Yesterday we looked at how the Chicago Sun-Times spun the ARIS data into a story about Wiccans, today we turn to Oregon where Nancy Haught at The Oregonian interviews Southern Oregon University sociology professor Mark A. Shibley about what the data means regarding the spiritual makeup of the Northwest.

“Established churches have been in decline, and evangelical Protestantism has been growing. Over time and generations, the mainline and Catholic churches are failing to hang on to young people, and some are being scooped up by mega-churches designed to appeal to the younger generation. New religious movements and spiritualities, neo-paganism, New Age folks have all experimented, explored and are proliferating here in the Northwest. At the same time, the hip California style of evangelicalism has flourished here. Some of those movements have spread up the coast, planted churches and taken hold. Our landscape has gotten a little bit more religious, but in particular ways.”

Shibley, who contributed to the book “Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone”, also points out that many of the increasingly large “nones” demographic found within the ARIS data may very well be exploring spirituality in “unconventional” ways (ie New Age, syncretic mixes, etc). So with “nones” (around 24% in Oregon, 25% in Washington), new religious movements (including Pagans), and evangelicals all flourishing in the Pacific Northwest, does that spell  some sort of looming religious conflict? Maybe not. While evangelicals are certainly absorbing adherents from the slowly dwindling institutional churches, some are predicting a major evangelical collapse in the next ten years.

“Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the “Protestant” 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century. This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West … Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I’m convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.”

Leaving the Northwest, perhaps, to the Pagans and “nones”? I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see, reports of the collapse of evangelical Christianity have come from a number of different sources and been wrong before. Still, if you squint in a certain direction, you can see how our post-Christian future could develop in the next twenty-thirty years.

As for the journalistic merits of the Oregonian piece, it’s a marked improvement over the Sun-Times’ look at Wiccans. While both only used one source in their respective articles, Haught wisely decided to find an academic who understood the ramifications of the ARIS data and then conducted the piece as a straightforward interview.  She also didn’t try to lead with a bad joke, for which I thank her. The end result is a far more nuanced, accurate, and detail-oreinted look at a developing trend.

The Chicago Sun-Times wins the prize for being the first mainstream paper to explore the “mini-rise of the Wiccans” indicated in the recently-released American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) data. Too bad it’s so sloppy and lazy in its execution. First there’s the rookie mistake of referring to Wicca as “Wiccanism” (I mean really, in 2009?), then religion-beat reporter Mike Thomas starts off  with the hoary and groan-inducing “real Witches aren’t fantasy witches” bit that we all love so much.

“They don’t toil over bubbling caldrons or cook lost kids. They have no use for flying monkeys. And their spice racks are more apt to contain ginger or paprika than eye of newt.”

Then there is the matter of interview subjects.

“…there’s even a Witch School. An outgrowth of the nationally popular and long-active Web site witchschool.com, the Downstate Rossville-based organization currently offers three monthly courses and returned to town earlier this month after a five-year absence. Local classrooms include the Occult Bookstore in Wicker Park and the Life Force Arts Center in Lake View. [Rev. Don] Lewis said there’s talk of expanding to St. Louis and “a number of different regions.” [like Salem?] On a recent Friday night, Witch School CEO Ed Hubbard visited the Occult Bookstore to talk on the topic of “Magick for the Masses.” Few people attended, save for a handful of employees and one drop-in, but the show went on.”

Now I’m not bagging on the Witch School folks here, they are a (relatively) high-profile organization located in Illinois, so it’s only natural a journalist would contact them. I’m just troubled that the reporter went to exactly one source for this piece. That might fly when your doing a write-up of a metaphysical store in rural Michigan, but not in Chicago where there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of potential interview subjects. Nor does Thomas interview someone with the ARIS study to get a better sense of the growth of new religious movements, or attempt to contact any academics who study Pagan religions for insight into modern Paganism’s growth.

