Buck Wolf from ABC News interviews Phyllis Curott and Fiona Horne about “The Wicker Man”. While the bulk of the article deals with the (amazing) original film, he also gets a quote from Horne about the remake.

“Horne says she met with director LeBute and had dinner with Cage three years ago, when they were first making plans for the movie, to share her views on the film and how it should be updated but had no formal role as a consultant. “I really respect the work of both those guys,” Horne says. ‘So it should be interesting to note what they will produce.’”

Horne’s (former star of the reality program “Mad Mad House”) comment seems hardly a “blessing” of the remake. Meanwhile Curott takes the opportunity to compare some stores not stocking her book with book-burnings!

“But Wicca remains a controversial subject. Even the ‘Harry Potter’ book and film series have come under attack from some religious groups for its depiction of witchcraft. Curott says that some publishers have been pressured not to stock her latest book, ‘The Love Spell’ “You don’t see book burnings today,” Curott says. “But things are going on that are, in effect, the same thing.’”

I looked into these claims of Curott’s some time ago, and several comments from my readers debunked her not stocking/book burning theory. Frankly I’m not sure what that comment was even doing in an article about a film with Pagan themes. There are plenty of real troubles in our community without worrying about distribution for a book of love spells.

Anyone who has been reading this blog long enough knows that I’m a huge fan of the 1973 film “The Wicker Man”. The film (wrongly billed as a “horror” picture) pitted two religious world views against each other, Christianity and a revived pastoral Paganism (lead by the amazing Christopher Lee). It has become a cult hit since its initial release and still enjoys a large fan following. So to say I have been dismayed over the coming remake (produced by and starring Nicolas “Con Air” Cage) would be more than fair.

The remake (which opens in theatres tomorrow) has not allowed advance review of the film (usually a bad sign). But since they are targetting it towards horror fans, Nomad from Dread Central (a horror-film fan site) got to see an advance screening. If his reaction is typical of most fans of the thriller/horror genre then this ill-advised project may be going to the video stores faster than I thought.

“First off, I’ll say straight away that I haven’t seen the original. After reading some text on the film and talking to friends, it’s clear this is a sort of neutered version of the cult classic. Words like “chilling” and “disturbing” were used for the original. The same can not be said for the new incarnation with its dead pan pace and endless flashbacks to the fateful car crash, which you’ll be sick of by the third time. Where the original hoped to reflect organized religions while questioning their usual puritanical nature, the remake only offers cryptic imagery and 300 scenes of Nicolas Cage doing his confused face. In the past we got naked women dancing in a sort of pagan ritual. Today, we get LeeLee Sobieski in Quaker Summer Wear. Not a fair trade at all!!”

Early vindication? I’ll be checking the Tomatometer for the film as the reviews come pouring in. In the meantime, I urge everyone to see the original film (the uncut version if you can get a hold of one).

Dare I say only in California? Gwen Todd is running for a seat on the Washington Hospital board of directors on the Libertarian ticket. What is so unusual about that? Well, Todd, (in addition to being a politcal newbie) is a participant in several religious and social subcultures.

“Todd may be the most colorful of the candidates. A former Republican and Democrat, Todd now is a registered Libertarian. She belonged to the Mormon church for 10 years before she became involved for a time in Wicca, a naturebased philosophy loosely associated with witches 1. She now attends the Universalist Unitarian Church.”2

In addition to that, Todd is also involved in a polyamorous marriage
and that notorius cult Toastmasters International! If this dark-horse candidate wins (the other candidates are all doctors) it would certainly show that voters (at least in California) are willing to look at the character of the person instead of their religious preferences (I won’t be holding my breath or anything).

1 It cracks me up that Wicca is decribed as “loosely” associated with Witches, perhaps the traditionalists are on to something after all.

2 Its Unitarian-Universalist. Also, the reporter (and most likely Todd herself) fail to mention that you can be Wiccan and a UU with little trouble.

Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, author of the forthcoming “The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth” publishes a plea to evangelical Christians concerning environmentalism. In the process he explains that you can indeed be an environmentalist without being a Pagan or a leftist.

“To be sure, some leaders of the religious right are reluctant to support biological conservation, an opposition sufficient to create a wedge within the evangelical movement. They may be partly afraid of paganism, by which worship of nature supplants worship of God. More realistically and importantly, opposition rises from the perceived association of environmental activism with the political left. For decades, conservatives have defined environmentalism as a movement bent on strangling the United States with regulations and bureaucratic power. This canard has dogged the U.S. environmental movement and helped keep it off the agenda of the past two presidential campaigns.”

Wilson closes with an appeal to the wider shared goals and aspirations most people living in America and Western civilization share (a common humanism).

“You and I are both humanists in the broadest sense: Human welfare is at the center of our thought. So forget our disagreements, I say, and let us meet on common ground. That might not be as difficult as it first seems. When you think about it, our metaphysical differences have remarkably little effect on the conduct of our separate lives. My guess is that you and I are about equally ethical, patriotic, and altruistic. We are products of a civilization that rose from both religion and the science-based Enlightenment. We would gladly serve on the same jury, fight the same wars, and sanctify human life with the same intensity. Surely we also share a love of the Creation–and an understanding that, however the tensions play out between our opposing worldviews, however science and religion wax and wane in the minds of men, there remains the earthborn yet transcendental obligation we are both morally bound to share.”

While there has been a shifting of positions amongst evangelicals (and other more conservative Christians) regarding the welfare of our biosphere, one wonders if the changes can happen fast enough so that environmental concerns cease being a partisan issue and become instead a human issue.

Michael Luo reports on the new documentary by Andy Deemer, “My God”. The film focuses on how new religious movements start and take hold and follows some would-be prophets as they try to take their personal beliefs to the next level (with the help of five thousand dollars starting capital). In the process Luo crows about all the faiths that New York has spawned.

“The New York City area has long been a hotbed for new religions, as well as the staging ground for overseas religious movements trying to make the leap into America, Dr. Melton said. New religions tend to form in urban areas, where it is much easier to gather an initial group. Some of the movements that began in this country in the New York City area include Hare Krishna, modern incarnations of Wicca and an array of guru-centered groups.”

All fine and good except that this statement isn’t true. Both Wicca and Hare Krishna are deliberately imported faiths, the first from England (read all about it in “Her Hidden Children”) and the second from India. While both faiths got their initial American toe-holds in New York neither “formed” (evolved, changed, and experienced schisms perhaps) in America. Furthermore what does the phrase “modern incarnations of Wicca” even mean? Considering we have no solid proof of “ancient incarnations of Wicca” all permutations of Wicca are “modern” in one form or another.

While I admire Luo’s propensity towards civic pride in his home state, he should do a little more research before making claims that are easily disproven by a google search. The documentary seems interesting at any rate.

When you turn a culture’s gods and spirits into it’s devils and demons it is only inevitable that something like this happens.

“Canada’s only major Arctic petroglyph site — a 1,500-year-old gallery of mysterious faces carved into a soapstone ridge on a tiny island off of Quebec’s northern coast — has been ransacked by vandals in what the region’s top archeologist suspects was a religiously motivated attack by devout Christians from a nearby Inuit community…Daniel Gendron, chief archeologist with the Inukjuak-based Avataq Cultural Institute, the key promoter of indigenous history and identity in Nunavik, said the latest vandalism at Qajartalik follows the pattern of previous attacks by members of what he called “a very strong movement” of conservative Christians in Kangiqsujuaq and several other Inuit communities in northern Quebec.”

The saddest fact is that this didn’t have to happen. A community can become Christian (or any other faith) without destroying the past (Ireland for example). This is the work of the men who converted them, and the teachings then passed down from generation to generation. We here in the west like to think we are so superior to those Islamic fanatics who destroyed the stone Buddhas in Afghanistan, but when things like this happen you have to wonder if the ideological distance* is so great after all.

