Painter of yuck

University Diaries goes after kitschmeister Thomas Kinkade. It’s a “theological conundrum.”

At least, says the Los Angeles Times, he parties like an Abstract Expressionist. (Link may expire.)

In sworn testimony and interviews, [ex-employees and others] recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee’s wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman’s breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.

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From Vinland to “Celtic America” (Part 4)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Reading of Richard Nielsen’s championing of the Kensington Runestone, I was reminded of another independent scholar of marginal archaeology–another engineer, coincidentally–the late Bill McGlone of La Junta, Colorado.

McGlone in turn had been influenced by Barry Fell (1917-1994), a marine biologist and oceanographer. Growing up in New Zealand, Fell had been well aware of the far-sailing Polynesian culture, and he developed a side interest in ancient navigation. He had also learned the Gaelic language while studying at the University of Edinburgh.

(Here are a Wikipedia entry and a detailed obituary with a complete list of Fell’s publications.)

In 1976, Fell published America B.C., an unorthodox survey of North American prehistory, which claimed evidence for visits by ancient Phoenicians, Celts, and others. The evidence was chiefly “epigraphic,” that is to say, based on inscriptions on rocks and caves, etc., here and there. Fell did not even visit all of them, but in his office at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology collected, transcribed, and in some cases translated inscriptions copied for him by various other people.

Two potential problems arose: sometimes the collectors “improved” the inscriptions, and in other cases, natural features such as cracks in the rock were seen as letters. Still, overall impression of America B.C. and Fell’s subsequent two books were intriguing.

American archaeologists were not impressed. Since it was known that no pre-Columbian culture north of the Valley of Mexico had writing, therefore there could not be any writing, and therefore no one studying ancient writing systems. Epigraphy was for archaeologists working Europe, the Middle East, or Asia. American archaeologists studied artifacts, human physical remains, dwellings, and associated evidence such as pollen and tree rings, but not epigraphy.

Only artifacts would prove convincing, just as the sparse artifacts found in the mid-1960s at L’Anse aux Meadows had carried more weight than all the sagas in proving that the Norse had visited North America.

More to come.

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No marker for Wiccan veteran

A Wiccan sergeant from the Nevada National Guard was killed in action in Afghanistan. Now his widow runs up against the Veterans Administration’s refusal to permit a pentacle marker on the graves of Wiccan veterans, notes the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Link may expire, so I will quote at length.)

Stewart’s widow, Roberta, said she will wait until her family’s religion — and its five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, with one point facing skyward — is recognized for use on memorials before Stewart’s plaque is installed.

“It’s completely blank,” Roberta Stewart said, pointing to her husband’s place on the memorial.

She said she had no idea the pentacle could not be used on her husband’s memorial plaque until she had to deal with the agency after the death of her husband.”

…

Patrick Stewart’s dog tags, which Roberta Stewart wears around her neck, carry the word Wiccan on them to identify his religious beliefs. But she said he was never told the Wiccan religion was not officially recognized during his 13 years of military service in different capacities.

“By they way, if you die for your country, your religion won’t be recognized, that would be nice to know,” Roberta Stewart said.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its National Cemetery Administration prohibit graphics on government-furnished headstones or markers other than those they have approved as “emblems of belief.” More than 30 such emblems are allowed on gravestones and makers in veterans cemeteries, from the Christian cross to the Buddhist wheel of righteousness. A symbol exists for atheists too.

So what is the VA afraid of?

Various Pagan groups have been stonewalled, if you will pardon the pun, by the VA up until now, but enough embarassment will cause the bureaucracy to move.

Of course, not all Pagans are Wiccans, but Wicca, broadly defined, is the largest Pagan grouping, so let’s start there.

UPDATE: Jason Pitzl-Waters offers additional information and links.

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Bands that will be playing in Hell …

…are listed in the Field Guide to Evangelicals.

So have evangelical Christians developed a sense of irony, like those upwardly mobile black professionals who decorate with Aunt Jemima and Sambo advertising art?

Maybe so, based on some of the reviews.

Notice the lack of protest marches, burnings, and murders from people who might not like it.

But humor + religion is a dangerous combination. One day you’re chuckling at Lark News, and the next day you’re at Landover Baptist Church.

Goths once sacked Rome

And Oleg Volk is wondering what that would look like now.

Ah, “Goth,” one of few words that is almost as ambiguous as “liberal” or “conservative.” I mean, could you read this and then describe what is a “conservative”?

More serious blogging coming this weekend, I promise.

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Aphrodite Will Not Be Denied (2)

On the heels of the “cartoon jihad,” singer Deeyah’s new video may be the next excuse for rioting.Deeyah

Muslim pop singer Deeyah has irked the Muslim world with her provocative new music video that shows her stripping off a burka to reveal her bikini-clad body.

