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Mideast: Lessons from classical warfare

Middle East Nov 7, 2006

Mideast: Lessons from classical warfare By Spengler Ancient armies with edged weapons first gave meaning to the term "asymmetrical warfare", much misused by armchair fanciers of anti-colonial warfare. Alexander killed 230,000 Persians at Gaugamela in 331 BC against 4,000 Greek and allied dead. In ancient warfare the pursuers slaughtered the pursued, and the side that ran took all the casualties. Whole civilizations melted away before the onslaught of superior forces. The great error in Western policy is to imagine that anything fundamental has changed. We throw around the term "cutting edge" lightly, too often forgetting that the edge always lands on someone's back. For three years I have excoriated George W Bush as a tragic character who always wishes to do good, but always ends up doing ill. Promoting democracy in the Middle East instead will lead to perpetual warfare. Nonetheless I sympathize with Bush, and reject as nonsensical all the conspiracy theories concerning the supposed motives for US intervention in Iraq. What you see is what you get: the United States wishes to promote its own interest by making the Muslims more like Americans. That the effort is doomed to catastrophic failure is a different matter. Much as I have ridiculed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, I also sympathize with her point of view. Like Jimmy Carter, she can only interpret events in the Middle East within the frame of her own experience, which is the bitter experience of racism in the US south. She stated on October 11 in her speech to the American Project on Palestine: I know that sometimes a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel must seem like a very distant dream. But I know too, as a student of international history, that there are so many things that once seemed impossible that, after they happened, simply seemed inevitable. I've read over the last summer the biographies of America's Founding Fathers. By all rights, America, the United States of America, should never have come into being. We should never have survived our civil war. I should never have grown up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, to become the secretary of state of the United States of America. In her view the Palestinian Arabs are a disadvantaged people struggling for their rightful place in the world. If the Palestinians fail, Rice cannot help but know, the West will react with racism, the same sort of racism that white Americans exude when speaking among themselves about the failure of American blacks. No matter that as Christians, American blacks relived Israel's journey to freedom during their bleakest moments, and triumphed by appealing to the Christian conscience of southern whites. The Palestinians are not the victims of empire, but rather the remnants of a defeated empire that cannot admit to its defeat without accepting final and complete deracination. They cannot help but return to the chant they raised when Iraqi Scud missiles hit Tel Aviv in 1990: "The Jews are our dogs." No viable economic basis exists for a state of 5 million Palestinians without massive subsidies from the West, and the Palestinians have voted emphatically against becoming the subsidized dogs of the US and the European Union. Why do whole countries in the modern world show economic results as lopsided as Gaugamela's casualty list? Little more than a decade ago the former Soviet Union and its satellites wrote off virtually their entire capital stock, and the aspirations of most of their population. By mid-century the population of a political entity that in 1980 seemed destined to rule the world will have fallen by a half (in the case of Ukraine and Moldova) to a quarter (in the case of Russia). What remains of Russia stalks the world scene like a man whose terminal cancer leaves him no motivation save amusement and revenge. Americans could look on the Soviet Union as an evil empire and communism as an evil ideology because it claimed to replace tradition with the dictatorship of reason. "No more tradition's chains shall bind us!" intoned the anthem of the Paris Communards, adopted by revolutionary Russia. Appropriately, the communist empire's last military misadventure pitted it against the most traditional of societies, namely Afghanistan. The Russian quagmire in Afghanistan had little to do with communism's ultimate failure, which stemmed from the Russian military's realization that it could not compete with the United States in high-technology weaponry. Despite its internal rot, Russia might have triumphed if it had succeeded in turning Western Europe into an economic tributary, and harnessing European productive power. Nonetheless, Russia's calamitous encounter with tradition symbolized the collapse of the arrogance with which communism set out to remake the world on the supposed foundations of science. Islam was America's ally in the final struggle against Soviet communism. It is insufficient to say that Islam is traditional; more precisely, Islam is the apotheosis of traditional society. Christianity appeared as the gravedigger of traditional society, calling individuals out from their nations into a new people of God. Where it compromised too deeply with traditional society, through syncretic adoption of pagan elements, ultimately Christianity failed, as in the ex-Christian, neo-pagan continent of Western Europe. Where Christianity liquidated the languages, culture and memories of its converts, it flourished, uniquely in the case of immigrants to the United States. Issues that seem trivial and even grotesque to Westerners, such as the veiling of women, are life-and-death matters for the survival of Islam, as Muslims in the West know better than their Western critics. Christianity recruits individual souls into a new Israel: Islam enlists converts into an army to defend traditional life against the depredations of encroaching empires. Islam cannot withstand the final dissolution of traditional society that comes with the triumph of globalization. Its entire raison d'etre is a stubborn refusal to adapt, in the fashion that the Chinese have adapted, to a new world with new ground rules. To intervene in the Islamic world is to hasten the dissolution of traditional society and with it the world of Islam. For all his good intentions, Bush appears to Iraqis as the worst thing to visit them since the Mongols in the 14th century. Christianity, even in its purest, US form, never has quite come to grips with its role as the exterminator of paganism. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, but Christians are. They must live in this world. Except in passing moments of inspiration they must make accommodations to it. Europe's solution was to make Christianity into mere Christendom, in which Christian observance settled into a supporting role within the ambient culture. Less by design than by circumstance, US Christianity has not done this, but only because the US lacks an ambient culture to begin with. By and large American Christians do not understand what it is that makes them Christians, and why their religion has flourished while European Christianity has perished. Once having abandoned their own culture by becoming American, Americans cease to understand why others will die rather than let their culture be stripped from them. Because American Christians do not quite understand what they are, they cannot understand what makes Muslims so different. Bush, Rice and other well-meaning American Christians will operate on the presumption that Muslims can be persuaded to act like them, with tragic consequences. It is not what the United States does that threatens Islam, but rather what the United States is: a global avalanche of creative destruction that rips apart the bindings of traditional life. The US has offered a world in which traditional society has no place. The portions of the world that have turned their back to the sword's edge face chaos. An endearing quality of the Americans is that they find the truth too horrible to contemplate. (Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lions Theatre demystifies Satanism

Lions Theatre demystifies Satanism
BY CLIFTON KAWANGA
03:27:51 - 06 November 2006

Their last play,
Slaughter House
Republic was a condemnation of the Chiradzulu murders but this time around, Lions Arts Theatre demystifies Satanism in their latest play The Blood of Jesus.
Speaking in an interview, the group’s director Thlupego Chisiza said Satanism is still mysterious but the play is a source of hope to those who believe in the power of Jesus Christ.
“Some things that happen in our society cannot be easily explained. There are a lot of accidents, removal of private parts and all kinds of evil acts, we simply look at that as the work of Satan,” he said.
He said people talk a lot about Satanism and what the group has done is to collect that information and come up with the play.
“Some people have confessed that they were once satanic. Our play has tried to create a picture on what Satanism is all about based on people’s experiences but in the end, it is the blood of Jesus that cleanse them,” he said.
The play centres around Isaac, whose father Mphundu is a pastor but the son’s actions puts into question the father’s responsibility in guiding his own children.
Isaac represents the present generation whose majority does not value the advice from their parents and regard their own actions as the best they can do with their lives.
The son challenges Mphundu that he never asked his father to be born. Isaac insists that he is old enough to produce his own children and he shocks his father further: “Girls give me fun, they entertain me. Okay, if I stop womanising it means I will turn you into my wife.”
As the play progresses, Isaac is given a high position by worshippers of Satan for his achievements. He is the one responsible for the deaths of his mother and sister and caused 46 accidents in three weeks.
To the disbelief of his father, he falls in love with his own aunt, Blandina and challenges Mphundu that he has no say on their relationship. Isaac claims to be more powerful than his father and reveals that he is the one who killed his mother and sister.
“It is a play that will make people understand some of the things that happen in life and I hope it will lead a lot of people to salvation because the only way we can run away from evil is to embrace Jesus Christ,” says Chisiza, who is the son of late theatre guru Du Chisiza.
The play which was written and directed by Chisiza goes to Gymkhana Club in Zomba on Saturday before Lions Theatre returns with their act to French Cultural Centre (FCC) in Blantyre the following day.