* I’m not comparing radical terrorists to Christian vandals, I’m only pointing out that both of these roads to the destruction of ancient sacred art started out with the demonization of the ideological “other”. I suppose we should consider ourselves’ “lucky” that our secular culture of tolerance keeps the evolution of such expressions here in check.

Ellen Leventry at the Idol Chatter blog wonders if Sesame Street’s newest Muppet Abby Cadabby is a stealth Pagan!

As she wills so mote it be?

Leventry also wonders if the “feminist” fairy could be a stealth homosexual. Despite mentioning both Paganism and homosexuality in regards to a children’s program it seems the commenters aren’t too worried about the hidden messages of the Muppet.

“As an extremely active member of a Baptist church and a mother of two kids under the age of 4, one might assume that I may have a problem with Abby’s paganism. Give me a break! I can’t imagine a more ridiculous notion than caring what religion/origin/preference (of any kind) a Muppet is. Sesame Street has a vampire (as noted before), main characters who are monsters, Wanda the Word FAIRY (by the incomparable Andrea Martin), and a 7-foot-tall bird of heretofore undisclosed classification! The biggest threat to our kids is NOT Sesame Street. Anyone who would attack a puppet instead of addressing poverty (which, by the way, Jesus had a LOT more to say about than people who weren’t like him!) and the lack of preschool programs for ALL our kids should be ashamed of themselves.”

Which I suppose says it all, really.

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

The Herald Sun in Australia expects a big boost in the Pagan population come the 2006 census.

“Between 40,000 and 70,000 people are expected to identify themselves as witches in the 2006 census, up from 20,000 in 2001.”

The Hollywood Reporter interviews Neil LaBute about the forthcoming Wicker Man remake.

“I started even with the (local) industry, which was apples, originally. I said, ‘I like the idea of honey and I want to make this a matriarchy.’ So it all fit with the idea of honey because of the colony and the queen bee. I just shifted the entire gender and kind of central hierarchy to be this world of women. I thought that would be a really interesting place. In the original there was this clash of religions, of basically paganism and Christianity, and then this kind of look at fanaticism. I thought, ‘Well, they did it very well and that’s not something I necessarily (want to do).’ While I’d been interested in religions, myself, I’ve always been interested in this loose clash between men and women.”

Salon.com answers the real pressing questions about Pluto’s recent planetary demotion by interviewing astrologer Cheryl Lee Terry.

“It really doesn’t matter, because there are a lot of heavenly bodies floating around that we count in our equations. Astronomers give names to planets — we just consider them heavenly bodies that we interact with. If the astronomers want to say it’s not a planet, that’s great, but it’s not going to change Pluto’s influence. So we believe in Pluto. It’s really been active. This has been a pretty bad month, and Pluto has been one of the instigators.”

The Connecticut Post reports that famed ghost hunter Ed Warren has passed away. Warren is most famous for being the real-life investigator of the Amityville haunting.

“Ed Warren made a living from a world that most people today don’t admit or believe exists ? the world of ghosts and malevolent spirits. He had said he lived in a haunted house as a child, which began a lifelong quest into the paranormal.”

In the Pagan blogosphere Arachne discusses what it is like being a Pagan in Abrahamic dominated enviornments (divinity school and the recent ProgFaithBlogCon).

“There are the basic situations. The standard assumption that I’m a Christian (”Funny, you don’t look Pagan…”) is the first: Unless I bring it up, I am ‘Christian by default.’ My faith just doesn’t register as one of the first options…I think that our presence–Pagans in particular, but also minority faiths in general–forces a reevaluation of what faithfulness and religion have to mean. An interfaith group can’t just keep widening the circle from “ecumenical” to “Judeo-Christian” to “Abrahamic” in the face of a culture full of Sikhs, Asatruar, Buddhists, Swaminarayan Hindus. They have to do something bigger than basing criteria on scripture or history–they have to entirely rethink what constitutes faith. What counts as religion. And that is a scary discussion to have, but a sorely needed one.”

