Christian Camp Rendering Unto Caesar

So a group of Pagans rent out some forestry land for a festival in Montana. The camp they reserved space on is run by a Christian group (see the trouble coming?). The Christian group finding out that a bunch of heathens want to rent “their” land decided to boot them. Pagans remind the Christians (in court) that their camp is on government-regulated land and they can’t discriminate on the basis of religion without losing their lease of the property. Pagans get their reservation re-instated so a group of Christians decide to intimidate protest outside the entrance to the camp.

“Our posters will be a plea to forsake these evil religions, I really feel these women are wasting their time.”

I’m sure the good Christians, their hearts full of love, wanting only to educate, won’t be writing down plate numbers or trying to identify local residents who may be “in the broom closet” for future “ministry” efforts. These threatened protests have already raised the ire of local Pagans.

“…because she is a ‘Bible-believing Christian’ who holds a ‘moral responsibility’ to convert every man, woman, child, dog, hamster, water buffalo, etc. to Christianity, states that she and others will be protesting/picketing the Aug. ll-14 gathering of Wiccans at a church camp in Red Lodge in an attempt to ‘educate the pagans.’ Pagans neither want nor need her type of ‘education.’ What we want is the freedom to practice our religion in peace without being harassed, threatened or called ‘evil,’”

Now, this has only generated a couple articles in a local paper. But imagine the fury and the amount of ink spilled and blogs afire with outrage if this position were reversed. What if a Pagan camp had tried to eject a Christian group (when they had no legal right to do so)? What if the Christians had tried to eject a more mainstream religious group? What if they were Muslims or Jews? Imagine the outrage, mea culpas, and controversy that would follow. But it was Pagans, and despite the flurry of Harry Potter articles or Halloween profiles or “teens gone wild” editorials we don’t count as “real” news or a real faith to most mainstream media outlets. A position even the most extremely conservative Christian denomination doesn’t have to deal with. A paper may hate their views, but they never question the core validity of their faith. A struggle that continues in coverage of our family of faiths.

Tags: Neopaganism