“…it is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person. This position leads to attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism — human salvation cannot come from nature alone, understood in a purely naturalistic sense…”

To be fair, he also criticizes the idea of nature as mere “raw material”, and promotes an end to “reckless exploitation”. In fact, if this were the extent of Bendict’s swipes at modern Paganism I might have left it alone, but he returns to the subject again later on in the work.

“There are certain religious cultures in the world today that do not oblige men and women to live in communion but rather cut them off from one other in a search for individual well-being, limited to the gratification of psychological desires. Furthermore, a certain proliferation of different religious “paths”, attracting small groups or even single individuals, together with religious syncretism, can give rise to separation and disengagement. One possible negative effect of the process of globalization is the tendency to favour this kind of syncretism by encouraging forms of “religion” that, instead of bringing people together, alienate them from one another and distance them from reality. At the same time, some religious and cultural traditions persist which ossify society in rigid social groupings, in magical beliefs that fail to respect the dignity of the person, and in attitudes of subjugation to occult powers. In these contexts, love and truth have difficulty asserting themselves, and authentic development is impeded. For this reason, while it may be true that development needs the religions and cultures of different peoples, it is equally true that adequate discernment is needed. Religious freedom does not mean religious indifferentism, nor does it imply that all religions are equal.”

Catholicism is the best! Paganism is the worst! Rah! Rah! Rah! Some religions are more equal than others, right Benedict? I love the scare quotes around religion when describing syncretic, magical, and occult belief systems, it really drives home that the current leader of the Catholic Church doesn’t see us as even practicing a valid faith (even if in error). I suppose I should be flattered that the Pope considers us enough of a going concern that we’re mentioned in an encyclical, but I doubt it’s a first step towards understanding or tolerance. After all, if we aren’t “equal” to Catholicism (and other faiths that the Catholic Church deems “real” religions), maybe we don’t deserve the same religious freedoms and protections.

I always expect a bit of triumphalism and rhetoric when a religious tradition talks to itself, after all, if they didn’t think they were the best faith ever why bother? However, some of the conclusions made by Benedict here could have some chilling repercussions for modern Pagans around the world. We are already seeing a rise in Catholic exorcists who see adherence to “New Age” or Pagan religions as a form of demonic possession, isolated instances of growing radicalism among Catholic youth, and a crack-down on practices like Reiki for being “corrupting” to your spiritual health, what actions could result from this latest encyclical where a hierarchy of religious freedom is subtly endorsed?

The Assumption of the Virgin by Rubens.

“When Pope Benedict XVI told a crowd in St. Peter’s Square in April that the Virgin Mary “silently followed her son Jesus to Calvary, taking part with great suffering in his sacrifice, thus cooperating in the mystery of redemption and becoming mother of all believers,” most listeners probably heard nothing remarkable in the statement. After all, devotion to Mary is a pervasive element of the Catholic faith, and one of the features that most clearly distinguishes it from Protestantism. Yet for one group of devotees, Benedict’s statement was a milestone — a sign that he had moved one step closer to granting their wish for a new dogma on Mary’s contribution to human salvation. At least 7 million Catholics from more than 170 countries, including hundreds of bishops and cardinals, have reportedly signed petitions urging the pope to proclaim Mary “the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the coredemptrix with Jesus the redeemer, mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one mediator, and advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race.” In other words, the Virgin Mary — though always subordinate to and dependent on the will of Christ — plays an active, unique and irreplaceable role in helping her son deliver mankind from sin and death.”

The article mentions that many believe John Paul II wanted to make Mary Co-Redemptrix during his Papacy but was advised not to in order to not trouble the waters of Christian ecumenicism. However, some proponents of Mary as Co-Redemptrix say it would ultimately help ecumenical efforts because it would prove they don’t see Mary as part of the Holy Trinity.

“This would bring new clarity that Catholics do not adore Mary as a goddess,” Miravalle said. “It would underscore what Catholics do believe — that she is your spiritual mother — but at the same time that she is not the fourth person of the Blessed Trinity.”