Copyright @ 2005 BNL Limited, Malawi

Posted on Mon, Nov. 06, 2006

CONGO | Accused of practicing witchcraft, children are ejected from homes

No spells, just sorrow

Blaming the kids for troubles gives guardians and parents an excuse to get rid of a dependent.

By SHASHANK BENGALI

McClatchy Newspapers

Shashank Bengali | McClatchy-Tribune Kipasi Kama, 15, was kicked out of his house when relatives accused him of witchcraft. Sorcery allegations are now the No. 1 cause of child homelessness in Kinshasa, Congo.

KINSHASA, Congo | When Mando Mengi was 5, his mother died and his father remarried.

His stepmother, a tall, mercurial woman with two children of her own, saw Mando as a burden and gave him endless chores while the other kids did nothing.

One day, Mando refused to sweep the dirt floor of their home. His stepmother found a sinister explanation for his stubbornness: He was practicing witchcraft.

She began to withhold food and sometimes beat him, saying it would purge the evil spirits. Finally she gave his father an ultimatum: “You’ve brought a sorcerer into this house,” Mando recalled her saying. “Either he leaves or I do.”

Mando didn’t wait for him to decide. He ran away, joining tens of thousands of children who live on the streets of this broken-down African capital.

In Congo, where belief in the power of spirits and black magic goes back centuries, boys and girls as young as 5 are bearing the brunt of witchcraft allegations that once were reserved for rural women and widows.

With 4 million Congolese thought to have perished mostly from illnesses and hunger since a civil war began in 1998, and with eight in 10 surviving on less than a dollar per day, children are sometimes seen as encumbrances, just more mouths to feed. For some parents and guardians, calling a child a sorcerer offers an easy explanation for their troubles and a chance to rid themselves of a dependent.

Feeding these beliefs are growing revivalist churches where spurious pastors offer to exorcise spirits. There are thought to be more than 2,000 such churches in Kinshasa, a city of about 9 million people.

Aid workers estimate that there are 25,000 to 50,000 children living on the streets, and their numbers are growing. As many as 70 percent have been abandoned for allegedly practicing sorcery, according to a report this year by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In most cases, the group said, victims of witchcraft allegations had lost one or both parents. Their accusers are usually stepparents or guardians, and the children most often targeted are those with behaviors such as bedwetting, sleepwalking or aggression.

“Poverty and desperation are the basic causes,” said Mike Mwamba, the director of a center for abandoned children in Gombe, a busy commercial section of Kinshasa where hundreds of street kids prowl about the main marketplace.

“It’s a typical case. You see someone losing their job, and they look at home for an explanation. Where is this bad luck coming from? They see the child, who has certain negative characteristics. Maybe he is difficult, maybe he wets his bed. That becomes enough to accuse them of sorcery.”

Jean-Marie Kalonji, a pastor who runs the Fountain of Adoration of God Evangelical Center, claims to be Kinshasa’s expert on the subject.

“Witchcraft is a bigger problem in Congo than AIDS,” said Kalonji.

Kalonji renounces the “false methods” of other pastors, which include burning the sorcerer, extracting flesh from his mouth, beating him with an iron rod, trampling him, making him drink a bottle of palm oil daily for a week, and forcing him to stare at the sun.

Kalonji says his technique involves a lot of prayer but no physical abuse.

Pagan hub remains intact

Published: Monday, November 6, 2006

Pagan hub remains intact
Store and building owners vow to rebuild after a suspicious fire gutted Moonflower Magicks in downtown Everett.

By Jeff Switzer
Herald Writer

EVERETT - Moonflower Magicks was a rare place for today's witches and pagans to gather and be accepted. It was as much sanctuary and cultural center as it was a book and supply shop.

When a fire two weeks ago closed the purple gilded New Age shop at the corner of Colby Avenue and California Street, word of the loss shot through the communities that called it home.

"It's pretty much a hub of the neo-pagan community," said Willow Moon, an Italian witch and Wiccan high priestess from Everett. "It's been a big loss."

The arched ceiling is charred black. Temperatures up to 900 degrees melted the shop's light fixtures.

Investigators said the cause of the fire has not been determined. Shop owner Jana "Moonflower" Benson, 63, said she suspects arson.

She moved to the location two years ago - replacing the Silvertips' first headquarters.

The store stocked a wide range of books on paganism, Wicca and old-world, non-Christian traditions. Owners sold aroma-therapy items, incense, oils, candles, gemstones and jewelry. They also sold statues of gods and goddesses, wands and magic supplies used in rituals.

"It had the sense of an old-time country store, a gathering place and very much a safe place," said Theo Williams, a Wiccan from Everett. He said he "came out of the broom closet" 11 years ago to find that most of his friends were Wiccan, too.

"Having Moonflower's here was a blessing," he said, a pentacle hanging from his neck signifying earth, wind, water, fire and spirit. "If I saw the pentacle, I immediately had someplace to send people."

He reflected on the loss of the store while standing in the darkened ruins last week, amid the cloying scent of a hundred broken bottles of fragrant oil.

"I would definitely not want the karma of the person who did this," Williams said.

Critics occasionally hurled slurs like "devil store" at Benson.

The fire claimed a piece of her livelihood, as well as a treasured picture of Jesus bought in a hashish shop in Nepal.

She got a call after the fire, and a person said "see what you get hanging a picture of Jesus in your store," she said.

When there is no knowledge of something, there is fear, said Tamara Benson, Moonflower Benson's daughter.

"We're kind of all walking toward the same place but we're all coming from different directions and follow our own paths to get there," she said. "We're very accepting of everyone and all of their paths."

The support of neighbors and shop visitors is more prevalent - and heartwarming - than criticism, Moonflower Benson said.

"At first it made me cry," she said.

An Everett-based modern pagan discussion group met regularly at the shop. Other classes met upstairs, including Wiccan and Druidry classes taught by Willow Moon.

Shop and building owners vow to rebuild.

"That particular place is still going to be a place within everyone's hearts," Willow Moon said. "The hub is still there. We're all part of that community, that spirit of place. It may be in shock, traumatized, but it hasn't changed. That spirit of place still exists."

Most fires stink, but this one smelled good because of the incense and oils that broke open or burned, Moonflower Benson said.

She said the fire was like the American Indian tradition of smudging, where sage or aromatic herbs are burned.

"I think we smudged Everett," she said. "Everett should be a lot cleaner now."

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.

Pagans are a-salt-ed

November 04, 2006 A CATHOLIC group has been banned from mystical Glastonbury after hurling abuse and salt at pagans. Local priest Father Kevin Knox-Lecky invited national group Youth 2000 to the Somerset town for a religious festival. But one male youth was arrested and two women cautioned after locals had salt thrown at them to cleanse them of “evil” spirits. Pagan shop owner Maya Pinder, who was abused by Catholics, said: “It was as if we’d returned to the Dark Ages.” Father Knox-Lecky apologised to the pagan community and vowed not invite the group again.

