“What potent blood hath modest May.”
- Ralph W. Emerson

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, and Walpurgis Night. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.


Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

“The Beltane Fire Festival celebrates the heritage of Gaelic history, and marks the blossoming of spring and fertility. The name Beltane is thought to have derived from a Celtic word meaning “bright fire”; the fire represents the sun burning away the winter darkness, and the community pass through it to be purified and circle it for good luck.” – Lindsay Corr, The Scotsman

“…while Samhain began one kind of yearly cycle, Bealtaine began another, and both could be construed as a kind of “New Year”. In ancient Ireland the High King inaugurated the year on Samhain for his household (and, symbolically, for all the people of Ireland) with the famous ritual of Tara, but in nearby Uisneach, the sacred centre held by the druids in complementary opposition to Tara, it was on Bealtaine that the main ritual cycle was begun. In both cases sacred fires were extinguished and re-lit, though this happened at sunset on Samhain and at dawn on Bealtaine. Bealtaine was a time of opening and expansion, Samhain a time of gathering-in and shutting, and for herd-owners like the Celts this was expressed with particular vividness by the release of cattle into upland pastures on Bealtaine and their return to the safety of the byres on Samhain.” – Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal

“May Day customs include: walking the circuit of one’s property (“beating the bounds”), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney sweeps and milkmaids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty.” – Mike Nichols, A Celebration of May Day

“Dancing was a common way to celebrate the season. The Maypole rites being an obvious example, but before this practice became widespread, dancing without benefit of a giant pole was also common. Dancing round the bonfires was seen as a way to partake of the purification of its flames. Women wanting to get pregnant would perform fertility dances at the fireside. Once the Beltane fires were relit on the hillsides, villagers would carry a flaming torch, the “need-fire, ” back to their homes and relight their hearthfires with it. On the way, it was customary to dance and sing the season in.” – Peg Aloi, You Call it May Day, We Call it Beltane

“Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring, such as a shut-in or elderly friend. Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty. Dress in bright colors. Dance the Maypole and feel yourself balancing the Divine Female and Male within. On May Eve, bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it. Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck. Welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.” – Selena Fox, Beltane

“I’m sorry if I omitted anyone’s favorite rite of Spring. They are too numerous to list. No matter if you celebrate Easter, Passover, Beltaine or Ridvan, I send you a wish for happiness and re-birth. Now is a good time to remember how similar we are – Christian and Jew, Buddhist and Pagan. I wish you all, ‘Blessed be.’” – Adele Elliott, The Commercial Dispatch

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

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

The First Amendment Center has written a nice opinion piece explaining why the veteran pentacle victory is so important to the principles of our country.

“…religious diversity in America goes far beyond the “Protestant, Catholic, Jewish” description of the nation popular in the 1950s … As the religious playing field grows more crowded, the only way to avoid conflict and litigation is for the government to enforce the First Amendment ground rules without favoring one religion over others – or religion over non-religion. It doesn’t matter whether the group is Wicca, Summum or any of the other hundreds of faiths in the United States, government officials are supposed to stay neutral toward religion. And that means – to invoke a virtue we learned in kindergarten – be fair to all.”

The Chronicle Herald spotlights a local Canadian artist who turned to Goddess worship during a time of crisis and has in turn created a series of goddess-oriented quilts now on display at a local museum gallery.

“Gregory called the process ‘a different way of looking at feminine power. Women have to learn about their power. At one point, women were recognized as the source of power, but that power has been denigrated by patriarchy. We’re trying to go back to how power symbols were used by women before they were distorted by patriarchy.’ But Gregory insists her desire to educate and encourage women through feminist art is not anti-male. She said she wants her husband and her son to be comfortable in the gallery.”

Michael Pye at The Scotsman reviews “Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy” by Barbara Ehrenreich, and takes issue with her interpretation of pre-Christian religion.

