• This week Elysia at Llewellyn tackled the thorny issue of Pagan/metaphysical book piracy after discovering a site distributing PDF copies of 32 Llewellyn titles. Several emails and one DMCA notice later, the content was taken down, but not before the pirate did her level best to paint herself as the Robin Hood of Wiccan literature. Quote: “How shall I educate the poor, the disenfranchised, without the books?” Considering how easy it is to get a hold of Pagan books these days, far easier than it has ever been in any point of our modern history, the argument that book pirates are performing a noble service rings increasingly hollow. If someone is truly concerned about saving and spreading information then they should work with authors and publishers, instead of illegally bypassing them.
• Did you know that Hungary’s center-right government passed a new constitution? It’s true! Despite criticism, both local and international, the Prime Minister, whose party commands an overwhelming majority, remains unrepentant. One of the laws passed under this new constitution greatly restricts official recognition of religion. Now, only 14 Christian and Jewish faiths are officially recognized, and the hurdle for additions to that list is high. One wonders what will become of the many Hungarian Pagan organizations, have any of them applied for government recognition? I’ll be keeping an eye on this issue.
• The U.N. Human Rights Office has publicly criticized the government of Saudi Arabia for its increase in executions, for not meeting international trial standards, and for using torture to gain confessions. Saudi Arabia has made the news several times here for its willingness to kill men and women for the crimes of “sorcery” and “witchcraft”. Will outside international pressure make a difference? Recently, a Saudi princess living in London blasted her country’s religious police, saying they had a “dangerous effect” on society.
• Richard Bartholomew reports that controversial Nigerian Pentecostal preacher Helen Ukpabio is returning to America, there the infamous witch-hunter will meet with her Western backers. Ukpabio’s particular “gospel” includes propagandistic “expository”  horror films featuring witchcraft possessed children, and selling non-fiction religious titles like “Unveiling The Mysteries of Witchcraft” that make assertions about the reality of child witches. Think this madness can’t spread? Tell that to Kristy Bamu, a teenage boy in the UK who was tortured for days (along with his siblings) and then drowned by his family after they accused him of sorcery. Make no mistake, when the reckoning for the African witch-hunts finally comes, more than a few fingers will be pointing at Western churches and missionaries.
• Is New Age guru James Arthur Ray, currently in prison after being convicted of negligent homicide after leading a fatal sweat lodge ceremony in 2009, broke? That’s his claim, and he wants a judge to declare him indigent and appoint him a public defender for his already-filed appeal. The judge couldn’t come to a decision, and prosecutors want to know about his many declared assets. Is this a ploy by Ray, or has his empire crumbled already?
• The ongoing Dorje Shugden controversy within Tibetan Buddhism continues as the Dalai Lama recently urged his followers to not follow the deity, saying that “after knowing and understanding the harmful impacts of worshipping the deity, it is my responsibility to urge my devotees not to follow it”. The debate comes down to whether the Dorje Shugden is a Dharma protector or a “worldly spirit” (in which case the entity is not fit for veneration within Buddhism). From the outside, the issue is a fascinating look into how Tibetan Buddhism navigates the realm between polytheism and non-theism.
• PNC-Minnesota has started an interview series with Pagan polyarmorous families. The second installment was posted on Friday, and interviews Johnny, who’s in a poly relationship with two other women, and is the father of triplets. Quote: “We are a nuclear family. We went through the pregnancy together and are raising the kids together. We share the bills together.  Everything that the traditional nuclear family does, we do together, except there are three of us.” You can read The Wild Hunt’s coverage on the intersections between polyamory and modern Paganism, here.
• Did you know the Queen of Heaven is behind same-sex marriage? Well, all acts of love and pleasure are her rituals…
• Jury selection is under way in the trial of Gerald Field of Massachusetts, who is accused of raping and imprisoning a woman for five days. It seems that Mr. Field follows a “Nordic pagan religion” and his lawyer is asking jurors if that, and his “alleged anti-Semitic remarks” would prejudice them in a trial. Mr. Field better pray to his gods that none of his fellow Heathens get picked for the jury, as most Heathens I’ve met don’t take kindly to their faith being drawn through the mud by alleged rapists.
• Show me on the doll where the demonic realm touched you.
• Finally, congrats again to the Open Hearth Foundation in Washington DC on the opening of their new community center! Check out this video from PNC-Washington DC on the event.

