2000-JAN-5: MN: Pagan billboards: A group of billboards have been installed in
the Minneapolis-St. Paul area by the local Northern Dawn local Covenant of the Goddess
council. The signs promote religious
freedom and the Goddess. Each has a caption such as: "The
Goddess is alive and magic is afoot" "Embrace the
Goddess" or "The Goddess is within." All
have the slogan "Freedom of religion means all religions."
See: http://hawkdancing.com/gdssigns.html
2000-FEB-29: MI: Teacher suspended: Ring LardnerMiddle school science teacher Cheril Malinowski was
suspended for three days after loaning a Wiccan book to one of her
students. The student was doing a report on herbal healing. The book
in question is Scott Cunningham's "Wicca: A guide for the
solitary practitioner" -- a very popular Wiccan book. 1Loaning any religious book to a student is probably a violation of the
principle of separation of church and state, because the loan
implies school support for a specific religion. Loaning of a Bible,
Wiccan book or Qur'an would be equally unconstitutional, unless it is
part of a comparative religion course. The school board
suspended the teacher for three days. The student involved loaned
the book to second student. The parents of the latter student, the
Wozniaks, have stolen the book and have refused to return it. There
are allegations that supporters of the teacher have issued threats
against the Wozniak daughter and others. The Wozniaks claim that the
book contains information on "Satanic rituals, pentagrams,
daggers for sacrifice and how to build an altar." 2
[Author's note: The book, in reality, contains Wiccan
religious information, no Satanic information, information on
pentagrams and on the construction of a Wiccan sacred altar. It
describes an athame which is a double-sided knife used in rituals
and never used to cut anything other than air. Wiccans have been
known to sacrifice a peach or an apple, but never animals or humans.]
2000-APR-25: USA: CBS Program about Witches: CBS broadcasted an episode of their program JAG
(Judge Advocate General) called "The Witches of Gulfport".
CBS describes the program as follows: "Mac
goes undercover to help Harm investigate charges of sexual
misconduct against Chief Petty Officer Merker who is the leader of
the Wiccans, a local witches coven with many Navy members. The
female seaman who brought the charges claims she was seduced when
she fell under the man's spell, but Merker claims the sex was
consensual. The Wiccan's attorney is sharp and claims his client is
the unfortunate victim. However, Mac learns that another young woman
suffered the same fate. He convinces her to testify and Merker is
found guilty." The episode contained a reasonably accurate
portrayal of a Wiccan circle -- perhaps a first for a dramatic show
on TV.
2000-JUN-20: USA: Wiccan lawyer: The Alternative Religions
Educational Network (AREN) announced that their "resident
Attorney, Bonnie-Ann Brill Keagy, has been admitted to practice
before the Supreme Court of the United States of America. To the
best of our knowledge Ms. Keagy is the first Witch to be admitted to
practice in front of this Court. Ms. Keagy has a wealth of
experience in cases involving Pagan Rights as well as standard law
practice, focusing primarily in criminal defense and Family
Law...Ms. Keagy has authored articles for Llewellyn Publishing under
her pen name of Creide Stewart, and has been active in Civil,
Religious Rights and Politics for many years. She is the mother of
three children ranging in age from 10 to 16." 3
2000-JUL-1: UK: Pagan-Christian meeting: Suzanne
Evans, a Christian and former British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC)
religious affairs correspondent, organized an inter-faith conference
in 2000-JUN. About 79 Druids, Wiccans and Christian clergy attended
the meeting in Amesbury, Wiltshire, UK. It is believed to be the
first formal meeting since the church stopped executing Witches
centuries ago. Ms. Evans admitted: "I started out from the
position of many Christians thinking that paganism was something
dreadful, something akin to Satanism. But I found that most of my
preconceptions had been entirely wrong: paganism and Satanism are
about as far removed as you can possibly get. It seemed like a
logical thing to organize a conference where the two sides explore
their misunderstandings and to make the point that the two faiths
can actually get along." There are an estimated 150,000 Neo
pagans in the UK of whom about 20,000 are practising Druids. Most of
the latter trace their faith group back to Victorian era when
interest in the indigenous Celtic religion was revived. There
are currently more than 30 separate Druid orders in the UK today.
