Top Story: Today is the beginning of the Gadhimai Mela in Nepal, a massive festival that occurs every five years in honor of the Hindu goddess of power, involving the mass-ritualized slaughter of over 250,000 animals.

“The world’s biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India. The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power … The dead beasts will be sold to companies who will profit from the sale of the meat, bones and hide. Organisers will funnel the proceeds into development of the area, including the temple upkeep … Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festival’s high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. “The goddess needs blood,” he said.”

The high-profile ritualized slaughter of so many animals has gained international attention from animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot, who told the Nepalese Prime Minister that “hundreds of horrified tourists report their disgust at witnessing ritual sacrifices at various festivals in Nepal”. Also attempting to halt the animal sacrifices was Ram Bahadur Bomjon, the famous “Buddha Boy”, who met with organizers and plans to appeal directly to participants. Local opponents included the Anti-Sacrifice Alliance and the Animal Welfare Network Nepal. But the appeals have fallen on deaf ears and rural Nepalese along with throngs of Indian tourists have flocked to the gathering, animals in tow, to gain the blessing of the goddess, whom they believe will grant their wish within five years.

“Kushawa, who belongs to the opposition Maoist party that claims to be atheists, said almost 75 percent of the visitors at the fair – whose main attraction is the slaughter of tens of thousands of birds and animals – are from India. “While they are mostly from Bihar, there are others from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other Indian states neighbouring Nepal,” he said.”

This rite no doubt shocks the sensibilities of many Westerners, who see them as unnecessary and barbaric. Then again, the slaughtered animals are cooked, sold, and eaten, so the main differences seem to be the religious aspect, and the fact that the slaughter is open to the public. America, by contrast, doesn’t  (usually) allow people to attend or sanctify their slaughter-houses. To compare scale, perhaps a half-million animals will be ritually killed at the Gadhimai Mela, while Americans will eat 45 million turkeys for Thanksgiving alone, with 250 million grown in 2008. We also killed and consumed over 34 million cows. Is context king? If they were kept out of sight, not ritualized, would we not care? I don’t think Bardot or the “Buddha Boy” are planning a trip to America’s meat-packing plants any time soon. How much of this outrage stems from people not conforming to what we consider civilized?

In Other News: We start off “below the fold” with some good news for South Jersey Vodou priest Houngan Hector Salva. Salva was embroiled in controversy after the death of a transgendered woman at a three-day Vodou cleansing ritual this past Summer. Officials have ruled the death accidental, and not suspicious.

“Her death – which was never considered suspicious — was ruled accidental on Monday by the Camden County prosecutor’s office and the case was closed. Lucie, a male-to-female transgender, died from the combined effects of “physical exhaustion, ambient room temperature and an oxygen-depleted atmosphere,” according to The Daily News.”

While Salva has been cleared of any criminal negligence, Lucie’s mother calls him “young, stupid and negligent” and wants people to know that her daughter died under his care. Salva has already moved from his former home, after the flurry of sensationalist press made it nearly impossible for him to continue his religious practice there.

The FBI has released hate-crime statistics for 2008, and offenses against religions are up across the board. This includes 212 offenses against “other” religions in 2008, up from 140 in 2007. Making up 12.8 percent of total religious hate-crimes. Unfortunately we have no way of telling who the “others” are, but we do know it isn’t any of the Abrahamic faiths (each of whom have their own category), so it’s probably of mish-mash of Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and all the other “Others” combined. As ominous as this rise is, what isn’t reported may be even scarier.

“The FBI’s report reflects only the information gathered by participating law enforcement agencies. Experts warned that the numbers may reflect different standards for what constitutes a hate crime, as well as the inability of some law enforcement agencies to coordinate the report because of budget constraints. “The most frightening thing about these numbers is what goes unrecorded,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, the Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.”

One has to wonder how many hate-crimes get ignored by non-participating law enforcement agencies, and how many want to report these crimes but just don’t have the resources to do so. Addressing a problem often starts with having the data to support that there is, indeed, a problem. Let’s hope the FBI’s data improves, and that we someday learn who, exactly, the “others” are.