Using the ARIS data to merely write yet another tired “meet the Witches” piece, complete with the usual patina of superciliousness, seems an utter wase of journalistic space. Franky, if the Sun-Times doesn’t feel that Wicca’s continued growth is worth more than calling one organization and a drop-in at the local occult shop (for a talk lead by the same group) then they should just not bother. There are several interesting stories to be told spinning out of this ARIS data, and I’d rather wait for them to emerge slowly than bide my time with inconsequential filler like this. Honestly, I’d rather read yet another piece on how well psychics are doing during the recession than this mad-libs-style approach to religion reporting.

I’ll be on the road today and unable to effectively blog, so in the meantime why not check out the latest episode of my podcast A Darker Shade of Pagan, and take a peek at the recent blog posts by fellow Pagan bloggers Chas Clifton, Gus diZerega, and the ever-vigilant Wren Walker of Wren’s Nest (you should also feel free to share links to articles, podcasts, and blog posts that you felt were particularly inspiring or thought-provoking this week in the comments). Cheers!

Image Comics is debuting a brand new comic series in May called “Olympus”. The series follows the adventures of the “Brothers Gemini” (who seem to be based on Castor and Pollux), twin brothers blessed by Zeus with eternal life who now act as bounty hunters for the gods.

“OLYMPUS begins with the Brothers Gemini, 3,000 years after Zeus has granted them eternal life in exchange for eternal servitude, hunting an exiled god, only to stumble upon a greater horror by accidentally releasing one of Hades’ most dangerous prisoners. The results explode as [Nathan] Edmondson and [Christian] Ward expand the mythology of classic tales in a fresh, compelling visual style in an action-adventure driven series unlike any other out there.”

You can see a short preview of the comic, here. The first issue is due to arrive at your comic shop on May 20th. As a fan of Pagan, mythological, and occult themes in comic books, I’ll definately be checking it out.

Over at Salon.com Laura Miller has written a fascinating review of two new books that explore humanity’s deep attachment to relics, ancestor worship, and “biddable magical forces”. The books: “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” by Matt Baglio, and “Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World’s Holy Relics” by Peter Manseau (co-author of “Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible”), seem to point to the reality that no matter how secular our culture or transcendent our faith we still find ourselves drawn to an ethically diverse world of strange powers which we engage with decisively immanent devices.

“Relics are potent, largely because the value of these objects lies not in their testimony to the ordinary lot of humanity, but in their promise of transcending it. The devout believe that holy relics can miraculously cure diseases, heal broken relationships, deliver loved ones from misfortune, straighten out misguided children, and so on and so on, ad infinitum. Their adoration is utilitarian. This isn’t about flesh and blood, but about magic. The inclination to believe in biddable magical forces capable of acting for or against us appears to be irresistible to large numbers of people in every nation on the planet.”

Miller seems quite dismissive of Manseau’s attempts to view the world’s relics through a humanistic “circle-of-life” lens, and instead favors the more face-value religious worldview that the figures in Baglio’s book about an exorcist in training inhabit. Of course exorcisms aren’t  just for driving out Christian demons, but (as I’ve pointed out before on this blog) are a part of a larger spiritual struggle against religions that appeal more directly to the desire to control those “biddable” forces.

“The deftest church officials have used the furor to extend the battle for spiritual dominance on other fronts. According to the dutiful Baglio, “occult ties” are listed as one of the primary causes of demonic possession, with “occult” defined as everything from performing satanic rituals to participating in séances, tarot card readings or other forms of divination, the use of “an amulet or talisman,” transcendental meditation, engaging in Wicca ceremonies, using crystals and other New Age paraphernalia, frequenting psychics and even reading the Harry Potter books, which were condemned by the Vatican’s official exorcist. Anything, in short, likely to compete with the church for your spiritual interest and dollars can lead to an infestation by Beelzebub or Asmodeus (names that originally belonged to Middle Eastern gods who were rivals of the famously jealous God of the Old Testament).”