While Benedict has criticized the idea of Mary as Co-Redemptrix in the past, he could be changing his tune in order to continue his efforts to unite and strengthen the Catholic Church. After all, Marians are often the staunchest, and in many cases, the most conservative, of Catholics and Benedict hasn’t seemed to mind courting controversy in reaching out to them. Besides, the fringe Protestant groups who demonize Catholics for worshipping the “Queen of Heaven”, and take credit for killing prominent Catholics with their prayers, aren’t going to stop simply because Benedict holds off on making Mary Co-Redemptrix. Why not officially acknowledge that which many rank-and-file already believe?

It remains to be seen if Benedict is truly sending out a “dog whistle” to Marians that he is with them, or if it is merely wishful thinking on the part of the Co-Redemptrix supporters. Certainly those of us who are interested in how non-Pagan religions engage with the divine feminine (whether they officially acknowledge her as that or not) will be keeping an eye out.

“The Vatican warned the internet address-making body of the “perils” of allowing new internet domains such as “.catholic, .anglican, .orthodox, .hindu, .islam, .muslim, [and] .buddhist”. ICANN, frequently accused of mission creep, could find itself having to decide who gets to represent an entire religion on the internet, His Holiness pointed out, in a letter from Monsignor Carlo Maria Polvani.”

That’s right, religiously-themed top-level domains have become a very real possibility, and the Vatican is concerned about who might end up holding the reigns of those new extensions.

These gTLDs could provoke competing claims among theological and religious traditions and could possibly result in bitter disputes that would force ICANN, implicitly and/or explicitly, to abandon its wise policy of neutrality by recognizing to a particular group or to a specific organization the legitimacy to represent a given religious tradition.

In other words, what if an organization headed by a schismatic or Independent Catholic group got control of ‘.catholic’ (not that I see the Vatican letting that scenario go down without a fight), or, what if a rogue Subgenius had control over ‘.pope’ (charging twenty dollars per domain obviously)? More likely, what if control over religious top-level domains went to the groups with the most money?

“You have the right to contest any of these extensions by spending the  $50,000+, it will take to object to each and every religious domain extension that might be applied for. Just  ask the churchgoers to dig a little deep in their pocket to put more money in the collection plate, so they can fight each new extension religious extension. Seriously the many nightmarish problems and issues are just starting concerning these new extensions. What if multiple groups apply for a  .god extension, who gets to play god? Well I guess the highest bidder, according to the ICANN’s Guidebook.”

To say this is a potential minefield is a huge understatement. So long as you have groups that insist they hold the only “proper” or “correct” way of administering legitimacy regarding a faith, tradition, text, title, or teaching, your going to run into serious problems. Worse, what would happen if enemies of a particular faith controlled the keys to its top-level domain? After all does the Pagan community have hundreds of thousands of dollars to challenge an evangelical group from running ‘.pagan’ or ‘.wicca’? So in this instance, and perhaps not for the exact same reasons I have, the Pope is right. Religious-themed extensions under the current system would be a potential nightmare. Without the promise of an affordable and open challenge mechanism, or the certainty that religious extensions would be controlled by ideologically neutral parties, ICANN should stay out of the God(s) business.

The right-wing site NewsBusters, who expose liberal media bias by reveling in their own conservative media bias, takes a few pot-shots at Margot Adler’s coverage of Dylan Mortimer’s Public Prayer Booths for NPR. NewsBuster Tim Graham seems particularly unhappy they sent a “pagan witch” to cover this story.