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

Today I have some updates and new developments in stories previously covered here at The Wild Hunt.

Georgia School Harassment Case: Last week I reported on an official joint statement sent out by the North Georgia Solitaries, Dogwood Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess, Lady Liberty League, and its parent organization, Circle Sanctuary, on the difficulties faced by the Turner family of Bowden, Georgia, whose son, Christopher (11), was facing religiously-motivated harassment by his school (as originally reported by the Atlanta IMC). Now, that coalition, The Turner Family Support Task Force, has sent out an update calling for ongoing spiritual and fiscal support.

“Please send your prayers, your energy, and your personal messages through the Facebook page. They are being read by the Turners throughout each day. And, secondly, if you would like to contribute funds to help alleviate the financial burdens that have been placed on the family, please make your donations via the Pagan Assistance Fund, operated by the North Georgia Solitaries through the Church of the Spiral Tree. Donations are tax-deductible and will be used to offset a variety of expenses such as gas, child care, home-schooling supplies, and other related family expenses as they arise.”

The task force is hoping their efforts will lead to “a peaceful resolution and a future of fair and equal treatment in the school and school system.” My contact within the task force says that there will be more news on this front soon, so stay tuned!

Saudi Arabia’s Sorcery Beheading: On Monday, news broke that Saudi Arabia had executed yet another person for the crime of “sorcery,” bringing the estimated total of state-backed executions to 79, a massive increase from the previous year. Amnesty International called the beheading Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser “deeply shocking,” while the BBC reports that it is the country’s religious police force (the Mutaween) who are pushing for executions.

“The London-based newspaper, al-Hayat, quoted a member of the religious police as saying that she was in her 60s and had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses. [...] Amnesty says that Saudi Arabia does not actually define sorcery as a capital offence. However, some of its conservative clerics have urged the strongest possible punishments against fortune-tellers and faith healers as a threat to Islam.”

The Wild Hunt has spent quite a bit of time reporting on Saudi Arabia’s harsh laws against fortune telling, sorcery, and witchcraft. There was the case of Lebanese citizen Ali Sibat, who was nearly executed for the crime of sorcery in Saudi Arabia but given a last-minute reprieve due to protests and political maneuvering, and finally freed. Also significant is the case of Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali, which drew the public attention of Pagan and international interfaith figure Phyllis Curott, a Trustee of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, serving on its Executive Committee. In many cases, like Fawza Falih’s, we never learn their ultimate fate. This trend of executing fortune tellers and “sorcerers” is troubling, not only because Saudi Arabia is ostensibly our ally, but because there are modern Pagans living in the Middle East, and having to live under the threat of death for witchcraft in the 21st century is a scandal to any who believe in progress and human rights.

Peruvian Shaman Slayings: Back in October I reported on the murder of fourteen shamans in Peru, allegedly ordered by Alfredo Torres, the mayor of Balsa Puerto, and carried out by his brother. Author and indigenous leader Roger Rumrrill claimed these killings are part of a wider witch-hunt by the brothers, who are members of an unnamed protestant Christian sect. Now, progressive news site Truthout brings us an update on the story, alleging that more than mere religious animus is behind these murders.

Alberto Pizango, Peru’s top indigenous leader and president of the country’s most powerful indigenous organization, the Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (known by its Spanish acronym, AIDESEP) paints a more complex picture of the case, blaming cash and pressure from legal and illegal industries in the Amazon who poach natural resources from indigenous lands. ”What is happening now in my community is organized crime,” said Pizango, himself a Shawi medico who studied for seven years under a master shaman.

Pizango goes on to tell how traditions are being distorted to support the murder of shamans who oppose the growing criminal enterprises in Peru, or their political allies. noting that “when the people come out to defend their territorial rights, their rights to their natural resources, then the mayor has the perfect criminal organization to shut them up, accuse them, say that someone was killed because he was a brujo.” At this point the death-count is now estimated at 20, and the government investigation into these charges are still ongoing. No arrests or public statements have been made. For ongoing updates see the Alianza Arkana news blog.