“…the silliest cliche’ in the book: “Dionysus was the first rock star.” Since later Ehrenreich will acknowledge Bill Haley in that role … The next stop is, of course, Jesus, and whether he was confused with Dionysus by his first followers. The answer, as with anything in the first 350 muddled years of church history, is: ‘yes’ and ‘no’. But it’s quite a leap from Saint Paul asking women to keep their heads covered in church – a convention of Middle Eastern modesty, Jewish, Muslim or Christian – to assuming Paul really meant they shouldn’t toss their long hair about in ecstatic dance. That theory demands a resounding: ‘Maybe.’”

You can read my original post on this book, here.

For those wanting more Bjork background after my blog articles discussing her pagan inclinations, the New York Times has a lengthy interview concerning her new album and the process behind making it.

“Bjork, 41, describes ‘Volta’ as ‘techno voodoo,’ ‘pagan,’ ‘tribal’ and ‘extroverted.’ Those words barely sum up an album that mingles programmed beats, free-jazz drumming, somber brass ensembles, African music, a Chinese lute and Bjork’s ever-volatile voice. It’s a 21st-century assemblage of the computerized and the handmade, the personal and the global.”

Finally, with Beltane coming up, different groups are making big plans. The Dolmen Grove near Dorset is burning a large Wicker Man during a Beltane festival this weekend.

“Dolmen Grove druids and witches are staging one of the biggest pagan festivals in England this weekend – complete with a giant wicker man made in a Weymouth garden. The figure plays a leading role in the Beltane Spirit of Rebirth Festival at Burnbake camp site near Corfe Castle when it will be burned as the high point of a fire ritual on Saturday night.”

Meanwhile Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire Festival, the biggest (and most colorful) Beltane celebration in the UK, prepares for their biggest year yet.

“It does become a bit crowded up there,” acknowledges Renwick. “We have around 380 performers this year and it will be tight for them to move through the crowds, but many argue that is part of the experience. No matter how much the demand grows we’ll never move from Calton Hill. It’s integral to the festival and it’s our home. Obviously it’s fantastic that the support has been growing every year and it shows the public enjoy the event and want to keep it happening.”

That is all I have for now, have a good day!

South Carolina is making the news for a bill focusing on public prayer that has been advanced in its Senate. The South Carolina Public Invocation Act, originally introduced by Republican Senator Chip Campsen (with guidance by the ultra-conservative Alliance Defense Fund*), would give state-wide “guidelines” for allowable forms of public prayer.

“The legislation now headed to the Senate Judiciary Committee gives local governments three possibilities for legal prayer: Elect a chaplain, let each member of the board pray on a rotating basis, or invite local religious leaders to put their name on a list to pray and schedule them on a first-come, first-serve basis.”

It becomes clear from reading the bill that its authors are trying to navigate the legal waters created by two cases involving Wiccans and public prayers: Darla Wynne (a resident of South Carolina who won her case against Great Falls) and Cynthia Simpson (a Virginia resident who ultimately lost hers). In other words, they are trying to bring back prayers to Jesus at government meetings without the lawsuits.

“‘The content of the prayer is not important as long as it’s not used to proselytize,’ said Mike Johnson, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a national group that aims to defend the First Amendment. ‘Don’t come to the podium and make an altar call.’ … Sen. Larry Martin, a co-sponsor of the South Carolina Public Invocation Act, said he hopes the measure prevents school boards and city and county councils from receiving “blanket demands of, ‘If you pray, I’ll sue you.’” … “Too often they’re browbeaten and intimidated, and they throw their hands in the air,” [Chip] Campsen said. ‘Little towns don’t have the legal staff we have.’”

In short, if this bill becomes law, the Darla Wynnes of this world can’t sue the local city council for exclusively praying to Jesus without bringing litigation against the entire state. Its clear that the authors are hoping that their emphasis on context will win over content (ie Jesus), and in turn create a legal fog of what can or can’t be allowed.