“NPR sent reporter Margot Adler – the pagan witch – to address this issue, and she just happened to stumble across the New York City Atheists as she opened the story … it’s hard for most listeners to buy the argument that Bronstein [of the New York City Atheists] “just happened to be walking by.” If Adler didn’t contact him beforehand … another reason for skepticism: Adler failed to just discover a protester in August as she delighted in a piece of public art that satirized waterboarding SpongeBob Squarepants … There’s no spokesman for “organized religion” in the prayer-as-art story…”

It seems that Graham’s biggest problem with Adler is that she isn’t a conservative Christian, that an atheist was hanging around when she recorded the report, and that she didn’t talk to some conservative Christians. Oh, and she didn’t find a (Christian or conservative) protester to talk to in a completely unrelated story. Mr. Graham obviously hasn’t done much in the way of “man on the street” reporting (too busy writing about Hillary Clinton I expect), or he would know that you take what you can get, and sometimes it isn’t completely and perfectly ideologically balanced.

The Oregonian positively reviews a new play by Marc Acito entitled “Holidazed”, a comedy that follows a normal Christian family who take in a homeless Pagan teenager.

“Susannah Mars shines at the story’s center as Julia, a typical suburban mother trying to survive a mother’s many holiday duties. This year seems like any other until she gives a bag of Halloween candy to a homeless girl. When the girl asks her name, a random act of kindness becomes a personal encounter, prompting Julia to take her home for the night … As played by Ana Reiselman, Luna makes a wonderful catalyst for change. Sassy but loving, tough but fragile, she is first and foremost a human being, deserving of love and dignity. While paganism may seem strange in a holiday play, Luna’s knowledge of it strips away the family’s illusions about where their supposedly Christian traditions began, opening their eyes to simpler truths.”

The play runs at the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon through December 28th. You can also read about the process of making “Holidazed” in this separate Oregonian article. If any of my readers in Portland end up going to this, please post a review!

The Scifi blog IO9 points us towards an upcoming mythical indie film about Thor’s last day on Earth.

“Don’t let the generic indie guitar music fool you, this looks like quite a little cutie. The film follows Thor, the Norse God on his last day on Earth, as he knows he must die to save the planet. On his final day the fearless warrior traverses about a little suburb meeting people and causing a chain reaction through each character.”

Pope Benedict XVI in questioning interfaith dialogue shocker!

“Pope Benedict XVI cast doubt on the possibility of interfaith dialogue but called for more discussion of the practical consequences of religious differences. The pope’s comments came in a letter he wrote to Marcello Pera, an Italian center-right politician and scholar whose forthcoming book, “Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian,” argues that Europe should stay true to its Christian roots. A central theme of Benedict’s papacy has been to focus attention on the Christian roots of an increasingly secular Europe.”

Marcello Pera, a conservative backer of Silvio Berlusconi, has long railed against post-Enlightenment attempts to “build up a society without God”. Yet, long before Europe’s “Christian heritage”, it had a vibrant pagan one. Pera and Benedict have both intimated that Western democracy can’t survive without God, but fail to mention that Western democracy wasn’t invented by the “Judeo-Christian” tradition.

In a final note, a wealthy Druid and his hereditary Witch wife, when forced to downgrade from their Weymouth mansion to a detached house in Dorchester, decided to take their megalith with them.

“The stone circle megalith was originally erected in the grounds of Abbotts Court by Burberry fashion house founder Thomas Burberry in the early 1900s. The Burtons bought the mansion in the 1980s and could not live without the monoliths when they downsized to Dorchester. Neighbours watched in bewilderment as druid John and hereditary witch Suky used a crane and a huge truck to transport the 6ft stones to their new abode. The couple – both antique dealers – aligned the stones at special points along a powerful ley line around the garden to encircle themselves with positive energy.”

Now that’s what I call landscaping!

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/11/pagan-news-of-note_24.html/feed 0 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/pagan-news-of-note_13.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/pagan-news-of-note_13.html#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:39:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/pagan-news-of-note-76.html My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

A botanica, Centro Botanico La Santisma in San Diego, burned down on Saturday after a lit candle sparked a larger fire.

“A lit candle in a voodoo supply shop sparked a fire, destroying the San Diego store and damaging an adjacent taco shop. San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick says the blaze’s intense smoke caused officials to evacuate several homes in the Grant Hill neighborhood when the fire broke out early Sunday morning. Firefighters said the Centro Botanico La Santisma store was a total loss, with nearly $350,000 in damages. The store sold herbs, amulets and other items related to Santeria, voodoo and other religions.”

