somehow manages to do something even more extreme and ill-advised to gain press attention. After recently landing in jail for threatening the judge who was overseeing a case than involved Sharkey harassing an under-aged girl, he’s now at the center of a drama involving another under-age girl, whom he helped run away from home and is/was proposing to marry as soon as she reached the age of consent (she’s 16 currently).

“In an e-mail to the Red Wing (Minn.) Republican Eagle newspaper, Brewer insisted the decision to join Sharkey was her choice. “I pretty much told Jonathon either he come meet up with me or I would walk to New Jersey on my own,” she wrote, referencing Sharkey’s native state. But Collins said police do have some concerns about the man who in 2009 was convicted of harassment in Olmsted County after a Rochester, Minn., teen broke off an online relationship with Sharkey. “Anytime you have a 44-year-old man hooking up with a 16-year-old, there’s a concern,” Collins said.”

Yes, men in their 40s trolling the Internet looking for under-age brides is “concerning”. Sharkey posted a video on Youtube that accused Paige Brewer’s mother of hitting her, and detailing their plans to marry and have kids as soon as Paige is of age.

However, despite the threatening montage of Sharkey hitting a punching bag, and detailing his plans of judicial revenge once he’s “king” of Minnesota, Brewer was taken into custody yesterday after an arranged meeting with social services. No charges are currently being filed against Sharkey, but he is being questioned by police.

I think we’ve reached a point where those covering Sharkey’s exploits need to acknowledge that he’s not some jokey vampire-witch punchline any longer, but a criminal who has shown a pattern of having inappropriate, and sometimes threatening, interactions with young girls.  A rational man, when confronted with a teenager who claims to have been abused, would go to social services first, not try and marry them. A sane man would understand that this behavior is the behavior of a predator, not a loving individual. I can only hope that something is done before yet another troubled teenager falls into his all-encompassing delusion.

In Other News:

Post-PantheaCon Ponderings: It’s been a few days since PantheaCon in San Jose, and we’re starting get some reflections and round-ups from participants. First, Thorn Coyle discusses the blurry distinctions between “serious seekers” and “party Pagans” at the event, finding that perhaps such divisions aren’t productive.

We all have our own journey to the sacred within. Who am I to say that one person’s journey is less serious than my own? Trust me, I’ve done my own fair share of carping about people whom I want to respect but who’s methods, outlook, or “fruits”, I don’t quite understand or may even disagree with. But I simultaneously have to admit to myself that I simply cannot know the core state of their hearts and souls. Unless they come to me for advice, I simply must say, “their path belongs to them” and then decide whether or not I want to lend time and energy to that relationship or not. What I cannot do is decide definitively whether or not their search is “serious.”

Meanwhile, Gwion Raven explored what the “back to basics” theme really meant this year, Cosette gives a first-timers perspective and says some nice things about me, Lupa discusses her Bear Performance Ritual, the COG NPIO blog says some nice things about my talk, Frater Barrabbas discusses some of the more ritual magic-focused events, Frater POS discusses his class at Pantheacon, Stella of Revealing had some interesting insights concerning my talk, Donald Michael Kraig has a few interesting Pantheacon-related posts you should read, and Erynn Laurie has several posts concerning her PantheaCon adventure. If you have some PantheaCon related thoughts or wrap-ups you want to share, please leave a link in the comments.

The Invisibility of Vodou: Samuel Freedman at the New York Times looks at the bad and uneven press Haitian Vodou has gotten since an earthquake devastated the country on January 12th. The core of Freedman’s essay is how reporters and editorial-writers have overlooked the centrality of that faith in Haiti.

“Crude and harsh as Mr. Robertson’s words were, he deserved a perverse kind of credit for one thing. He actually did recognize the centrality of voodoo to Haiti. In the voluminous media coverage of the quake and its aftermath, relatively few journalists and commentators have done so, and even fewer have gotten voodoo right.”

It’s actually interesting how much of his column echoes a good portion of my coverage here at The Wild Hunt. I say this not to brag, but as a vindication of the fact that this issue of Vodou in Haiti is an important one that deserved more attention and understanding than it generally received from the mainstream media. I’m glad that more reporters are picking up on these threads.

Bob Barr Isn’t Making Friends: On Wednesday I mentioned how former Libertarian candidate and Republican Senator Bob Barr has reverted back to his Pagan-hating ways, with a two-faced article mocking Pagan soldiers. Now journalist Ed Brayton, the man who got him to originally recant his anti-Pagan views on-the-record, is hopping mad.