Dan Halloran Responds (by Proxy): I’ve been waiting to hear Dan Halloran’s response to the divisive Village Voice piece that I feel unfairly sensationalized his Heathen faith, and dinged by religion journalism criticism site Get Religion for its “unnecessary mocking tone.” Now, it seems a response was sent out this past Thursday, albeit indirectly through Halloran’s spokesman Steve Stites in an email to the Queens Tribune.

“The liberal press, such as the Voice, based in downtown Manhattan, and knowing zilch about Northeast Queens, have stooped to some pretty creative new lows in trying to bash the Councilman,” Stites wrote in a furious email. “It makes you wonder why they’re so afraid of him, or so fascinated by him. My guess is that the left-wing press doesn’t like the Councilman because he’s outspoken, effective and conservative, and he doesn’t play by their rules of political correctness and go-along get-along politics.”

Voice staff writer Steven Thrasher defended his piece, saying he wrote it “because it made such a good story—a politician with a faith unlike any other,” and that comparing Heathens with Civil War reenactors was meant to be a compliment. Sadly, neither Halloran or Stites have directly addressed the religious content of Thrasher’s article, nor do I expect them to any time soon.

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

“Solar Cross is pleased to announce the official launch of our e-publishing venture with the release of the formerly out of print Magick of Qabalah. This is the first in a line of magickal, esoteric, and Pagan books to be issued from the LVX/NOX and Sunna Press imprints. We are committed to bringing forth both original and out of print books as well as shorter works on practice and craft.”

Their first release is “The Magick of Qabalah” by British author Kala Trobe and is currently available via Amazon, with more platforms to be rolled out shortly. Future releases from the LVX/NOX and Sunna Press e-publishing imprints include works by  T. Thorn Coyle, Diana Paxson, and Shen-tat. With the large number of Pagan and occult works that are out of print, this is an exciting and useful first step in using the power of digital publishing to rescue lost classics and important developmental works in the history of our communities. I’m hoping this is the start of a far larger trend.

In Other News:

• Speaking of e-publishing, two well-received Pagan works are now available in digital formats for the first time. Erynn Rowan Laurie’s “Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom” and Margot Adler’s seminal “Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America” (check out The Wild Hunt’s interview with Margot Adler on the release of the 2006 edition of the book).
• Mary K. Greer lets us know about an incredible discovery in the world of tarot, a second set of painted images commissioned by A.E Waite ten years after the now-famous illustrations done by Pamela Coleman Smith. These works were done by stained glass artist J. B. Trinick, and an effort is now underway to have them professionally photographed and published. Greer calls this “the biggest discovery in Tarot this century.”
• Haters gonna hate watch: Long-time anti-Paganism crusader Linda Harvey believes LGBT people don’t really exist, and John Hagee lets us know that “secular humanism is a pagan god and America is bowing at the shrine.”
• The landlord of the Phoenix Goddess Temple has terminated their lease. You can read all of my coverage of this issue, here.
• Saudi Arabia has beheaded Abdul Hamid al-Fakki, a Sudanese citizen, for practicing “witchcraft and sorcery.” Last year Amnesty International called for the commutation of his death sentence. Saudi Arabia’s threshold for charges of “sorcery” are completely arbitrary, as evidenced by the case of Lebanese citizen Ali Sibat, who barely escaped the death penalty after an international uproar.

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

“For the fourth year in a row, Circle Sanctuary is honoring and supporting active duty Pagan service members through Operation Circle Care. This year, we are widening our focus and sending Yuletide care packages to active duty Pagan troops serving in any overseas theater of operation, including Germany, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, or on board Navy ships. The success of this program is due to the generous support and donations from Pagan community members from many paths and places. With your continued support, it is our goal to honor and remember each and every Pagan US military service member we can with a special personalized gift for Yule, just as we have in years past.”

Operation Circle Care is looking for contacts, donated items, and funds to help in this project. You can find details at their web site. If you know of similar efforts in other countries, or other Pagan organizations that are organizing care packages or other services, please let me know in the comments.