Luckily, no one was injured in the blaze. A chilling reminder to all Pagan and occult stores to be careful with candles, and to have a healthy fire-insurance policy.

Jay Clarke looks at the large variety of Samhain/Halloween events happening in Salem during the month of October. Including the Salem Witches Halloween Ball (not to be confused with the Cabot Witches Ball).

“On Nov. 1, the Day of the Dead, another massive party – the Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball – also takes place at the Hawthorne and on the adjacent grassy Common ($150 per person). The Common, fittingly, is where some scenes of the popular Hocus Pocus movie about long-dead witches were filmed … Yes, Salem has real witches – more than 3,000 of them, who practice Wicca. They detest both the stereotype of wickedness as presented in the Wizard of Oz and the nose-twitching antics of Samantha in television’s Bewitched.”

I think “detest” is a somewhat strong term. I happen to love the “Wizard of Oz”, and find “Bewitched” (and the play/film that inspired it “Bell, Book, and Candle”) to be quite charming at times (especially Jack Lemmon as Nicky). Also, $150 dollars? Yikes! That’s a little too rich for my blood.

According to Arnold Conrad, the former pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Davenport, non-Christians around the world are praying for Obama to win the presidential election.

“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens,”

Conrad made these remarks at a recent McCain rally in Iowa (before McCain ever arrived). This is certainly a shock to the Pagans and non-Christians who are planning to vote for the Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, or Green party come November. One can only wonder what will happen to Conrad’s faith should God let his “reputation” be harmed by an Obama win.

Are comic-book superheroes thinly-disguised gods for our modern age? Performance artist Justin Lamb seems to think so.

“I wanted to do a show exploring why superheroes and comic book culture have gotten so popular lately. I started researching it and started finding a lot of weird little similarities between superheroes and religion, which has a nice little nerd following of it’s own if you haven’t noticed. I wondered if subconsciously, do the things that attract people to these religions also attract people to these heroes.”

Perhaps Lamb has been reading “Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes”? Or he could just be a big Grant Morrison or Alan Moore fan.

In a final note, the New Statesman publishes an interesting examination of secularism, and recent attempts to push forward a watered-down “positive secularism” by France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Pope Benedict XVI.

“To speak of positive secularism is to imply that there are two kinds of secularism, one good, the other bad. The supposedly good one, put forward by the Pope and his acolyte Nicolas Sar kozy, is a secularism that would allow politics to mingle with religions. One which would, for instance, turn a blind eye to sects and their actions, one which would accept that people be treated differently according to their faiths, one which would blur the frontiers between the public and private spheres. Sarkozy certainly knows a great deal about the blurring of the two distinct worlds whose separation has been France’s trademark for at least two centuries.”

Only one kind of secularism guarantees the rights of minority religions, and it isn’t the “positive secularism” envisioned by the Pope. Creating a “secularism with exceptions” sets us on a dangerous road where some are more equal than others.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/pagan-news-of-note_13.html/feed 1 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/italys-object-lesson.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/italys-object-lesson.html#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:32:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/italys-object-lesson.html If you were looking for an object lesson on why the separation of church and state is a good idea, look no further than Italy, where a satirist is being prosecuted for insulting Pope Benedict XVI.

Sabina Guzzanti: Pope insulter.

All hyperbole aside, Guzzanti is literally being charged under a fascist law. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 was the great solution to the “Roman Question”, a political dispute between the Italian Government and the Papacy. This treaty recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See, and established a concordat giving the Catholic Church certain privileges within Italian society (including the punishment of insults against the Pope). The whole thing was approved by arch-fascist Benito Mussolini, a fact that hasn’t escaped critics of this prosecution.

