Pagans.net Blogs

Pagan Republican Wins in Queens, Thanks Odin.

According to the article, “Pagan Republican Wins in Queens, Thanks Odin.” posted at Reason Magazine,

Republican Dan Halloran (that’s him at right) won the race New York City Council in Queens yesterday, despite a bunch of last minute articles focused on the fact that he practices Theodism, which involves Norse gods like Odin and Freyr. Says Halloran:

It is our hope to reconstruct the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European peoples, within a cultural framework and community environment.

Score one for tolerance. Sure, it’s just the city council. And sure, it’s New York. But this guy is a full-on Pagan, for Odin’s sake, and he just got elected to a pretty important public office. As a Republican.

Sadly, even the blood-sacrificing privacy-loving Queens councilman can’t quite stomach the dirty little atheists of the world:

I don’t think any of this is really relevant to the City Council race. It’s like talking about what church you pray at. That you understand the divine is the most important part.

(Read More at Reason Magazine.)

In response to your anger and self doubt

My impassioned response to this idiot: http://www.americancivilization.net/articles/2006/Marriage_ABCs.htm

In defense of your views that the fragile institution of marriage needs constitutional protection from monogamous homosexuals who share your views on the value of familial commitments, you bring up the point that adultery, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality are punishable offenses in the KJ Bible. While it is true that those acts were punished, it is also true that many many other acts punished in the Bible go unpunished today. Onanism isn’t against the law and is rampant. Where is your outrage? Premarital sex between a man and a woman was punished frequently and harshly, more frequently than homosexuality is even mentioned, in fact. Is there a Defense of Chastity act in the works? Divorce, the commonly accepted true threat to the sanctity of marriage, was illegal in the Bible, yet curiously absent from any proposed constitutional amendments.

On the other side of your duplicitous coin, in the Bible we have acts that go unpunished — or were minimally addressed with relative wrist slappings such as rape and the maiming or murder of a servant — that today are deserving targets of moral outrage: revenge killings, murder in the name of God, violent sexual agression, pedophilia, slavery, prostitution, polygamy, and treachery against ones own government. Shall we repeal laws for things the Bible didn’t see fit to punish us for? Why conservatives have jumped on the homosexual threat to the “sanctity of marriage” as the target of their righteous indignation when there are so many other, more offensive biblical evils eludes me.

In your article, you ask for solid arguments from liberals challenging your views, yet you offer no evidence that your views are correct. It’s hard to challenge an unsupported view. That’s why most Christians argue their faith rather than their beliefs. By definition, faith defies reason and is therefore above challenge. Furthermore, many Christians will make biblical arguments for their views, but when challenged on the accuracy, veracity, or consistency of the Bible, they have little to offer except their faith that it is the word of God.

Your apparent argument is that homosexual unions will harm the sanctity of marriage. Where is your proof? Do you have statistics that show a decline in loyalty between married men and women who live in a state where homosexual marriage is legally recognized? I truly doubt it.

Now, there is nothing wrong with faith, but any serious discourse on a controversial subject should be had without the hindrance of one or both sides challenging the others’ faith. But absent such arguments, your point of view falls on its knees.

Therefore, I would like to propose that perhaps the problem you have with homosexuality is deeper and more complex than simply your faith in the teachings of the Bible and your belief that legislation should be built upon it. Could it be that you yourself are finding it hard to resist your homosexual tendencies and assume that all of us share your need for government controls in order to overcome the temptations you are having such a problem with?

Your unfounded fears that homosexual unions are a threat to the institution of marriage could likely be a misinterpretation of a more sensible fear: that the security you find in identifying with the mainstream and being a part of the majority will be shaken if you are free to explore a part of yourself that you don’t fully understand, especially something as stunted and vulnerable as your repressed sexuality.

So I’ll now attempt to ease your mind regarding just a couple of the many worries our society has thrust upon your fragile belief structure. First, let me assure you that men and women will always be in the majority of married couples. No matter how free homosexual couples are to express their love, devotion, and affection for one another, men will always be interested in women and vice versa.

Second, same sex marriage will always be frowned upon by certain churches and other open membership religious organizations and the term Holy Matrimony will always have its stalwarts who will allow it to be applied only to the unions of which they approve. People love their dogma and self-righteous disgust with others’ freedoms and will always find a way to hold their self-opinion high at the expense of others.

Finally, Mr. Bowden, with that understanding, face your fear. Explore your sexuality with impunity. Of course, be safe. Wear a condom if you find yourself in a passionately charged embrace with a man called “Bear”. But I recommend you take it slowly. Don’t hit the leather bars on your first night. Stick to social gatherings with people you know. Attend a gay book club. Smile at pretty boys. Wink, even.

Cenk Uygur: The Silent Minority

Cenk Uygur: The Silent Minority: “A new comprehensive study by The Program on Public Values at Trinity College shows that this group is now a whopping 15% of the country. Mormons by comparison are a puny 1.4% of the population, and people can’t shut up about the Mormons. The Senate Majority Leader is a Mormon, one of the top Republican presidential candidates was Mormon and even HBO has a whole show devoted to them.

Even though the non-religious are more than ten times larger, other than Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), not one member of Congress would even admit to being in the dreaded minority of non-believers. They are almost never accounted for in any political discussion of religion in the country. The devout view them as amoral at best and destined for eternal damnation at worst. Yet, this kind of abuse and scorn is widely accepted and expected.”