A Warrior’s Conscientious Objection: On a somewhat related note, we turn to the issue of conscientious objection to war. Up till now its been largely treated by the US government as an all-or-nothing enterprise, you either had to be a pacifist who objected to all conflict (like Quakers or some Pagans), or you were signed up to follow orders no matter what (lest risking dishonorable discharge or even a tribunal). But now a coalition of religious leaders and veterans are calling for the right to morally object to individual conflicts.

“In a report issued Wednesday (Nov. 10), the Truth Commission on Conscience in War called on the military to revise its rules to include “selective conscientious objection,” and urged religious leaders to address issues of conscience during wartime … The report states that current rules about conscientious objection requires an objection to “war in any form,” creating a conflict for those who may have specific moral objections to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ”It denies freedom of religious practice and the exercise of moral conscience to those serving in the military who object to a particular war based on the moral criteria of just war, which the military itself teaches and upholds as important,” the report reads. The report notes that military rules dating to the time of the Vietnam draft leave no legal basis for objection for someone who believes “participation implicates them in an immoral war or in war crimes.”

Such a change would be very much in keeping with many Pagan and Heathen ideas of warrior ethics and culture. Allowing participation in honorable or just conflicts while also leaving room for non-participation in situations that they feel could violate their personal/religious/cultural code of honor. Whether the military would ever be open to such a change is an open question. For those who want more information about this initiative, check out the Truth Commission on Conscience in War’s web site.

The Fate of Ali Sibat: When we last checked in with Lebanese citizen Ali Sibat, who was nearly executed for the crime of sorcery in Saudi Arabia but given a last-minute reprieve due to protests and political maneuvering, was still in a cell awaiting some word of his ultimate fate. Now news has come that a Saudi court has formally rejected his death sentence and that he be deported after a new trial.

“Saudi Arabia’s high court has rejected the execution sentence of a Lebanese man convicted of sorcery and recommended that he be deported after a new trial, a newspaper reported Thursday. The Supreme Court in Riyadh said that the death sentence for Ali Sabat was not warranted because he had not harmed anyone and had no prior offences in the country, Okaz said. The court said his case should be sent back to a lower court in Medina to be retried and recommended that Sabat, who has spent 30 months in Saudi prison since his May 2008 arrest, be deported, Okaz said.”

How long this process will take remains to be seen, but it does look like this long nightmare is finally ending for Sibat. Sadly the same can’t be said for other men and women being held in Saudi Arabia for crimes of “sorcery”, like Sudanese citizen Abdul Hamid al-Fakki, or Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali. One can only hope that discontent with the religious police grows, and we see an end to this madness.

The Further Unintended Consequences of Oklahoma’s Anti-Sharia Amendment: I’ve already discussed some of the problems with the recent anti-Sharia amendment passed by Oklahoma voters, but now even more voices are emerging to discuss the unintended consequences of this move to theoretically protect us from “creeping Sharia” law. First, the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission released an official memo on October 20 opposing the amendment, saying it could affect the “damage the sovereignty of all Oklahoma tribes.”

SQ 755, as written, prohibits an Oklahoma state court from applying any law but Oklahoma or U. S. law to settle a dispute. Further, the proposed constitutional amendment inhibits state courts from looking to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures for a decision. The language of this proposed amendment starkly reminds us that some Oklahoma lawmakers forgot that our nation and state were built on the principles, blood, and backs of “other nations and cultures,” namely, our tribes. It also ignores that Oklahoma tribes have become valuable economic partners with the State that it cannot afford to ignore or exclude.

If SQ 755 is approved, the lack of specific tribal law language could easily be interpreted by a state judge to leave no room to refer to a tribe’s law to determine the existence of a valid waiver of a tribe’s sovereign immunity, for example. Thus, SQ 755 has the potential to provide state court judges with yet another opportunity to further erode tribal sovereignty. A state court judge could rely on the amendment’s absence of recognition of any tribal law to avoid or disavow its application. Tribes and tribal members should be aware of this glaring omission for Oklahoma courts to look to and apply our tribal laws when appropriate, and vote on this question accordingly.