Emma Restall Orr, 35, joint chief of the British Druid Order, said
that pagans "tend to have a very primary school attitude
towards Christianity: Christianity is God sitting on a cloud
throwing thunderbolts and being judgmental...People in Christianity
are still totally misinformed about paganism and Druidry and
consider it to be something Satanic, which couldn't be further from
the truth. Satanism is perverted Christianity." The meeting
ended with short acts of worship led by Druids and Christians.4
2000-OCT-3: TX: Wiccan invocation at Dallas city council
meeting: Bryan Lankford, a Wiccan and the first officer of the Texas
Council of the Covenant of the Goddess, had been invited to give
the opening invocation at the Dallas TX City Council meeting on
2000-SEP-27. Someone leaked the information to a local Christian
radio station; they asked their listeners to call city hall and
threaten to protest if a Wiccan was allowed to speak. The invitation
was cancelled and a Christian minister was substituted. Bryan did
deliver his invocation on that day -- from the steps outside of city
hall. It was well covered by local media. Newspapers, radio and
television all carried the event. This resulted in a far greater
audience than Bryan would have reached if he had simply been allowed
to give his invocation. A local Christian TV station called for
actions against the Wiccans. Their listeners were asked to do "whatever
they had to, to stop the invocation." It was said that the
"Satanists are taking over the city." Bryan finally
gave the invocation at the OCT-3 council meeting. He said, in part:
"Mother Goddess, Father God: we thank you for life and
the world we share. We ask that you bless this council and the mayor
with the wisdom to lead this city into our tomorrow's, that it may
flourish in harmony and prosperity. We pray for Honesty, Love,
Compassion, and Faith, that our spirits be transformed into golden
spirits, shining with the light of the Divine. We ask this of deity
in whatever form each of us perceives it. So may it be."
Someone tried to silence Bryan by shouting, but was squelched by
the mayor. Three individuals then were allowed to speak against the
invocation. The mayor then said that he was very moved by the
invocation and hoped to see Bryan back in the future.
2000-OCT-13: LA: Anti-fortune telling law challenged: According
to Deseret News in Salt Lake City UT, Monte Plaisance, with the support of the American
Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. He is
attempting to overturn a 1928 ordinance in Terrebonne Parish, LA, that
prohibits fortune telling and palm reading. He claims that it
prevents him from following his religion of Witchcraft. The ACLU is
arguing that if the parish bans fortune telling, then it should also
ban
weather predictions, fortune cookies, commodities
predictions and doctors' prognoses. According to ABC News, a
resident of Houma laid a complaint against a Wiccan coven under the
ordinance. A city detective interrupted a Wiccan ritual, took
photographs, and announced that if his superiors decided that the
group was involved in fortune telling, he would be back to arrest
them. Joe Cook, ACLU representative in LA said: "Things
that are outside the mainstream bother people. They want to suppress
speech that doesn’t agree with their idea of they way things should
be. If we don’t protect the Wiccan free speech right, then the
Baptist and Catholic free speech rights are at risk." 5
2000-OCT-26: VA: Pastors unite against Wiccans: A group
of over 30 Christian pastors and laymen met in Smithfield, VA, to
prepare a "strategic plan" to counter pagan
gatherings in the area. Wiccans, Druids, and other Pagans conducted a
"Fall Gathering of the
Tribes" in Isle of Wight County in 2000-SEP.
Future gatherings are expected in 2001-SPRING and FALL. Pastor Anthony
Van Dyke "If we fail to plan...the enemy will take over our
community." In an apparent reference to Satan, "The
Rev. William McCarty described the pagan movement as evil and said the
issue goes beyond religious freedom because there is a higher
authority at work...One pastor said he didn't want to dignify Satan or
his minions by addressing them - 'We understand he's already a
defeated foe,' he said - but instead focused on how the Christian
community could become stronger. 'We're talking about pushing back the
darkness by becoming more light,' [Rev. Gary] Ham [from Newport News]
said...The battle against the pagan community would not be a
confrontational battle, they said. Christian soldiers and prayer
warriors needed to launch a spiritual offensive to protect their
community, Van Dyke said." 6[Editor's
note: The Christians in Isle of Wight County probably have little
to fear from the Pagans. Most estimates of the total number of Pagans
in the U.S. place them at less than 1% of the total population.]