“Joyce Cheeks, interim director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, opposed the measure as the state government sanctioning and supporting prayers before public meetings. The bill also directs the attorney general’s office to keep up with court cases that could add to or change the possibilities. It intentionally gives no direction on whether a prayer can mention a deity, instead suggesting boards seek local legal advice on that. “I think this might actually add to the constitutional confusion,” said professor Josie Brown of the University of South Carolina Law School.”

It seems pretty obvious that this move isn’t to secure religious “rights” for all citizens, but to allow a predominately conservative Christian state to keep invoking Jesus before meetings. The press in this case seem to be uncritical about assertions that the ACLU wants to eliminate public prayer, when instead its been well-established that they are asking for non-sectarian prayers (or no prayers at all if such a compromise can’t be reached). One wonders, if this bill becomes law, how long before Great Falls uses the new blanket protection to destroy everything Darla Wynne endured and worked for.

If you live in a town where the vast majority are Christians, public invocations of Jesus before any public event don’t have to be “altar calls” to establish a quasi-official hierarchy of belief. How seriously do you think a Buddhist, Wiccan, Hindu, or Muslim will be taken at a government meeting that asks for the guidance and blessing of Jesus?

* You may remember the Alliance Defense Fund as the group who is representing The Street Preachers’ Fellowship in a suit against Grand Rapids Michigan after they were ordered to stop harassing a local Pagan gathering.

Amnesty International has issued a disturbing new report that asserts an incredibly high rate of sexual violence and rape against Native American and Alaskan Native women.

“A US Department of Justice study on violence against women concluded that 34.1 per cent of American Indian and Alaska Native women – or more than one in three – will be raped during their lifetime; the comparable figure for the USA as a whole is less than one in five. Shocking though these statistics are, it is widely believed that they do not accurately portray the extent of sexual violence against Native American and Alaska Native women.”

The report goes on to state that contrary to typical rape statistics, the vast majority of these rapes are committed by strangers and outsiders.

“According to the US Department of Justice, in at least 86 per cent of reported cases of rape or sexual assault against American Indian and Alaska Native women, survivors report that the perpetrators are non-Native men.”

Unfortunately, due to a mixture of archaic laws, a lack of funding for tribal courts and law enforcement, and a general failure at the federal level to pursue rape cases against Native women most of these crimes go unpunished. Creating a situation that allows perpetrators to “rape with impunity”.

“It appears that Indigenous women in the USA may be targeted for acts of violence and denied access to justice on the basis of their gender and Indigenous identity … Indigenous women described to Amnesty International how they experience contemporary sexual violence as a legacy of impunity for past atrocities.”

Monica Aleman, Program Director at MADRE, an International women;s human rights organization, and International Coordinator of FIMI, the International Indigenous Women’s Forum sees the issue of rape and violence against Indigenous women as linked to the rights and recognition of Indigenous Peoples.

“For Indigenous women, historical and contemporary experiences of genocide, in combination with gender discrimination, give rise to multiple forms of gender-based violence. Today, global patterns of ongoing colonization and militarism; racism and social exclusion; and poverty-inducing economic and “development” policies generate human rights violations against Indigenous women, including gender-based violence.”

What can be done at this stage? Amnesty International has several recommendations, the principal ones being funding and the removing of legal obstacles created by “jurisdictional confusion and complexity”. Meanwhile ‘Devilstower’ at the progressive mega-blog Daily Kos urges readers to contact their congresspersons urging (among other things) the full funding of the Violence Against Women Act.

“In the meantime, send a note to your congressperson — today would be good — urging them to support additional funds for law enforcement and forensics in these communities (needless to say, there is no CSI: Standing Rock). And tell them to dump a law that, at its heart, enshrines the idea that some people are less entitled to justice than others. It’s well past time for the racist 1885 Major Crimes Act to be eliminated. Most of all, work to see that congress fully funds the Violence Against Women Act. The current act calls for 10% of funds to go to tribal areas.”