In addition to possibly damaging tribal sovereignty in the name of fighting Muslim theocracy the amendment is getting knocked about by the majority of commentators at the center-right politics site Politico. A judge has granted a temporary block to the amendment while the court battles commence.

Medicine Man Confidentiality: A murder trial in Canada is testing whether minority faiths and cultures are afforded the same privileges as the dominant religious traditions. Minneconjou historian Donovin Sprague claims that confidentiality between a medicine man and their clients is a well understood concept in that culture and should be respected.

Sprague said he based his opinions on his own traditional upbringing and knowledge of tribal culture, as well as on his discussions with spiritual leaders Arvol Looking Horse, Rick Two Dogs and Wilmer Mesteth. Seventh Circuit Judge Jack Delaney tried to pin Sprague down on just how far that commitment to confidentiality would go. If a child were found murdered in a traditional camp and someone confessed to a medicine man, he asked, would the medicine man still maintain confidentiality? “Traditionally … I don’t think it would be revealed,” Sprague said, but he was quick to say that one medicine man might not operate in the same way as another medicine man would. “There wasn’t like a written set of rules governing what we’re talking about here, really. … He would use his discretion what he wanted to do.”

The trial involves John Graham, who is charged with the 1975 rape and murder of Annie Mae Aquash. The motion on whether confidentiality would stand has not been ruled on yet. Whichever way the judge decides could have lasting ramifications on indigenous and minority religions in Canada, and how far confidentiality between a spiritual/religious leader and their client can go.

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

“Shura Council officials approved the addition of a new article to the law outlawing sorcery and witchcraft, the Gulf Daily News reports. This would allow judges to give additional weight to such cases brought to prosecution, councillors have claimed. People found guilty of sorcery and witchcraft would face unspecified jail terms and undetermined fines or both, the paper reports.”

A press release from Bahrain’s Shura Council, says these new laws will allow judges to tackle “paranormal” subject matter in criminal cases.

“…councillors said the new addition would give judges all the tools to decide the necessary punishment. They added acts could be defined as sorcery and witchcraft if they were paranormal to scientific and religious beliefs. Those convicted of such offences would face unspecified jail terms and undetermined fines or both.”

Despite some objections from MPs who thought the existing laws against fraud were sufficient, this now places Bahrain within the legal mainstream of most of the Middle East. The question now is how will these laws be enforced? Will “sorcerers” be treated like con-artists, and dealt with (relatively) lightly as in the United Arab Emirates? Or will these new “paranormal” laws degenerate into the thuggish torture and execution of suspects as in Saudi Arabia? Further, are these new laws the beginning of a larger campaign to put the squeeze on adherents to other (non-Muslim) faiths in the country? After all, one person’s religion can very well be another’s “sorcery”.

“I do not know where to begin my comments on how this film perpetuates offensive stereotypes about Voodoo. The loas are represented as evil spirits full of greed and anger … The terms Voodoo, Hoodoo, and conjuring are used interchangeably throughout. In the end one is presented with an evil religion that will ultimately fail. I did not expect critical race analysis or a sophisticated presentation of Voodoo when I walked into the theater. It is, after all, Disney. I did not expect such a blatant, racist, and misinformed presentation of Voodoo, however. The reduction of religion to magic is also reaffirmed in the curious absence of Catholicism in the film. My son is correct, Disney Voodoo is bad magic; it just doesn’t have anything to do with the authentic African Diaspora religion.”

In addition to getting New Orleans/Louisiana Voodoo horribly wrong, it seems the film gets New Orleans itself all wrong. In another Religion Dispatches piece, Anthea Butler, associate professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, says the film is a big desecrating “lump of coal” that “picks up where Katrina left off”.