“Nobel prize-winning playwright Dario Fo said of the decision to take action against a comedian: “This is Fascism pure and simple.” Ms Guzzanti’s father, a centre Right MP, was shocked by the prosecution. According to The Times Paolo Guzzanti branded it: ‘a return to the Middle Ages. Perhaps my daughter should be be submitted to the judgement of God by being made to walk on hot coals.’”

What are Catholics saying? So far, very little. After a few searches I could only find one Catholic blog commenting on the story, and while he isn’t for the comic being jailed for five years (that would make her a martyr to free speech you see), he is for a good public shaming!

“I think these individuals should, however, be firmly answered in the public forum, not along the lines of “oh my, we’re so offended” but rather with an argument such as “think about what you are saying” … and then listing the qualities of this Pope that make her comments so mindless in comparison. In other words, shame these people, don’t jail them. Sending them to jail makes them look like a sort of brave martyr for free speech, shaming them with the truth makes them look exactly like what they are – idiots.”

As you can see, the quality of mercy is not strained. You can have free speech, so long as you endure a lecture from the powers that be on how you’re wrong. As for the Vatican, no official statement has been released. They are too busy distancing themselves from Catholic attacks on resurgent fascist tendencies in Italian society, and urging secular France to remember a more religious past.

One can only hope this farce of justice is stopped. Meanwhile, those of us in countries where that church-state separation is a bit more clear should be grateful that the Bill Donohues of this world can’t have comedians and artists sent to trial and locked up.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/italys-object-lesson.html/feed 1 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/church-feminist-theology-and-future.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/church-feminist-theology-and-future.html#comments Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:40:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/the-church-feminist-theology-and-the-future.html In a move that should surprise no one, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the organization formerly known as the Inquisition) has ruled that baptisms using gender-neutral formulas for the Trinity are invalid.

“The Vatican declared Friday that baptisms must be performed under a traditional formula – referring to the Trinity as the ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ – to be valid. Any baptisms conducted under new formulas that use inclusive nonmale language are not legitimate … The rejected formulas are: ‘I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier’ or ‘I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator and of the Sustainer.’”

The CDF further opined that “these variations arise from so-called feminist theology”, a movement much at odds with the current Pope’s thinking, who sees “radical” manifestations of feminist theology as entirely un-Christian.

“The Pope, who wrote the latest ruling, has been a strong opponent of feminism in the Catholic Church. In his book, The Ratzinger Report, he wrote: ‘I am, in fact, convinced that what feminism promotes in its radical form is no longer the Christianity that we know; it is another religion.’”

If Pope Benedict thinks that mere gender neutrality is too far, you can be sure that referring to the Christian God as “God/ess” or “Primal Matrix” (or “Mother”) is right out. Feminist theologians like Rosemary Radford Ruether may claim that the Pope “is not our Pope”, but the truth is that reformist-minded Catholics on the left have found themselves ever-more isolated and minimized within a Church turned towards maintaining and strengthening its boundaries.

For Benedict, the salvation of the Church isn’t in the reforms that have led to the near (and perhaps impending) break-up of the Anglican Communion, but in returning to a “purer” Church by rolling back what this Pope sees as the excesses that have followed in the wake of Vatican II. The truth of the matter may be that feminist reforms will never be allowed to make significant headway into the Catholic Church.

Perhaps it is time for feminist theologians like Ruether to give up trying to change Catholicism from within. It may be that feminist author Germaine Greer has the right idea. When asked about the baptism issue, Greer pointedly said that “if the Pope succeeds in turning Catholic women against the church, so much the better.” Perhaps all these scholars, theologians, and authors would be better served by leaving Christianity behind, and embracing those traditions unafraid of feminine power and authority. Certainly modern Paganism could always use more theologians, creative thinkers, and ritualists. Better still, we don’t have an Inquisition snooping about for heresy.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/church-feminist-theology-and-future.html/feed 9 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/02/continuing-catholic-anti-pagan-pile-on.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/02/continuing-catholic-anti-pagan-pile-on.html#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:58:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/02/continuing-the-catholic-anti-pagan-pile-on.html What is it with the Catholics lately? Earlier this month we see stories about an exorcism revival in Europe and Australia that seems to specifically target modern Pagans, and now we get anti-Pagan apologetics from National Catholic Register commentator Mark Shea.