To a certain extent these books seem to underline a point made by Michael York in his book “Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion”, that the “pagan” religious impulse never died out as the dominant monotheisms (and later, post-Enlightenment rationalism) took prominence around certain parts of the world. Instead, to varying degrees, the “world” religions adapted, absorbed, and tolerated just enough of these practices to remain relevant to their geographically and culturally diverse adherents. We shouldn’t be surprised that a variety of relics are still venerated across different faiths, or that the Catholic Church is ramping up the exorcisms to meet a need (and combat competition), these conditions point towards the idea that a polytheist condition is natural for humanity and can only be suppressed for so long. If it’s true that the natural instinct when reaching towards the unknown is to acknowledge a multiplicity of powers/forces, we will never truly see magic, “paganism”, or “superstition” ever really leave us.

The Telegraph reports on new religious General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) courses being introduced in the UK. What’s unique about these classes is that they strive to paint a portrait of an increasingly secular and multi-religious Britain, and include new religious movements as a key part of that education.

“In one key area, lessons will focus on the influence of minority religious movements, such as Falun Gong, the banned Chinese spiritual group, and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, which believe in the spirituality of nature. As part of a topic on Rastafarianism, students are asked to look at the influence of Bob Marley in the 1970s.”

These courses (which are voluntary, and are available after mandatory education,  but before A-levels) also explore the rise of atheism, and discusses various “hot-button” issues like gay marriage and gender equality. While it must be refreshing for adherents of minority faiths to be taken seriously as part of Britain’s religious landscape, various Christians and members of the Church of England say the courses “snub” them, and aren’t really a “serious” religious education.

“I have no objection to the presence of disbelief in the curriculum, because it provides important context to a study of theology. But when I took A levels we did Divinity and went on to university to read Theology. The groundwork was principally the study of Christianity, though I seem to remember there was a comparative religion option that would have included the other two Abrahamic faiths.  I think OCR might find considerable take-up for such a course. It could still run its Religious Studies alternative, with all its Druidism, Rastafarianism and embarrassed avoidance of ancient scriptures, and indeed could do so more freely, while those who wanted to study serious theology could do so. But maybe that wouldn’t be sufficiently right-on. And a lot of the rising numbers of students who opt for Religious Studies might go for it, which might present a problem for ‘equality and diversity’.”

Because exploring anything but Christian (or possibly Jewish or Islamic) theology just isn’t very “serious” I suppose (maybe it’s our funny names). I also think it’s interesting how this CoE priest (and religion editor for The Telegraph) thinks the high demand for GCSE courses on religion (24,000 to 171,000 in the last two years) means they yearn to study Christianity. Hadn’t he heard about the startling news concerning 50,000 UK women leaving Christian churches every year? I doubt they left because they weren’t offered “serious” GCSE courses on Christian theology.

Thought I’d share a few quick items with you that I missed in yesterday’s “News of Note”. First off, Reclaiming co-founder Starhawk opines about the recent ARIS data suggesting that modern Paganism is growing while other faiths contract.

“Why are we growing? In a time when the very life support systems of the planet are threatened by environmental destruction and global warming, many people seek a faith rooted in love and respect for nature. Women have especially been drawn to the Goddess traditions because we offer positive images of women’s power, our tealogy and religious imagery reflect women’s lives, cycles, and name our bodies as sacred, and we offer women respect and leadership roles. But many men also are drawn to a community that does not make gender a condition of power. Gay, lesbian and transgender folks find a welcome in our circles. And many people are drawn to traditions that encourage imagination, honor intuition and respect each individual’s spiritual authority.”

Starhawk also praises the Internet as a boon to modern Paganism’s growth. For more ARIS reactions from the rest of the On Faith panelists, click here.

Will Witch School give up on building a “Salem of the Midwest” in Hoopeston, IL and instead just pick up and move to the already existing Witch-mecca of Salem, Massachusetts? That is apparantly one of the agenda items for its annual international conference in Salem from April 17th – 19th.

