Follow Winegarner’s Rules When Reporting on Pagan and Minority Religions

April 3, 2012 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 10 Comments

Journalist Beth Winegarner has written an excellent how-to piece for Poynter, an institution dedicated to improving journalism, on covering stories that may involve Santeria, Palo, Paganism, or other esoteric religions. While the whole piece is well worth the read, and contains relevant examples, I want to excerpt just the “rules” for the sake of simplicity.

  1. Don’t take what police or other sources say at face value.
  2. Find & interview real experts.
  3. Write carefully, with attention to relevant details.

Over the years, I have dinged journalists over, and over, and over, and over again when it comes to covering religious or spiritual practices they may not understand. Most of the issues could have been avoided had they simply followed those three steps. Far too many reporters go for the simple sound-bite, taking a police statement, or neighbor’s account, at face value, and not following that up with commentary from an expert on the subject.

Let’s take a recent example, the arrest of Daniel Hess and live-in girlfriend Lacey Day for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old family member. Hess apparently “indicated and justified, or tried to justify what he had done by his belief in Wicca which is a form of witchcraft, or the practice of witchcraft.” We hit strike one when reporters simply take those statements at face value, we hit strike two when NBC affiliate WTAP cites only one outside source, Dictionary.com, for information on Wicca. The Marietta Times also flunks on step two, citing the Wicca.org website as their only authoritative source on Wicca. Luckily, The Marietta Times redeems itself somewhat by finding an actual living-breathing Wiccan minister to comment on the indictment hearing.

“Hess and Day are each facing two third-degree felony counts of sexual battery. During the investigation into the alleged incidents, Hess claimed the acts were a part of his belief in the religion of Wicca. Harry Dorman, an ordained Wiccan priest with Circle Sanctuary, a national Wiccan organization based in Wisconsin, said neither Hess nor Day is a part of the organization. He also said the religion does not promote sexual assault of children during rituals.”

The Marietta Times actually following up and getting an expert source on-record is quite a advancement, and no doubt at least partially due to the proactive media stance of Circle Sanctuary. Which brings me to my final point, and the unofficial fourth rule (or perhaps a corollary for Pagans) not mentioned in Winegarner’s excellent piece.

4. Pagan and other minority religion groups need to take a proactive stance with media outlets, and create their own media as well, if they want to be treated fairly.

This is something I’ve been harping on for a long time, but it really does work. Take the Turner family of Bowden, Georgia, whose son, Christopher (11), was facing religiously-motivated harassment by his school. In that instance, grass-roots reporting led to Pagan media interfacing with local and national Pagan groups, and was ultimately noticed by a mainstream newspaper. That paper then took the lead from the work Pagan organizations and media had already done, ensuring a story that was positive, balanced, and sympathetic to our perspective. That’s not going to happen every time, but the more involved we are in the process, the better our chances of Winegarner’s rules getting followed when someone covers a potentially sensationalist story. In the meantime, whenever you read a story about Pagans, adherents of Santeria, Vodouisants, or any other minority religious, see if they follow the rules.

For those who’d like to read more from Beth Winegarner, she has an excellent blog entitled “Backward Messages” that analyzes stories about youth culture, debunking the pernicious myths about Goths, emo kids, video games, and other perennial targets for media pundit ire.

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , 10 Comments

Funding Pagan Journalism One Event at a Time (Let’s Start With Chicago)

March 21, 2012 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 17 Comments

We live in an unparalleled and historic time for the evolution and growth of Pagan-oriented media, and the development of journalism within our interconnected communities. In the span of a decade we’ve gone from counting notable self-identified Pagan journalists on one hand, to watching the evolution of a grass-roots Pagan newswire project, and the emergence of a vibrant and unprecedented interview culture thanks to podcasts and Internet radio. I’ve been truly blessed, through The Wild Hunt, to be a participant, booster, and  direct beneficiary of this phenomenon. I’ve been an ardent evangelizer for the power of new media within our community, and I’m always looking for new ways Pagan journalists and media professionals can do their work in a sustainable manner.

