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

It looks like crazy and criminal Pagans in the courtroom come in threes. First there was the horrific occult-tinged child murders perpetrated by Lawrence Harris, then the crazy attempted murder ring-leader  Terisa “Red Phoenix” Davidson, and now a jury is beginning deliberations in the case of Kathleen Hilton. Hilton, a Wiccan grandmother, allegedly set fire to her son’s estranged girlfriend’s apartment building, killing five occupants.

Hilton has been behind bars since her arrest shortly after the tragic fire. During the trial, she testified to hearing voices. To refute such claims, the state introduced testimony from forensic psychologist Tali Walters, who was appointed by the court to determine if Hilton was competent to stand trial. Less than a month after the fire, Walters interviewed Hilton on three occasions at Taunton State Hospital. At trial, Walters recalled Hilton talking extensively about witchcraft and her spiritual beliefs in Wicca. Hilton also mentioned during those interviews that she had communicated with a tribal council of dead Native Americans, Walters said. Despite these assertions, Walters concluded that Hilton was not suffering psychosis or a mental illness.

What is interesting about this tragic case from a legal standpoint is that it asserts that adherence to Wicca or belief in spirit communications doesn’t equate to a psychosis or a mental illness. If Pagans, Wiccan, and occult believers aren’t crazy for the purposes of prosecutions, that could mean that they can’t be considered crazy in custody cases or as witnesses.

Psychics aren’t the only ones experiencing a slight uptick in business. The Palm Beach Post has an article about a local Botanica that is seeing increased business in this economic downturn.

For those believers, Vegueria so far is doing a better job of quelling fears than the complicated solutions debated by the U.S. Congress. “People have always come here with their economic troubles,” says Vegueria’s wife and business partner, Raquel, 54. “But now it’s even more so. A lot of people are out of work. He does what he can to listen to them, calm them, give them hope.” She says her husband is doing more pro-bono consulting these days. “Some can hardly afford to pay anything,” says Raquel. “They pay when they can.” The Veguerias are not alone. Other Santeria practitioners say the percentage of believers wanting to discuss economic travails has increased.

But can this slightly larger influx of money into psychic and occult services counteract a larger economic collapse? Esoteric answers are often a last resort for a scared general populace, and when that money also runs out I can’t imagine the psychics, practitioners of Santeria, or Pagans will be any better off. In fact, if this recession goes on for too long it may become very dangerous to be a Witch.

The Nigerian newspaper Punch looks at the growing number of mentally ill people in Osogbo and wonders if it is connected to creativity or native spiritual beliefs, a view that is strongly refuted by a local Ifa scholar.

Does the high level of creativity in Osogbo account for the unusually high number of mentally ill people? World acclaimed Ifa scholar, Ifayemi Elebuibon, does not believe so. Elebuibon said three factors were responsible for madness. Elebuibon, the Awise of Osogbo, who delivers papers in American and European universities on Ifa divinity, said mental illness could be contracted through heredity, evil attack and drug abuse. Tracing the traditional genealogy of madness, Elebuibon said, the Alara and Ajero royal families were the first to be beset with madness in Yoruba cultural worldview. According to him, “Mental illness is becoming rampant because people have departed from the ways of our forebears. We used to have intermediaries before marriages were consummated but now a man sees a woman on the road and off they go into marriage. Nobody cares to investigate the families of the spouse or the intending husband in order to know what kind of family their son or daughter is getting married to. Some families have hereditary mental illness.”

The piece goes on to look at more common factors in causing a increasingly visible mentally ill population: poverty,  hard drug-use, and a lack of social support systems. I’m glad to see this paper refuting the more romantic ideas of mentall illness. There is nothing more tragic than a society that treats depression, “heroic melancholy” and madness as “creative” or “holy” conditions.

For those of you who enjoyed my mention of the “Goddess on Earth” show yesterday, you might also want to check out another woman-centric New York gallery showing in March entitled “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists”.