Times Online November 05, 2006 Bishop attacks 'victim' Muslims Christopher Morgan

THE Church of England’s only Asian bishop, whose father converted from Islam, has criticised many Muslims for their “dual psychology”, in which they desire both “victimhood and domination”. In the most outspoken critique of Muslims by a church leader, Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said that because of this view it would never be possible to satisfy all their demands. “Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taliban or in Iraq,” said Nazir-Ali. “Given the world view that has given rise to such grievances, there can never be sufficient appeasement and new demands will continue to be made.” The failure to counter such beliefs meant that radical Islam had flourished in Britain, spread by extremist imams indoctrinating children for up to four hours a day, he said. Nazir-Ali added that rigorous checks, from which the government had retreated in face of Muslims’ protests, should be imposed to ensure that arriving clerics were committed to the British way of life. “Characteristic British values have developed from the Christian faith and its vision of personal and common good,” said the bishop in an interview with The Sunday Times. “After they were clarified by the enlightenment they became the bedrock of our modern political life. These values need to be recovered to help us to inculcate the virtues of generosity, loyalty, moderation and love.” Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan and whose father converted from Islam to Catholicism, said radical Islam was being taught in mosque schools across Britain. “While radical teaching may not be happening everywhere, its presence is felt across the country. It affects all Muslims,” he said. “The two main causes of the present situation [rising extremism] are fundamentalist imams and material on the internet.” He proposed to filter out imams who might whip up extremism: “They must be vetted for appropriate qualifications, they must have a reasonable knowledge of the English language and they must take part in a recognised process of learning about British life and culture.” The government, after lobbying from Muslim groups, retreated from proposals to toughen entry requirements put forward by David Blunkett, the former home secretary, two years ago. Plans to require foreign clerics to sit a test on British civic values a year after arriving were cancelled along with the introduction of a requirement to speak English to conversational level. Nazir-Ali also criticised women wearing veils that cover the whole face. Tony Blair called the full veil a “mark of separation”, but Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said any curbs on wearing it would be “politically dangerous”. Nazir–Ali drew attention to a “huge increase” in the wearing of Muslim dress in Egypt, Malaysia and Pakistan, saying that in Britain there were circumstances where the full veil should not be worn: “I can see nothing in Islam that prescribes the wearing of a full-face veil. In the supermarket those at the cash tills need to be recognised. Teaching is another context in which society requires recognition and identification.” Nazir-Ali, 57, was born a Catholic in Karachi, converted to Protestantism and was received into the Church of Pakistan at 20. He settled in Britain in the 1980s and became the youngest bishop in the world at 35. Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said his comments were not “very helpful for community relationships”.

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Witchcraft Today

Catholic marchers turn on Glastonbury pagans

Catholic marchers turn on Glastonbury pagans

· Police arrest youth on suspicion of harassment
· Priest distances church from intimidation

Thair Shaikh
Saturday November 4, 2006

Guardian

In scenes reminiscent of medieval witchhunts, Catholic pilgrims in Glastonbury have attacked pagans and threatened to "cleanse" them from the town.

Local pagans were pelted with salt and branded witches who "would burn in hell" during a procession organised by Youth 2000, a conservative Catholic lay group. The Magick Box, a pagan shop on the route of the march, was also singled out and attacked.

Maya Pinder, the owner of the shop, said: "We've had to hear comments such as 'burn the witches', we've had salt thrown in our faces and at our shop, people were openly saying they were 'cleansing Glastonbury of paganism'.

"It was as if we had returned to the dark ages. This is hugely damaging to Glastonbury ... it is hard enough to trade in Glastonbury as it is, if you were to take away the pagan element it would be a dead town." The Somerset town is known for having a large population of resident and visiting pagans.

The archdruid of Glastonbury, Dreow Bennett, said: "To call the behaviour of some of their members medieval would be an understatement. I personally witnessed the owner of of the Magick Box being confronted by one of their associates and being referred to as a bloody bitch and being told 'you will burn in hell'."

Father Kevin Knox-Lecky of St Mary's church said that after meeting representatives of the pagan community he had decided not to invite Youth 2000 to the town again.

He said: "A family appeared who we don't know, who were very destructive not only in the town and to the pagan community, but were also swearing at our parishioners as well."

He said the majority of Catholics taking part in the procession had been well-behaved and respectful of the pagans.

The retreat was organised last week to mark the 467th anniversary of the beheading of the last abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting, and fellow martyrs.

Youth 2000 describes itself as "an independent, international initiative that helps young adults aged 16-35 plug back into God at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church".

It was set up 10 years ago by a disenchanted Catholic barrister who wanted a return to the traditional teachings of the church for young people.

Charlie Conner, the managing director of Youth 2000, said: "There were several incidents that happened that same weekend that were linked to people who had come to Glastonbury for the retreat. This was in direct contravention of the general spirit of Youth 2000 and its express instructions. The young man who was fined was not in fact registered on the retreat, although he did attempt to attend it.

"Youth 2000 does not condone or encourage this kind of behaviour from anyone. We fully agree that differences on matters of faith cannot and should not be resolved by any kind of harassment."

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police confirmed a youth had been arrested at Magick Box on suspicion of causing harassment, alarm or distress.

Two women were also given cautions and warned about their future conduct.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006

Satanic Female Eipscopal Bishop Installed

Editorial Note: Though we post this next article, we do so with much disgust at the obvious bigotry and discriminatory content. Its' presence here is merely to show and document an issue that effects us even in this day and age. It is beyond this editors scope of reason, how someone could hold to such antiquary beliefs which go against every fiber of the true meaning of the religion he claims to be speaking on behalf of, yet claiming (at the end) an accomplished education.


Satanic Female Eipscopal Bishop Installed
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (11/04/2006)

She declares that the Bible is not regarded as divine revelation and therefore is no guide for morality.

That means that she is not a biblical Christian, yet she is a religious leader. She is thereby not defending the Christian deity however still remaining with the ecclesiastical frame. That makes her, not a Christian, not a "middle person between Christianity and Satanism," but a satanic leader of the first order. Being a religious personage within the framework of Christendom but not holding to biblical leader makes her nothing short of a satanic leader of the first order.

Jesus said that there would be false prophets in every age. There were numerous one in His first century. Jesus stated that those religious leaders who lead laity astray will be dealt a greater damnation. Therefore, this particular female Episcopal presiding bishop ensconced, according to Jesus, will pay with a greater damnation.

Once one steps outside the Bible as divine revelation and yet continues as a religious leader within Christendom, that makes that individual no longer a biblical believer. Not to be a biblical believer is not to hold Christ as the only Savior for a repentant mankind. That means that the individual leader is not advocating Christ or His Word but instead advocating Satanism.

Satanism appears not only in the raw with satanic symbols, covens and the like. Satanism appears in the supposed refined state, the prime recent example being Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori. She met with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams last week. Today, Saturday, November 4, 2006, she is to be installed with the new title upon her head. The Archbishop is reported as not in agreement with her installation.

Schori, in one of her satanic supports, endorses ordaining practicing homosexuals. In that, she is not only diametrically opposed to divine revelation which states God’s abhorrence for such activity, but she furthers AIDS / HIV. By championing active homosexuality, one automatically furthers the disease for much of the researched activity goes on without protected sex. It is ironic and diabolical that a religious leader within Christendom would advocate a lifestyle that aids the spreading of a global plague; nevertheless, that is what theological liberals do.

In supporting ordaining active homosexuals, Schori also supports "blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples," per AP. It appears that advocating active homosexuality and same-gender "marriage" go hand in hand with theological liberals.

The biblical Anglicans worldwide are antithetical to apostate Anglicans, the latter known as "Episcopalians" in the United States. The rift grows. The biblical believers point to the Bible as the only morality guideline for genuine Christians. The apostates point to moral relativity as their ethical guideline. The latter opens up definitions of all sorts due to the individual crafting of morals determined by relativism.