The press have reported on two Thanksgiving interfaith events that included Pagans and Wiccans, the first in Madison Wisconsin (sponsored by the Greater Madison Interreligious Association), where Selena Fox from Circle Sanctuary talked about Wiccan harvest festivals.

“Like many other religious groups, Wiccans have a tradition of giving thanks in connection with the harvest season, said the Rev. Selena Fox, of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church near Barneveld. Some contemporary Wiccans celebrate the first harvest at the beginning of August, the abundant harvest in September, and the end of the harvest in late October, Fox told a group of about 100 people Sunday during the fourth annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration.”

Meanwhile, Modesto, California’s Inter-Faith Thanksgiving Celebration included Pagans for the first time. The Pagans performed a song-chant, and local Pagan Edye Cheeseman said that it felt “very inclusive, very nice.” Both events seem like a warm-up of sorts to the up-coming Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest interfaith gathering in the world, where the expected Pagan presence is thought to be substantial. More on that soon.

In a final god-adapting-to-modern-times story, it seems that the city of Chennai in India has flocked to the worship of Iraniamman Amma, the “highway goddess” to avoid accidents and ensure a safe journey on the roads.

“Daily thousands of vehicles stop by and queue up at the Iraniamman temple to offer prayer on the highway including two wheelers, autos, cars, buses, lorry drivers, etc People from across the nation come here to worship the highway goddess in Chennai, which keep them away from the deadly accident on that accident-prone highway. “The reason for coming here to this goddess is that I need to go safe and come back safe too. That’s why I always come here, put the lime before the vehicle and do the puja, for a good, wonderful and safe journey. I am a catholic but I do believe in this because it is a highway Goddess,” said Jude, a traveller.”

Which leaves me with the question, which god or goddess in your pantheon handles highway safety? How about computer health? How have your gods adapted to modern times?

Perhaps I’ve developed outrage fatigue from covering religious news for so many years, but I just can’t seem to muster much energy for the supposed controversy over vacuous morning-show host Kathie Lee Gifford’s “anti-pagan” comments.

The trivia question that spurred a tempest in a tea-pot.

I watched the offending video clip in question, and I just don’t see anything worth threats of boycott or starting a petition. I certainly don’t agree with Ellen Evert Hopman & Dana Corby’s assertion that her off-the-cuff statement amounted to “hate speech”.

“Ms. Gifford’s hate speech has done harm to American Pagans’ ability to live in peace with our neighbors of other faiths. By allowing her hate speech to be broadcast, her direct employer the TODAY Show, and their network, NBC, participate in that hate speech.”

Hate speech is something very specific, and Gifford’s off-the-cuff riffing on a trivia question doesn’t even come close to qualifying. I very much doubt Gifford even realizes there is a modern Paganism movement, much less has a nuanced understanding of pre-Christian religion (she’s a born-again Christian). I question the petition’s assertion that any Pagan will have their quality of life affected in any way because of what a Regis Philbin cast-off said. This action by Pagans, far from chastising the folks at the Today Show, has only provided more grist for Gifford’s “comedic” mill.

I’d like to think that I’m fairly tenacious in defense of modern Paganism. I have worked daily to follow stories and bring important issues to light. There are many serious issues facing modern Pagan faiths, and we should remain vigilant and address them. However, the last thing I want to see is for Pagans to adopt the tactics of groups like the Catholic League. Constantly scanning the news looking for the next outrage, the next rallying cry for those who believe some great religious conflict is brewing. I don’t want us to become unable to laugh off something stupid, I don’t want us to become unable to tell the difference between an innocuous trifle, and real anti-Pagan hate speech.

Should you boycott The Today Show? Sure, if only because it’s stupid, lowest-common-denominator television that enriches no one. Not because Kathie Lee Gifford allegedly “hates” Pagans. Let’s turn our attention to the endemic discrimination against Pagans in prisons, or the improper influence of Christianity on our military, or the legislative strategies that seek to enshrine a Christian civil religion and relegate religious minorities to second-class status, or the role of modern Pagans in politics. Heck, we could even talk about the reality television shows that actually do some damage to our reputation. What we shouldn’t do is manufacture a controversy where one doesn’t actually exist.

