War is not just between soldiers

Sometimes I play computer games. Tropico, also known as “SimCuba,” was a favorite, as were Atomic Games’ Operation Crusader and Stalingrad. I played every variation on the latter, until I was convinced that I could have won the Battle of the Don and saved most of the Romanian forces too. (Just take Gen. Von Manstein’s advice: stage a “communications breakdown” with Berlin and then evacuate Stalingrad, no matter what Der Fueher says.)

But I digress. The point here is that this article, using the language and humor of computer war- gaming, makes some valid points about not only the current Iraq and Afghanistan fighting, but on whatever will follow them as well.

Thanks to Belmont Club for the link.

The Goth menace and bureaucrats at play

What happens when a town gets a six-figure federal grant to study the pseudo-problem of Goth kids? Not much, except that people in charge get to travel to lots of conferences.

Instead, the draft report shows that $54,000 was spent on salaries for Ford and her secretary, whose duties included buying furniture and equipment to set up their office; doing research “utilizing the Internet, library, Barnes & Noble bookstore, A-to-Z Comics, Spencer Gifts and Hot Topics”; interviewing police and school personnel; poring over police and school reports for any instances of goth-related criminal activities (they found none); and creating checklists and a brochure about goths.

The whole story is here.

After Troy, Alexander

The official site for a new movie about Alexander the Great, starring Colin Farrell and directed by Oliver Stone, accompanied by a fan/critic’s site.

“Sampling Paradise” revisited

Writer Erik Davis rewrote his article on Goan trance music, “Sampling Paradise,” for a new anthology out from Routledge, Rave Culture and Religion, edited by Graham St. John.

Read the whole thing here; meanwhile, a sample paragraph:

Techno historians already know that English working-class kids brought raves back from Ibiza, the cheap vacation island off of Spain whose weather, slack, and lack of extradition treaties made it a Goa-style hippie colony decades ago. The original Ibizan DJs were certainly freaks, mixing Tangerine Dream in with their disco. But the holders of bohemian lore will tell you that the esoteric lineage of electronic trance dance lay further east, in Goa. When I spoke to Genesis P. Orridge, the leader of the magickal techno/industrial outfit Psychic TV, he said that “the music from Ibiza was more horny disco, while Goa was more psychedelic and tribal. In Goa, the music was the facilitator of devotional experience. It was just functional, just to make that other state happen.”

“Rebutting” Wicca

I did write to National Public Radio reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty to share my question about why only Wicca, of the various new religious movements covered in her series, deserved to have someone outside its faith community comment on what was wrong with it–in other words, evangelical Christians.

Here is her response. Actually, at least the first two paragraphs are from the “boilerplate” response that she used for everyone who wrote in to criticize her reporting, and apparently there were quite a few of those. You might say that I am somewhat appeased, but not entirely convinced. (The lack of capital W on Wicca is hers.)

Dear Chas,

Thanks for your note. I have received many emails complaining that I had interviewed Christians in the wiccan piece. I should say that, had I to do over again, I would not have put them in. I discussed the issue beforehand with my editor, and we decided to do so, because this is the context in which the two teenage girls in the story were living. Colorado Springs is the most “evangelical” of all cities… a point that came out in the final edit, now to my chagrin… and so these wiccan teens have to deal with this kind of peer response all the time. Both of them went to evangelical churches before they found wicca. My intent — and clearly it was misconstrued — was to show the context of their lives. But, we had to cut the piece by 40 seconds, we took out the nuance in that section.

Let me also address the Toronto Blessing piece (I did not do the one on Soka Gokkai). In the Pentecostal piece, we had a long section about how the Toronto Blessing is not of God, it’s evil, it’s mass hypnotism of the ilk you might find in Vegas. I felt the portrayal of wiccan teens was very sympathetic, and if anything, the Christian teens look hard and reactionary.

This was our thinking. I certainly never intended to offend, but to do the most nuanced job I could, given the constraints of a 12 minute piece. But this reminds me, once again, that NPR has the most thoughtful and informed listeners. I appreciate your writing me, Chas, and especially appreciate the kind tone of your note.

