The New Hampshire Union Leader reports on an animal cruelty case where the defense wanted to introduce evidence that the main witness (and owner of the cat allegedly killed by the defendant) lacked credibility because she was a Witch.

Vanilla-Clove Moonstone wept on the witness stand yesterday as she described seeing her former neighbor whip her cat, Buddha, to the brink of death with a white cord in summer 2007 … Before the trial began in Sullivan County Superior Court yesterday, Judge John Arnold ruled the defense could not introduce evidence that Moonstone practices witchcraft because her beliefs are irrelevant to her credibility as a witness. “Your honor, I think there’s a vast difference between Christianity and witchcraft,” Hulser argued before the ruling. “This goes to credibility.”

There may indeed be “vast” differences between Christianity and Witchcraft, but the judge wisely saw that allowing a witness to be undermined because of her faith isn’t justice. The “she’s a Witch” tactic is usually used in divorce cases, and its unusual to see such a slimy and dishonorable maneuver used in a animal abuse case. Of course, being prevented from calling the witness a witch didn’t stop the defense from calling her a liar anyway.

The defense contends the cat was hit by a car and placed on Robie’s porch, and Moonstone’s accusation is the product of bad blood between neighbors. “Ms. Moonstone, I don’t mean to be insensitive,” public defender Michael Hulser said on cross-examination, “but your cat got run over, didn’t it?” “No, it did not,” Moonstone said. “Shame on you! Mr. Robie didn’t beat your cat, did he?” “I watched him do it,” she said.

Shame on you? What is she, twelve? Is this really how lawyers talk? As for the “Witch Gambit”, while I’d like to think it isn’t as effective as it used to be, some of the comments on the article seem to prove me wrong.

Garlic -Clove Moonshot? Seven cats? Ahem, ah not quite sure what happened but I think we can move on without too much concen … With a name like Vanilla-CLove Moonstone she kind of loses credibility right off for me. Sorry….but it is what it is.

So long as you get enough people on the jury who think non-Christians are weirdos who are not to be trusted, you’ll continue to get unscrupulous lawyers trying to undermine their testimony (and tragedies that arise as people exploit those biases). Let’s be glad that it didn’t happen this time around.

ADDENDUM: Jury: Man guilty of whipping, killing cat.

After an hour and 20 minutes of deliberation, a Sullivan County Superior Court jury convicted a Claremont man yesterday of whipping his neighbor’s cat to death with a cord in July 2007. Robie, 41, cried at the defense table and then embraced his wife and children after the jury foreperson announced the verdict. He faces a maximum penalty of seven years in state prison and a fine of up to $4,000 for the felony animal cruelty conviction. A sentencing hearing will be held within 60 days.

Interestingly, a juror said they discounted Moonstone’s testimony due to inconsistencies. So even if she had been branded a Witch, it seems that it wouldn’t have affected the outcome.

As we reach the close of 2008, it is time to stop for a moment and take stock of the previous year. When you look at (and for) news stories regarding modern Paganism (and related topics) every day of the year, you can sometimes lose focus on the larger picture. So it can be a helpful thing to look at the broad strokes, the bigger themes, the events and developments that will have lasting impact on the modern Pagan movement. What follows are my picks for the top ten stories from this past year involving or affecting modern Pagans.

10. Parsing Pagan Numbers: 2008 was a very good year for folks who enjoy sifting through surveys and demographical data about Pagans. We saw some signs that Pagans might affect the political thinking of those around them, that liberals may be more likely to dabble in the paranormal, that Britain is shifting into a post-Christian reality faster than we imagined, and that Pagans overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for President. However, the big story concerning statistical data and modern Pagans comes from the groundbreaking Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which gave us some new insights into just how many Pagans there might be in America.

“Finally, we have confirmation that modern Paganism is continuing to grow. The study found that 0.4 percent of Americans adhere to a “New Age” religion, broken down into “Pagan”, “Wiccan”, and “Other”. These figures don’t include those who described themselves as “eclectic”, “spiritual but not religious”, “other liberal faith groups”, or members of CUUPs who identified themselves primarily as Unitarian Universalists. Working then with the idea then that (at least) 0.4 percent of Americans are modern Pagans (according to the study), that means there are at least 1.2 million Pagans of one variety or another in America.”