Dabora Gallery and Phantasmaphile’s Pam Grossman are proud to usher in the spring season with the group show “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists,” on view from March 14th through April 12th, 2009. It features fourteen of the most vital and visionary women artists working in the US today. In literal terms, a fata morgana is a mirage or illusion, a waking reverie, a shimmering of the mind. Named for the enchantress Morgan le Fay, these tricks of perception conjure up a sense of glimpsing into another world, whether it be the expanses of an ethereal terrain, or the twilit depths of the psyche. The artists of “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists” deftly utilize the semiotics of mysticism, fantasy, and the subconscious in their work, thereby guiding the viewer through heretofore uncharted realms – alternately shadowy or luminous, but always inventive.

You can check out a couple images from the show, here. You might also be interested in some of the artist’s web sites: Carrie Ann Baade, Lori Field, Katy Horan, Tina Imel, and Susan Jamison. It almost makes me want to be in New York. Almost.

In a final note, today is the feast of St. Valentine aka St. Valentine’s Day. Normally I would list the many and sundry media articles that detail the pre-Christian origins of this seemingly Sainted day, but I’ll concentrate on Lupercalia tomorrow (the actual day of its observance). In reality, St. Valentine’s Day most likely isn’t the holiday created to replace Lupercalia. When Lupercalia observances were suppressed by Pope Gelasius I in 494, the pre-existing Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (which in the Julian calendar fell on the same day as Lupercalia) was promoted in Rome as the purification of the Virgin Mary (later called Candlemas). Since the month of February and Lupercalia were seen as times of purification by the Romans, the new emphasis on Mary’s purification makes perfect sense. The Feast of St. Valentine, established two years later by Gelasius doesn’t seem to have much to do with the replacement of Lupercalia. If you want to blame someone for equating love with St. Valentine’s Day, you’ll most likely have to blame Geoffrey Chaucer (who hath a blog). In any case may you all have a happy (and by this point thoroughly secularized) Valentine’s Day celebration with the romantic partner(s) of your choice.

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

The Sioux City Journal is currently running coverage of Lawrence Harris’s murder trial. Harris is accused of first degree murder in the deaths of his two young step-daughters, which he said was the result of a “spell gone bad”. The trial will determine if these were premeditated killings, or if Harris was clinically insane during the murders.

Lawrence Douglas Harris was under pressure, unmedicated and trying to find a way to gain control of his life when he attempted to cast a spell in the basement of his house the day his stepdaughters were killed, his attorney told jurors in his trial today. In a packed courtroom with tight security, Assistant Public Defender Mike Williams delivered his opening statements, saying his client was insane that day. “Not just a little psychotic here and there. Not just a little disturbed, but insane,” Williams said.

The double-murder of two young children would be enough to make this case a media circus, add in the fact that Harris had a long-running fascination with the occult, Paganism, and Satanism, and you have all the ingredients for sheer pandemonium (both journalistically and in the court room). So it is a lucky thing that the expert witness on Wicca and Paganism called to the stands was Pagan scholar Helen A. Berger, author of “A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States”, and co-author of “Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States”.

Also testifying for the defense, Helen Berger, a sociology professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, explained something of Wicca, satanism and paganism and said Wicca is not about violence and killing. She said Wiccans believe that anything they do, good or bad, comes back to them threefold … During cross-examination of Berger, Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Mark Campbell produced an inverted pentagram that was found with Harris’ ritual items in the basement. “The Satanic Bible” refers to use of an inverted pentagram during rituals. Berger said the symbol is not part of Wiccan practices.

Berger was also one of the first experts to be interviewed by the Sioux City Journal in the initial wake of the killings. We can feel very lucky that Berger is the voice for Paganism in this trial, and not, say, one of the old “Satanic Panic” experts still hanging around. For full transcripts of the proceedings, go to the Sioux City Journal’s special page devoted to the trial (I really must commend the paper’s even-keeled and extensive coverage here). As for Harris, since Iowa doesn’t have the death penalty, he’s looking towards a lifetime of confinement, either in a cell or an institution. I’ll leave it to the jury to decide which one of these he deserves.

Does religion harm or heal? Believers and skeptics have long argued over the benefits and drawbacks regarding a belief in unseen forces and powers for ages. Confusing the issue further are those times when faith commingles with mental illness and breeds murderers and monsters. Pagan religions and other minority faiths are hardly immune from these tragedies. One year ago Lawrence Douglas Harris, who had been involved in modern Paganism (and later Satanism), killed his two young step-daughters in what he called a spell that “had gone bad”. On the anniversary of these tragic slayings, the Sioux City Journal provides a narrative of that fateful day from Marla Stroman, the mother of the two girls.