“Finally, in these latter days, ‘pagan’ has taken yet another turn and is now used in some circles as a compliment. Among a growing number of people, ‘pagan’ now means ‘post-Christian religionist who is attempting to rescue reverence for Nature from the hands of evil Judeo-Christian earth rapists.’ The notion behind this version of ‘pagan’ is that there was once a magical far-off time when humans dwelt in harmony with Mother Earth, everybody was comfortable with their various Jungian archetypes, and all was well as we worshiped the ‘gods’ and ‘goddesses’ who both expressed the beauty of Nature and got us in touch with our inmost selves (and lots of libido, to boot). Who needs all that stuff about sin, dying to self and the need for redemption? The great blunder of the human race was when the old gods were swept away by the evil Judeo-Christian God.”

You can almost smell the contempt! Shea, like all desperate apologists, vainly constructs a modern Paganism from straw, inflating perceived flaws and minimizing strengths in order to rhetorically vanquish his demonic foe and claim victory for the True Faith (in this case, Catholicism). He references philosophers like Peter Kreeft and G. K. Chesterton without mentioning that both are Catholic apologists, thus building a flawless anti-Pagan feedback loop in which no opposing view can take root.

“Post-Christian paganism is, first and foremost, a search for an escape from God. It is a hunt for the blessings of heaven without the trouble of submitting to heaven. As such, it is ordered toward unreality, though much hampered in the pursuit by the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Paganism is a search for an escape from God! A rebellion against submission that ultimately leads to delusion! It doesn’t matter that no reputable scholar of religion would echo such a view, we are deep in the land of Catholic doublespeak here, a place where any un-Catholic notion is a symptom of a disordered mind. No doubt Shea’s next installment will try to link modern Paganism to nihilism and fascism, following in the footsteps of his Pope.

This new series of columns is just another piece of evidence for an increasingly hostile stance the Catholic Church has been taking towards Pagans. An intolerance that is being instilled in Catholic youth, peddled by the Churches’ highest leaders, enacted by “spiritual warriors”, and parroted by columnists like Shea. Why us now? Perhaps Pagans, being a small and disorganized lot, seems a far safer target than certain rival monotheisms. They can engage in spiritual “battle” without having to worry about criticism, reprisal, or their leader finding it prudent to apologize. What better way to boost the ego, than to pick on someone smaller than you?
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/02/continuing-catholic-anti-pagan-pile-on.html/feed 0 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/11/theological-fun-with-pope-benedict.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/11/theological-fun-with-pope-benedict.html#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:29:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/11/theological-fun-with-pope-benedict.html Pope Benedict XVI has released his newest encyclical on the theme of Christian hope. Entitled “Spe Salvi” (saved by hope), the work muses on Christian salvation, redemption, and the role of prayer in Christian life, but it wouldn’t be Benedict (the artist formerly known as Cardinal Ratzinger) without inflating the triumphal claims of Catholicism at the expense of polytheist forms of religion!

“Paul reminds the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Of course he knew they had had gods, he knew they had had a religion, but their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their contradictory myths. Notwithstanding their gods, they were “without God” and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future … Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future… Myth had lost its credibility; the Roman State religion had become fossilized into simple ceremony which was scrupulously carried out, but by then it was merely “political religion”. Philosophical rationalism had confined the gods within the realm of unreality. The Divine was seen in various ways in cosmic forces, but a God to whom one could pray did not exist.”

There are quite a few problems with Benedict’s argument, a primary one is the confusion of mythological stories with the living and breathing religion being practiced at the time. The assumption that Roman polytheists had no hope for a pleasant afterlife, when in fact they had a systematic afterlife that included judgment, rewards, and punishments, and the characterization of Roman religious ritual as a clockwork obligation that had no belief or passion. The bugbear here for Benedict is the specter of “philosophical rationalism”, which along with relativism leads (in his view) to all manner of horrors, including the destruction of Christianity (and which, in his view, drained the life out of Roman polytheism).