The Pew survey’s large sample size (35,000 respondents) gives our movement some firm reasons to believe we are indeed steadily growing (though not as fast as some would think). It seems like the explosive growth patterns we saw around the world in the 1990s are past, and a healthy, maintainable, expansion has replaced it (look for further confirmation of this hypothesis when the UK and Australia take their next censuses in 2011).

09. Pagans in Prison: The issue of the rights of Pagan prisoners continues to be a big story. Two major stories were the Washington Department of Corrections altering its stance regarding a prisoner’s adherence to multiple faiths (which allowed for the existence of “Christo-Pagans” and other religious meldings), and the historic testimony of Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum before the US Commission on Civil Rights.

Wiccan Chaplain Patrick McCollum

“Over more than a decade, I’ve had the opportunity to interact nationally with both administrators and inmates on religious accommodation issues. While practices differ from state to state, I found discrimination against minority faiths everywhere.”

McCollum described discrimination against American Pagan inmates as “endemic”, and called for a complete overhaul of the way in which prison chaplains and staff are hired, and the establishment of a independent grievance process which would include experts in non-traditional faiths. As Pagan populations around the world grow, so too will the number of Pagan inmates, the fight for equal and fair treatment is an essential struggle that will no doubt continue for several years.

08. The Ups and Downs of Christian-Pagan Relations: This past year saw two books from Christian publishers that claimed to forward dialogue and engagement with the Pagan community, but only one that actually seemed to back up those claims (that would be “Beyond the Burning Times”). While many Pagans are quick to point out that not all Christians are Pagan-hating Jack Chick-reading caricatures, we found that there is still a lot of skepticism and cynicism inherent in the process of building better relations. No doubt this skepticism and reluctance to reach out stems from the ongoing stream of alarmist propaganda, straw man arguments, and a long-standing resistance among some Christian organizations to allow us equal access to the rights and privileges enjoyed by the dominant monotheisms. But small progress is still progress, yes?

07. Animal Sacrifice and Santeria Rights: I have long argued that what happens to our religious “cousins” in the African diasporic religions (Santeria, Vodou, Candomble, etc) ultimately affects the rights and freedoms of modern Pagans. We ignore their legal struggles – whether due to ignorance, indifference, or abhorrence – at our own peril. 2008 saw the fight over the legal right for these faiths to carry out their rituals in peace, specifically animal sacrifice, intensify dramatically. Relations between practitioners of Santeria and local police forces are getting tense, and the legal case of Texan Santeria priest Jose Merced, who was prevented from carrying out private rituals after neighbors called the police.

“Santeria priest Jose Merced filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city of Euless in December 2006 after officials told him he couldn’t sacrifice goats at his home for a ceremony initiating a new priest. Followers of the African-Caribbean religion consider animal sacrifice as essential to Santeria as Communion is to Catholics. Euless says the killing of goats for whatever reason would violate its city-wide slaughtering ban. Last year, the city proposed a settlement that permitted the killing of chickens – which is also involved in the ceremony and allowed under the city ordinance. Mr. Merced rejected the offer, saying that Santeria would cease to exist without the sacrifice of goats as well.”

Though Merced lost that case, it is currently being appealed. The problems being faced by Santeria and other related faiths (legal and cultural) is only intensified by ill-informed police and reporters who see dark magical rites whenever a dead animal surfaces in a street or graveyard. In fact, to some, all these diasporic religions are pretty much the same, and have little issue with casually mixing them up (which allows for utterly preposterous stories to be taken seriously). You can bet that 2009 will only see more coverage of these religions as they continue through their own version of the “Satanic Panic” years that Pagans endured.

06. Pagans and Litigation: This past year saw no shortage of the Pagan community in the courtrooms. Accusations of discrimination are no longer being tolerantly endured, instead we have witnessed more litigation over the rights/rites of Pagans (and other related matters) this past year than ever before. You had a Wiccan who successfully fought a ban on fortune-telling, a Reclaiming Witch who is fighting an unjust firing, a controversial custody case, the Supreme Court pondering the rights of a New Age syncretic religion, a religious displays case that involved Wiccans which fizzled out, a fight over religious graffiti, a bizarre “Satanic-Panic” criminal case involving Pagans in North Carolina, and a variety of cases involving public prayer. All that is only the tip of the iceberg, and you can bet 2009 will see even more courtroom struggles involving the Pagan community.