At the house, police immediately begin questioning Larry, who tells them he was practicing witchcraft. The girls died, he tells them, while he was casting a spell that “had gone bad” and that “could have had severe consequences.” There’s blood on his hands. In the basement, officers find candles, Larry’s ritual knife, stained with DNA from one of the girls, a symbol of Baphomet, representing Satan and believed to have occult power, bells and an amulet with an inverted pentagram — all items used in rituals described in “The Satanic Bible.” Larry tells police he has a spell notebook in his and Marla’s bedroom closet. The notebook contains drawings from the book “Pagan Ways,” references found in the occult fiction book “Necronomicom” and page numbers corresponding to “The Satanic Bible,” including one specific spell … Larry tells police he was possessed by Kali, the Hindu goddess of time and change.

Harris, who had a history of self-harm, social isolation, and mental illness, had stopped taking his medications in the lead-up to that horrific day, and had become threatening and scary. Shortly after the murders, journalists interviewed a variety of “experts” (from local Wiccans to Mega-Church pastors) to get a handle on why this happened, but none of them could really satisfy a public hungry for answers. In the end, mental illness doesn’t have to follow rules, be logically consistent, or provide a “good reason” for why those afflicted do the things they do. Once a mind has completely broken from reality, anything can be twisted (Bibles, Korans, books on Wicca, books on Satanism) into providing a road-map for their subsequent deeds. The mind, when turned towards such unrestrained violence, is like an opportunistic infection. Grabbing at any nearby “host” to provide it motivation.

If these psychotic breaks involving religion are ultimately inconclusive in answering the question of religion being harmful, can religion, specifically Pagan religion, heal? That seems to be a part of the questions involving a convicted murderer in the UK. Twenty five years ago Randall Lee McArthur killed another man in a drug-fueled rampage and was sentenced to a 25-to-life prison term. He  was recently denied bail despite claims that he is a reformed man.

Randall Lee McArthur says it’s time he was paroled. “I was a kid. I was irresponsible,” former Marysville resident McArthur, 44, told the state Board of Prison Terms about the 1982 murder of Bradford Lee Howland, 26, of Olivehurst. “I was wild, you know. I was out for myself.” McArthur contends he now poses no threat to the public if released from prison. But a filing Friday in the Yuba County Superior Court by the state Attorney General’s Office agrees with the prison board’s decision to deny parole for McArthur, sentenced in 1983 to a term of 25 years to life. He remains a danger to the public because of the nature of the murder along Forty Mile Road — “shooting a helpless, unarmed victim,” the state Attorney General’s Office said.

Part of McArthur’s process of reform has apparantly included the study and practice of Wicca, an aspect of his life that gained scrutiny at his parole-board hearing.

McArthur said he is pursuing a college degree in ancient religions in correspondence courses with the New Mexico Institute of Spiritual Studies and that his own beliefs involve Wicca, an ancient, Pagan-based religion. A member of the state prison board, noting McArthur’s references to Wicca along with Druidism, said some people view them as evil religions. McArthur was asked if he was discovering something different. McArthur responded in the affirmative, describing Wicca as a nature-based religion closer to Native American culture and traditions.

Was his adherence to Wicca a point in his favor, or used as a strike against him? Can the study of Pagan religion improve the moral compass of a murderer? Would you feel comfortable living next to Mr. McArthur should he be released? Why or why not? Should the study of religion even factor into it, should the nature of the murder, as the Attorney General’s Office attests, preclude him ever being paroled? Religion has long been used as proof of a criminal’s reformation, perhaps we should just acknowledge that the eternal questions of religion hurting or healing will always be somewhat subjective, and remove faith considerations from issues of conviction and parole altogether. There will always be murderers and madmen, and at times, especially as we continue to grow, they will be Pagan in some for or another.  Better to acknowledge that, and continue to push for a truly equal and secular justice system free from bias for or against religon (or lack of religon).

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

We start off with a request for healing for Pagan chaplain and activist Patrick McCollum. Patrick recently underwent spinal surgery, and due to recent complications has been moved to the ICU.