In the clash of civilizations, “fight fire with hotness,” says one quoted blogger.

But the video’s not all about booty-shaking your way to freedom of expression. The video reportedly features other Muslim and Middle Eastern women who have fought for women’s rights. There are women, throughout the video, pictured removing strips of tape from their mouths.

She was born in Norway, but that country’s radical Muslim community made life so uncomfortable for her that she moved to the United Kingdom. Death threats continue.

As I once wrote, “Aphrodite will not be denied.” You either acknowledge the powers of the gods, or they will assert themselves in uncontrollable ways.

I had thought that Haifa Wehbe was “the Muslim Madonna.” But I can’t keep up with American pop stars, let alone those from elsewhere.

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Font change

Since my Web-design gurus say that sans-serif fonts are more readable on the screen than serif fonts (the opposite applies on paper), I am trying a switch to (depending on your system) Verdana, Arial, or generic sans-serif.

Archived pages are in the old font. Your comments are welcome.

Followers of the Peacock Angel

Traveler/blogger Michael Totten visits the holiest shrine of the Yezidis.

Some quotes:

Yezidis are ancient fire-worshippers. They heavily influenced Zoroastrianism, and in turn have been heavily influenced by Sufi Islam. The temple at Lalish is their “Mecca.” Hundreds of thousands of remaining Yezidis – those Kurds who refused to submit to Islam – make pilgrimages there at least once in their lifetimes from all over the Middle East and Europe.

…

Small buildings that I first thought were houses surround the central courtyard. These small buildings are shrines. (Lalish isn’t a village. No one actually lives there.) The shrines are sacred places dedicated to various Yezidi prophets who are said to help people with physical ailments. There is a shrine where you go if you have a back ache. There is a shrine where you go if you have a tooth ache. And so on. The soil inside and under the shrines is supposedly magic.

…

“Are you friends with Satan?” I said. “Some Muslims have told me Yezidis are friends with Satan.” I didn’t tell him that my driver, who was standing right next to me, had said this only a half-hour ago.

“We are not friends with Satan. This is a common point of confusion. They mean Malek Taus. He is the King of the Angels, and the Yezidis follow his way.”

Malek Taus is some kind of celestial peacock. He supposedly said no to God, who did little more than create the universe from a pearl, when God asked all the angels to pray to Adam. “Adam,” he said (as in Adam and Eve) “was a prophet of God.” But Malek Taus later repented and has been in God’s good graces since.

What’s important about Malek Taus is that he (it?) was given the choice to follow good or evil, just as human beings are given that choice. Malek Taus chose the good path even though he did not have to. He sets the right example, then, for humans to follow.

“Can someone from another religion become a Yezidi?” I said.

“No,” Baba Sheik said. He shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head. “We are the original people,” he said and spread out his arms. “We can’t become a cocktail religion like Islam.” Everyone, including my Muslim driver and translator, thought that was hilarious.

As the one comment indicates, the Yezidis are sometimes called “Satan-worshipers,” but in fact they are one of the more exotic ingredients in the stew of Middle Eastern monotheisms.

Supremes uphold entheogenic church

Earlier post here.

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of followers of Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), a religion born in Brazil that uses ayahuasca as its sacrament, to use ayahuasca in the United States.

The feds argued that preventing use of a “controlled substance” was more important than religious freedom, as codified in the Religious Freedom Act of 1993. (The Native American Church, which uses peyote sacramentally, was a major lobbyist for that act.)

The court ruled, however, that the federal govenment did not demonstrate a “compelling interest,” in other words, a reason good enough to overrule the established principle of religious freedom. The feds had argued that there was no exception to the Controlled Substances Act, not for a single drop of ayahuasca tea.

As the court’s opinion stated, “The Government’s argument echoes the classic rejoinder of bureaucrats throughout history: If I make an exception for you, I’ll have to make one for everybody, so no exceptions.”

A digression. The copy editor working on my book wanted to change every use of “entheogen” to “hallucinogen” or “psychedelic.” I am asking him to restore my original wording, for the same reason that prompted Jonathan Ott and others to coin the term. When you say “entheogen,” you are saying that these substances can be used as religious sacrements, but when you say “hallucinogen,” you are saying, in effect, that they produce only worthless hallucinations and are worthless, if not dangerous. “Psychedelic” started as a useful term, but in the 1965-1975 period it ended up being applied to music, fashion, automotive paint schemes, and so many things that it became useless in its original sense.

Can law reflect that distinction? Not with current “drug war” thinking.

(Hat tip to SCOTUS Blog.)

UPDATE: More comments and links at Get Religion.

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Voodoo, chickens, bird flu

As Jason Pitzl-Waters recently noted, the spread of bird flu connects with the ancient Pagan religion that we know as Voodoo or Voudoun.

You can see more about the religion as practiced in the nation of Benin in this BBC slide show.

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