The Episcopal Church has gone further and further into apostasy with its leadership brazenly stating that if one holds to the biblical position that biblical believer is of the devil. Biblical believers realize that such is to be expected when once-believers leave the biblical theology for apostasy. The more one drifts from biblical data yet claims to be "religious Christian," the more one becomes vehement in defense of relativism.

Schori does not pretend to be anything but what she claims. What she claims is that the Scriptures are not to be trusted, Christ is not the eternal Savior provided repented humanity, sexuality is an individual relativism, and salvation can be obtained by any means conjured by the mortal. That in itself absents her from the right to use the term "Christian." It also places her eternal soul in jeopardy, according to the words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament Gospel accounts.

By not endorsing Christ and His sacrificial gift upon Calvary, Schori becomes one with the "spirit of antichrist." The spirit of AntiChrist is mentioned by the apostle John in his letters in the New Testament, John stating that in the End Times that spirit would be set loose upon the Earth. The spirit of AntiChrist precedes the actual appearance of a person known as the AntiChrist, the latter being "the beast" of Revelation 13:1-10, such regarded as the political leader of a ten-nation alliance operative during the about-seven year Tribulation Period.

By Schori’s own confession regarding her creedal beliefs, she has placed herself in line with the AntiChrist rule. Those gathering about her creedal conclusions do the same. That is why those biblical believers within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church are so opposed to that liberal segment gaining control of the Anglican communion. To the biblical believers it is a matter of siding with the God of the Bible or siding with the Devil. With biblical believers there is no middle ground for one is either with the God of the Bible or against the God of the Bible.

Throughout the Bible itself, there is always the tussle between those who are totally committed to that deity or those who compromise that commitment. The latter are then regarded within holy writ as apostates, backslidden and not deserving to be known as genuine disciples of that deity.

"Christian author and philosopher Os Guinness says the Episcopal Church's incoming Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is ‘not an orthodox believer.

"By that he means that she doesn't accept the Christian creeds and historical teachings about Jesus Christ, personal salvation, biblical revelation, sexuality and other issues.

"Guinness, an Anglican, says much of the U.S. Episcopal Church has embraced heresy and become ‘apostate’ and even ‘pagan.’

"He asserts that Bishop Jefferts Schori will be ‘presiding over something which God will judge.’

"Guinness considers her part of ‘a new phenomenon in the world, where there are Christian leaders who no longer believe the Christian faith, and yet stay on as leaders.’"

This "new phenomenon" is not undefined by biblical believers. The latter study the Bible, know the fine line detail and therefore are very much aware that in the End Times persons as Schori will take center stage in some quarters due to their allegiance to the spirit of AntiChrist.

Therefore, though such may be theologically shocking to some, it is not to those biblical students who are well informed regarding biblical prophecy in particular.


Copyright © 2006 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Graduate of accredited college (BA) and seminary (M Div) with graduate work at Harvard Divinity School. Married for 44 years with 3 adult children. Author of 5 books and thousands of articles in various Protestant and Catholic magazines, journals, web sites, and newspapers. Writer of weekly religion column for PORTLAND PRESS HERALD newspaper, Portland ME.

Academics, chiefs condemn Mt Ayliff killing

Academics, chiefs condemn Mt Ayliff killing

Ignorance, misogyny blamed for ‘witch’ murders of women in their 40s and 50s

’I’ve done scientific research in the Mthatha area about issues related to witchcraft. What is clear is that the level of ignorance is very high in rural areas. Women between the ages of 40 to 50 years old regularly fall prey to witchcraft related allegations’

— Bhanwari Meel

By ZINE GEORGE and THANDUXOLO JIKA

TRADITIONAL leaders and academics yesterday condemned the horror mob slaying of a Mount Ayliff woman accused of witchcraft, saying it was a manifestation of social illness.

Nomanelwa Ngwane, 50, was battered and burnt by about 200 people after being found naked on the doorstep of a widower, Zakhele Jakuja, in the early hours of Monday morning.

She allegedly told him she had arrived with his dead wife to fetch him for a meeting.

On Friday this newspaper carried a photograph of the killing, in which people are seen laughing at the bloodied woman.

African Traditional Health Practitioners’ Eastern Cape chairperson, Solly Nduku yesterday described the attack “as an act of hooliganism ... a manifestation of social ills.

“People do sleepwalk, which might have been the case in this instance,” said Nduku.

Dr Mathole Motshekga of the Kara Heritage Institute, an African Renaissance body, also condemned the villagers’ actions.

“There is an African way to deal with witches. Our people used to report all cases relating to witchcraft to traditional leaders and they would be resolved.

“But it’s because of the influence of the west that our people are now killing each other about something no one can really explain,” said Motshekga.

He added: “No one can deny that there are good and evil forces in every society. But no one can claim to know how to identify a witch unless he is witch himself.”

Nokuzola Mndende, director of the Icamagu Institute – an organisation designed to preserve African culture – hit out at those who had murdered Ngwane and described the act as misogynistic.

“Why is it that only women are accused of witchcraft?” she asked.

“This is a psychological problem among some men who fear powerful women in leadership roles. If it was a man who had been found naked they wouldn’t have done that,” she said.

Walter Sisulu University head of Forensic Medicine, Professor Bhanwari Meel attributed the actions to ignorance, illiteracy and lack of education.

“I’ve done scientific research in the Mthatha area about issues related to witchcraft. What is clear is that the level of ignorance is very high in rural areas. Women between the ages of 40 to 50 years old regularly fall prey to witchcraft related allegations,” Meel said.

He said superstition was still deeply entrenched in the region. For example, some people still simply did not want to accept that HIV/Aids existed.

“When a relative is infected with the disease some rural people go to sangomas to find out who had bewitched their relative,” he said.

In 2004 four elderly women were butchered in Centane after they were accused of being involved in witchcraft.

“It’s a complex issue informed by many social challenges. A lot still needs to be done to educate people about all these things,” said Meel.

Rhodes University anthropology lecturer Penny Bernard said the Mount Ayliff incident was bizarre.

It could have been caused by the woman being found partially naked in the early hours of the morning. But Bernard said killing someone was no solution. “I have done studies on sangomas and witchcraft mostly in KwaZulu-Natal, and people only use magic to retaliate, not to physically kill someone,” said Bernard.