Not that we should expect a fair hearing from the Pontiff, after all, this is the same Pope who claims that the Nazis were a “Neo-Pagan” invention, and not a product spawned from centuries of Christian antisemitism. Having said that, there were some other interesting things said in the Pope’s latest missive to the world, including some words on prayer that won’t make certain evangelical Christians very happy.

“He emphasized that prayer should not be isolating and should not focus on superficial objectives. Nor can people pray against others, he said. “To pray is not to step outside history and withdraw to our own private corner of happiness,” he said.”

It seems very likely that he is pointing his finger at prosperity gospel folks and certain stripes of “prayer warriors”, who “target” people of influence with prayer. It should be interesting if any reporters pick up on this jab at non-Catholic forms of Christianity. As for the Pope and Paganism, you would think that a man as learned as Benedict would hesitate to create religious straw-men to bat down. There are plenty of valid criticism of polytheistic systems, but portraying Roman polytheists as without hope and “lost” to nihilistic darkness is petty and untrue.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/11/theological-fun-with-pope-benedict.html/feed 4 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/indians-were-begging-for-it.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/indians-were-begging-for-it.html#comments Tue, 22 May 2007 13:28:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/the-indians-were-begging-for-it.html I really do try to not get wrapped up in every little thing Pope Benedict XVI says that offends people. But sometimes crass triumphalism just crosses a line. Such was the case in his recent visit to Brazil where he made some troubling comments concerning the indigenous population of Latin America.

“Speaking to Latin American bishops in Brazil on May 13, the Pope cited the ‘rich religious traditions’ of Indian people but added that their ancestors were ’silently longing’ for Christ and seeking God ‘without realizing it.’ Pope Benedict further demonstrated his misunderstanding of history and the forced conversions of natives in North, Central and South America and of massacres and ‘just wars’ when he suggested that the Church did not impose itself on indigenous peoples and that Christianity had not been detrimental to them and their cultures. ‘In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of His Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture.’ Benedict also added that a return to indigenous religions ‘would be a step back.’”

Not to be too hyperbolic but “they secretly wanted it” is the excuse of rapists throughout history. For such a learned man to display such shocking ignorance (and arrogance) concerning the tragic legacy of colonialism in the Americas points to a singular failing of empathy or interest in indigenous peoples. So blatant was this triumphalist screed that even the Catholic Church’s own Indian advocacy group in Brazil have criticized the pontiff.

“The Catholic Church’s Indian advocacy group in Brazil, CIMI, has called the Pope’s statement, ‘wrong and indefensible’. Before the Pope made his comments, Indian leaders had written to him about the threats they continue to face, and expressed their gratitude for the support of missionaries and the church in Brazil in fighting for their rights.”

Indigenous activists and tribal leaders in Brazil are understandably stunned and outraged by Benedict’s comments and the dangerous white-washing of history this represents.

“Jecinaldo Satere Mawe, the chief coordinator for Coiab, an Indian rights group in Brazil, called the comments ‘arrogant and disrespectful.’ Dionito Jose de Souza of the Makuxi Tribe said the Pope was trying to erase the ‘dirty work’ of colonization. Sandro Tuxa, another Indian leader, called them ‘offensive, and frankly, frightening.’”

The famous Catholic activist Dorothy Day was famously quoted as saying that while she loved the Church for revealing Christ to her, the institution itself was often a scandal to her. So must all good Catholics feel at a time like this, when their spiritual head so clearly lacks the necessary love and empathy to embody Christ to his Church. Christian triumphalism is ugly, no matter how educated or powerful the man who peddles it is, it forgives genocides and overlooks tragedy in the name of saving souls.

If Benedict represents the Christian God’s anointed, then I’m glad to be an unrepentant Pagan.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/indians-were-begging-for-it.html/feed 2