NEWS OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT & INTOLERANCE DURING
2002-APRIL

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2002-APR-8: CA: Newspaper reports anti-Wiccan
demonstration:
The Antelope Valley Press of Palmdale, CA, reported on what the
called "Wiccagate:" a demonstration by Christians against a group
of Wiccans who were rededicating the Witches Grove: a store in
Lancaster CA which sells Neopagan material. The ritual also involved the
celebration of the spring equinox, and honored the Pagan Goddess Brigid
and the God Thor. "Store proprietors alleged that Christian protesters
bumped participants in the Wiccan ritual, screamed Bible verses and blared
Christian rock music in the store's back parking lot, where the
rededication ceremony took place." 11 Cyndia Riker,
a Wiccan high priestess and owner of the store, said that the Sheriff's
Department took five hours to respond to a phone call for help. One of the
Christians alleged to have taken part is Billy Pricer, a volunteer
sheriff's chaplain and pastor of Life Changers Christian Center. He
was reported as saying that the event was "totally blown out of
proportion." He said that the protest was not organized. However,
Riker said that representatives from three local Christian churches
arrived in rental cars at about the same time and that some of the
protestors communicated via walkie-talkies. Pricer is reported as saying
that the protestors only went there to pray in public for the Wiccans.
The lesson? If you are a non-Christian and plan to hold a public ritual,
we suggest that you request police protection in advance. As a minimum,
have a member videotape the entire ritual. |
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2002-APR-16: MS: Religious conflict over breathing
exercises and guided imagery: Students at South Park Elementary School
in Vicksburg, MS, are learning breathing and posture exercises. Students
at a nearby school are engaging in guided imagery and creative
visualization as they pretend to leave their bodies and visualize
themselves as a unicorn, prancing through a quite meadow. Some parents
have linked the learning and posturing exercises with Yoga and thus with
Eastern religion; others have linked the creative visualization with
New Age religion. Both groups have asked that the
classes be terminated; some parents have pulled their children out of
school. Mike Corely, a reporter at WQBC radio, said that Vicksburg isn't
shielded from New Age spirituality simply because it is in the Bible belt.
He said: "If I wanted to go in and teach a similar class based on the
Word of God, I (would be told) that I couldn't do that because it would be
based on religion." 12 (Actually, as the U.S. Constitution has been
interpreted by the courts:
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Teaching Eastern religious belief by itself is
unconstitutional. |
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Teaching Christian religious belief by itself is
unconstitutional. |
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Teaching an exercise or visualization class that included
little or no religious content, as in this case, is probably
constitutional. |
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Teaching an exercise or visualization class that is partly
based on the Bible, partly on Eastern religion and partly on a
non-religious foundation probably would be constitutional.) |
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2002-APR; various dates: England: Murder may have
ritual abuse component: The roeao of a boy was found floating in
the Thames River in London England. Claims surfaced that the child was a
human sacrifice to Obeh -- a Nigerian sea god. Others claim that the child
was killed during a Vodun ritual. Some claim that there were signs that a
religious ritual involved. At this time there are more theories than facts
available. |
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Week of 2002-APR-22: India: Mass Hindu-Muslim violence
continues: According to the New York Times: "In the last week, more
than 40 people have perished in the continuing violence, in the western
state of Gujarat. The official death toll in the last two months has risen
to 900. More than 100,000 people, mostly Muslims, are estimated to have
fled to relief camps. On Tuesday, [APR-30] Parliament will debate whether
the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party -- which has led a national
coalition government for most of the last four years and controls the
state of Gujarat, its last major state stronghold -- has been complicit in
the carnage."
"Indian officials were particularly stung by the leak of a confidential
assessment by British diplomats who estimated the death toll at 2,000,
more than twice the official tally, and said the anti-Muslim violence had
been planned and carried out with the state government's support."
13 |
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2002-APR-28: Indonesia: Intermittent Christian - Muslim
violence continues: According to the Associated Press: "Black-masked
assailants armed with guns, grenades and daggers stormed a village in
Indonesia's religiously divided Maluku province Sunday, killing 14
Christians in a brutal pre-dawn attack that threatened a fragile peace
pact." "Shouting 'kill them all,' a dozen men entered the mostly Christian
village of Soya on the outskirts of Ambon, the provincial capital and the
focus of three years of sectarian violence that killed 9,000 people,
witnesses said." 14
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 | 2002-APR-29: USA: Roman Catholics launch donation boycott:
The Chicago Tribune carried an article about a group of Chicago area
businessmen who have organized the Committee for
Prevention of Sex Abuse by Clergy. The committee has
demanded that "the archdiocese adopt a zero tolerance
policy on sex abuse by clergy, turn over all such cases to law
enforcement, and release abuse victims from orders of silence contained in
legal settlements. It also asked the archdiocese to turn over to an
outside investigator four decades of files on sexual misconduct by priests."
If the church's response is inadequate, they may suggest that individual
Catholics boycott the collection basket until the Archdiocese of
Chicago adopts the reforms. Previous boycotts have been organized in
Boston and Florida. 15 |