–

Tomorrow I will post the top five Pagan stories for 2008. In the meantime, I invite you to check out the top religion stories from some different perspectives. Time magazine’s top ten religion stories, the 2008 Top Religion Stories as selected by Religion Newswriters, The Revealer’s Best Religion Writing of 2008, Christianity Today’s top stories of 2008, and the Ten Worst Religion Stories of 2008 from Beliefnet’s Progressive Revival blog.

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

We start off with an update on an ongoing “Satanic Panic” case in North Carolina. A judge has lowered the bail of Joseph Craig, who is accused, along with his wife Joy Johnson, of raping and “kidnapping” another couple (during supposed “Satanic” rites) that lived with them.

“Judge Orlando Hudson lowered bail to $50,000 for Joseph Craig, who has been in the Durham County Jail since late June … Craig, 25, has been charged with second-degree rape, second-degree forcible sexual offense, three counts of second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. His wife, Joy Johnson, 30, faces aiding and abetting charges in a case that has created financial hardships for the couple, defense lawyers say. The accusers in the bizarre case are a 44-year-old woman and 19-year-old man who moved in with the couple more than 10 months ago to study the occult.”

The defense team has argued that both couples were engaging in consensual sadomasochism, and that their accusers are mentally unstable. While any examination of the facts proves they aren’t Satanists, both accusers raised the specter of Satanism and “demons” in their testimony (the female accuser claims she was raped while channeling spirits). Both accusers continued to live with the accused months after the alleged incidents, despite having access to money, cell-phones, and transportation. Of course, as the article points out, even if Joseph Craig and Joy Johnson are cleared of the charges leveled against them, their lives have been ruined by this experience.

While one couple struggles against what may be false accusations, another man is being released from prison after recent DNA testing failed to link him to the scene of the crime. Joseph White, who spent 19 years in prison for the alleged rape-slaying of a 68 year old woman, claims that his Wiccan faith and shamanistic practice helped him persevere in prison.

“As White sipped on hot Darjeeling tea Thursday at a north Lincoln coffee shop, he calmly explained that faith helped him endure nearly two decades behind bars for a crime that he and the evidence say he didn’t commit. He said he was the leader of a Wiccan group at the penitentiary. His beliefs also include a mixture of Buddhism and shamanism.”

White, who is now 45, is trying to rebuild his life, and is saddened that he missed out on raising his son, now 20. According to state law, if a new case isn’t brought against White in six months (prosecutors now admit they have no evidence linking him to the crime), he’ll be exonerated of the charges.

A note to the East Valley Tribune, it always helps to be a specific as possible when applying religious labels. For instance, in what way is Dan “Dr. Dan” Bartlett a “pagan movement clergyman”?

“Organizational rules most define religion, says a pagan movement clergyman from Scottsdale, Dan “Dr. Dan” Bartlett, a certified holistic life path adviser. “Spirituality, on the other hand, comes from an individual belief and approach to a connection with what that person might see as God, or see as a connection with the super-consciousness of the universe,” he said.”

Dr. Dan’s site in no way mentions any form of modern Paganism. It does mention him being a “holistic life path advisor” and a “metaphysician”, but neither of those professions necessarily mean he’s a Pagan. However, I do give you kudos for referring to modern Paganism as a “movement” instead of a singular religion with “denominations”.

If you enjoyed the religiously non-specific and occult-avoiding Hallmark channel movie “The Good Witch” you’re in luck! They are rolling out a sequel to their “second-highest-rated original movie”.

“Witch’s Catherine Bell and Chris Potter will start shooting (thank goodness it’s a working title) The Good Witch 2 later this month in Toronto for a 2009 premiere. The sequel will revolve around Cassie Nightingale’s (Bell) relationship with Police Chief Jake Russell (Potter), which will be threatened when a new man enters her life, says The Hollywood Reporter.”