“The group also plans to vote on whether to relocate its headquarters to downtown Salem. The move would include the relocation of Magick TV, an Internet television station broadcast on YouTube. Hubbard said he envisions a downtown TV studio that could broadcast such programs as the Pagan Nightly News. He has already been in talks with Salem landlords, he said. “My goal is to be on Essex Street,” Hubbard said.”

Considering the reception they rcceived in Hoopeston, I can hardly blame them for wanting to move, and I suppose that since Salem is a land of big personalities and ambitious impressarios they’ll fit right in.

MN Artists (and MinnPost) run a profile of “freelance druid” Bill Watkins on the publication of his third memoir “The Once and Future Celt”.

“The Once and Future Celt documents the last leg of Bill Watkins’ winding path; this final volume of his memoir trilogy, preceded by A Celtic Childhood and Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish, traces Bill’s self-definition as a Celt and, more specifically, as a modern druid and a bearer of the old traditions. Bill was raised in England by an Irish mother and a Welsh father who were both fluent in their native Gaelic languages and passionate about their ancestral traditions. Each bestowed Bill with divergent but strongly felt religious beliefs — Irish Catholicism from his mother and, from his father, an abiding faith in the old druidic beliefs held by the Celts before their conquest by the Romans.”

“Wild” Bill Watkins resides, naturally enough, in Paganistan (Minneapolis/St Paul) and performs regularly at Merlins Rest Pub.

That’s it for now!

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

Modern Paganism continues to grow in India, DNA India files a report from Mumbai about the “bewitching world of Wicca”.

“Twentysix-year-old Sangeeta Krishnan is a part time editor of a scientific firm by profession but a wiccan by choice. She is as adept at using the computer as she is at using the crystal ball, wand, spells and magical charms for her wicca workshops. “I have been into this as long as I can remember. I used to have a lot of mystical experiences in my school days,” says Krishnan, who has been practicing wicca for the last 10 years.”

The fascinating cross-pollination between modern Paganism and Hinduism continues. One wonders what the American and European Indo-Pagans and the Indian Wiccans will be like a couple generations down the line. Will they intersect? Or will they each evolve into something entirely different?

World-famous Hammer Horror actress Ingrid Pitt reminices about “The Wicker Man” while in Scotland being interviewed by the BBC for a documentary concerning films shot in Scotland (which “The Wicker Man” was).

“The filming for the BBC extravaganza was done in the Ellengowan Hotel in Creetown where Britt Ekland didn’t do her naked dance routine. The actual interview was in the bar where the Barman’s Daughter was sung. And standing in the corner was Ian Cutler, sawing away on his fiddle, just the way he did it 36 years ago. 36 years ago! Makes your head spin. Pauline Law, the director insisted we had something to eat before getting down to it and I was seated next to Alan Cumming, the interviewer. Not sure that was the best thing. By the time I had chewed my way through a plate of beef I had told him my life story and hadn’t held anything back for the interview.”

Since I don’t live in the UK, I’ll most likely have to wait for a DVD release of “Filming in Scotland”. Should be worth it just for the on-location Wicker Man interviews.

I suppose I should be flattered that no matter how busy Beliefnet blogger Rod “Crunchy Con” Dreher becomes, he always has enough time to point and laugh at modern Pagans. It really brings home how much his recent conversion to Orthodox Christianity has matured him. This time he unleashes his snark on a lesbian Pagan sepratist who wrote a letter to The New Yorker to complain about a recent feature they published about Lesbian sepratist communities.

“How come Crunchy Con never gets letters like this one to the New Yorker, from a reader who didn’t like lesbian writer Ariel Levy’s recent piece on the history of radical lesbian separatism? … The joke just kind of writes itself, doesn’t it? Still, if she’s got her own little Benedict Option going, good for her. I bet it’s as humor-free as Pyongyang, tho’…”

Ah, what an incisive wit! Reminds of me of the good old days when he’d make snide comments about how many “hit-points” those Pagans with funny names had. Good times, good times. Watch out though, those conservatives who don’t think he’s conservative enough are pretty sure he’s secretly a Pagan (its those organic groceries and acceptance that global warming is real). If he’s not careful, people might think he’s overcompensating with the anti-Pagan barbs in order to hide something.