This report is deeply troubling. Rape on such a massive scale against an Indigenous population points to an almost genocidal impulse. Rape as a weapon of war. Modern Pagans and Heathens should take special notice of this. I have long felt that those of us who follow a revived or reconstructed form of polytheism should pay special attention to, and when possible practice solidarity with, those peoples, groups, and cultures that practice or nurture a surviving form of ancient or indigenous polytheism.

We should spread the message of this ongoing tragedy among our communities, write to our politicians, and give to charitable groups that are stepping up to help.

Mia Fineman at Slate takes a look at feminist artist Judy Chicago’s famous installation piece “The Dinner Party” on the occasion of it taking up permanent residence at the Brooklyn Museum as the centerpiece of the new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

“Chicago began working on The Dinner Party in 1974; it took five years and the labor of 400 volunteers to complete. The installation consists of a massive banquet table in the shape of an equilateral triangle-an emblem of equality. Along each side are 13 place settings, a reference to Christ and his 12 disciples at the Last Supper. Chicago said she wanted to reinterpret ‘that all-male event from the point of view of those who had traditionally been expected to prepare the food, then silently disappear from the picture.’”

“The Dinner Party” at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

One third of the table is dedicated to place-settings for pre-Christian goddesses and important women from antiquity. This includes a place setting for the primordial goddess, Ishtar, Kali, the poet Sappho, and the Celtic queen Boudica. Fineman wonders if the work (originally displayed in 1979) can still be effective and moving in our cynical and irony-laden present, but finds that there is power to the installation that shines through.

“So, is The Dinner Party great art? Well, not by the standards of today’s art world. It’s too middlebrow, too literal, and its earnestness is out of step with today’s endlessly self-ironizing sensibility. And its pudendal imagery, once radical, looks silly and heavy-handed today. But as an emphatically populist work with a clear set of political and educational imperatives, The Dinner Party has held its ground. It’s nervy, ambitious, uncompromising, and-unlike most recent art, feminist or otherwise-truly original.”

You can see a short interview with Judy Chicago from the opening of the permanent installation, here. For more photos of the installation check out Flickr. One wonders that if “The Dinner Party”, now that it has a permanent home, will become a place of pilgrimage for goddess worshipers? It certainly stands out as one of the most famous works of modern art that has been influenced by feminist strains of modern Paganism.

The settlement of the veteran pentacle case continues to dominate the Pagan news (and news about Pagans). Now that it has been a couple days since the news first broke, more commentary is starting to emerge.

The Witches Voice (the largest Pagan site on the Internet) has posted commentary by Pete ‘Pathfinder’ Davis, Archpriest of The Aquarian Tabernacle Church of Wicca. Davis’s church was involved in an ACLU lawsuit separate from the Americans Untied suit to get the pentacle marker approved.

“We here at the Aquarian Tabernacle Church of Wicca want also to acknowledge everyone, known to us or not, who has ever fired a shot in this long, drawn out battle over the last nine years, especially our own Scott Stearns (USN) who breathed new life into this struggle when it had reached its low point. They all deserve acknowledgment as the behind-the-scenes heavy lifters who paved smooth the road to success. So very many people wrote their legislators, senators and representatives, letters-to-the-editor and exerted subtle but persistent pressure in so very many ways we can never list. We can even thank our president for his offhanded anti-Wiccan remark some years ago in Texas, which helped us all win. When we all work together in a coordinated effort, we CAN move mountains!”

You can read the ACLU’s press release on the issue, here.

Other Pagans who have commented on the win include Deborah Lipp, Yvonne Aburrow, Hecate, Chas Clifton, Joel Monka, John Williams, and Astrid at The Northern Path among many others.

Outside commentary has been emerging as well, the issue got a mention at The Revealer, and Dan Pulliam discusses the case for Get Religion. Pulliam complains that what should simply be a religious freedom issue has been swept up by politics.

“…unfortunately, the story has been swept up by politics when it is not clear that it was directly related to politics … There seems to be good second-hand evidence that the VA’s decision was indeed influenced by statements made by President Bush. But the terms of the settlement with the VA kept those documents from coming out. Call me a skeptic (because I am about most things), but as a reporter I would not be satisfied with that an answer.”

