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

Absent Christian Soldiers: Remember that story a couple weeks ago about a Christian group in Dorset, England who were going to hold vigils outside a pub in order to “combat” a Pagan moot (social gathering)? Well, it turns out they didn’t show up.

“A Pagan moot in Bridport last week went ahead without any trouble after a planned Christian demonstration never materialised. [...] Despite the Christian group announcing to the press they expected “a high turn out” no one showed up at the venue on the night.”

That’s right, not a single Christian prayer warrior braved the elements to do some anti-Pagan praying. Instead, triple the number of Pagans who usually attend showed up, and they raised some money for the Dorset County Hospital’s Kingfisher Ward. Obviously Pagans meeting in pubs and donating to charity is something that should be stopped, and I’m shocked that these Christian Soldiers who have vowed to halt “evil” failed in their quest.

The Blessed Ex-Satanist: Maybe those Christian Soldiers should take a page from the Blessed Bartolo Longo, a Catholic lay-leader who had once joined a “Satanic” group in Italy during the late 19th century. Once converted, he had no qualms about acting like a jerk around the people he used to hang out with.

To prove his new-found commitment to Christ and His Church Bartolo even attended a séance. In the midst of it, he stood and raised a medal of the Blessed Virgin Mother and cried out: “I renounce spiritism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood.”

See? These are the kind of people who don’t get invited to the cool spirit-invoking parties. As for the article itself, the author seems to be unsure if Longo was “New Age,” “pagan,” or a “Satanist.” But I suppose such distinctions matter little if you believe they are all going to the same place.

We’re All Neo-Pagans Now: Former Wild Hunt guest contributor Lee Gilmore, author of “Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man”, writes an essay for the University of Southern California blog The Scoop on modern Paganism. Entitled “Boy Wizards, Green Living, Blue Aliens: We’re All Neo-Pagans Now,” the piece touches on our growth, treatment in the media, Patrick McCollum’s court case, and the “allure of magic and witchcraft” in popular culture.

“In the broader culture, Paganism remains comparatively small in numbers, but influential in terms of the broader cultural trends it embodies. The definitive number of American Pagans remains elusive, but reasonable estimates place the number between 750,000 to 1.2 million, or possibly more. Religious censuses like the Pew Forum’s Religious Landscape survey often lump Pagans in with “Other/New Age” faiths, thus missing the extent to which the values that typify Neo-Paganism are increasingly found in other arenas.

The allure of magic and witchcraft— whether in practice or in fancy—also bubbles up in cultural phenomena like the “Harry Potter” franchise and the new Wiccan subplot in HBO’s “True Blood.” There is also a growing cultural turn toward “green spirituality” in which individuals and faith communities strive to value ecological sustainability and to seek harmony between nature and the sacred. And while it may seem like old news, the widespread and ongoing fascination with the romantic, pantheistic world of “Avatar“—along with its sequels in the offing—is also part of this important cultural trend.”

In her closing, Gilmore notes that reporters would  “do well to take a closer look at Paganism, and other minority faiths,” a sentiment I heartily agree with. Be sure to read the whole thing, she has some incisive analysis, particularly of the McCollum case.

Some new developments have arisen in two stories I recently reported on for this blog. First is the case of John J. Anderson, who I wrote about in my March 9th (Pagan) News of Note. Anderson is charged with the murder of teenager Natasha Miller, and his defense team moved to have his confession thrown out of court. During the confession Anderson described himself as a “Druid” and a that Miller was a “Wiccan”.

“…for hours he talked about religion … and his life as a druid – part of an ancient pagan Celtic religion. He placed Miller’s body in the river, he said, for religious reasons, to reunite her with the spirit of water … he attempted to paint himself as a scholar of the universe and told investigators he had studied religion since age 5. Miller, he insisted, was a Wiccan – a paganist – who practiced witchcraft.”

Now it seems that the judge has ruled that a large chunk of his confession be thrown out due to the police refusing to stop the interrogation after Anderson requested it be stopped.

“Judge Nanci Grant said police should have stopped interrogating John J. Anderson, a 24-year-old Wixom man who is accused of murdering Natalie Miller and dumping her body in the river, after he tried to stop the interrogation after several hours. The ruling means that many details – including information police say they have on why he would have killed Miller – will be lost to a jury.”

This will make conviction of Anderson harder, though the police still have access to hours of statements by the alleged killer.

The second story involves a somewhat more law-abiding group of Druids and Pagans that I reported on five days ago. In the original blog post, I talked about how a reporter did a nice story on the Weymouth-based Dolmen Grove and how they were planning a ritual for a ancient felled tree at the “Nine Ladies” stone circle at Winterbourne Abbas.

“A 200-year-old tree at the centre of worship by druids and witches has been chopped down to size after it became diseased. The 80ft beech at Winterbourne Abbas has been reduced to a 10-metre stump by English Heritage because of fears it would die and fall over. The tree has become a dominant feature at the site, famous for the ancient stone circle standing beneath its branches. Now the Dolmen Grove, a Weymouth-based druid group, will perform a ‘re- balancing’ ritual in mourning for the loss of the tree and to mark a new beginning for their holy site.”

Now that same group are facing a string of threats and abuse, perhaps due to the increased publicity they have received recently.

“Pagans in Dorset claim their growing popularity is making them a target for threats and abuse. The Dolmen Grove, a Weymouth-based druid group, says a dead bird with a noose around its neck was left on the windscreen of its van. Then nails were left under the wheels of the van the night after a music gig.”

Despite the threats, the group still plans to go forward with their ritual for the tree on March 24th. The article itself has created quite a back-and-forth in the comments section, generating over sixty comments, many with the typical “why do you dress funny” put-downs. Luckily, unlike nails in tires or dead animals left on vehicles, you can always choose to ignore stupidity and ignorance on web sites.

The Dorset Daily Echo has a nice piece up about how a local Pagan group dealt with the death and removal of a 200-year-old tree that rested in the middle of the famous “Nine Ladies” stone circle at Winterbourne Abbas.

“A 200-year-old tree at the centre of worship by druids and witches has been chopped down to size after it became diseased. The 80ft beech at Winterbourne Abbas has been reduced to a 10-metre stump by English Heritage because of fears it would die and fall over. The tree has become a dominant feature at the site, famous for the ancient stone circle standing beneath its branches. Now the Dolmen Grove, a Weymouth-based druid group, will perform a ‘re- balancing’ ritual in mourning for the loss of the tree and to mark a new beginning for their holy site.”

Chris Walsh, Arch Druid of the Dolmen Grove, seems very respectful of the site and speaks eloquently about the group’s plans for the ritual honoring the ancient tree.

“I think that many trees have come and gone in the 3,000 to 4,000 years the stones have been here and we accept there has to be change and renewal in nature … We believe in the spirits of the land and we want to honour the tree by putting it in peace with the elements – a re-balancing of nature’s forces. We cannot be certain but we believe that ancient people met and worshiped at the stones very much as we do today. We’re very respectful of the land and anyone who visits the stones and we like to see them maintained.”

This is a nice bit of reporting that respectfully deals with the importance of stone circles (and the natural world) for British Pagans and Druids without the usual sarcasm or pull-quotes from local Christian clergy. This may partially be due to a sympathetic journalist, but I think having a media-savvy Pagan or two didn’t hurt.