{"id":1314,"date":"2010-02-23T23:47:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T23:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2010-02-23T23:47:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T23:47:00","slug":"a-christian-minister-says-the-right-things-mostly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1314","title":{"rendered":"A Christian Minister Says the Right Things (Mostly)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Air Force Academy’s official site for Pagan ritual has received a lot of attention. I first mentioned it on January 27 when I saw the Air Force news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In faraway Virginia*, Eugence C. Buie, a retired Disciples of Christ minister<\/a>, wrote an op-ed piece criticizing his local newspaper’s own editorial about the USAFA stone circle: <\/a><\/p>\n

It is unseemly to make fun of things we may not understand, particularly religions chosen and valued by others. That is not a strange thing to say in America where it used to be customary to honor and respect everyone\u2019s \u201cfreedom of choice,\u201d especially where religious beliefs and practices are concerned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some people I know jumped on one phrase in the piece, “Granted, some kinds of Wiccan worship could be considered evil.” Frankly, I have no idea what he meant, since he just tosses that line out there without any further explanation. Sex in the circle? Drumming all night? Wearing too much crushed velvet?<\/p>\n

(And, yes, he is conflating Wicca and to some extent Druidism with all Paganism.) <\/p>\n

It’s a tribute to all the Pagans who do interfaith work that people like Buie are, however grudgingly, started to respect our right to be here.<\/p>\n

Getting one Pagan blog\u2014Jason Pitzl-Waters’ Wild Hunt<\/a>\u2014 ncluded in a survey of the religious blogosphere i<\/a>s progress too. (I remember when BeliefNet wanted my own blog on their Blog Heaven page but some months later purged it<\/a> along with other non-monotheist blogs, no explanation given.)<\/p>\n

* Virginians are not required to comment. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Air Force Academy’s official site for Pagan ritual has received a lot of attention. I first mentioned it on January 27 when I saw the Air Force news release. In faraway Virginia*, Eugence C. Buie, a retired Disciples of Christ minister, wrote an op-ed piece criticizing his local newspaper’s own editorial about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[10,5],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-lc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1307,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1307","url_meta":{"origin":1314,"position":0},"title":"Air Force Academy "Turns Back Time"","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Back on January 27th, I mentioned that the US Air Force Academy, located near Colorado Springs, had created a ritual space for followers of Pagan religions.Jason Pitzl-Waters has been keeping up on various reactions, including some form of magic performed by (presumably) evangelical Christians, who think that putting two large\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1250","url_meta":{"origin":1314,"position":1},"title":"In US Air Force, Wiccans Outnumber Muslims","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Islam\"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=islam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1295,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1295","url_meta":{"origin":1314,"position":2},"title":"Nature Religion at the Air Force Academy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Air Force Academy chapel will add a worship area for followers of Earth-centered religions during a dedication ceremony scheduled to be held at the circle March 10.Gus diZerega notes it too.Considering some of the previous church-and-state issues at the academy, this is major news.Hmm. I might be able to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1128,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1128","url_meta":{"origin":1314,"position":3},"title":"1734 and All That","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A missive showed up in my inbox lately, written by some Wiccan Web denizen, who although in a coven (this part was confusing) had had some sort of vision or revelation involving the number 1734, which led him\/her\/it to my Witches' Voice piece on the so-called \"1734 Tradition.\"I say \"so-called\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4551,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4551","url_meta":{"origin":1314,"position":4},"title":"Stone Circles: Not Just for Neolithic People","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Andy Burnham, who runs the Megalithic Portal Web site and society in Surrey, England, has recorded 253 monolithic circles built in recent decades. And 'there must be many more in private gardens that we don\u2019t know about,' he wrote in an e-mail.\" The New York Times profiles a Vermont man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Druids\"","block_context":{"text":"Druids","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=druids"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1319,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1319","url_meta":{"origin":1314,"position":5},"title":"Wicca as the (Untrustworthy) Other, Again","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}