“I’m going to go all out and say that the entire movie is a wholesale desecration of New Orleans, Creole culture, Cajun Culture, religion, zydeco music, the Evangeline story, and Louis Armstrong (I’ll get to that in a minute.) Rolled up, Disney hates the South, period … I know it’s only a movie, but movies shape how people, especially children, view the world. In the case of New Orleans and the myriad of cultures it holds, to stint on all of the facets that make New Orleans and Louisiana the wonderful, complex, and sometimes exasperating place that it is is a crime. Disney’s princesses, once again, may have big beautiful eyes, but while kids are enjoying the view, Disney’s hack job of deconstructing history by making it “cute” is just as destructive as a category 5 hurricane. Fun and truth do not have to be mutually exclusive to sell a movie, unless of course you’re just bankrupt of ideas.”

Of course, Disney has a long history of acquiring and terraforming pieces of culture, transforming them to a point where most people think the Disney version is the original. There’s a reason why “disneyfication” is a pejorative term. So you get a Disney New Orleans where the Voodoo is bad, Catholicism is absent, tradition is ignored, and history is mangled. In the end, it’s more about extending the Princess brand, than doing something creative or original.

In Other News: The Pierce County Herald spotlights Circle Sanctuary’s efforts to send holiday care packages to troops in Iraq.

“The Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld is also remembering soldiers at Fort Hood Texas – where a Wisconsin unit lost three of its members in last month’s shooting rampage. Selena Fox, a senior minister of the Wiccan Church, said the Circle group sent packages to about 50 active duty personnel at Fort Hood to show extra support. They’ve also provided counseling for the Pagan soldiers at the base – and they sent holiday cheer to 150 Pagan troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

I’m sure it’s still not too late to donate, and help them in their efforts.

NPR reports on the rise of sorcery and witchcraft-related arrests and sentencing in Saudi Arabia, and talks to an expert who posits that the recent increase is a reaction to the government trying to curb the influence of the religious police.

“Saudi political analyst Tawfiq al-Saif says religious authorities truly believe they are helping society by discouraging faith in the supernatural. But, he says, there is also a political reason for the recent rise in sorcery cases. In the past few years, the government has tried to curb the influence of the religious establishment by sacking key religious figures, pushing for reform in the courts and criticizing the religious police. “One time, I met the head of the Hey’a [the religious police] and he was really sorry because in the past he was saying that they were free to do whatever they like to enforce the Sharia laws — even, he said, in the public buses, in the train, in the airports,” Saif says. But now that they are under pressure, the religious police are trying to flex their muscles in the few ways they still can, including looking for people who practice magic or who don’t pray five times a day, and for women who don’t properly cover their hair, Saif says.”

Does this mean that the plight of people like Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali and Ali Sibat are due to the last grasps at control by a shrinking power in the country? Or has the “muscle flexing” by the religious police shifted matters to their liking, and we’ll only see more madness and death in the near future? I suppose it remains to be seen, but I worry that any long-term solution to this anti-sorcery madness will come too late for the unlucky caught in this cultural crossfire.

For a somewhat different take on the problem of sorcery in the Middle East, The Epoch Times looks at Dubai, who have far more liberal laws concerning sorcery, but who also deal with rampant fraud and scam-artists.

“In the United Arab Emirates, and Dubai in particular, authorities take a more liberal stance. However, because of the large number of scam artists posing as sorcerers and exorcists in Dubai, police have set up a special task to crack down on so-called “magic-related crimes.” “Some people are just simple and anything will fool them,” Khaleel Al-Mansouri, the head of Dubai’s Criminal Investigation Department, told local newspaper seven days earlier this year. “It’s due to a lack of education, but also because the victims are greedy and are looking for a quick profit. “Our officers are highly skilled and they carry out special undercover patrols in shopping malls throughout Dubai looking for any sorcery crime that might be occurring.” In 2008 alone, fraudsters fleeced Dh130 million (US$35.5 billion) out of unsuspecting members of the public in sorcery scams.”

They also manage to interview a taxi driver, Hassan Hamadi, who also works as an exorcist. He claims he charges no money for his services, and lives in fear of being arrested by the sorcery task-force. However, despite the threat of arrest, because laws are more liberal (no death-penalty) places like Oman in the Persian Gulf has become, according to one journalist, a hotbed of “sorcerers and mystics”. Such is, I believe, the consequence of creating a legal gray area. They eliminate death-penalties and long prison terms for sorcery, but enough of a penalty remains to keep the practice criminal, underground, and unregulated. One wonders if they repealed all laws and dealt with fraud on a purely secular basis if a home-grown “neo-sorcery” would emerge, much like Wicca did in England. Maybe, maybe not, but arresting, and in the case of Saudi Arabia, killing, “witches” doesn’t seem to ever “solve” the problem.