PS If George Carlin has gone on The Today Show and called Chritianity “nasty” and “bad” (and he’s called it far worse things than that) would you call it “hate speech”? Would you think Christians were correct in calling for a boycott, or would you think such an action was an overreaction?

WIVB in New York reports that an anonymous caller to the Olean police department claims to be the man who ran over a holiday Pentacle display in early December.

“Police believe they’ve received a phone-call confession from the person who ran-over a holiday pentacle display in olean. This all started earlier this month in Olean. The city allowed people to put up religious symbols in front of city hall..but not long after someone erected a Wiccan pentacle sign.. Someone ran it over.”

The vandalized Pentacle display.

“Hello there, this is a tough call for me to make… We were in Olean shopping.. We had dinner.. We were on our way home.. my girlfriend said, hey, there’s the symbol that was on the news I wish someone would run it over I had a few beers in me.. and was showing off, so I backed into it. I am truly sorry it wasn’t a hate crime..just an off color prank.”

See? It isn’t a hate crime if you had a few beers in you and did it to impress your girlfriend. This “beer + girlfriend” defense seems to be winning over the local police, who say that they only plan to charge the man with misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief (if they catch him). No word on if further charges will be entertained (like drunk driving for instance). What do you think? Is this a hate crime or an “off color prank”, what punishment do you think the driver (and possibly the girlfriend) should receive?

[You can read part one of this entry, here.]

05. Discrimination, Harassment, Hate Crimes, and Firings: Last year one of my picks for a top story was “Growing animosity and tensions between Christians and Pagans”, and while this year didn’t appear to be quite as bad, there seemed to be plenty of animosity to go around. Christians extremists fought for the right to intimidate us, Witches were beaten and stabbed in Canada, a Pagan store-owner had a noose left on her doorstep, and the FBI reported that hate crimes towards religious minorities is on the rise.

“A couple things become immediately clear, one, that Christians (both Protestant and Catholic) experienced the fewest religiously-motivated hate crimes of any faith grouping (despite claims of widespread anti-Christian activity by some conservative Christians), and two, that a large number of religious hate crimes (coming in third behind Muslims and Jews) are towards faiths that check the “other” box in surveys. In fact, the number of incidents against “other religions” have risen since 2005, with 41 more victims of a religious-motivated hate crime in 2006.”

But it wasn’t just threats and physical attacks, this year saw quite a few firings that seemed to be motivated by an anti-Pagan bias. In some cases rumor-mongering seems to have replaced due process, and people who were a bit too odd being labeled as “Witches”.

“The same early December day a fellow substitute teacher asked if she was Wiccan, Harmon found herself in Principal Jamie (Rene) Tolbert’s office answering questions about her appearance and whether she had discussed religion with students.”

I wish I could say this particular story will diminish in 2008, but I think that as we continue to enter the mainstream, a certain minority of religious believers will do all in their power to shove us back into our “broom closets”.

04. Pagans in Politics: This year, more than any other I have witnessed, saw modern Pagans involved with, and affected by, our political process. This year saw the Chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee in Maine outed as a Pagan by a conservative Christian group, who then stalked her and attempted to incite vandalism against her. When that didn’t work they went after the vice-chair (who is also a Pagan). But you don’t have to be a Pagan to get smeared politically, you only have to associate with them. An Asheville City Council found herself the victim of an attack ad based around her participation in a “save the trees” event, and subsequently lost her bid.

However, one of the biggest political events directly involving a modern Pagan has to be the scandal involving a deputy of Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

“[Ginger] Cruz, a former spokeswoman for the governor of Guam, originally joined SIGIR as a contractor working for the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Current and former SIGIR employees have told investigators that Cruz threatened to put hexes on employees and made inappropriate sexual remarks in the presence of staff members. Cruz is a self-described wiccan, a member of a polytheistic religion of modern witchcraft. “We warned Ginger not to talk about witchcraft, that it would scare people,” a former SIGIR employee said.”