Marvel at a “witch” who runs a metaphysical store, and yet seems to have no religious or philosophical interest in the stuff she sells! Makes you wonder, did they tame down the occult elements because lead actress Catherine Bell is a Scientologist, or is it just a Hallmark thing?

Over at the On Faith site, Starhawk wants us to reject the politics of hate.

“Those of us who lay claim to some form of spiritual leadership should absolutely condemn the tactics of personal attack. We should call our politicians and our communities to think, speak and act from our best selves, not our worst, from respect and compassion, not from stoked-up rage and hate.”

One would hope that our “spiritual leadership” gets moving soon, because things are getting progressively meaner as we head into the final stretch of our presidential election.

According to Utah journalist Kelly Ashkettle, today the Utah Black Hat Society is holding their third annual Witches High Tea, sporting their conical caps with pride.

“On Oct. 18, the group will host its third annual Witches High Tea. According to their press release, “over 50 men and women will be wearing their finest robes, gowns, capes, jewels, staffs, wands, pentacles and, of course, tall, pointy hats. Warts, toads and pointed noses are optional.” So if you want to meet some real, yet light-hearted witches this Halloween season, get thee to the Lobby Lounge of the Grand America Hotel at 555 S. Main Street at 2 p.m. this Saturday.”

Since this is in Utah, I wonder how many Morwics will be in attendance? No matter what persuasion of Witch they may be, here’s hoping they all have a great time.

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

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

The Pagan-friendly Gaea Retreat Center in Kansas, host of the annual Heartland Pagan Festival, is branching out and allowing a music festival to take place on its grounds for the first time.

“…after enduring several board meetings, Yager and his staff finally convinced the proprietors to embrace the Gaea Retreat and Music Festival, which begins at noon today. “We’ve spawned into this weird festival where it’s a mesh of cultures. We have introduced education through imagery by focusing on things like the environment, free energy, energy conservation alternatives, performing arts,” he says.”

Earth Rising, Inc., the legal entity that runs Camp Gaea, is trying to move past its infamous local past (which involved a legal battle over its permit), and reputation as a haven for Pagans and nudists. Though it remains to be seen if Camp Gaea can transform a music festival into a place to “find that realm of evenness and spiritual soundness.” While I fully attest to the spiritual power of live music, I’m not sure “evenness” and “spiritual soundness” is what you aim for.

The Claremont Institute reviews “Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey: A Biography”, by Alberto Manguel, and praises it as a book written with “intelligence and curiosity”.

“Manguel’s intent is to show that, for over 2,500 years, countless members of the species have found “in these stories of war in time and travel in space…the experience of every human struggle and every human displacement.” The Iliad and Odyssey, which can be thought to represent the two great metaphors of life, a battle and a journey, are the “books which, more than any others, have fed the imagination of the Western world.” In the 8th century A.D., Byzantine schoolchildren were still expected to have much of the Iliad by heart. Six hundred years later, during the Renaissance, Homer remained the cornerstone of every ambitious library.”

According to the review, Manguel does a good job of making the argument that Homer is just as relevant today as he was in antiquity, a poet who described “every secret happiness and every hidden sin.” A paperback edition of the book is due out in March of 2009.

A quick update on the “Satanic Panic Alive and Well in North Carolina” story, a judge has lowered the bail amount for Joy Suzanne Johnson, after her public defender argued that the charges against her made “no sense” and that there is a complete lack of “corroborating evidence”.

“The woman who is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in a sexual assault case and an alleged kidnapping and cane beating persuaded a Superior Court judge Thursday to reduce bail.”

Meanwhile, things aren’t looking too good for the prosecution as more and more details about the case emerge. A state assistant distract attorney said that “some if not all of the charges may need to be modified”. To catch up on this story, here is part one, and part two of my ongoing coverage.

Expect your local spiritual supply store to have a run on frankincense, Israeli scientists are claiming that the resin can ease depression and anxiety (at least in mice).

“Pharmacologists in Israel have found that frankincense, a whitish resin tapped from the veins of a shrubby tree, relieves anxiety and depression, at least in mice. In an article to be published next month in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere report that the active ingredient in frankincense lights up brain receptors that play a role in the perception of warmth on the skin and might help regulate emotion.”

