All summer I have been editing and laying out a biography of the American Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944). I just sent the galleys to the writer, a professor in Arizona, and am working on my own corrections as well. There have been the usual hassles—missing “essential” photos, notes that did not match the [...]
Not one but two Pagans write to the syndicated advice column Annie’s Mailbox to explain that they are not offended when someone offers a Christian blessing at a meal. (Scroll down to the second “Dear Annie.”) If you really are a polytheist, then Jesus is a god too. Maybe he did not start out as [...]
Toward the end of her interview today on National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, Samantha Bee of The Daily Show describes being raised by a Wiccan mother whose ceremonies were “terrifying,” even though the presence of the religion was “unobtrusive.” Well, no one expects comediennes to be logical. What is funny is hearing interviewer Terry Gross [...]
In the current issue of The Cauldron, a writer known only as “Tof” tells us that Donna Gardner, wife of Gerald, chief founder of Wicca, was lying when she said that she was not involved in the Craft. First, though, Tof tells us, “In all this [biographical summary] there is not evidence of Donna Gardner’s [...]
Last October 9 I blogged on the deaths at a sweat-lodge ceremony conducted by James Arthur Ray near Sedona, Ariz. There has been a lot of discussion in the Pagan blogosphere about the case, particularly at The Wild Hunt. A lot of people piled on, and there was the usual sloganeering about “cultural appropriation” and [...]
For environmental news of the West, I have subscribed since the 1980s to High Country News, a biweekly magazine. For the first time since a rancher named Tom Bell started the magazine in Lander, Wyoming in 1970, HCN has jumped on the bandwagon of anti-Wiccan snark. In a blog post called “Witches and Rifles,” editor [...]
• Icelandic Pagans curse the nation’s economic rivals. See what happens when you mix polytheism and international banking? (Via Pagan Newswire Collective.) • I do like what Iceland may do for freedom of the (online) press. • We are the Empire, and we have the chariot-racing to prove it. Video no. 2 is the better [...]
As mentioned here previously and at The Wild Hunt, Patrick McCollum, volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain in California, has sued the state to overturn a policy of hiring paid chaplains only from certain religions. A new article at BeliefNet summarizes the case. Excerpts: Supported by interfaith scholars and church-state separationists, the Rev. Patrick McCollum argues that [...]
• “Hard versus Soft Polytheism is a False Dichotomy.” • A recently discovered statue described as the god Odin and welcomed by some reconstructionist Norse Pagans, is–by Viking Period artistic conventions–either a woman or the goddess Freya, says a Swedish archaeologist. • The Necronomicon: “It’s like the Bible but different” (YouTube video). Via Plutonica.net. • [...]
A friend passed on this column by political commenter Diana West, who notes in passing that there are almost as many Wiccans as Muslims in the American military–and more in the Air Force. So far, I have not heard of any Wiccan dissatisfied with their military careers expressing themselves by killing their fellow service members. [...]