Were Julius Caesar and Pliny the Elder actually right about the Druids when they claimed they participated in mass ritual slaughter and cannibalism? That’s the hook of a recent National Geographic News story, but when you actually read the article they aren’t so sure.

“Druids may have killed the victims—who show evidence of skull-splitting blows—in a single event. It may have been the Roman invasion itself that escalated the Druids’ ritualized slaughter, researchers say. Mark Horton, an archaeologist at the University of Bristol, thinks the pile of bodies suggests savage resistance to the Romans, either on the battlefield or through deadly ritual. “Maybe the whole thing is a gigantic sacrifice … an appeasement to the gods in order that they will get ultimate victory against the Romans,” Horton said. The Alveston cave bones hint at something even more sinister—cannibalism. A human thighbone in the cave had been broken open in exactly the same method people use to get at the nutritious bone marrow of nonhuman animals. But if the bone is proof of Celtic cannibalism, the practice was probably extremely rare, Horton said. It may be evidence of increasing hunger and desperation as Roman invaders closed in, he added.”

So it there might have possibly been cannibalism based on one bone being split, and there was some sort of mass-sacrifice, but they aren’t really sure about the circumstances. They could have been willing victims trying to magically stop the Romans, executed enemies, or something else entirely. There’s still no real proof concerning how pervasive or regular human sacrifice was among the Druids, and there certainly is no proof they engaged in cannibalism regularly. Its a shame that National Geographic would veer into senstionalism like this.

In a final note, the second issue of Thorn Magazine is now out.

“Thorn Issue 2 is now available. This issue, in observance of Barack Obama’s historic election, we’re delving into the racial makeup of our Pagan traditions– who we are, which cultures we look to in borrowing (or appropriating?) our traditions and inspirations, and how we can preserve the vitality of our ethnic paths in an increasingly multi-cultural world. Including interviews with: T. Thorn Coyle, Isaac Bonewits, and S.J. “Sooj” Tucker.”

It also features a column from yours truly, a smack-down of the Lebor Feasa Runda from Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, and a review of “Talking About the Elephant” by Christine Hoff Kraemer. One of the smartest Pagan publications out there, and I’m not just saying that because I write for them.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

The Reuters FaithWorld blog reports on a controversial YouTube video making the rounds that purports to depict the “common problem” of infanticide among indigenous tribes in Brazil. The controversy has arisen because the video was funded by the missionary group Youth With A Mission (who have a vested interest in eliminating traditional religions), the video itself is an admitted “recreation” of unverified events, and Survival International claims that infanticide is actually a rare and “dying out” occurrence among Brazilian Indians.

“Enock Freire, one of the makers of the film that was shot with members of the Suruwaha tribe, defended it when contacted by Reuters. He said it was no secret that it was fiction, acted out by local Indians, but that it was aimed at drawing attention to the very real and what he said was the common problem of infanticide by Amazon Indian tribes. He said there is a widespread belief among tribes that children with “bad souls”, including those who are disabled, need to take their last breath underground to avoid them coming back to haunt the village.”

So what does it matter if the practice is “rare” or “common”? Both Survival International and Youth With A Mission are against the practice of infanticide, so what’s the big deal with a video drawing attention to the problem? The problem, according to Survival International, is that the video is racist, incites anti-Indian sentiment, and is actually part of an evangelical campaign for passage of the “Muwaji law”.

“The Muwaji law focuses on what it calls ‘traditional practices’ and says what the state and citizens must do about them. It says that if anyone thinks there is a risk of ‘harmful traditional practices’, they must report it. If they don’t, they are liable to imprisonment. The authorities must intervene and remove the children and/or their parents. All this because someone, anyone, a missionary for example, claims there is some risk.”