Pulliam also quotes heavily from a blog post by Mark Oppenheimer at the Huffington Post who became completely distracted by one line of the New York Times coverage and goes off on a rant about the “absurd” historical claims concerning Wicca, and how journalists can’t let them off the hook!

“But the very capable Neela Banerjee, who writes about religion frequently, makes one big mistake: Wicca is not “a type of pre-Christian belief that reveres nature and its cycles.” As I and others have explained, Wicca is a 19th- and 20th-century invention with a creative backstory invented to lend it historical legitimacy.”

Saying “a type of” can give an impression of “ancientness” but it is never overtly said or claimed in the article. Now perhaps “a type of” was the wrong phrasing, maybe “incorporates” or “inspired by” or “aspires to revive” should have been used instead, but the practice of polytheism can indeed by classified as a “type of pre-Christian belief” when used in the context of a religion that looks primarily to a pre-Christian Europe for inspiration. But those considerations matter little since Oppenheimer is someone with an ax to grind who has a history of dismissive attitudes towards modern Paganism and Wicca (maybe he can have tea with Charlotte Allen sometime).

For further negative backlash, About.com alternative religions blogger Jennifer Emick gives us a wrap-up of people less than pleased by the approved pentacle. But in general everyone* from across the political spectrum seems pleased at the decision, though Pandagon is a bit shocked that Free Republic readers are OK with it.

*Religious Internet giant Beliefnet hasn’t covered the issue yet, feeling that cover stories on ‘The Secret’ and how to pray the Bible took precedence. Maybe next week.

While I’m pleased that victory has finally been accomplished in the Veteran Pentacle Quest, I was somewhat disappointed that the issue didn’t go to court. Why? Because now we’ll never have direct proof of anti-Wiccan/Pagan bias by VA officials. Before a trial begins a process of “discovery” happens in which both parties hand over (or are forced to hand over) documents and materials relevant to the case. Before the discovery process happened in this case the VA tried a stalling tactic.

“The VA argued in a motion filed Jan. 19 with the U.S. District Court in Madison that the lawsuit should be put on hold until after the department finalized its new rules related to accepting new grave marker symbols. That process could take up to 12 months but the VA would make a decision on the Wiccan request within a month after the process ended, the government’s motion said. The Wiccans’ attorney objected, arguing that nothing commits the VA to finalize its rules within that time frame, or take up the Wiccan request at all.”

Luckily the judge sided with the plaintiffs and a trial date was set for June 29th 2007. The discovery phase moved forward. It was during this point that Americans United allegedly came across some damning evidence.

“Lawyers familiar with the case said that some documents suggested the VA had political motives for rejecting the pentacle … During his first campaign for president, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ in 1999 that he was opposed to Wiccan soldiers practicing their faith at Fort Hood, Tex. ‘I don’t think witchcraft is a religion, and I wish the military would take another look at this and decide against it,’ he said. Lynn, of Americans United, said references to Bush’s remarks appeared in memos and e-mails within the VA. ‘One of the saddest things is to learn that this wasn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare, there was a certain amount of bigotry,’ he said. ‘The president’s wishes were interpreted at a pretty high level. . . . It became a political judgment, not a constitutional judgment.’”

Pagan academic Chas Clifton echoes these claims at this blog.

“From what I heard last November from the spouse of one of the lawyers involved, Americans United pretty well had the VA nailed for violating their own regulations and were counting on the potential embarrassment of a court trial to scare the VA into doing the right thing. It looks like that legal strategy worked.”

But we will never get hard proof thanks to the terms of the settlement.

“The settlement stipulates, however, that the plaintiffs must not keep or disclose any documents handed over by the government during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.”

Now the VA can claim the moral high ground by stating they settled “in the interest of the families involved”, and to save the taxpayer’s money. But if it was in the interest of “families involved” it certainly is a sea-change from the past nine years of struggles against the stonewalling tactics of the government agency. There is an illusion that our military is purely “secular”, and while that may be true to a point, it doesn’t acknowledge the very real persecutions and setbacks imposed upon openly Pagan soldiers by an overwhelmingly Christian (and conservative) chaplaincy and command structure.