2000-OCT-28: OK: Student suspended for allegedly casting
spell. According to Reuters: In Broken Arrow, OK, high school
officials at Uniin Intermediate High School accused a 15 year-old
Roman Catholic female student of casting a magic spell on a ceramics teacher which caused
him to become sick. They suspended Brandi Blackbear for 15 days. The
ACLU has launched a lawsuit, alleging that the school, in addition
to the cursing charge, had seized her notebooks and prevented her from drawing or wearing Wiccan
symbols. Joann Bell, executive director of the Oklahoma ACLU, said:
"These outlandish accusations have made Brandi Blackbear's
life at school unbearable. I for one would like to see the so-called
evidence this school has that a 15-year-old girl made a grown man sick
by casting a magic spell." Brandi's father, Timothy Blackbear, commented: "It’s hard for
me to believe that in the year 2000 I am walking into court to
defend my daughter against charges of witchcraft brought by her own
school." According to the lawsuit, assistant principal Charlie
Bushyhead and a school counselor, Sandy Franklin, culminated an interview with the student by "accusing
Plaintiff, Brandi Blackbear, of casting spells causing (a teacher at
the school) ... to be sick and to be hospitalized." The
lawsuit stated that because of the "unknown cause"
of the teacher’s illness, Bushyhead advised the 15-year-old girl
"that she was an immediate threat to the school and
summarily suspended her for what he arbitrarily determined to be a
disruption of the education process." 7
The teacher apparently suffered from appendicitis. Brandi had a
perfect attendance record and presented no discipline problems prior
to these incidences. But now, according to the ACLU complaint, she has
"suffered continuous ridicule and humiliation," and
"become an outcast among her fellow students." Her
academic work has suffered. 8 [Editor's
note: At first, we thought that this was a hoax. Bushyhead
accuses Blackbear? These are unusual names. Student believed to create spell that sent
teacher to hospital? Imagine a physician recording on a teacher's
chart "Illness caused by Witch's spell." This sort of stuff was routine in Salem MA back
three hundred years ago. But I would have hoped that we had learned something since then.]
2000-OCT-30: TX: Desecration of Wiccan ritual site:
According to a personal Email, the Wiccans at the Fort Hood Open
Circle at the Fort Hood army base near Kileen TX decided to build
a Haunted Forest for Samhain. Samhain is an ancient Celtic
festival day that is celebrated by modern-day Wiccans and other
Neopagans. It is the basis of Halloween. On OCT-29, they found that
someone had disturbed their props. On OCT-30 they found that someone
had smashed their altar to pieces. The "quarters"
which mark the North, South, East and West directions had been stolen.
All of their Haunted Forest were destroyed and thrown into the
dumpster. The altar was made out of a 4' x 4' x 1' solid piece of
stone. They have since set up a temporary circle. The motivation for
this vandalism is unknown. It might be related to statements by Representative
Barr (R-GA) and Governor Bush (R-TX) that Wiccans should not be
allowed the same religious privileges as the followers of other faiths
on army bases. 9It might be related to a local Baptist minister who
allegedly said that the army should napalm Wiccans. Feelings run high
against Wiccans among the Christians in and around Kileen.
2000-OCT-31: LA: Pastors unite to pray away Wiccans:
According to ABC News: "Houma
residents fear Wiccans are bringing dangerous, anti-Christian spirits
into the community and are resurrecting an old parish ban on
fortunetelling." René Monette is the pastor the Living
Word Church, one of 100 in Houma, LA The city is in Terrebonne
Parish, and has a population of 30,495. He is leading an anti-Wiccan
group of 30 Protestant churches in the community. They meet each month
to pray for salvation for the Witches. Pastor Monette said: "The
Wiccan church is against everything we stand for as a Christian nation
and as a Christian faith. And we wanna [sic] stand up and say no in
our community. We wanna say no, absolutely not!...We don’t want that
atmosphere here in Houma they may, can, have it in the French quarter,
that’s fine. But we don’t want it here." In an apparent
reference to a belief that the presence of Wiccans will lure evil
spirits to his town, he concluded: "We feel like a lot
of baggage is going to come with all that stuff."