An experience of mythic proportions

An experience of mythic proportions

Nov. 4, 2006. 01:00 AM

CAROL PEREHUDOFF

Avebury, England—As I'm coming down the stairs of the Red Lion Pub, where I've rented a room for the night, I see a sign on a chalkboard: "Curious about Paganism? Why not visit the Avebury Pagan Moot? 1st Sunday of every month, 3 p.m."By chance, I'm right on time, but glancing in at the front room of the 400-year-old pub, I decide against going in. I am curious, but the earthy-looking women and burly bearded men inside look a bit intimidating, like a wizarding version of a biker gang.Besides, what's the point of discussing the mystical world of Avebury when I could be out experiencing it? This Wiltshire village, roughly 120 kilometres west of London, is home to Britain's largest stone circle. While it's not as well-preserved as Stonehenge, 32 kilometres to the south, Avebury is 500 years older, 14 times larger and unlike Stonehenge, it's accessible 24 hours a day. So accessible, in fact, that half the village is sitting inside it: the pub, a chapel, a couple of shops and two dissecting roads that loosely divide the circle into quadrants. This is my chance to commune with the megalithic world, so after buying a guidebook at the Henge Shop, I head into the southwest quadrant. Towering over a flock of grazing sheep is a curving row of sarsen stones weighing between 10 and 100 tonnes. Greyish and weathered, they're surrounded by a deep circular ditch (or henge) dug out of the soft chalk ground by Neolithic tribes some 5,000 years ago.No one knows the circle's purpose, though it's believed to relate to the worship of a fertility goddess. The stones weren't shaped but were chosen for their natural forms: mainly rectangles to represent the male and diamonds the female. Originally, the large circle contained two smaller circles: one held a massive phallic-shaped obelisk, now lost. The other, known as the Cove, was made up of three female stones (two of which still stand) that were aligned with the northerly rise of the moon.Then, in the Middle Ages, the Christians ruined it all. Deeming the circle the work of the devil, they started toppling and burying the stones, a practice that halted when one landed on a travelling surgeon-barber, prematurely entombing him. Further destruction came in the 17th century when many stones were cleared for farming. Finally, in the 1930s, a wealthy anthropologist, Alexander Keiller, spent today's equivalent of £2 million to partially restore the site.After completing the 1.5-kilometre circle, I head back to the pub. As I walk in, I overhear a dark-haired woman say: "We all have a sacred myth. You just have to find out what it is. It lives you. You don't live it."I'd like to learn more, but the conversation moves to the stone circle and how one small triangle has a particular power. "Which part is the most powerful?" I can't help interrupting."It's all-powerful, but in different ways," she says."Powerful enough to make me break out in hives?" I hold out my wrist, which is sporting a pink circular welt with a blister inside — a mini stone circle. "The minute I got here I broke out in a rash.""I know what it might be," she says, almost shyly. "It's a healing place here. A lot of stuff works its way out of your body."That sounds better than massive allergy attacks and I smile at her. A pony-tailed man in black examines my wrist. "I can sort that out." He runs out of the room. A few minutes later he's back holding a fragrant bundle of lavender. "Rub this on," he says. "Lavender is very healing."Another man with a greying beard and a beret with a feather introduces himself as Terry the Druid. "We're a mixed lot of pagans here," he says, explaining that the man with the lavender is a Wiccan, then motions to a clean-shaven young man strumming a guitar. "And he's a minstrel."It's tempting to stay in this Harry Potter universe all night, but as dusk hits, I head out to explore. On the other side of town, past a muddy field is the mountainous Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. Experts think it's a burial site, though they've dug three tunnels into it since the 18th century and it still hasn't given up its secrets.It's a place of mysteries, Avebury, and there is a tremendous amount to see. Past Silbury Hill is West Kennet Long Barrow, a multi-chambered tomb as old as 3500 BC. There is also the Avenue, a stone-lined processional route that leads from the stone circle to the Sanctuary, where a prehistoric temple once stood. It's too dark to see anymore so I backtrack to the stones. Maybe it's the influence of the pagans but I can't help thinking that these centuries-old megaliths really are vibrating with a deep earthy resonance. I sit down beside one, then lie flat on my back and look at the stars. If I wait here long enough, maybe my sacred myth will turn up.

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Carol Perehudoff is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Her accommodation was subsidized by Visit Britain.

Additional articles by Carol Perehudoff

Priest paves a pagan path

Priest paves a pagan path

ROSS MACKAE spent years studying - and sampling - various religions, from Buddhism and the Church of Latter-day Saints to Unitarianism and Catholicism, but didn't find what he wanted in any of them. So he started his own church. "Now my goal," he said this week, "is for people to see it as just another church." That's probably easier said than done. He's the high priest of the American Pagan Church, founded two years ago in East Hampton, L.I., with a handful of believers who currently meet in his home. "We still live in the dark ages - many of our members are discriminated against," said MacKae, a paralegal by profession who was ordained eight years ago after completing a course taught by pagan priests. "One lost her job when she said she was a pagan." Nevertheless, there are dozens of pagan and witchcraft groups in and around New York, and this was a big week for them. While everybody else celebrated Halloween, they observed Samhein, the new year for most pagans (and witches), and one of the eight most important holidays on the metaphysical calendar. For privacy reasons, and because it is hard to keep track of all the various groups or define their membership, nobody knows the number of New Yorkers who are pagans, witches or followers of other old religions based on goddess worship, the sacredness of nature and rituals rooted in ancient Celtic, Nordic and other religions. "There are more than people think," said MacKae, who is called "pastor" by church outsiders and "high priest" on formal occasions but prefers just plain "Ross" at church. "Every year, we lead the opening ceremonies at the Pagan Pride Day celebrations (in Battery Park, on the southernmost tip of Manhattan) and last year, after 10,000 people, we stopped counting." That's a pretty impressive number, even if many participants were at the park out of curiosity. There also is an annual Pagan Spirituality Expo, held in Greenwich Village, sponsored by various metaphysical groups and businesses that sell herbs, oils, candles, books, wands, astrological charts and other paraphernalia to witches and wizards. And this is not counting people like Deborah Roth, an interfaith minister who was ordained eight years ago by the Reunification Church in the Order of Malchizedek, an organization that renounces paganism and is named for an Old Testament priest. Roth leads groups - circles, she calls them - devoted to women's spirituality at among other places the Fourth Universalist Society, a Unitarian church on the upper West Side. "There are some elements of wicca in what I do," she said, "but I don't call myself a wiccan." In fact, Roth typifies the risks of overly simple labels - she has a master's degree in psychology and is a member of the advisory board of Modern Bride magazine, two facts not necessarily associated with witches. There is no such confusion in MacKae's case. He founded his church, he said, on the principles of witchcraft, Native American spirituality and asatru (old Norse and German paganism). But members are not limited to those basics. "All knowledge is our liturgy," he said, "and spiritual search is our dogma." Services are held on the last Thursday of each month, featuring songs, dances and readings. There is a sermon of sorts - "I ask questions in the kitchen while everyone prepares our shared meal, and then I do a little commentary based on their answers." Despite its name, MacKae describes the American Pagan Church as an interfaith ministry. "All paths are divine," he said, "and every person has an individual path to follow, but we all travel it together." The attendance ranges from a half dozen to 20 or so, he said, and some members attend only one or two services a year. "There is no mandatory anything," he said, "and we do not keep an official membership roll." Networking is important. One popular gathering spot is the Whoville Bar and Grill in Bethpage, L.I., which for years has sponsored a monthly "Pagans in the Park" open house. "That's where a lot of us meet up," MacKae said. Generally speaking, he said, witches and pagans are not missionaries aggressively seeking converts. But MacKae has a different philosophy. "We proselytize, every chance we get," he said. "It's not to say, 'You're wrong,' but to say, 'You're right, let us show you how.'" Originally published on November 4, 2006

Opinion

Posted on Sat, Nov. 04, 2006

A Harry Potter witch hunt

Mom who hasn't even read the books says they teach witchcraft

KAY MCSPADDEN

Special to the Observer

The suburbs of Atlanta are at the center of a witch hunt. Literally.

Laura Mallory, a former evangelical Christian missionary and mother of four, has been trying since September 2005 to have the Harry Potter books by author J.K. Rowling removed from all of the Gwinnett County public school libraries. Initially she argued that the books were inappropriate because of "evil themes, witchcraft, demonic activity, murder, evil blood sacrifice, spells, and teaching children all of this," but she later added that they promote witchcraft, Wicca, and the occult.

Mallory's challenge was addressed by the media review committee at J.C. Magill Elementary, where three of Mallory's children are enrolled. The committee recommended that the books remain in the libraries, and the district administration concurred.

In April Mallory appealed to the district school board, which held a public hearing in May. The school board sided with the school media review committee and voted unanimously in favor of keeping the books.

Now Mallory has taken her challenge to the state Board of Education. They met in October and will issue a judgment in December.

In some ways this is a rather predictable book challenge.