Sincerely,

Barbara

Maxine Sanders interview

The Wiccan/Pagan Times has an interview with Maxine Sanders, another pioneer of the Craft. It was her often nude and then-blonde self who appeared skyclad in so many late-1960s and early-1970s books and articles, such as the Time-Life Books Man, Myth and Magic encyclopedia, not to mention various British tabloids, who loved the combination of her good looks and the persona of her former husband, Alex “King of the Witches” Sanders.

Left: Maxine and Alex Sanders in the late 1960s.

In the 1980s, Maxine seemed to drop out of sight. All I heard was that she was living somewhere in London. So this interview is a treat.

She remembers: In the sixties, word of mouth found a covenstead, or chance, if you believe in such like, which made the process of seeking Initiation somehow more magical. Most covens were extremely secretive. Fear of persecution was real, which made the coven bond extremely strong and the words “Perfect Love and Perfect Trust” passwords that were upheld. Persecution could result in job loss, family upset or worse, and more frequently, violence.

Thanks to The Juggler for the link.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty, part 2

Apparently, I’m a late arrival at this particular meme party. Various people have been all over Hagerty’s religion reporting on NPR before now. The gist: she lets her born-again evangelical values influence how she covers stories, and NPR administrators ignore her violations of their reporter’s code of ethics.

“Daily Kos,” the political blog, calls her a media whore.

This atheist is not happy either.

And there is even an anti-Hagerty entry at this church-and-state blog.

It sounds like a story for the guys at Get Religion, except that their views dovetail perhaps too well with Hagerty’s to begin with.

A delayed reaction to Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s NPR pieces

Two weeks after blogging about it, I finally listened to National Public Radio reporter Barbara Badley Hagerty’s interview with the (mostly) teenaged Wiccans.

A thought struck me: Is Wicca still the only religion that requires a rebuttal? In this base, Bradley Hagerty goes to some teens at some big evangelical church in Colorado Springs for quotes about falling into Satan’s clutches and that sort of thing.

Elsewhere in her series, someone outside that church discussed the Pentacostal Toronto Blessing, but it was still within an overall Christian context.

One non-rebuttal voice was the manager of Celebration, the leading New Age (for lack of a better term) bookstore in Colorado Springs. Twenty years ago, when Celebration was much smaller, that job was filled by the notorious MC herself. Originally, the woman who started Celebration, Coreen Toll, was highly skeptical about Paganism, being at the time pretty much of a “white light” New Ager herself.

To her credit, Toll, who started quite small (one shelf of astrology books and a rack of imported India-print dresses in one room of her house) and built the store up from there, later developed an apprecation of Paganism in its various forms (Ka-ching Ka-ching).

Accommodating polytheists . . . and who else?

This commentary from USA Today got under my skin. When the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye won its court case a few years ago, I was pleased overall, although the “leaving dead chickens under bushes” part seemed pointless to me. A number of my students have cited the case in papers as evidence of the expanding boundaries of American religious freedom. Likewise, we have frequently discussed the Smith case, when the Native American Church collided with the state of Oregon, leading to new federal legislation . . . that was overturned as unconstitutional (see final paragraphs).

But, indeed, how far should courts go in the name of religious freedom? The part about beating the puppy to death as part of a shamanic ritual: from a detached (let’s say Martian) perspective, is that any different than the Santeria sacrifice? But it bothers me so much more.

And don’t get me started on people like this. I don’t feel like cutting them any slack at all.

Joseph Wilson: A Craft Pioneer’s Life

Joseph Wilson published one of the first American Pagan newsletters, The Waxing Moon, in the 1960s and through his correspondence with Robert Cochrane, established the “1734” tradition or current or call-it-what-you-will in American Craft. (Another version of 1734 history is here.

His spiritual autobiography is now appearing serially in The Cauldron, but you may read the whole thing online here at his Toteg Tribe site. I recommend it. American Paganism suffers from too much how-to in relation to the what-happened.