2000-NOV-10: MA: Pagans on campus: According to the Boston
Globe, more than 100 Pagan groups have formed on campuses on
nearly every state and at schools from Australia to the UK. They
quoted unidentified scholars as saying that there are as many as one
million Pagans in the U.S. They reported that some parents have
threatened their children that they would cutoff finances unless they
left Paganism.
2000-NOV-14: Canada: The world's least meaningful poll on
Witches:Canoe, known as "Canada's Internet Network"
conducted an Internet poll on the existence of Witches. The question
is "Do you believe in witches?". The results were (as
of NOV-14) 52% No, 45% Yes and 3% Don't know. These results are based
on 633 responses. 10
2000-NOV-28: North America: McAfee software bars Pagan websites: The
McAfee "Office" software contains a Guard Dog program which
filters dangerous, pornographic, criminal and other Internet web
sites. It contains a data base of words which it uses to compare
against the text and Meta tags of web sites. It prevents viewing of
web sites containing any of the following words: Atlantis, magick, New
Age, Neo-pagan,
pentagram,
Wicca,
etc. It appears to discriminate against Neopagan web sites.
2000-DEC-3: North America: Ann Landers answers letter from
Wiccan: Ann Landers writes a syndicated advice column that is seen
daily in hundreds of newspapers throughout North America. On DEC-3,
she answered "Jennifer in New York," a Wiccan who
feels that she is being harassed in the workplace. Jennifer first
explains about Wicca: "we do not worship Satan...We do not
sacrifice living things...Our first tenant is 'Harm none.' "
She complains about a co-worker, "Miss R," who appears to be
a conservative Christian. "R" noticed her pentagram and said
that it is a Satanic symbol. "R" since "has made it
her mission to 'save' me and convert me to her religion."
"R" leaves religious tracts on Jennifer's desk and tapes
Bible verses to her computer monitor. Once "R" came up
behind Jennifer and baptized her with bottled water. Jennifer
complained to management and "R" has been warned. She
hesitates to make a second complaint since "R" would
probably be fired. Ann Landers explains that "R's" actions
are because "she believes that she is doing the Lord's work
and nothing will deter her." Ann suggests that Jennifer
either try to "avoid this woman like the plague," or
make a second complaint, or look for another job. Ann does not suggest
a fourth alternative: for Jennifer to warn "R" to cease and
desist or she will make a second complaint to management. 11
2000-DEC-9: Ohio: Interfaith Council welcomes Pagan observer:
The Akron Area Interfaith Council was created in 1981 "for
Christians to reach out to those of other faiths and coordinate an
ecumenical response to social, moral, ethical and cultural issues
affecting the community.The mission has grown to include
promoting the freedom of religion, equality and tolerance."
They currently have 15 Christians, 7 Jews and one each from the
Baha'i, Muslim and Unitarian Universalist communities. They had a
mind-expanding experience recently, when Crow Welch, a Pagan Priestess
from the Church of the Spiral Oak asked to join their group as
an observer. Rev. Nancy Arnold, council president and pastor of the
Unitarian Universalist Church in Akron said: "At first, some
members expressed a concern based on religious grounds, but the
discussion ended with us deciding to invite her to attend to get to
know more about her group...'' Ms. Welch had to explain to the
group that her community does not worship Satan. Jon Dainty, the
Council's executive director, said he believes that Witch Welch has a
place at the table: "As edgy and itchy as sometimes her
presence makes me and others, I think we need to have as many opinions
at the table as possible. After all, we are an interfaith group, and
because she doesn't espouse any of the beliefs that are already at the
table, that shouldn't exclude her from membership.'' 12
References:
Scott Cunningham: "Wicca: A guide for the solitary practitioner,"
Llewellyn Publ., (1990). This book is very highly rated by reviewers. It is
Amazon.com's #300th most popular books! That may not sound very impressive.
However, Amazon sells millions of titles. You
can safely read reviews of or order this book from Amazon.com
"Pagan Community now has their own Attorney admitted to practice
in front of the Supreme Court," Alternative Religions Educational
Network (AREN) news release, 2000-JUN-20.
Simon de Bruxelles, "Faiths alight on a burning desire to
talk," The London Times, London UK, 2000-JUL-1.
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