Over the years, I’ve often been asked if I can cover a certain event, or if I’ll be attending a festival or conference. While I wish the answer could always be “yes,” I’ve often been limited in what I could afford to do. While Patheos does pay me something for writing here, it amounts to hundreds of dollars per month, and (sadly) not the high end of “hundreds.” Simply put, I don’t even make minimum wage writing and reporting for the Pagan community on a daily basis.  I don’t say this to garner sympathy, but to just plainly state what the fiscal realities are of the current job I perform. Most of the events I cover in person have been possible because the organizers have covered my expenses, or else I sprung for the costs myself. Because of this, whenever an event is too far away, I usually can’t go, and instead hope that others will do first-hand accounts that I can build from.

http://www.indiegogo.com/thewildhunt-AAR

http://www.indiegogo.com/thewildhunt-AAR

So, starting today, I’m beginning a new experiment in “crowdfunding” Pagan journalism. I’m going to start launching small campaigns through Indiegogo to raise travel and living expenses for events that I feel are important for me to cover in person. If the event gets funded, then I go. If it doesn’t, I won’t. My first campaign is to raise funds for the American Academy of Religion’s 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago. The AAR is the world’s largest association of academics who research or teach topics related to religion, and their annual meeting has become a vital place to hear about the latest scholarship in the field of Pagan Studies (and just about every other religious and philosophical tradition as well). In 2011, my trip to the AAR’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco allowed me to share a talk by Starhawk on elemental theology, and explore Paganism’s solitary, eclectic, future. Not to mention the many connections and sources I was able to meet firsthand.

All of these campaigns will be relatively small-dollar in scope, usually 1-2 thousand dollars for each trip. The amount raised will only cover travel, food, and lodging. Any savings I make due to alternate living/eating/travel arrangements will be forwarded to the next campaign.  I will also take suggestions on events that I should cover and open the idea up to comment here at The Wild Hunt. Should I go to the Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle? Paganicon in Minnesota? What about an event in England? Make your voices heard, and if there’s enough demand, we’ll try to fund them one at a time. Ultimately, I would like to build this up and work towards funding a trip to the 2014 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Belgium.

See the campaign, and donate, here.

All trips that are successfully crowdfunded will come with expectations on what I will deliver. Daily reports, yes, but also exclusive audio interviews that I will make freely available for any Pagan media outlet to use, and groundwork for larger, more in depth, stories. Ideally, this project will not only give you more on-the-ground journalism at events that are important to us, but create a model for other Pagans to try as well. If I succeed, it means it can succeed for others like me. In the end, it will mean a richer, more robust, Pagan journalism. I hope you’ll join me in this quest, spread the word, donate what you can, and help me in continuing to push the barriers of Pagan media.

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion, The Wild Hunt Tagged With: , , , , , 17 Comments

A Shinto Response to Tragedy, One Year Later

March 7, 2012 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 8 Comments

This Sunday, March 11th, will be the one year anniversary of a massive earthquake and tsunami that brought death, destruction, and nuclear chaos to Japan. A tragedy that the island nation is still trying to recover from. A few days after the disaster began, I explored the religious angle to stories of Japanese citizens dealing with tragedy, and how Western journalists seemed uncertain of how to talk about the spiritual dimensions outside of a Christian context.

Rescue workers in front of Shinto shrine. Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Rescue workers in front of Shinto shrine. Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

“As things progress, we can hope that a larger sense of the importance of ancestor worship, tradition, the divine within nature, and the multiplicity of spiritual beings within Japanese culture will shine through in future aftermath coverage. In this disaster there is a rare opportunity to understand how a culture outside the Christian context grapples with universal questions and problems. Religion journalists should rise to this occasion, and minority faiths in the West should ask for the true diversity of faith in our world be accurately and fairly covered.”

In my article, I criticized the Religion News Service’s coverage for being “disproportionately focused“ on Christian reactions to the tragedy in a land where Christianity is a tiny minority, while religions like Shinto and Buddhism dominate. So I’m pleased to see RNS covering Shinto plans to commemorate this anniversary.

“Shinto priests throughout Japan are preparing to hold commemoration ceremonies on March 11 to mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed an estimated 20,000 people. The Association of Shinto Shrines has issued a suggested prayer to be read during the ceremonies. That prayer, according to the Rev. Masafumi Nakanishi, a Shinto priest, describes the calamity, pleads that there be no more disasters and asks that people live peacefully. [...]  Nakanishi said many of the shrines that were spared last year were built just beyond the tsunami’s reach, crediting Shinto ancestors with their safe placement. Many of the surviving shrines were used for disaster relief efforts, with some serving as shelters following the earthquake and tsunami and others serving as collection sites for donations to assist the victims.”

CNN did a feature on one of the shrines that survived in April of last year, I’ve embedded it below.

The RNS piece also quotes Georgetown professor Kevin M. Doak, who says that “the Japanese have a kind of innate, intuitive empathy” which “may be due to Shinto as much as to anything else.” Another insight into the minds of those who’ve been shaped by Shinto, and this recent tragedy, comes from MSNBC.com. In that piece, Kuni Takahashi reports on rebuilding plans and interviews Masanori Sato, the son of a Shinto priest.