“The reason I’m writing all this about Patrick — and I am only scratching the surface — is to tell you that he is dealing with a medical condition for which I’m asking your help. On August 15, Patrick underwent surgery for a long-standing problem with his spine. The surgery itself went well, but two days later Patrick suffered a complication that necessitated further surgery on August 18. He has been in ICU at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, California since then, and remains there, although much improved. Patrick welcomes healing. Given what I’ve told you about him, and that you have a photo and know where is is, I ask that you remember him in your prayers and rituals, light candles, appeal to his Lady Brigit, and do whatever else you can to hasten Patrick’s relief from extreme pain and his ultimate recovery.”

McCollum, due to his extensive work with prison chaplaincy, recently appeared before the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington. A first for any modern Pagan. We here at The Wild Hunt wish him a speedy recovery.

Christian blogger and academic John Morehead, editor of the recently released “Beyond the Burning Times”, reviews the new book “Generation Hex: Understanding the Subtle Dangers of Wicca” so I don’t have to.

“…in a chapter where the authors discuss the surprises they encountered in their research for the book, one of the authors (Burroughs) addresses one of the surprises he encountered in terms of alleged links between Wicca, Satanism, sexual promiscuity, and child abuse: “I’ve found these assertions to be unfounded (at least in mainstream Wicca).” I italicized the last portion of the quote to draw attention to the issue I’m raising here. While Burroughs was pleased to discover that Wicca does not engage in the worst of its stereotypical associations, nevertheless, for Burroughs this appears to be the case with “mainstream Wicca,” which appears to leave room for non-mainstream or underground Wicca, whatever those may be.”

If you want to hear many of the routine (and often sensationalist) Christian criticisms of Wicca from “Generation Hex” co-author Dillon Burroughs, you can listen to an interview with him on Debbie Chavez’s Christian radio program (warning, this is a Christian echo-chamber, listen at your own risk).

An Irish and Canadian paper each run their own version of the standard “meet the Witches” article. The Belfast Telegraph interviews Sarah Cavanagh of Co Armagh about her journey into Paganism.

“Years ago, I would have worried about what people thought and would not have told anyone I was a witch. Now there are so many people like me, that I simply think that the people who matter don’t mind and the people who mind, don’t matter.”

Meanwhile the Nanaimo Daily News interviews the organizers of an upcoming Pagan Pride Day event.

“Anyone hoping to see animal sacrifices or disemboweling during Pagan Pride Day Saturday, will be greatly disappointed say two spokespeople for the Pagan church which is hosting the Nanaimo event at Kin Hut Park in Departure Bay. “One of the main reasons we hold Pagan Pride Day each year is to debunk myths like that,” said Kam Abbott of Nanaimo’s Temple of the Green Leaf Cauldron Church.”

So sorry folks, no disemboweling here, move along!

A double “witchcraft” slaying I covered back in January is finally coming to trial, and the prosecutors want to enter a Satanic bible and an affidavit from a Satanic high priest as evidence against Lawrence Harris, who murdered his two step-daughters.

“Prosecutors say Harris was practicing satanism and that the killings were part of a ritual from a satanic bible. Harris’ attorney, assistant public defender Michael Williams, said during a court hearing on Wednesday that prosecutors are seeking to link what Harris says and does to satanism. Casting spells and practicing witchcraft is not proof of satanism, Williams said. “(They) want shock value, sensationalism and knit-pick analysis of religious text in order to satisfy an inference,” Williams said.”

Needless to say, I would LOVE to read this affidavit from the alleged Satanic high priest (and know his identity). Lawrence Harris is pursuing an insanity defense. Trial is set for Oct. 14.

In a final note, medievalist and blogger Bo was shocked to hear Old Irish in the recently released Hellboy II.

“I went to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army last night, and to my slack-jawed disbelief, the elves were speaking Old Irish (or an awkward version thereof). It was like being a twitcher who draws the curtains one morning to see a pink flamingo standing on the windowsill. It was oddly accented (Balor was the best) and I’d need to see transcriptions to be sure that it was correct, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that they were trying to use the language … Nothing in all the film’s wonders moved me so much as hearing the meaningless preverbal particle no- with a 2nd singular Class A infixed pronoun (leniting).”