(Via The Huffington Post.)

Atheists have started advertising - ‘There’s probably no God’

‘There’s probably no God’: “Atheists have started advertising. The most talked about ad campaign in England, now plastered across the outside of 800 British buses, declares: ‘There’s probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ The campaign opened last week with rousing speeches by Richard Dawkins and representatives of the British Humanist Association, after a less aggressive campaign (240 buses) in Washington, D.C. back in November. The American Humanists chose the interrogative rather than the declarative mode for their message: ‘Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.’ After the great success of Dawkins’ book The God Delusion and Hitchens’ God is Not Great, atheism is taking the next step and forming itself into an organized movement.”

(Via Financial Post.)

Witches, Fine… But Does Sarah Palin Believe in Religious Tolerance?

Evan Derkacz: “So the important take-away here is not that Sarah Palin worships with loony exorcists, but that this ambitious woman has accepted the spiritual direction and leadership of a religious group that is conducting what you could call a ’soft inquisition’–if you’re not with us, you’d better get with us or we’ll run you out of town. It’s paranoid. It’s cruel. It’s based on an apocalyptic mythology that seems to lead its adherents to wish the worst for their neighbors.

And in some strange backward reverso-rhetorical deconstructionist logic, when we read ‘witch-hunter’ over and over in connection with Sarah Palin we begin to think of her as the hunted witch. And, while we don’t generally approve of the persecution of odd women, we begin to become attached to this association: Palin-Witch. But we must resist. It is a distraction.”

(Via HuffPo.)

Witchcraft in Wasilla

Witchcraft in Wasilla: “Max Blumenthal has the goods on the Kenyan preacher Thomas Muthee (who claims to have chased down a witch and cast out the spirit of witchcraft from his village) who laid hands on Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God church, apparently before she ran for governor. He prayed for the casting out of witchcraft, and for her financial and political success. This past weekend, Blumenthal himself filmed additional footage of Muthee preaching at the church, which he says he will post in a short documentary soon.

The footage Blumenthal posted yesterday at The Nation, along with the footage from Palin’s 2008 speech to the church’s ‘Masters Commission,’ is the best, and to my knowledge only, video of Palin in her church environment. She even referred to Muthee prophesying her political success in her 2008 speech, in which she also discussed her proposed gas pipeline as ‘God’s will,’ and in which other church pastors referred to Alaska as an ‘end-times refuge’ for believers.”

(Via The American Prospect.)

Palin affair claim, ‘witchcraft’ blessing dog McCain camp

Palin affair claim, ‘witchcraft’ blessing dog McCain camp | theage.com.au: “According to the paper, three members of the man’s family, including one by sworn affidavit, have claimed Mrs Palin had an affair with husband Todd’s former business partner, Brad Hanson. Mr Hanson owned a snowmobile dealership with her husband, who terminated the partnership after he heard stories about the allegations in 1996. This was around the time Mrs Palin was mayor of Wasilla.

The controversial choice for Republican vice-president is also the subject of a grainy YouTube video showing her being blessed in her home-town church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from ‘witchcraft’ as she prepared to seek higher office.

The video shows Mrs Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from ‘every form of witchcraft’.”

(Via TheAge.com.)

US election: Sarah Palin featured in church video denouncing witchcraft

US election: Sarah Palin featured in church video denouncing witchcraft: “A new video has emerged showing Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate, playing a central role in a church service in Alaska in which witchcraft is denounced.

Thomas Muthee, a Kenyan who is a regular preacher at Palin’s local Pentecostal church in Wasilla, made a passionate plea to defeat witchcraft and other supposed enemies of Palin during a sermon three years ago.

The role of the witchfinder in Palin’s life raises new questions about how much McCain’s team investigated her background before naming her as his vice-presidential running mate.

The new video, available on YouTube, shows Palin standing in front of him at the service, head bowed, her hands held by two members of the congregation.”

(Via Guardian UK.)

Mass Distribution of ‘Obsession’ Raises Flags| Christianpost.com

Mass Distribution of ‘Obsession’ Raises Flags| Christianpost.com: “‘The Interfaith Alliance is profoundly disturbed to hear that 28 million copies of the three-year old film ‘Obsession’ are being distributed via special advertising inserts into newspapers through September,’ expressed the Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, in a statement last week. ‘The film’s targeted distribution is focused on presidential battleground states, and the sponsor, the Clarion Fund a non-profit 501(c)(3), offers no public information on their sources of funding, board of directors, or membership.’

While Gaddy affirmed his group’s belief that everyone has a right to an opinion, the interfaith leader said ‘when a cynical attempt is made to influence our nation’s presidential election by stoking fear of one religious group we believe the media along with public officials, such as the Federal Election Commission, must establish who is trying to influence our politics through religious bigotry.’”

(Via The Christian Post.)

Pagans proud but not loud - Financial Post

Financial Post: In a quiet grove in a quiet park in the middle of the city earlier this month, about 50 mostly youngish people in various sorts of attire formed a rough circle on the damp grass. The area they created was a frith, a kind of sacred space. Four participants at equidistant points in the circle faced away from the others and held aloft hammers –not the claw kind from Canadian Tire but those heavy T-shaped implements the Norse god Thor would wield. …

(Via Google News)