While covering this story, the New York Times visits a local occult shop, and finds that the employees aren’t surprised in the least by this news.

“Any kind of magic you’re doing,” Ms. Cabral said, “frankincense would be great for any kind of happiness, or success, or attention, even.”

So if things are getting a little stressed at your circle, coven, or grove, be sure to light up (some frankincense)!

This weekend will see a dance festival in Miami to celebrate the survival of West African Yoruban culture and religion.

“This weekend, Coconut Grove will celebrate a culture created in Cuba during the slave trade. The Yoruban culture and the religion Santería, or Regla de Ocha, which was brought to Cuba by the Yorubans of West Africa, are the by-products of slavery, according to Ifé-Ilé’s Artistic and Executive Director Neri Torres. With dance workshops and seminars, the Ifé-Ilé Afro-Cuban Dance & Music Festival will bring context to Miami residents. “Today, [the Yoruban culture] is still the root of Cuban culture in terms of art, music and the way we talk and gesture,” said Torres, who founded Ifé-Ilé in 1996.”

For more information about this event, head over to the Ifé-Ilé web site.

In a final note, The Esoteric Book Review takes a look at the recently released “Witch School 3rd Degree” by Rev. Donald Lewis-Highcorrell, and is disturbed by some of what he finds there.

“I was disappointed to note subtle distinctions being made which imply Correllians are better than other Wiccans and should not be surprised by the bad behaviour of non-Correllians. This smacks a bit of cultish behaviour … the return to sniping at Wicca was a little tedious and unnecessary … the last part of the book becomes a bit cultish and for me loses the plot…”

Sniping at other traditions of Wicca? Superior attitudes? Cultish behavior? Doesn’t sound like a very positive or affirming way of running a religious tradition. Nor is this the first time such accusations have been made. It should be interesting to see if Witch School responds to the claims made in the review.

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

I have important updates on two recent stories:

Do Not Vex, Pester, or Annoy the Catholic Youth: It looks like justice has prevailed in Australia. A law created especially for the Catholic mega-gathering World Youth Day that would make “annoying” or “inconveniencing” visiting Catholics an offense punishable by a hefty fine has been struck down by Australia’s Federal Court.

“The Federal Court has ruled against the ‘annoying’ laws instigated for the Pope’s World Youth Day visit, saying they could have a “chilling effect” upon freedom of speech. The court ruled in favour of NoToPope activists Rachel Evans and Amber Pike, who brought the case against the NSW Government. The pair claimed the legislation would have prevented their members from handing out leaflets and other material.”

This is a great victory for free speech and free expression! So Aussie Pagans, feel free to wear that Pentacle in public, don an inflammatory t-shirt, or distribute condoms as you see fit.

Satanic Panic Alive and Well in North Carolina: A North Carolina couple who have been accused of kidnapping, rape, and engaging in Satanic cult activities were in court Monday, where a judge decided the case against them could go forward.

“It was an interest in the occult that brought the accusers to Durham. The woman and man who have accused a couple in a sexual assault case that includes allegations of channeling demons and caging a man were in Durham County District Court on Monday. The woman, 44, and man, 19, were called to the stand in a probable cause hearing for Joseph Scott Craig, 25, and Joy Suzanne Johnson, 30, the husband and wife accused in a case that was described by one defense attorney as “consensual sadomasochism” gone awry.”

In my original entry I had some serious questions about the validity of this case. The new information brought to light here raises even more. We now know that the plaintiffs not only engaged in consensual sexual activities with the defendants, but were living with them for a span of six months. Again “Satanism” is thrown around, and that they discussed “demons”. The more I hear about this case, the more it seems like a consensual domestic situation turned ugly. The only question is if the real truth will come to light in this case.

I was going to do an update on the Pagan fence controversy today, but another story I’ve read, the more I think about it, the more it bothers me (I’ll get to the fence thing tomorrow). It involves five people, the local Democratic party, accusations of kidnapping and rape, and Satanism. The more you dig into it, the more it seems like the beginnings of a witch-hunt. At first it seems like a straightforward crime with a hint of Satanism thrown in for spice.