So in my mind this victory is a bit bittersweet. I wish we could have gone farther in this case and gotten documents and testimony into the public records. I certainly don’t blame AU, Circle Sanctuary, and the other plaintiffs for taking the settlement, it was the promise of a sure victory in a very long struggle. But I fear that government agencies will continue to use Bush’s anti-Pagan comments as unwritten policy, an excuse to disenfranchise minority religions. As for the VA, one wonders what will happen when Asatru organizations start applying for a gravestone symbol.

Earlier this morning Circle Sanctuary sent out an e-mail saying that there was going to be a big announcement regarding the Veteran Pentacle Quest.

“On Monday morning, April 23,2007 Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) will hold a national press conference in Washington, DC announcing a major development in its lawsuit against the US Department of Veterans Affairs for barring the inscription of the Wiccan religious symbol on government-issued memorial markers for deceased veterans.”

Now the news has come forward that a settlement has been reached over addition of the Pentacle to the VA list of Emblems of Belief.

“The Bush administration has conceded that Wiccans are entitled to have the pentacle, the symbol of their faith, inscribed on government-issued memorial markers for deceased veterans, Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced today. The settlement agreement, filed today with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, brings to a successful conclusion a lawsuit Americans United brought against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in November.”

It seems the settlement had been reached after lawyers for Americans United uncovered clear and unambiguous evidence of bias towards the Wiccan faith on the part of the VA and the government.

“Americans United’s attorneys uncovered evidence that the VA’s refusal to recognize the Pentacle was motivated by bias toward the Wiccan faith. President George W. Bush, when he was governor of Texas, had opposed the right of Wiccans to meet at a military base in that state. Bush’s opinion of Wiccans was taken into consideration when making decisions on whether to approve the Pentacle. ‘Many people have asked me why the federal government was so stubborn about recognizing the Wiccan symbol,’ said AU’s Lynn. ‘I did not want to believe that bias toward Wiccans was the reason, but that appears to have been the case. That’s discouraging, but I’m pleased we were able to put a stop to it.’”

In other words, VA officials were taking statements against Wiccans made by Bush as a policy guideline when considering approving the Wiccan pentacle. One wonders what other military organizations are using such a “guideline” in their decisions regarding the rights of Wiccans and Pagans. It would certainly explain the discrimination that military chaplain Don Larsen faced in his attempt to become the first Pagan chaplain. But despite this very troubling revelation, one hopes this is just the start of a new day concerning the rights of Pagans in the military. Congratulations to Circle Sanctuary, Roberta Stewart, and Americans United. This is a great day!

Addendum: Coverage of the victory by CNN and MSNBC. Updated listing of approved symbols by the VA.

Today is Earth Day. Originally spearheaded in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson as a national “teach-in” on urgent environmental issues, it has since become an internationally recognized holiday in 174 countries. Earth Day is partially credited with jump-starting the modern environmentalist movement, and helping to pass legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

According to Chas Clifton’s book “Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America” the Earth Day celebrations of 1970 also marked an important turning point in American Paganism.

“…if there was a year when Wicca (in the broad sense) became “nature religion,” as opposed to the “mystery religion” or “metaphorical fertility religion” labels that it had brought from England, that year was 1970 … Wicca and other forms of new American Paganism stepped right through the door that Earth Day had opened for them – or, perhaps more accurately, the door whose opening the first Earth Day merely marked.”

Back in 1970 most of the dominant American religious traditions (especially many Christian traditions) were indifferent to environmental concerns, which allowed Paganism in America to position itself as almost singularly concerned (from a religious perspective) with the environmental well-being of our planet. In the nearly forty years since Earth Day’s founding that has changed, and now environmentalism of one form or another can be found in most of America’s religious traditions.

