{"id":330,"date":"2004-12-13T22:16:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-13T22:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2004-12-13T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-13T22:16:00","slug":"330","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

“Those poor pagans”<\/strong><\/p>\n

A meandering Denver Post opinion column<\/a> has a lot of Colorado Pagans upset, mainly because Paganism is invoked rather pointlessly just to color yet another rant about secular government and religious observances.<\/p>\n

Some sample comments from the e-mail lists:
\n<\/p>\n

\n
–He responded to me also, just to say, “Please, tell me again HOW you think I offended you and other Wiccans.”<\/p>\n

–Frankly, that’s the only way it makes sense. There are such amazing leaps in logic there that Superman would be dizzy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think we are seeing one fruit of Wicca and other Pagan religions’ increasing visibility. We have moved from “invisible religion” to “fake and\/or ludicrous religion,” which is, I hope, a step on the way to “just another religion.” See my previous post here<\/a> and Jason Pitzl-Waters’ comments here<\/a> and elsewhere<\/a>.<\/style>\n


\n
UPDATE:<\/span> Some letters to the editor<\/a> about the column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Those poor pagans” A meandering Denver Post opinion column has a lot of Colorado Pagans upset, mainly because Paganism is invoked rather pointlessly just to color yet another rant about secular government and religious observances. Some sample comments from the e-mail lists: –He responded to me also, just to say, “Please, tell me again HOW […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-330","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":519,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=519","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":0},"title":"Saturday with the PagansRocky Mountain\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday with the PagansRocky Mountain News religion writer Jean Torkelson goes to Denver's Pagan Pride celebration and writes a middle-of-the-road \"Pagans are mostly just regular folks\" column.Behind each pagan, a story: Dressed in brooding black, Michael Torres looked like a shadow falling across the sunlit park. Raised in the intense\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10197,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10197","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":1},"title":"“Solitary Pagans,” a New Academic Study","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the mid-1990s, Nancy Mostad, then the acquisitions editor at Llewellyn, told me that they estimated that 70 percent of purchasers of books on Paganism were solitaries.Hence the immense success -- by their standards -- of Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. Meanwhile, sociologist of religion\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":1267,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1267","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":2},"title":"Contemporary Pagans: Indigenous or Not?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A kerfuffle over who said what about which flavors of Paganism at the just-concluded Parliament of the World's Religions is summarized over at The Wild Hunt.This year's parliament in Melbourne listed \"Reconciling with the Indigenous Peoples\" as one of its key topics.Some contemporary Pagans have been playing the \"indigenous card\"\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":[]},{"id":10799,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10799","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":3},"title":"A New Study of Solitary Pagans","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Solitary Pagans: Contemporary Witches, Wiccans, and Others Who Practice Alone is a new study from Helen A. Berger, a sociologist of religion who has been studying contemporary Paganism for decades. Her body of work is large enough now that future scholars will be returning to it again and again for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/solitary-pagans.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11101,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11101","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":4},"title":"“Pagans,” a Short Documentary Film","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"? Oooh, scary Pagans! We spend a lot of time with the curtains drawn, gazing at candles, right. We wear black robes . . .\u00a0 Seriously, there is some good stuff here: Pagans, a short documentary. To tell the story of the dramatic rise of neo-paganism in America, though, you\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":25,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=25","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":5},"title":"Scottish Pagans seek recognition","author":"Chas S. 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