{"id":13830,"date":"2024-09-17T16:17:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T22:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13830"},"modified":"2024-09-17T16:17:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T22:17:45","slug":"animal-sacrifice-are-they-doing-it-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13830","title":{"rendered":"Animal Sacrifice: Are They Doing It Wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Possible<\/a>
A possible animal sacrifice location in the Howard Beach area. J.C. Rice (New York Post)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The New York Post <\/em>had two articles recently on apparent animal sacrifice in the Jamaica Bay area of Long Island (politically in both Brooklyn and Queens). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Animal Sacrifices on the Rise in Queens with Chickens, Pigs being Tortured in \u2018Twisted\u2019 Rituals<\/a>” appeared on September 7, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Animal sacrifices<\/a> are surging in Queens, with chickens, pigs and rats being tortured, mutilated or killed in \u201ctwisted\u201d religious rituals in parkland surrounding Jamaica Bay, The Post has learned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a little over a month, at least nine wounded animals or carcasses have been discovered in the federally-managed Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel \u2014 including five live pigs with partially severed ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creatures recovered from the revolting scene also include a near-dead baby rat tied up in a bag with chicken bones; a freshly decapitated chicken head; a live hen in distress; and a dead dog with its neck snapped.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ethnographically, the article adds, “Jamaica Bay<\/a> has been a popular religious site among members of the Hindu Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean diaspora living in nearby neighborhoods, including Richmond Hill and Ozone Park..”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Post <\/em>was back on September 14th with “Feds, City to Crack Down on Animal Sacrifices in NYC\u2019s Jamaica Bay after Dog-Carcass with Snapped Neck, Wounded Pigs Found.<\/a> Mobile lights were to be installed to thwart the evil cultists operating under cover of darkness! I wonder how that worked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Feds, City” should talk to their colleagues in South Florida about this problem. It was there, after all, that a legal case arose that led to the Supreme Court’s verdict in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah<\/a><\/em>. For a good backgrounder on the case, listen to Heather Freeman’s Magic in the United States <\/em>podcast episode on the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye<\/a>. (A print transcript is also available at that link.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In essence, per the Court, animal sacrifice for religious purposes is not illegal in the United States under the First Amendment<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animal sacrifice pops up repeatedly in the Bible. Many Muslims partake in qurban<\/em> (animal sacrifice) at the feast of Eid al-Adha<\/a>. Some Orthodox Jews have a practice of waving a live chicken overhead <\/a>while praying on Yom Kippur Eve, then slaughtering it for a meal according to the kosher rules. And Christians describe Jesus as the Supreme Sacrifice, some descibing themselves as “washed in the blood of the [sacrificial] Lamb.<\/a>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. J. Jacobs, a non-religious Jewish writer in NYC, devotes a semi-humorous section of his book A Year of Living Bibically<\/a><\/em> to attempting to join Hasidic Jews iin this ritual.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pagan studies scholars have tended to skirt sacrifice in the Afro-Diasporic religiions, which is why Heather Freeman’s podcast was an exception. There has been some writing on bl\u00f3t <\/em>in Asatru, which may include sacrifice, starting with Michael Strmiska’s<\/a> 2007 article “Putting the Blood back into Bl\u00f3t: The Revival of Animal Sacrifice in Modern Nordic Paganism<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Animal sacrifice was a key religious practice of the pre-Christian peoples of Germanic Northern Europe. It is now being revived by some modern Pagans who reconstruct pre-Christian Germanic religious traditions, drawing on medieval Icelandic literature as well as Anglo-Saxon literature and other related sources (155).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Jefferson Calico’s 2018 book Being Viking: Heathenism in Contempo<\/em>rary America<\/em> <\/a>devotes an entire chapter to the topic, examining its social, religious, and ethical contexts, noting that “Eating the sacrifice2<\/a><\/sup> becomes a sacred as well as a dissenting act that calls into quesion and occasions a critique of secular, mainstream American eating practices” (314). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sacrifice means to make something sacred by connecting it to the divine<\/a>, yet when it comes to the Jamaica Bay incidents, I have so many questions. Were all these animal remain the product of sacrificial rituals? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Asatru would have eaten the “blotted” pig — were the ones found abandoned by some urban homesteader? A dead dog? Killed in ritual or killed to cause pain to its owner? Baby rat? (Mom made him get rid of it?). Cops3<\/a><\/sup> operate with simple categories. What happens when you make a collar and end up in court being grilled4<\/a><\/sup> by a First Amendment lawyer? Is it easier just to put up some lights than sort out the perpetrators, when some are criminals and others part of a protected class? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