In addition to these events, 2007 saw politics become ever-more Christian focused and identified. With non-Christian expressions of faith being shoved to the margins by Presidential candidates, and non-Christian prayer getting shouted down in our halls of government. With monotheist modes of belief becoming more blatant and forceful across the political spectrum, will there be a place for Pagans (or any religious outsiders) in the near future?

03. Salem’s Psychic Wars (plus other psychic legal developments): Divination and psychic services were all over the news in 2007. With many modern Pagans making a portion of their living from providing tarot readings or other divination methods, laws regulating, taxing, or outlawing these services can become a big issue (fiscally and religiously). Michigan recently started taxing psychic readers claiming it was a “high-income” service, a local Wiccan was successful in getting Caspar, Wyoming to remove its ordinance against fortune telling, Philadelphia used a previously unenforced state law to close down psychics, tarot readers, and other diviners in the city, and Livingston Parish in Louisiana passed a religiously-motivated ordinance against all forms of fortune-telling despite objections from local Pagans.

But the biggest story involving psychics, the law, and modern Pagans had to be the “psychic wars” in the “Witch City” of Salem, Massachusetts. With 10% of Salem’s population practicing Witches, and a large amount of Salem’s tourist income based on Halloween traffic, proposed licensing regulations on psychic readers became a heated debate between rival factions. A debate that took a criminal turn, when one couple decided to use intimidation tactics. A situation that gained national attention, and was even reported on in Time Magazine. The Salem story points to the growing cultural relevance of Pagan faiths (especially when big money is involved) in America. As regional Pagan populations grow, expect to see more conflicts (and cooperation) with local governments over divination services, religious freedom, and local laws.

02. Pagans in the Public Square: A late development this year, but an important one nonetheless, is the recent eruption in the “Christmas Wars” involving modern Pagans. Three separate cases involving public property, religious Nativity displays, and Wiccan participation, have placed modern Pagans on the forefront of the debate over the separation of Church of State, religious freedom, and pluralism. One case is heading for litigation, while another appears to be drawing out into the Spring. Expect these cases to loom large in 2008, and set the stage for next Winter’s battles.

01. The Veteran Pentacle Win, and Pagans in the Military: My top story for 2006 was the Veteran Pentacle Quest, and the biggest for 2007 is the successful win in getting the Pentacle symbol approved for Veteran headstones and markers. In addition, we saw Pagan groups forming coalitions in order to expand that recognition to other Pagan symbols, and an ongoing struggle to get a Pagan military chaplain approved. Aside from activism, we also saw stories about Pagans in the military, and how safe they are in an increasingly Christian military.

The legal and social struggles concerning Nativity displays and Pagan soldiers have some of the farthest-reaching implications for modern Pagans in America. Situations that have gained international attention, and in the case of the Veteran Pentacle Quest, President Bush. 2008 will very likely see even more important developments involving these stories.

That wraps up my top ten news stories about or affecting modern Paganism in 2007. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll join me for another year of sifting through the news and views of interest to our communities. See you in 2008!

The FBI has released its data on hate crimes for the year 2006. Reported incidents of hate crimes have risen since 2005, from 7163 incidents to 7722 incidents. That number may be much larger since only a small fraction of law enforcement agencies even bother to report to the FBI (they aren’t required to by law), for instance, the incidents involving nooses in Jena were not reported to this study. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is the breakdown of religiously motivated hate crimes in 2006.

“Of the 1,750 victims of an anti-religion hate crime:

* 65.4 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias.
* 11.9 percent were victims of an anti-Islamic bias.
* 4.9 percent were victims of an anti-Catholic bias.
* 3.7 percent were victims of an anti-Protestant bias.
* 0.5 percent were victims of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
* 8.4 percent were victims of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion).
* 5.3 percent were victims of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).”