Like many book complainants, Mallory objects that the contents of the books are offensive to her religious beliefs. She claims the books have an anti-Christian bias.

Also like many complainants, she admits she hasn't read the books.

"They're really very long and I have four kids," Mallory told the Gwinnett Daily Post. "I think it would be hypocritical of me to read all of the books, honestly. I don't agree with what's in them."

And also like many of the people who challenge books, Mallory ignores the role of parents in guiding their children's choices -- unless, of course, she is the parent making those choices for everyone's children.

The outcry against Mallory's challenge has been predictable as well. Supporters of the Harry Potter series have countered that the books do not promote witchcraft but are fantasy stories about gifted children who discover their own remarkable abilities and go to a special school in order to learn to use them. The books are intense morality tales where good triumphs over evil, where friendship and loyalty are celebrated, where Harry learns from his missteps.

Potter fans also point out that although Mallory charges that the books try to indoctrinate children into the religion of Wicca, the only religious reference is to Christianity, when Hogwarts adjourns each December for the Christmas holidays. Nor do the books teach occult practices, as Mallory claims. The magic taught at Hogwarts is a clever counterpart to real life activities -- learning to make the tip of a wand light up to use as a flashlight, for example, or learning the proper way to fly a broom. The only teacher who presumes to teach what might be called occult practices is Sybill Trelawney, the incompetent fortune teller who is roundly mocked by both her students and her colleagues.

As predictable as the challenge has been, it has also been surprising to me. Why are books this universally read and loved also so widely feared and reviled? Despite their lack of sexual content or offensive language -- two of the most common reasons for book challenges -- the Harry Potter books are listed as the American Library Association's most-challenged books of the 21st century. What's going on?

Laura Mallory told one interviewer that "the books expose and introduce occult practices to young readers, opening a door to their minds and hearts to this kind of stuff, the casting of spells. The occult is dangerous to our children, and we need to get it out of our schools in all its forms."

For Mallory and other people like her who have a pre-Enlightenment view of the world as a place where magic is real and supernatural powers can be accessed through spells, the books might seem frightening. These are the same people who send chain letters and e-mails which promise great rewards to those who say a prayer and forward the mail to others -- and which sometimes threaten harm if the chain is broken.

They are the people who read cosmic significance into coincidence, who believe without question the cautionary tales they hear, who reject reason and science as ungodly and substitute religion with superstition.

Ironically, they say that they worry that children cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction, but their own anxiety about the books suggests that they are the ones who are having difficulty. It's too bad that their confusion means the rest of us have to endure yet another senseless witch hunt.

Kay

McSpadden

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Observer columnist Kay McSpadden is a high school English teacher in York, S.C. Write her c/o The Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308 or by e-mail at kmcspadden@comporium.net.

Florida Supreme Court Rejects Wiccan Tax Challenge over Satanic Bible

Florida Supreme Court Rejects Wiccan Tax Challenge over Satanic Bible

TALLAHASSEE, FL, November 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, the Florida Supreme Court declined to consider a Wiccan group's challenge to a state sales tax exemption. Earlier this year, the high court agreed to take the case and heard oral arguments from both sides regarding the Wiccan's objection to a sales tax exemption for Bibles and other religious items.

Liberty Counsel, a law firm which works for religious liberty, filed a brief with the Florida Supreme Court defending a state law that exempts Bibles, religious publications and ceremonial items from sales tax. In a 6-1 decision, the Court found no conflict in appellate court rulings on the underlying issue of whether the Wiccans have the right, or "standing," to challenge the law.

The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida (Wiccans) follow an earth-based belief religion and at one time qualified for the tax exemption on certain items sold by the Cooperative. They lost their exemption in 2000 because they did not own a place of worship as required by state regulations. They filed suit on Halloween in 2000, saying they paid sales tax on the purchase of the Satanic Bible and the Witch's Bible Compleat and claiming Florida Statute 212.06(9) violated the Establishment Clause.

A trial judge ruled the Wiccans had standing to sue. A Florida appeals court reversed that decision. The Wiccans appealed. The Florida Supreme Court agreed to take the case based on appellate rulings which, at first, appeared to be in conflict with that issue, when, in fact, it dealt with the narrower issue of "taxpayer standing." The Court opined the Wiccans lack standing to challenge the law because they are not harmed by it. This is not the same as taxpayer standing.

Erik Stanley, Chief Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated, "The Florida Supreme Court did the right thing in dismissing this case. The Wiccans' challenge was nothing more than a vindictive lawsuit. The Wiccans would not have benefited at all if they won because they were seeking to have all religious publications taxed, including their own. Florida's sales tax exemption statute is constitutional and we are pleased that this vindictive challenge to the statute has been dismissed."

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Posted on Fri, Nov. 03, 2006

Accused of witchcraft, children kicked to the streets in Congo

By Shashank Bengali

McClatchy Newspapers

Kipasi Kama, 15, was kicked out of his house when relatives accused him of witchcraft. Witchcraft allegations are now the No. 1 cause of child homelessness in Congo's capital. (Shashank Bengali/MCT)

More photos

KINSHASA, Congo - When Mando Mengi was 5, his mother died and his father remarried. His stepmother, a tall, mercurial woman with two children of her own, saw Mando as a burden and gave him endless chores while the other kids did nothing.

One day, Mando refused to sweep the dirt floor of their home. His stepmother found a sinister explanation for his stubbornness: He was practicing witchcraft.

She began to withhold food and sometimes beat him, saying it would purge the evil spirits. Finally, she gave his father an ultimatum: "You've brought a sorcerer into this house," Mando recalled her saying. "Either he leaves or I do."

Mando didn't wait for him to decide. He ran away, joining tens of thousands of children who live on the streets of this broken-down African capital - most of them, aid agencies say, rejected by families who accuse them of witchcraft.

In Congo, where belief in the power of spirits and black magic goes back centuries, boys and girls as young as 5 are bearing the brunt of witchcraft allegations that once were reserved for rural women and widows. Aid workers blame the social toll of decades of economic depression, disease and conflict, which have torn apart countless families and made daily life desperate for most of the country's 60 million people.

With 4 million Congolese thought to have perished mostly from illnesses and hunger since a civil war began in 1998, and with eight in 10 surviving on less than a dollar per day, children are sometimes seen as encumbrances, just more mouths to feed. For some parents and guardians, calling a child a sorcerer offers an easy explanation for their troubles and a chance to rid themselves of a dependent.

Feeding these beliefs are mushrooming revivalist churches throughout the country, where spurious pastors offer to exorcise spirits - sometimes charging fees, sometimes subjecting children to physical or psychological abuse. There are thought to be more than 2,000 such churches in Kinshasa, a city of perhaps 9 million people.

Aid workers estimate that there are 25,000 to 50,000 children living on the streets here, and their numbers are growing. As many as 70 percent have been abandoned for allegedly practicing sorcery, according to a report this year by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In most cases, the group said, victims of witchcraft allegations had lost one or both parents. Their accusers are usually stepparents or guardians, and the children most often targeted are those with seemingly strange behaviors, such as bed-wetting, sleepwalking or aggression.

"Poverty and desperation are the basic causes," said Mike Mwamba, the director of a center for abandoned children in Gombe, a busy commercial section of Kinshasa where hundreds of street kids prowl about the main marketplace.

"It's a typical case: You see someone losing their job, and they look at home for an explanation. Where is this bad luck coming from? They see the child, who has certain negative characteristics: Maybe he is difficult, maybe he wets his bed.

"That becomes enough to accuse them of sorcery."

One of the children living at the center is Kipasi Kama, a 15-year-old who's small for his age and bites his nails incessantly. He was living with his father and stepmother when a neighbor said she'd dreamed that Kipasi came to strangle her in her sleep.

