Ministerial Exception and Minority Religions

Last updated on: October 4, 2011 at 5:38 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

On Wednesday the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a case that could have serious ramifications on what’s known as “ministerial exception” at institutions run by religious organizations. Hosanna-Tabor Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission centers on a teacher at a Lutheran school who was fired due to a sleep disorder. The church is claiming that the teacher’s position falls under ministerial exception, and is therefore exempt from any discrimination proceedings, while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, backed by the... Read more

C. Peter Wagner on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ Today

Last updated on: October 3, 2011 at 10:59 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

I’ve written at some length on the Christian movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a group that’s been getting increased media scrutiny lately due to their proximity to presidential candidates like Texas governor Rick Perry. Some may believe I’m over-stating their influence, or that I’m being somewhat paranoid in my coverage, so it’s always a good thing to have relatively level-headed media outlets to compare your own findings/suspicions with. Back in August the NPR interview program “Fresh Air” interviewed Rachel Tabachnick of... Read more

Virginia Court Says Divination Not A Religious Practice

Last updated on: October 3, 2011 at 10:18 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

In the beginning of 2010 I reported on the case of Patricia Moore-King (aka “Psychic Sophie”), a psychic practitioner/spiritual counselor who challenged Chesterfield County’s onerous zoning regulations designed to discourage tarot readers, psychics, astrologers, and other practitioners of “occult sciences” from opening up a shop. King maintains that she wasn’t a “fortune teller” but engaged in a form of religious counseling, and therefore the regulations didn’t apply to her. The County of Chesterfield’s laws classify Ms. King’s activities as “the occupation of occult sciences”... Read more

Transformational Festival Culture

Last updated on: October 2, 2011 at 8:39 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

The TEDx Youtube channel recently uploaded a talk by Jeet Kei Leung from TEDxVancouver 2010 on transformational festivals. The half-hour presentation focuses on West Coast-oriented festivals and events like Faerieworlds and Burning Man and talks about how these events re-merge spiritual/religious practices with secular festival culture. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8tDpQp6m0A Jeet Kei Leung specifically references how many of these festivals have adopted practices and rituals from modern Paganism, incorporating opening and closing circles, altars, invocations of sacred land, and pre-Christian (often Goddess) imagery. I’ve written... Read more

Quick Notes: Fiat LVX, Fort Bragg Open Circle, and the Young Witches of Salem

Last updated on: October 1, 2011 at 10:47 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Just a few quick news notes for your Saturday. Thorn Coyle Launches New Video Series: Pagan author and mentor T. Thorn Coyle has announced the launch of a new subscription video teaching series entitled Fiat LVX. For $20 dollars per month subscribers will have access to two professionally produced instructional and informational videos featuring T. Thorn Coyle each month. “The first installment will examine a different spiritual idea as it directly relates to our lives; the second video will guide you through... Read more

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Last updated on: September 29, 2011 at 11:06 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. While we still await to see what the sentence will be for New Age prosperity guru James Arthur Ray, convicted in June of negligent homicide in the deaths of three participants in a 2009 sweat lodge ceremony he led at a retreat in... Read more

Reflections from the 1st Annual Conference on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic & Indigenous Faiths

Last updated on: September 28, 2011 at 10:28 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

This past Saturday the 1st Annual Conference on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic & Indigenous Faiths was held in California at the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. Organized by the Pagan Alliance, and co-sponsored the Circle of Dionysos, Solar Cross Temple,Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, CAYA coven and the Earth Medicine Alliance, the theme for the one-day conference was “Gender & Earth-Based Spiritualities” and featured Vicki Noble as keynote speaker. While sparked by issues arising from an incident of transgender exclusion at a public women-only ritual during the 2011 PantheaCon in... Read more

Dr. Amy Hale on Seattle’s Esoteric Book Conference

Last updated on: September 27, 2011 at 10:54 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

[The following is a guest post by Dr. Amy Hale. Dr. Hale is an anthropologist specializing in contemporary Celtic cultures, with an emphasis on modern Cornwall and contemporary Esoteric culture and history. She recently attending the Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle and files this report. All the photos used in this post were provided by Anima Nocturna via EBC Administrator William J. Kiesel.] A couple of weekends ago, on the 10th and 11th of September, Seattle was again host to the Esoteric Book Conference, superbly organized... Read more

Quick Note: “American Mystic” Now Available at Amazon, Netflix

Last updated on: September 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

The documentary “American Mystic” (Facebook page), directed by Alex Mar, and featuring Morpheus Ravenna along with members of Stone City Pagan Sanctuary, is now available at Amazon.com, and will soon be accessible at Netflix. The film was screened at the 2011 PantheaCon, and had its premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhIWz4Lp-E “American Mystic is a documentary about three twenty-somethings, each a member of a fringe religious community, who have separated themselves from mainstream America in order to live immersed in their faiths. The film intertwines... Read more

Church or Jail: Area Pagans Speak Out

Last updated on: September 27, 2011 at 9:31 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Yesterday I profiled a controversial new policy in Bay Minette, Alabama that would offer non-violent criminals a choice: jail time or attendance at a local (Christian) church for one year. Aside from the obvious constitutional issues this program poses is the fact that there are no options available for religious minorities. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzlebAQ-uks “Some critics say the program definitely crosses the line between church and state, with some minority religious groups shut out of participation because few mosques or synagogues exist in the... Read more