Survival also points out that killing children is already illegal in Brazil, and that this new law would grant vast powers to unscrupulous missionaries, and prompt “witch-hunts” against indigenous peoples.

“…this law could bring catastrophic social breakdown, with neighbor spying on neighbor, families split and lives destroyed. Local authorities are bound to err on the side of caution, and wade in, especially if they risk imprisonment themselves if they don’t act. All manner of petty neighborhood disputs risk escalating into appalling and irreversible action … suppose, for example, some disgruntled community member, or local missionary, reported his thoughts that everyone in a village knew about a risk of infanticide but hadn’t gone to the authorities. Under the proposed law, everyone except him should be imprisoned! It’s a law fostering witch-hunts.”

There are web sites that quite plainly position the “Hakani” video as a tool to pass this new law, and brands opponents as followers of “radical” Cultural Relativism. Plainly revealing the political agenda behind their public cries of empathy. Nor is Survival International the only critic of this film. The Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department has called for an investigation into whether Youth With A Mission broke the law in the making of “Hakani”. While all sides agree that infanticide is tragic and something that should be ended, it seems rather clear that passions are being inflamed in order to pass laws that could target tribes resistant to advances from Christian missionaries. Distracting the public from the real dangers tribal groups face from loggers, ranchers, and even the Brazilian government’s own military.

One big misconception outsiders hold concerning modern Paganism is that the faith flourishes as a rebellion against Judeo-Christian norms or as a result of secularism’s ills. But such an analysis is not only incomplete, but ignores our own history, and the present state of modern adherents across the globe. For example, British Traditional Wicca emerged in 1950s England, long before there were serious worries about “aggressive secularism” running rampant. While today, modern Pagan communities have sprung up in some seemingly unlikely places, like Greece and South Africa. Now, Haaretz reports that Paganism is alive and well in the state of Israel too.

“Like many other soldiers who took part in the Gaza operation, Omer, 20, occasionally took a few moments to pray, but he did not pray to the Lord of Israel. Omer considers himself pagan, and has sworn allegiance to three ancient gods. During combat, he says they appeared before him, giving him strength during the most arduous moments. Omer is still in the army, and therefore refused to be interviewed for this story. Yet he did say he belongs to a religion whose goal is to revive worship of ancient gods. In an online Hebrew-language paganism forum, Omer’s accounts of his Gaza experience are standard fare. Another user recalled how he prayed to Anat, the Canaanite god of war, while serving in an elite combat unit. The two soldiers are part of a tiny community of pagans that has developed in Israel. Influenced by movements in the United States and Europe, followers believe in multiple gods.”

Reporter Ofri Ilani talks with several Israeli Pagans both in and out of the “broom closet” including Alon Kobets founder of the Wicca Israel web site.  Kobets estimates that there are around 150 Pagans in Israel, most of whom are living semi-closeted existences, aware of the pervasive religious tensions present. Meanwhile Dr. Marianna Ruah-Midbar, organizer of the First Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities, believes modern Paganism could thrive in the holy land.

“At the moment paganism is not a large-scale practice here, but I believe it has very big potential,” she said. “Pagan religions are the fastest growing religions in the West, and it could succeed here too, because Hebrewism and Zionism could connect to paganism due to the emphasis on land and Hebrew holidays. Paganism is a close, unusual parallel of more common practices, like environmentalism or traveling to the East. In practice, it really is not very different.”

So even in places where a single (non-Pagan) religion dominates culturally and statistically (like Judaism in Israel or Orthodox Christianity in Greece), modern Paganism still emerges and grows. This can’t simply be blamed on creeping secularism or an overly tolerant culture. Perhaps, as some have argued, polytheism is a natural impulse. One that humanity constantly returns to, no matter how dominant monotheist (or atheist) impulses may be at a certain time or place. Could the Holy Land of the dominant monotheisms soon find itself, like the prophet Jeremiah, having to face those who would make offerings to the Queen of Heaven once more?