“In February, the Evangelical Climate Initiative released a statement, “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action,” that argues global warming is real and that it will devastate the earth’s poor. The statement was criticized by conservative Christian groups, especially some leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals. Since then, the NAE leadership has had a change of heart and now publicly supports protection of the environment, what they call ‘creation care.’”

But as previously antagonistic sections of our population start to come around to a more environmentally conscious point of view, some environmental activists are wondering if Earth Day has outlived its usefulness.

“Earth Day, which every year has become less and less the revolutionary event it once was, seems this year to have entered a new phase of meaninglessness … The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we’re told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well … the solar bikinis and greenwashing campaigns cluttering up this Earth Day no longer look benign or amusing. They’re taking attention and costing us time we might spend creating real change — and time lost is catastrophe brought nearer.”

Larger systemic change isn’t being held up by the will of the people, recent polls suggest that a majority of Americans are aware of and worried about global warming, clean air, clean water, and sustainability. What is holding us up are entrenched corporate interests and their allies in government who want to sustain profits at the expense of everything else. It will take electing politicians with the political will (and voting out those who don’t) to make the necessary changes for our long-term benefit.

That isn’t to say that changes in lifestyle aren’t important (they are), but that lifestyle changes alone are no longer enough. Our government has to reflect our growing concern with these issues. Lets stop making this holiday a photo-op and start making it an opportunity to hold their feet to the fire (that is melting Greenland).

PS – Check out Grist’s second annual Earth Day list of the year’s goodies, oddities, and inanities.

Neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard reviews a posthumous collection of essays by Jewish sociographer and neoconservative Milton Himmelfarb (who passed away at the beginning of 2006). The collection, edited by his sister Gertrude Himmelfarb (wife of Irving Kristol an architect of the neoconservative movement, and mother to Bill Kristol an editor of The Weekly Standard), looks at relations between Christians and Jews and raises alarms over the rise of “paganism”.

“Although Jews and Gentiles is a book of essays, compiled posthumously, it has a theme: the rise of paganism in our times, and the fundamental, irreconcilable antagonism between paganism and Judaism. We must carefully distinguish (the author writes) between paganism and mere atheism. Paganism is a positive system of beliefs … For Himmelfarb, paganism is the characteristic religion of today’s elite–and it stands for promiscuity, misery, and death. He traces the taste for paganism to Enlightenment philo sophes such as Diderot, to their 20th-century academic admirers, and to the psychotic sixties, when nature-worship and sexual promiscuity began to seem positively good and Christianity (and Judaism even more, to the extent anyone ever thought about it) began to seem evil.”

Standard writer David Gelernter praises Himmelfarb’s “casual annihilation” of the notion that there is anything “admirable” about ancient pagan societies (from ancient Rome to India), and uncritically swallows the “Hitler was a pagan” meme so popular amongst certain apologists for the moral superiority of monotheism.

“Himmelfarb is careful to note that only paganism, and never Christianity, could have sponsored the Holocaust: “If one sentence could summarize Church law and practice over many centuries, it is this: the Jews are allowed to live, but not too well.” This sentence is worth a couple of academic monographs and a journal paper all by itself … The author compresses a shattering load of truth into three sentences: ‘The obedience of Himmler and the SS was to Hitler, not to anti-Semitism. . . . Hitler made the Holocaust because he wanted to make it. . . . Hitler was ex-Christian and anti-Christian.’”

Statements like these seem to point at a troubling revisionism, a glossing over of Christianity’s sins towards Judaism by finding a common enemy (paganism). Despite these issues (or perhaps because of them) The Weekly Standard frames Himmelfard as some sort of reincarnation of essayist and critic Samuel Johnson (who famously wrote that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”). But in these crude smear-pieces depicting “pagan” societies as evil and without a moral compass aren’t we paving a road that will eventually lead to more religious intolerance and violence? Creating a common enemy is a tactic that often backfires. Everyone, including neoconservatives, should step lightly before endorsing such a course towards deepening an alliance between conservative Christians and Jews.