Immediately, Kipasi said, his father ordered him out of the house.

"If I am a sorcerer, I don't know it," Kipasi said. "They never gave me a chance to prove that I wasn't."

Others, such as Mando, who's now 15, are deprived of food at home and sent to churches that perform "deliverance" ceremonies. Mando was sent to so many that he remembers them now only by the methods they used: the one where the pastor made him eat pigeon meat, for example, or the one where a group of boys pummeled him with their fists.

It was during that episode that Mando, a lanky boy with sunken cheeks, admitted to practicing witchcraft. It was the only way the beating would stop, he thought.

Jean-Marie Kalonji, a pastor who runs the Fountain of Adoration of God Evangelical Center and advertises his deliverance services on Christian radio, claims to be Kinshasa's expert on the subject. On a recent afternoon, a dozen people waited in the dirt courtyard of his one-room church for consultations.

"Witchcraft is a bigger problem in Congo than AIDS," said Kalonji, a young, professorial man with eyeglasses perched on the end of his nose. He displayed a 2-inch binder crammed with loose-leaf sheets, each of them a witchcraft case, he said.

Kalonji, who claims to have performed hundreds of exorcisms, renounces the "false methods" of other pastors, which he said don't work. He listed some of these methods in a slim paperback volume he authored three years ago titled "African Sorcery: Strategies of Deliverance," which he sells for about $7.

Among them are burning the sorcerer, extracting flesh from his mouth, beating him with an iron rod, trampling him, making him drink a bottle of palm oil daily for a week and forcing him to stare at the sun.

Kalonji was cagey about his own technique, which he said involved a lot of prayer but no physical abuse. As for payment, he said, "If a grateful parent offers me money, I don't refuse."

Aid workers say Congolese authorities have begun looking into cases of abuse by these pastors. But investigators are overwhelmed and most churches just take their services underground.

Less can be done about the abuse that street children must endure at the hands of older, bigger peers. Kipasi said he was tormented because of his size, made to wash other kids' clothes and subjected to a hazing ritual in which scalding liquid is poured on a child as he sleeps.

In its report, Human Rights Watch said older children often sexually abuse younger ones.

Social workers who know Mando's case have tried to persuade his father to take him back. Over the past several months, they said, the man visited the center a handful of times and re-established contact with his son. The last time, he promised to take the boy home at the end of October.

But it's now November and Mando is still sleeping in a steamy, crowded dorm room at the center. Social workers haven't told him about his father's promise, afraid of raising his hopes.

"I just want to go back to my family and live in peace," Mando said. "I regret that they've made me think about this so much. I never thought I was a witch. I thought the whole thing was a little weird."

The Times November 04, 2006 Bad vibes in Glastonbury after Catholics against pagans By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

BY THE light of the full moon, witches in Glastonbury will tonight be casting a “circle of protection” around Britain’s centre of mysticism after a group of militant Christians cast salt at them in an attempt to “cleanse” the town of paganism. One Roman Catholic was fined and two cautioned by police after the “alternative Hallowe’en” festival in Britain’s centre of magical mysticism turned into a spiritual battle between Christianity and paganism. Now even the local Catholic priest has told his fellow Christians that they are not welcome in the town. The Christians were visiting for the Lightswitch@glastonbury festival, the eighth such event organised by the Catholic charity Youth 2000. Promotional material tempted them there with slogans such as: “Has the light on your halo gone dark? Have your wings gone a bit grubby? Just want to switch your faith back on?” Organised with the co-operation of the Catholic Parish Church and Shrine of Our Lady St Mary in Glastonbury, it was intended to be the Hallowe’en of choice “for those who have grown tired of tatty fancy dress and the Blair Witch Project”. But police were called after militants told locals that they wanted to cleanse the town of paganism, cast salt around to exorcise “evil” spirits and called one woman a “whore witch”. Yemaya Pinder, a witch and a member of the Pagan Federation who owns The Magick Box store, said thatshe believed the Christians should be prosecuted for a religious hate crime. Mrs Pinder, a mother of two and grandmother of four, and whose sister is an Anglican vicar in Basildon, described how a group of Catholics had entered her shop and abused her. She said: “It was as if we had returned to the dark ages. They told me they wanted to cleanse Glastonbury of paganism. They said they had lighters and were going to come back and burn us down. When the police asked them to apologise, they refused.” She said there were no plans to put a curse on the Christians. “But we are doing protection for ourselves and the shop and the town. We are working magic for the healing and the damage they very nearly did between us and the local Roman Catholic church.” She said that the town’s witches had begun to work their magic, starting the protective circle on Samhein, the Celtic new year, last Tuesday, and planning to finish it using the “high energy” of tonight’s full moon. Dreow Bennett, the Archdruid of Glastonbury and leader of the pagan movement, said: “To call the behaviour of some of their members medieval would be an understatement. I witnessed a pagan being called a ‘bloody witch’ and being told, ‘You will burn in hell’. “Apparently this man was not a diligent follower of the teachings of Christ. It was my understanding that Christ taught compassion and tolerance rather than hatred and ignorance.” Father Kevin Knox-Lecky, the Catholic parish priest at Glastonbury, said: “I was utterly appalled by the disgraceful behaviour, language and threats that were apparently made to members of the local pagan community by a small fringe group that attached itself to the Youth 2000 retreat last weekend in Glastonbury.” He said the militants were “unChristian and unrepresentative” of the majority of the 350 young people at the festival. He had since met Mrs Pinder and Mr Bennett. The conversation ended in “mutual embrace”. He said: “We have agreed to keep in touch with each other and to support each other in the event of negative attention from any extremists from whichever faith. I have frequently found evidence of rites performed on my church steps.” Youth 2000 is a registered charity which aims to forge links between young Catholics through retreats and events. Charlie Connor, the managing director of Youth 2000, said that aiming “blessed salt” at pagans was in direct contravention of the spirit of Youth 2000. “For the avoidance of doubt, Youth 2000 does not condone or encourage this kind of behaviour from anyone. We fully agree that differences on matters of faith cannot and should not be resolved by any kind of harassment.” But he added: “Youth 2000 would also like to place on the record that many young people at the retreat were harassed, sworn at and even cursed by people. One incident included the taking of photographs of young people, including children, and numbers plates by people present in the town. They were forced to move on. Regrettably, Youth 2000 will not be running a festival in Glastonbury next year.” Avon and Somerset police said: “The neighbourhood beat manager was on patrol on Saturday and was alerted that there was an incident at the Magick Box shop. The officer arrested a man for a public order offence. He was later released after being issued with a fixed penalty notice. Two women were also given cautions and words of advice about their future behaviour.” A SPIRITUAL BATTLE . . . WITH A LARGE PINCH OF SALT Glastonbury has become well known as the venue of one of the world’s most popular music festivals but its mystical roots go back much further Some believe it was the site of Avalon, the final resting place of King Arthur Salt, the origin of the word “salvation”, has an important place in many of the world’s religions Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting The Last Supper shows Judas Iscariot spilling a bowl of salt, seen as an omen of evil and bad luck Some Christians still believe that they should throw it over their shoulder to ward off devils that may be lurking behind them

U resists bishops' call to block Vatican satire

Minnesota's Catholic leaders denounce play as offensive

BY PAUL TOSTO

Pioneer Press

The state's top Catholic leaders have taken a rare step in collectively calling on University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks to reconsider the U's plan to stage a controversial play they view as anti-Catholic.

"The Pope and the Witch," a satire depicting the pope as a paranoid, drug-addled idiot and the Vatican as corrupt, drew the ire this fall of a national Catholic group and some local bloggers.