  1. Subtitled “One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible,” the book describes his attempt to follow all <\/strong><\/em>the Hebrew Bible’s rules while living in New York City — with a very patient wife. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. As is normally done in most cultures. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Like vegans. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Pun intended. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The New York Post had two articles recently on apparent animal sacrifice in the Jamaica Bay area of Long Island (politically in both Brooklyn and Queens). “Animal Sacrifices on the Rise in Queens with Chickens, Pigs being Tortured in \u2018Twisted\u2019 Rituals” appeared on September 7, 2024. Animal sacrifices are surging in Queens, with chickens, pigs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":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":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[460,214,76,130,335,52],"class_list":["post-13830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african-religion","tag-animals","tag-asatru","tag-heathenry","tag-new-york","tag-sacrifice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3B4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":814,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=814","url_meta":{"origin":13830,"position":0},"title":"Animal Sacrifice and Authenticity","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Classics scholar Mary Beard suggested that contemporary Hellenic Pagans were not quite authentic because they omitted the centerpiece of ancient Paganism: animal sacrifice. (I discussed her critique here, and she responded.)Orthodox Christian blogger Rod Dreher's recent post--and especially the comments--pretty well illustrate just how squeamish today's population--even omnivores--are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6893,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6893","url_meta":{"origin":13830,"position":1},"title":"Animal Sacrifice and ‘Hard’ Polytheism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There was some discussion last week at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting as to whether the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group should sponsor or co-sponsor a session devoted to issues surrounding animal sacrifice. Some voices in the Pagan world suggest that you are not really a \"hard\" polytheist (truly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hinduism\"","block_context":{"text":"Hinduism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hinduism"},"img":{"alt_text":"imrs.php","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/imrs.php_-300x204.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5677,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5677","url_meta":{"origin":13830,"position":2},"title":"When Gods Sacrifice to Themselves","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost all traditional Pagan cultures have one religious practice in common that contemporary Pagans for the most part avoid: Sacrifice, which means literally \"to make sacred.\" Earlier this month, in fact, at a Pagan camp-out one of the elders was discoursing on the uselessness of sacrifice. If g\/God were a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/9\/91\/Omphalos_pushkin.jpg\/337px-Omphalos_pushkin.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1883,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1883","url_meta":{"origin":13830,"position":3},"title":"Giving Animal Sacrifice a Bad Name","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"You know that I am all for polytheism, and I say \"All honor to Durga,\" but isn't this a bit much? The Los Angeles Times reports that more than 40,000 people, many of whom were inebriated, took their sacrificial goats to the Tildiha village temple in Bihar state to pray\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hinduism\"","block_context":{"text":"Hinduism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hinduism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4437,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4437","url_meta":{"origin":13830,"position":4},"title":"Puppy Mills for the Gods","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"When I read an article like \"Millions of Mummy Puppies Revealed at Egyptian Catacombs,\" I realize how little we know about what was really going on with popular religion there centuries ago. It's one thing to study the tombs of high-ranking individuals. We still put high-ranking individuals in fancy tombs,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":992,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=992","url_meta":{"origin":13830,"position":5},"title":"Pomegranate 9.2","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been remiss in not noting the contents of the latest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. Videlicet:\u2022 \"The Quandary of Contemporary Pagan Archives,\"Garth Reese, \u2022 \"The Status of Witchcraft in the Modern World,\" Ronald Hutton,\u2022 \"Kabbalah Recreata: Reception and Adaptation of Kabbalah in Modern Occultism,\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nature religion\"","block_context":{"text":"nature religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=nature-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830","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=13830"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13841,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13830\/revisions\/13841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}