More proof of how awesome Guillermo del Toro is? Yes. Yes it is.

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

The press continues to report on the shocking murder of two young girls in Iowa. The prime suspect is the step-father who says that the deaths were the result of a “spell gone wrong”, and according to the mother of the girls, claims to adhere to some form of modern Paganism.

“The mother of two girls who were killed allegedly at the hands of their stepfather said he described himself as a pagan and practiced spells to keep those around him healthy and happy” … She said Lawrence Harris told her about his religious beliefs, but that she told him to “keep it out of the house.” “What he was doing is against my religion,” Marla Harris said. “I told him, ‘You take it elsewhere.’” She said that her husband did not introduce her to anyone else who shared his beliefs and that he kept his religion to himself.”

Other than the revelation that the step-father considered himself a Pagan, no new information has surfaced, which means that journalists gets some more time to talk to “experts” on Pagan religion.

“Self-described pagan Lawrence Harris is charged in the killings and reportedly told police a ’spell went bad.’ Leslie McQuaid, of Omaha, is an expert on Wicca and says don’t blame the religion for the acts of one individual. McQuaid says, ‘It’s disappointing not only for the faith that he professed to practice but also very tragic that parenting skills have become so poor that people who are in need of assistance wait too long to get professional help.’”

I’m not sure how detecting an oncoming psychotic break is related to poor parenting skills, are parents now supposed to be able to detect clinical warning signs of psychosis in family members? Even if the mother had concerns about her husband’s mental status, what are the chances that he had health insurance through his employer, and if he did, could they have afforded the $1000 deductible? Was the step-father, who may very well be suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia, supposed to realize he was losing touch with his own sanity?

That isn’t my only criticism of this “expert” interview. Is Leslie McQuaid herself a Wiccan? The article never specifies. What qualifies her as an expert on Wicca? How many years of experience does she have? What is her educational background (if any), how has she distinguished herself within the Pagan community as an authority on Wicca? I ask this because her commentary seems a bit odd.

“McQuaid says the suspect probably did not belong to a group because the acts he was performing are not highly-regarded in the Wiccan community. “It is so far out of the norm that he was probably practicing alone simply because pagans and Wicca who understand their faith and have been trained in the faith would have rejected his practices as being outrageous, just as probably a Catholic community would reject someone without any training in the priesthood who decided to perform an exorcism,” McQuaid says.”

I don’t want to be unfair, but we have no idea what his practices are, or what training he received. Often mental illness can run undetected, or be downplayed, even by close family. Even if he did belong to a group, that is no guarantee against a violent psychotic break, which can come on suddenly (nor do solitary practitioners live in a moral vacuum that would make actions like these any more likely). The sad truth is that some very well-trained religious people have done some pretty horrific things. Also, I would hesitate to place ritualized murder in the same moral continuum as rogue exorcists. As for the writer of this piece, saying that his practices would not be “highly-regarded”, makes it sound like he was simply uncouth and not the perpetrator of child-murder. I can’t think of a single Pagan who wouldn’t find such a thing horrific and completely beyond the pale.

The simple fact is that no amount of religious training can cure a severe mental illness. Up to the murders everyone thought he was sweet, normal, and loving towards his step-daughters. This man’s dabbling in spells and allegiance to a Pagan religion is no more responsible for this event, than Christianity is responsible for a man cutting off his own hand and subsequently microwaving it.

As for Pagan experts and the press, we have to be careful as this story develops to avoid guessing as to what really happened in this sad case (or why). The “Pagan” element should really be treated as a side-note to this man’s tragic break from reality. His alleged “Pagan-ness” has no direct bearing on this any more than if he was Christian or Jewish. Let us be careful that our eagerness to explain modern Paganism to the press doesn’t cloud what this story is really about.

Since my entry yesterday praising local coverage of a bizarre “witchcraft” double-slaying, more interviews and details have surfaced. Local news channel KTIV (an NBC affiliate) interviews a professor of religion and a local Wiccan priest about the slaying.