Last week, Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with bishops from Crookston to Winona, wrote to Bruininks calling the play offensive to the state's 1.6 million Catholics. They urged Bruininks to rethink its staging this March on the campus of the state's flagship public university.

Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said Thursday that he couldn't recall a time when the state's bishops had made such a combined request.

The bishops "have to stand up for the faith," McGrath said. "They can't be silent in a case like this and won't be."

The U reiterated Thursday there are no plans to stop the play.

Flynn and Bruininks met Wednesday to discuss the play and other issues, said U spokesman Dan Wolter. Bruininks "explained that the university will not reconsider the staging of the play, but underscored that our commitment to academic freedom also includes listening and giving a forum to the views of those who have concern with the play's content," Wolter said. The U, Wolter added, is planning a forum in conjunction with the play.

No one at the university could recall a similar instance where religious leaders have encouraged an event to be canceled, he said.

The bishops' call comes at a time of heightened tension in the Twin Cities and across the world on issues of religion and secular life.

Metro Transit officials recently agreed to let a bus driver avoid driving buses with gay-themed ads to accommodate her religious objections. Transit officials later stepped back from that decision, saying it sent the wrong message about tolerance.

Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are refusing for religious reasons to take passengers carrying alcohol. Last winter, Century College in White Bear Lake was caught in controversy after an instructor posted copies of the Danish newspaper cartoons of Mohammed that triggered riots around the world.

"The Pope and the Witch" has been a target for years of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Scenes include a paranoid pope convinced that thousands of orphans appearing in St. Peter's Square are part of a plot by condom makers to embarrass the church, a witch who favors abortion and drug legalization, and revelations of evil in the church hierarchy, according to a 2000 New York Times review.

Robert Rosen, who'll direct the play at the U, writes on the theater department Web site that, "I chose this play because it is political. It takes a stand on issues in the forefront of our daily lives. It is funny, irreverent and to the point."

The key question: Is it satire or sacrilege?

The U in September said campus must be a place for even very unpopular views. That drew a rebuke from Flynn. "One wonders how 'The Pope and the Witch' could possibly enhance intellectual life when that kind of hatred and prejudice is tolerated by the University of Minnesota," he wrote in a column for the Catholic Spirit newspaper. "It is even funded by the University of Minnesota. And, who is paying for this? You and I — the Catholics in Minnesota, among others, through our taxes."

McGrath on Thursday called "The Pope and the Witch" a "direct mockery of the holy father" and completely different from plays like "Nunsense" that poke fun at Catholic traditions in a light-hearted way.

At this point, the U has received a few hundred e-mails and letters on the issue, with a substantial number coming from outside Minnesota, a typical volume for organized e-mail campaigns, Wolter said. The play, he added, has been staged at Yale University, University of New Mexico and the University of Denver and is planned for Tulane University next year.

However it turns out, McGrath said the archdiocese has no plans to organize protests or call Catholics to action against the U. "We have a great deal of admiration for the university, its arts and activities," he said. "There's not going to be any continued rancor that grows out of this."

Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119

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2006-11-03 16:21:08 -

A German woman, who took a witch to court for failing to make her ex-partner fall in love with her again, has won her case.
The spurned woman paid the self-proclaimed sorcerer a large sum of money to help her get her female lover back, but said the spell didn't work.
The Munich administrative court was told: "The defendant carried out the corresponding ritual over several months, each time under a full moon, but without success." After hearing both cases the court ruled that the witch's services were "objectively completely impossible", because "a love ritual is not suited to influencing a person from a distance".
The witch was ordered to pay her disgruntled client $1,275.

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Witch way do we go now?

Witch way do we go now?

Ghosts, ghouls and witches gathered to celebrate Halloween in spooky style at Sutton Ecology Centre at the weekend.

The centre in Festival Walk, in Carshalton, turned into a nook of eerie activity to celebrate All Hallows' Eve on Sunday.

Children from all over the borough listened to scary stories, played spooky bingo and made flying bats.

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They learned about the animals who are traditionally pets of witches and warlocks and there was even time for a disco at the end of the day.

Manager of the centre Sharon Clouston said: "All of the children dressed up and we had witches, bats and even a couple of Draculas. It was a great day.

"We looked at the animals associated with Halloween and made bats of our own.

"All of the children had a really nice time."

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9:39am today

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Ruth Sanders performs a Halloween ritual.

NAOMI CANTON
03 November 2006 09:53

At a secret location in Norwich, a group of witches, priestesses and healers gathered for a pagan ritual to celebrate one of the most important days in their calendar.

The day after Halloween is the Pagan New Year and the time when witches remember the dead and keep their memories of ancestors alive in their minds.

The Norwich Chant Collective, made up of 28 people from all walks of life, ages and spiritual persuasions, gathered on Wednesday to celebrate the festival.

The ritual began with cleansing the space with salt, water and a broomstick. They then cast a circle, setting up four altars representing the four elements of air, water, fire and earth.

This was followed by a quiet meditation where those present thought about those who had died, a poem was read and then the priestesses asked for the blessings of the four elements.

A large candle-lit spiral dance was performed, followed by the passing of bread and wine around the circle as a blessing. The group chanted in between each ritual, but no spells or magic were performed.

Gee Dunn, a priestess, witch and facilitator of the collective, said: “We had an eclectic group of people there; some perform magic, some were healers and some were people who didn't identify themselves as pagans but wanted to find out more.

“Halloween is one of the big rituals. For us it's a time of connection with the old, to contemplate the years that have gone, contemplate those we have lost and get a sense of oneness in this landscape and in this place.

“It's an opportunity to honour our ancestors and forebears and remember them and welcome in the new year, that's the key thing, to take time out of every day to contemplate who we are and reconnect with our forebears, the people who loved us but are no longer here.”

The 50-year-old, who lives in York Street, said people were becoming increasingly intrigued by paganism, while some chose to experiment with the power of chanting as a way of meditation.

She said: “There is a lot of interest in the pagan community in Norwich. We feel like we are accepted in the city, but the problem is it's hard for people to find out about us.

“By and large I have not had any prejudice and I am quite open about my practice, but lots of people are quite private. Many of the people who come here have regular jobs and family lives and practise as witches in private.”

The Norwich Chant Collective was formed in 1999. It meets every fortnight to chant and they hold full moon gatherings as well as celebrating the eight pagan festivals.

Paganism:

Paganism describes a group of contemporary religions based on a reverence for nature.

Pagans draw their faiths from the traditional religions of indigenous peoples throughout the world.

Wiccans , druids and shamans all make up parts of the Pagan community.

The Pagan Federation of Great Britain has no precise figures, but estimates the number of Pagans in the British Isles is between 50,000 and 200,000.

The recognition of the divine in nature is at the heart of Pagan belief. Pagans are deeply aware of the natural world and see the power of the divine in the ongoing cycle of life and death.

Most Pagans are eco-friendly, seeking to live in a way that minimises harm to the natural environment and almost all Pagans celebrate a cycle of eight festivals, which are spaced every six or seven weeks through the year.

Pagan ritual may consist of informal prayer or meditation, or of formal, structured rituals through which the participants affirm their deep spiritual connection with nature, honour their Gods and Goddesses, and celebrate the seasonal festivals of the turning year and the rites of passage of human life.

One of these festivals Samhain, also known as All Hallow's Eve, takes place on October 31 and November 1.

Religious witchcraft is a Pagan mystery religion worshipping Goddess and Gods and venerating the Divine in nature.



For more information on the collective, log on to www.norwichchantcollective.org

Are a member of an unusual group? To share your story, e-mail Naomi Canton at naomi.canton@archant.co.uk or call her on 01603 772418.