“F**k you, Bob Barr. You obviously lied to me and you are just as bigoted and stupid as you were when you were in Congress.”

Ouch! Something tells me folks, especially Libertarian folks (and military folks), won’t get fooled again.

How Often Do You Write Letters to Your God/dess? In a final note, Thaindian News reports on a little post office near the banks of the Ganga river (aka the Ganges river) in Kachhla town of Uttar Pradesh that receives dozens of letters every day addressed to “Ganga Maiya” (the goddess personification of the Ganga river).

“Today those dashing off letters don’t just pray for a cure to their ailments; they write on auspicious occasions as well. Once the letters reach the Kachhla post office, the postmen take them to the river bank and drop them into the water. “Be it any festival – Holi, Diwali, or birthdays, marriages, mundan (tonsure ceremonies) or house warming, people seek blessings from Ganga Maiya by writing letters,” Satya Pal Singh, a sugarcane farmer, told IANS. “Residents here believe the letter serves as an invitation to Ganga Maiya, who will then visit their home and bless them, in turn bringing good luck and prosperity,” he added.”

Which makes me wonder, do any of you send formal invitations to your deities? If so, where do you send them?

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

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

The Kids Are Alright and other Pagan News of Note

February 17, 2010 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 57 Comments

Top Story: The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released a new study, entitled “Religion Among the Millennials”, that tracks the beliefs and views of the generation born after 1981 (and who largely came of age in the year 2000, hence the name).  The report asserts that Millenials are far more “unaffiliated”, religiously speaking, than the previous two generations, and less concerned about “culture war” issues like gay marriage and abortion than their predecessors.

“Young people are more accepting of homosexuality and evolution than are older people. They are also more comfortable with having a bigger government, and they are less concerned about Hollywood threatening their values. But when asked generally about morality and religion, young adults are just as convinced as older people that there are absolute standards of right and wrong that apply to everyone. Young adults are also slightly more supportive of government efforts to protect morality and of efforts by houses of worship to express their social and political views.”

As for Millenials and modern Paganism, 2% of adults aged 18-29 adhere to a Pagan, New Age, Unitarian-Universalist, or “eclectic” faith (the “other faiths”). Outstripping adherence to Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and roughly tied with Judaism and Mormonism. Further, Millenials are about tied with Baby Boomers in adherence to an “other” faith, with Generation X making up the demographically largest grouping. You can download the entire report, here. You may also want to take a look at Pew’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey, something I’ve covered in depth here, which much this data is culled from.

What does it all mean? It could certainly mean a more tolerant world, as an overwhelming majority of this generation believe there is more than “one true way”, and that the Bible isn’t the literal word of God. Less than half even believe that religion is important. Millenials, along with Generation X, represent a sea-change in attitudes that have so bitterly divided previous generations. A “post-Christian” future, one where Christianity is only one voice among many, seems ever more likely. A world where religion may be female-dominated and largely private. Sounds like a future I’d like to stick around for.

In Other News:

Did the Founders Mean Pagans Too? The Newsweek/Washington Post religion site On Faith features an editorial from Dr. Barbara McGraw, Director of the Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism at Saint Mary’s College of California. In it she addresses the now-infamous WallBuilders amicus brief in McCollum v. California that argues the Constitutional religion clauses only applied to monotheists.

“…perhaps Richard Henry Lee put it best when he said in 1787: “It is true, we are not disposed to differ much, at present, about religion; but when we are making a constitution, it is to be hoped, for ages and millions yet unborn . . . .” In other words, those who differ about religion in ages and among millions yet unborn are included in the protections of the Constitution. What is especially sad about the narrow way that Barton wants to interpret the founding era is that Barton’s approach obscures the real contribution of Christianity to America: support for a political system that protects the individual’s relationship with the Divine (however understood) … genuine Christianity supports religious rights for all. Christianity was not at the founding, nor is it now a monolithic “ism” that justifies the domination and suppression of others–not even Wiccan/Pagans.”

I’d recommend reading all the various quotes she offers, building the case that the founders meant for religious freedom to apply to all Americans, at all stages of its existence, no matter what that future may bring. You can expect to hear a lot more about Patrick McCollum’s case in the near future, when I spoke to him at Pantheacon it was clear that a lot of attention and interest is building in this case. Expect things to break out into the mainstream media very soon.