“Prosecutors have charged three people, including two ranking members of the Durham County Democratic Party, as part of an investigation into allegations of rape and kidnapping that prosecutors said involved satanic worship … Authorities have said little about the case outside of the information included in arrest warrants, which allege that [Joseph Scott] Craig beat a man and a woman, raped the woman and that [Joy] Johnson watched as he did so. Durham County Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough said earlier this week that charges stemmed from some sort of satanic ritual.”

Joseph Scott and Joy Johnson

Now hold on, this is going to get a bit complicated. The three people arrested, Joy Johnson, Joseph Craig, and Diana Palmer are all New Agers. Joy and Joseph run/ran a web site (now down) called “Indigo Dawn”, which provided spiritual healing services, past-life regressions and the like. Joseph Craig, on the site, claims to be a practitioner of magick. Meanwhile, Joy and Diana are both chairwomen of the Durham County Democratic Party. Joy and Joseph are the ones accused of rape and kidnapping, Diana is accused of helping to hide evidence after the fact. All have been accused of participating in a “Satanic ritual”. Diana Palmer claims no involvement or knowledge of any illegal acts or cult activity.

“The warrant for Palmer’s arrest states she put the evidence in her trunk and “drove her vehicle to another location in an effort to conceal those items from detection of the Durham Police Department.” “She denies knowing about any crime, being connected with this crime or having anything at all to do with Satanism or any assault of any nature whatsoever,” Thomas said, describing his client as a New Age Christian.”

Still, this could have been a straightforward case of rape and kidnapping, with Palmer as an innocent dupe, or willing accomplice. However, it looks like the charges of “Satanism”, along with the charges of rape and kidnapping might not be as it appears.

“But the attorney for Joseph Scott Craig, 25, has questioned whether authorities misunderstood what was taking place inside his client’s home. “It sure seems to look like sadomasochism or some kind of consensual activity that maybe went too far,” defense attorney Woody Vann told The News & Observer of Raleigh. “While it may not be normal activity for our everyday population, that doesn’t mean it’s criminal.” … Authorities allege that Craig beat a man and a woman, raped the woman and that Johnson watched as he did so. Court documents filed this week accuse Johnson of “instigating and encouraging” her husband as he handcuffed the man and forced him “into a dog cage, leaving him there for hours, terrorizing him.” The documents said the incidents occurred in December 2007 and in January and May.”

Let’s deconstruct this for a moment. One couple meets another couple, allegedly through “a shared interest in Satan worship”. They then engage in, on three occasions, what sounds very much like cuckold play, a very, very common kink. The basic scenario, in short, is that a man (or woman) is restrained (mentally or physically) and “forced” to watch his (or her) partner sexually gratified by a stranger. While I’m not ruling out mental coercion, or that the final instance may have been done without consent, we may also be dealing with what sex columnist Dan Savage calls “drastic, disgusted, after-the-fact denial” (NSFW language at link).

“I’m familiar with drastic, disgusted, after-the-fact denial … the moment a closet case gets what he came for … his tone changes dramatically. Not only does he stop begging to be ******, he will deny he ever wanted to be ****** in the first place. The truly messed up ones would even deny that they had been ****** at all…”

So far the police have been tight-lipped about details of the case. As I have said before, this could very well be what they say it is. A kidnapping and rape. If so, the accused should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. However, if this is a case of guilt/shame after the fact, or self-protection from being labeled as perverts, two (or three) innocent people could be facing jail time and a lifetime on the sexual offender lists. Worse, by spinning tales of Satanism, and by the police releasing those details, we face a new wave of “Satanic Panic” in the region.

Will people start looking out for more “cultists” in the New Age or Pagan communities? Will there be more arrests? Will vigilante justice ensue if the accused are cleared of wrongdoing? We can’t be sure, but one thing we do know is that justice has been marred by the Durham police engaging in sensationalism. We can only hope that justice prevails here (whatever that may be), and that this doesn’t spark any further witch-hunts. What do you think? Real crime with a touch of sensationalist Satanism thrown in, or a smear of innocent people who believed they were engaging in a consensual act?