In a final note, the Wiccan/Pagan Times has new interviews up with authors Liz Pilley and Barbara Ardinger.

That is all I have for now! Have a good day.

Marci Hamilton, law professor and author of “God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law” takes a look at two recent decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that deal with religious freedom. One case deals with a public school’s refusal to allow evangelistic literature to be handed out, the other is the famous (at least famous for modern Pagans) Simpson v. Chesterfield Co. case in which Cynthia Simpson was excluded from a list of religious leaders allowed to pray at Board of Supervisors meetings because she was Wiccan. The proselytizing case was won, the Wiccan case lost.

“The Fourth Circuit says it’s constitutionally mandatory for a public school to give students proselytizing Christian flyers, yet it’s constitutionally okay for a local government to refuse to hear nondenominational prayers from denominations its board members dislike. In other words, potential discrimination against a Christian evangelical group is verboten, but outright and public discrimination against a Wiccan, offering up nondenominational prayers, is perfectly fine. Common sense dictates that these two decisions cannot be sustained simultaneously – especially if equality is a principle of value.”

While Hamilton ably argues why these two decisions were judicially in error, she also believes that the outcome of these cases are part of a larger strategy by conservative Christian groups to re-insert Christianity into the public sphere.

“Turning to the political context, the CEF case was brought by the Christian Legal Society on the merits, with the National Legal Foundation, another Christian organization, submitting an amicus (friend of the court) brief…The political reality is that these organizations are using equality principles to further Christian ends; except in the courts, their devotion is not to equality, but rather to Christianity above all other faiths. (If one knows the political lay of the land, it should come as no surprise that the NLF supported the Board of Supervisors against the Wiccan preacher, in the Simpson case. So much for the principle of equal treatment of religious groups by government.)… Here, equality is little more than a litigation tactic. Christian groups such as these quite publicly have made clear that they want to roll back the Establishment Clause in order to empower Christianity.”

One can clearly see the battle lines of this growing Christian “equality” movement. On one side are groups like the National Legal Foundation and the Christian Legal Society on the other is The Hindu American Foundation, The Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and other minority faith groups who submitted amicus briefs on behalf of Cynthia Simpson. Hamilton argues that if real “equality” were at play both cases would be re-examined.

“If equality is the principle at play, then Simpson was clearly wrongly decided: The Wiccan preacher ought to have had the same access as all the others had. If the Establishment Clause is of any continuing value, both cases need to be re-examined – for public schools should not be required to distribute proselytization, any more than other local government entities should be allowed to get away with public and intentional religious discrimination.”

Currently the Fourth Circuit is dominated by Republican appointees (and a majority of those Bush picks). Is this a taste of a Christian judiciary to come if another president with Bush’s ideology is elected? What is obvious is that the current legal attitude of the Fourth Circuit won’t benefit the legal struggles of religious minorities in America.

The Herald Sun in Australia opines on a religious expression case currently raging at Sunbury Downs Secondary College. It seems a student wants to wear her crucifix despite the new strict dress code policy against any form of jewelry. The Herald Sun wonders if people are ready for the results of a “win” for the Christian cause.

“Jamie’s father, Gordon, said the ban was the equivalent of ordering a female Muslim student to take off a religious headdress. And the churches weighed in behind him, arguing Jamie had every right to demonstrate her faith in this way… [but] once you grant Jamie an exemption on these grounds, I bet it won’t take long for a queue to form outside Mr Moore’s door…there will be the Wiccan student, who desperately needs to wear her pagan jewelry, to show the world she as Wiccan as Wiccan can be.”

This fact has frozen other Christians in their tracks before. Once you allow one religious exception, you have to then start allowing them all. All or nothing. At least if you want to pretend you live in a free society.