“Dr. Bruce Forbes, Morningside College Religion Professor, ‘Satanism and witchcraft, they kind of come together but there’s no relation and in fact anyone I know involved in witchcraft at all thinks it’s a joke.’ Rev. Jeva Singh-Anand, Wiccan ‘A lot of satanists reject these practices… They reject the actual hurting of people.’ … Jeva Singh-Anand, ‘Being part of a spell that had gone wrong, it doesn’t make sense, I don’t know what the man’s religion was, if it turns out he was a Wiccan, then I would say, as as Wiccan, throw the book at him.’ Singh-Anand, ‘He’s casting a spell and something goes wrong, he ends up killing those kids, I think that’s just an excuse.’”

Meanwhile, KMEG (a CBS affiliate), interviews another local Wiccan for some insight into Witchcraft, and the ethical philosophies of Wicca.

“The story of Kendra and Alysha touches the heart of the Wiccan community. They’re saddened by the tragedy and the suspect’s suggestion that the girls were killed by witch craft. It’s a practice that’s often negatively linked to the practice of Wicca … [Dana Peterson] explains the difference between Wiccan practice and the suspect’s account of the murders. ‘It’s a form of ceremonial magic,’ said Peterson. ‘We collect in a circle and use our energy for the best common good. People pray for peace. We cast spells for peace.’”

KMEG obviously hasn’t heard the classic maxim of “all Wiccans are Witches, but not all witches are Wiccans”, but still, the coverage has thus far avoided sensationalizing the “witchcraft” dimension of this case. They even mention that the local Pagan community is putting a collection together for the family. Next we turn back to the Sioux City Journal (whom I praised yesterday), who interviews the pastor of a local evangelical “mega-church” about the girls (who briefly attended a youth outreach group).

“Two young sisters who were murdered during a ritual slaying Sunday knew more about witchcraft then they should have for their age, a local pastor said. Pastor Cary Gordon of Cornerstone World Outreach said Kendra Suing, 10, and Alysha Suing, 8, bombarded a bus driver for the church with questions after a summer lesson about the sinfulness of practicing witchcraft … ‘Our bus captain got the creepy feeling that they obviously had a lot of weird stuff going on in their house.’ After the lesson on witchcraft, Gordon said the Suing girls didn’t attend another session of the program until the last one of the year in November. ‘They had a real earful on why witchcraft is wrong that day, and then they got back home and then they went missing for a long time after that,’ he said. ‘We wondered if the kids didn’t go home and say, ‘Dad, the church says what you’re doing is wrong,’ and dad says, ‘Well, you’re not going back.’ That’s our speculation.’”

This article gets pretty close, through spotlighting the Pastor, to directly implying the step-father regularly practiced some sort of witchcraft. But there is still no proof that this man’s “magical” activities were stemming from an interest (ongoing or recent) in some sort of Paganism (or other magic-practicing faith or tradition), or if it was simply the actions of a quickly deteriorating mind. Saying that he was casting a spell, and that “the spell could have had severe consequences”, consequences that apparently included the death of his step-daughters, doesn’t seem to portray a man in touch with sanity.

There are still far too many variables and unknown details to get a clear picture. The mother hasn’t made a statement about her husband’s activities or beliefs, no autopsy information has been released, and we have no background information on Lawrence Douglas Harris (history of mental illness, any tangible affiliations with any Pagan or occult group, etc). Until more information comes along, this story will be stalled at guess-work and interviews with community members and experts.

ADDENDUM: Mother Marla Harris says that her husband is/was a Pagan:

“The mother of two girls who were killed allegedly at the hands of their stepfather said he described himself as a pagan and practiced spells to keep those around him healthy and happy” … She said Lawrence Harris told her about his religious beliefs, but that she told him to “keep it out of the house.” “What he was doing is against my religion,” Marla Harris said. “I told him, ‘You take it elsewhere.’” She said that her husband did not introduce her to anyone else who shared his beliefs and that he kept his religion to himself.

He is also writing to Satanists:

“She knew about a spell book he kept in their bedroom, but she said he kept it on a high shelf, out of reach of the children. She said that one day she noticed an addition of a Church of Satan listing in a shared e-mail address book. “I asked him about it, and he said he was just writing back and forth with them,” she said.”

Now that the mother claims her husband is a Pagan, and that he has had contact with Satanists, will that change the reporting in the mainstream press? We can certainly expect the right-wing fringe to start harping on the dangers of Paganism any time now.