Tomorrow I’ll be on a flight to Maryland for the 2011 FaerieCon event, at which I’ll be conducting interviews, taking pictures, and moderating panel discussions (in addition to seeing Qntal in concert).
Since I’m not sure I’ll have enough time to blog properly while also covering the event, I’ve arranged a variety of guest-posters during my absence to keep the lights on here at The Wild Hunt. Tomorrow we’ll be featuring a guest-post from Patheos columnist and Killing the Buddha Contributing Editor Eric Scott, and we have several other wonderful Pagan voices lined in the days to follow. Patheos Pagan Portal manager Star Foster will be behind the scenes making sure the trains run on time. I’ll return on Tuesday, and should have some great coverage to share when I get back!
In the meantime, before I go, here are some news stories I’d like to share with you.
- On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists. The case regarded large metal crosses in Utah erected along the highway to honor state highway patrol officers who died in the line of duty. At the heart of this issue was if the Christian cross could be considered a secular symbol of death. The 10th Circuit Court rejected this notion, noting the obvious fact that a Christian symbol cannot represent all peoples and religions in the United States. Now, with certiorari denied, and the 10th Circuit decision upheld, Utah will have to dismantle the crosses.
- Reverend Carlton Veazey, President and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice writes an op-ed for Religion Dispatches calling the pro-life “personhood” agenda “theocratic” in nature. Quote: “in the fashion of those who are determined to embed their religious views in law, there is no acknowledgement that there are other, equally valid views. Because there are a variety of views on such a basic question as “the beginning of life,” the constitution guarantees that decisions about contraception and abortion will be protected by law. And that is where the matter should rest.”
- A Slate.com article on female craft beer producers reminds us that it was women (and goddesses) who gave us the gift of beer. Quote: “Brewing is currently seen as a male field, but it wasn’t always this way. What’s believed to be the world’s oldest written recipe is for beer, and it celebrates a female brewmaster. Four-thousand-year-old Mesopotamian clay tablets describe the brewing process in a hymn to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer. From ancient Sumeria through medieval Europe, women ruled the kettles.”
- Finally, in a bit of Pagan Newswire Collective news, I’d like to welcome Lupa and Eli Effinger-Weintraub to their new roles as writers for No Unsacred Place, the PNC’s nature and environmental issues blog. I look forward to their contributions!
That’s all I have for now, enjoy the guest-posts, see you on Tuesday!