In a final note, here’s a unique opinion essay at the American Thinker by Selwyn Duke that debunks the pagan origins of Christmas, while acknowledging the great debt we owe to “pagan” pre-Christian cultures.

“If we were to discard all things pagan, I should think we’d plunge ourselves back into the Stone Age. We walk on concrete, record our knowledge with letters, and designate our months with names originated/invented by the pagan Romans. We steer our boats with rudders invented by the pagan Chinese; make calculations with numbers invented by pagan Indians; and create computer graphics, medical imaging, and designs for buildings and bridges using geometry formalized by pagan Greeks. And much of our philosophy (and much of that drawn upon by early Christians, mind you) was generated by pagans such as Aristotle and Plato. Should we “go Taliban” and burn all their works — and other books thus influenced? A pious Christian must believe that pagans could not have had the whole Truth, but only an ignorant Christian would believe they had no Truth.”

I would happily concede Christmas as wholly Christian if those same culture-warriors would acknowledge that their foundation is built on the advances made by “pagans”. Heck, I’d even call it a “Christmas miracle”.

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

“Spells, magical curses and voodoo dolls are all part of a new paper being offered at Massey University. Magic and Witchcraft, is a 100-level extramural paper offered this semester at the university’s school of history, philosophy and classics. Senior classics lecturer Gina Salapata said the 120 students enrolled in the paper studied the use of sorcery in the classical world, medieval and early modern times and in colonial Maori culture.”

Despite the fact that the teachers state the class is “not advocating witchcraft”, that hasn’t stopped The New Zealand Herald from conducting a sensationalist poll of its readership on the issue.

“The 120 students enrolled in the paper studied the use of sorcery in the classical world, medieval and early modern times and in colonial Maori culture. For the first assignment students had to create a magical curse tablet or erotic charm – however, the fanciful assignments have to be backed up with research. Is ‘witchcraft’ a suitable syllabus topic for Massey University?”

The “reader’s views” question doesn’t really explain that the “spells” they are crafting are for the purpose of exploring different cultural and historical views of sorcery, and not a “how-to” for aspiring magicians and Witches. As a result you get responses like this…

“The witches are slowly taking control, This is the start of their revolution, they have secret candidates in the up coming election and soon they will control the government. Beware unbelievers as the witches will take over us all.”

“This witchcraft thing is a load of nonsense, and to think that students want money out of the public purse to study that crap.”

“There is absolutely no place whatsoever for encouraging involvement in the powers of darkness, no matter how good and harmless they might claim to be. Shame on Massey University for being so naive as to allow this sort of thing to be part of the curriculum.”

…and so on, and so forth (believe me, some of the comments are far worse). There are however the occasional voices of reason in between the paranoid Christians and militant atheists.

“Here’s a recap for those too busy revelling in their own indignation to bother with facts. This is an extra-mural (look it up) summer course. It is a 3-month paper costing $497 plus $111 for enrolment & student fees. Most attendees will be adults taking a ‘hobby’ course. The paper restricts its focus to Classical Greece & Rome, Medieval & Early Modern Europe and early post-contact Maori society, treating each from a historical perspective (Source: Massey Website). Your taxes have nothing to do with adults paying to take a paper that interests them. A paper which focuses upon socio-historical trends will not teach people how to be ‘modern witches’ nor how to “slain/burn their own children” (sic) ILNZ, I would suggest you read some proper history books.”

The manufactured controversy becomes clearer when you realize that the New Zealand Herald is a socially conservative paper. This is just a bit of red meat to throw to their readership, the sort of pandering one sees with ideologically slanted media outlets. Too bad really, the course sounded interesting, and there will no doubt be pressure on the university to drop the elective in the future.

Thanks to Judy Harrow for tipping me off to this story!
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