More Veteran Pentacle Fallout
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
*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.
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