References:
- DayWatch is a daily service of Maranatha Christian
Journal. It provides "a daily summary of news headlines
with a Christian perspective..." The newsletter is free on
request. Their web site is at: http://www.mcjonline.com
- ReligionToday™ provides free newsletters to which you can
subscribe at: http://www.ReligionToday.com.
These summaries are part of GOSHEN.net, which also includes LiveIt.net,
Devotionals.net, ChristianShareware.net, ChristianClassifieds.net,
ChristianMessageBoards.net, BibleStudyTools.net, MediaManagement.net,
WorldNewsToday.net, WebCastGuide.net, and
ChristianCollegeGuide.net
- Reuters is "the world's leading financial information
and news group. Their web page is at: http://www.reuters.com/
- Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): E-mail: cair1@ix.netcom.com
URL: http://www.cair-net.org To
join CAIR-NET, CAIR's read-only mailing list: Send subscribe
cair-net in the body of a message to majordomo@cair-net.org
- EWTN News carries Roman Catholic news from Catholic World
News, Vatican Information Service, ZENIT, CWNews.com. See: http://www.ewtn.com/news/
- Ecumenical News International (ENI) in Geneva Switzerland
distributes news free religious news highlights to subscribers. They
can be contacted at PO Box 2100, CH - 1211, Geneva 2, Switzerland.
Telephone: (41-22) 791 6087/6515. Fax: (41-22) 788 7244 Email: eni@eni.ch.
Their web site is at http://www.eni.ch
- ZENIT.org is "an International News Agency based in
Rome. Our mission is to provide objective and professional coverage of
events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning the Catholic
Church for a worldwide audience, especially the media." Their
web site is at: http://www.zenit.org/english/
- Anglican Communion News Service provides information from an
Anglican perspective. See: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/index.html
A companion Episcopal News Service is at: http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens/
- AANEWS is distributed by American Atheists.
- CNSNews.com -- Cybercast News Service -- is a conservative
news source. Their home page is at:
http://www.cnsnews.com
- Rich Breault, "Wiccagate: What do Witches Grove protesters have
to hide?," Valley Press, 2002-APR-8.
- Bob Kellogg, "Yoga Promoted in Miss. Elementary School: Some
Christian parents claim the class promotes Eastern mysticism," Focus
on the Family, at:
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/A0020362.html
- "Discord Over Killing of India Muslims Deepens," New York
Times, 2002-APR-29 at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/29/
- Michael Casey, "Fourteen Christians killed in Indonesia,"
2002-APR-28, Associated Press, at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news
- Aamer Madhani, and Rudolph Bush, & Matthew Walberg: "Catholics
launch donation boycott: Archdiocese urged to adopt reforms,"
Chicago Tribune, 2002-APR-30, at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/
Copyright © 2002 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2002-APR-14
Latest update: 2002-MAY-6
Author: B.A. Robinson

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