Anti-Pagan Smears: WorldNetDaily, where no nutty conspiracy theory goes unloved, touts the new book by its managing editor David Kupelian, entitled “How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America”. Along with the usual stuff, Obama is a Marxist, Hollywood is bad, public schools are turning boys into big sissies, mental illness is a scam, etc, we get a whole section on the dangers of Paganism and the “New Age”.

“Why are neo-pagan and New Age religions like Wicca becoming so popular? (America’s increasing disillusionment with Christianity has created a giant cultural and spiritual vacuum, into which alternative religions are being drawn.)”

Now, I’ve covered WND’s anti-Pagan stuff before, but I usually just ignore it nowadays. However, since Kupelian’s new book is being promoted by a major publisher, and he’s making the publicity rounds with conservative heavyweights like Sean Hannity, I thought this deserved a bit of attention. It matters in this instance, because the folks who like to gobble up those pop-journalism partisan books (from the left and right) that burn up the bestsellers lists will be getting a bit more than political opinion. They’ll also be getting anti-Pagan talking points. It’s not very pretty when political populism starts mixing with intolerant religious ideologies, so we should keep our eyes open.

Bob Barr Recants Recanting His Anti-Pagan Views: If you all were wondering what conservative/libertarian politician-turned-pundit Bob Barr thinks about the Air Force Academy building a Pagan worship area, wonder no longer!

“A few years back, when I was in the US Congress, I took the Army to task for permitting the practice of Wicca on its bases, including at Ft. Hood in Texas.  After speaking with a number of officers and military leaders, and meeting with several former military who adhere to the practice of Wicca, I was convinced that a belief in or practice of witchcraft, was not necessarily incompatible with the good order and discipline essential to a military lifestyle.  However, one might legitimately wonder just how far such tolerance should extend … the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, has taken the notion of religious tolerance to a new level, in creating an outdoor worship area for pagans.  The site, apparently sacred to pagans, consists of an inner and an outer circle of large stones.  I’m sorry, but this truly is hilarious … if I were in the Air Force and was being commanded by an officer who practices hedonism as a religion (another part of the definition of “pagan”), and who dances around a circle of stones in the woods carrying a lighted candle, I would be more than a little worried about following him into battle.“

I like how he talks out of both sides of his mouth there, saying he doesn’t think Paganism isn’t “necessarily” incompatible with military discipline, but then saying he would be worried about following a Pagan soldier into battle (note: Bob Barr has never been in battle, or served in the military). Barr, of course, is famous in our communities for his attempts to get Pagans banned from military service, a position he kinda-sorta recanted while running for president (as a Libertarian) in 2008. Looks like he’s reverting back to his full-throated anti-Pagan ways now that he doesn’t have to woo the libertarians any longer.

Gatesville Muder-Suicide Involves a Pagan? On monday, outside the Gatesville, Texas County Courthouse, David Louis Henry shot and killed his ex-girlfriend Carrie Dean Stroope, then preceded to shoot himself. While that’s tragedy enough, expect the story to soon be adding a Pagan angle, as commenters who claim to know the shooter are alleging he’s Wiccan.

“I have read some things I know to be true about the killer. I have also read he was a wonderful father. Really because I don’t think “wonderful fathers” kill someone’s mommy in cold blood. The guy gave me the creeps and talked about the Wiccan religion at work. Frankly his act of cowardness doesn’t surprise me at all. To bad for the kids they never had a chance with a parent like him.”

“First off, he WAS MARRIED, he ans his wife were swingers and they were open Wican Worshippers. This is in my opinion VERY sad, and “Kay” says did she push him to this? Please, Why is it a woman has to be at fault of pushing because a crazy non Christain man snaps? His religion would not ever condem him for murder. His Myspace page comments from his wife ask him to shoot her in the head, the man was a nut case and society is better off without him sad but true…”

If these comments are showing up in my news feeds, you can bet local journalists are also reading them. With lurid accusations of “swinging” and Witchcraft, you can expect things are going to get ugly, and the press sensationalist, real soon. I’ll be keeping track of this story as it develops.

Thorn has Moved! In a quick final note, T. Thorn Coyle’s blog has migrated to a new home.

http://www.thorncoyle.com/musings/

Be sure to update your links and RSS subscriptions.

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

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 57 Comments
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