“At first I didn’t have a clue where to start, but I slowly began to see things clearly after moving out of the evacuation center into temporary housing,” Sato said recently. “I felt myself settling down a bit. I want to put our village together again. The land has changed but the people are not all gone. We are talking about reviving our community just like it used to be – including both good things and bad things [...] Being a tsunami survivor changed my way of thinking. I guess I learned from it. I realized how important the community is to help each other. I was too selfish before.”

Both of these looks into how Shinto adherents deal with immense tragedy are welcome, though I still wish more time was spent unpacking how Japanese culture, and traditional Japanese religion, shapes views of the earthquake and tsunami. For example, a recent AFP report mentions how this tragedy has created scores of “ghosts,” and notes that “Shinto priests have been called upon to console the souls of the dead and ease their passage into the next world before they purify the places their bodies were found.” Yet no further detail is given into how this process happens, or how the role of Shinto priests have changed in the wake of the tsunami. So much more is here to be said, and heard. I hope those who cover the religion beat rise to the occasion and continually move beyond their comfort zones to hear the voices of religious men and women who may operate outside a context they understand.

For many modern Pagans, we feel a natural affinity with our Shinto cousins. Last year we saw Peter Dybing lead an initiative that raised $30,000 dollars for Japan earthquake assistance, a new landmark in our ability to collectively give. I hope that our community will also observe March 11th as a day of prayer and commemoration. That we ask our gods, the spirits, the land itself, to spare Japan from further disasters, and people live peacefully.

Filed Under: Paganism, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , 8 Comments

Questions Not Asked in Santeria Ritual Cutting Story

February 8, 2012 By Jason Pitzl-Waters 114 Comments

Local and national news outlets are reporting on the case of a 4-year-old girl whose parents are being investigated by police after a daycare employee found lacerations on the girl’s chest. The parents, and a neighbor who witnessed the event, claim it is a Santeria ritual of health and protection for the child, not abuse.

Neighbor Nadeshda Ramirez.

Neighbor Nadeshda Ramirez. Who witnessed and underwent the ritual in question.

“The girl’s parents told police that the cuts were part of a religious ritual. Channel 2′s Mike Petchenik went to the girl’s apartment off Greenhouse Drive and talked to a woman who said she actually witnessed the ritual that she contends is part of the Santeria religion. ”This religion is to help people, to help people get better, to protect people,” said Nadeshda Ramirez.”

Avoiding the question of if this action constitutes child abuse, a matter for the authorities to decide, I’d like to instead focus on what this story doesn’t tell us. For example, is this a normative and routine part of an upbringing within Santeria, or was this ritual unusual and brought on by a crisis of some sort? Why didn’t ABC News use its contacts to speak with an academic who studies Santeria, or a prominent figure within the faith? In the local video report, but not the written report, neighbor Nadeshda Ramirez claims the ritual is normal, and underwent it when she was seven years old.

“I had it done when I was seven.” Reporter: Did it hurt? “It did hurt, just a little bit.”

This brings to mind a case somewhat similar to this, involving a 7-year-old girl, which made the news back in 2009. In that case it wasn’t Santeria, but Palo Mayombe, and the mother ended up pleading guilty to neglect and cruelty charges.

“A mother who exposed her 7-year-old daughter to bloody religious initiation rituals in Paterson that included making her watch a chicken being sacrificed and feeding the girl its heart pleaded guilty in state court Monday to cruelty and neglect of a child. [...] In addition to being fed the chicken’s heart, the rituals included making the girl witness the decapitation of a goat, and the scratching of a religious symbol into her skin.”

The mother’s attorney argued that the “initiation ritual at issue is as necessary to the faith as a Catholic baptism,” an argument the judge rejected.  Which brings me back to the original questions: was this really Santeria? Is this a normative ritual for children within that faith? How was it conducted?

Media coverage, for better of for worse, shapes opinion and narrative. We live in an age where the secrecy of such rituals is difficult at best, especially when they involve children. Prominent figures within Santeria, and those who study the faith within academia, need to make their voices heard so that a nuanced portrait of Santeria, and related faiths, is presented. Certainly, journalists need to ask more questions, and dig deeper when reporting on a minority faith they don’t understand, but it is also incumbent on practitioners to organize, and become more vocal in presenting their beliefs to a world that is increasingly learning to fear and resent them. If these instances aren’t contextualized by experts and practitioners, then they will be contextualized by reporters and readers instead.

Filed Under: Religion Tagged With: , , , 114 Comments
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