A couple things become immediately clear, one, that Christians (both Protestant and Catholic) experienced the fewest religiously-motivated hate crimes of any faith grouping (despite claims of widespread anti-Christian activity by some conservative Christians), and two, that a large number of religious hate crimes (coming in third behind Muslims and Jews) are towards faiths that check the “other” box in surveys. In fact, the number of incidents against “other religions” have risen since 2005, with 41 more victims of a religious-motivated hate crime in 2006.

The problem with this data is we have no idea who the “others” are. Buddhists? Hindus? Pagans? All of the above? There is no break-down within the category. While we can’t say that “x” number of Pagans (or Hindus, etc) were the victims of a hate crime, we can assume that faiths on the fringes of the mainstream, non-Christian faiths, and new religious movements have seen an increase in hate crime activity since 2005. It may also be true that the crimes against “other” are much higher since the chances that rural law enforcement districts are going to report to the FBI when a Wiccan gets harassed are most likely slim to none.

On the other hand, this data shouldn’t be used to hypothesize some sort of neo-”Burning Times” against adherents of Pagan faiths. Certainly incidents against “other” adherents are dwarfed by a still-huge number of anti-Jewish/Semitic attacks (over 1000 victims as opposed to 147). What we can say is that incidents of hate crimes against faiths outside the norm are potentially on the rise, and it is something we should pay attention to when 2007’s numbers are released. These numbers should spark renewed conversation about how welcoming we are as a society to faiths outside the Christian comfort-zone, and why attacks on minority religions are growing.

2007 seems to be shaping up to be the year of the noose. In the wake of the Jena Six controversy, which started with the hanging of nooses to intimidate black students, the hanging rope seems to have re-entered our consciousness as a symbol of persecution and intimidation (both real and imagined). This new “noose awareness” has sparked a string of intimidating noose placements, in addition to some seemingly innocent/naive uses of the symbol that have generated controversy.

Up until now the harassing noose placements had all been racially motivated, but that seems to have changed now that a noose has been placed outside a Pagan-run metaphysical shop in Bakersfield, California.

“A hangman’s noose was found outside a spiritual bookstore in Bakersfield run by a self-proclaimed witch. Police are calling the noose discovered at Altar Bookshoppe, which sells occult books and supplies in Old Town Kern suspicious.”

While the report is somewhat sparse, Altar Bookshoppe owner Katie Olivares gives a bit more detail on the case at the Wren’s Nest comments for the story.

“What is not being reported by the ABC station is that the NBC station aired a segment /the previous week/ about Witchcraft which featured interviews, a short ritual and (gasp!) my children’s book about the craft. Not a hate crime? It seems obvious to me. I don’t want this to turn into a cop-bashing opportunity. They get enough bad press. (. . . and I happen to be very-much in love with a police officer!) I see this as a potential opportunity to dispel some myths and foster some acceptance, which is why I consented to the original interview.”

Which certainly makes it seem like someone was trying to intimidate the Witch they saw on TV. While a previous television appearance was most certainly a factor in inciting some idiot to take up rope-tying, other theories have emerged.

“Because of the brou ha-ha connected with a Halloween decoration, someone thought to use it as a threat now. I’ve a feeling that this is going to happen more often, because the people that are doing this sort of thing are usually lacking in imagination-if not in hate.”

Did news coverage over the controversy concerning a noose-hung “witch” during Halloween in Massachusetts help inject a renewed connection between witches and nooses? I doubt we’ll ever know for sure, but it is certain that the vocabulary of hate and intimidation, racial and religious, has reached back into the past to stir old and painful cultural memories.

Back in mid-October, I mentioned a controversy brewing in the small town of Chicopee, Massachusetts. There a local homeowner hung a “witch” (though some claim it was supposed to be an effigy of Hillary Clinton) by a full-size gallows noose, prompting a local Wiccan to claim it constituted a hate crime against her religion.

“But Lynch says it’s no laughing matter. She says it’s a hate crime* against her religion … She says it’s not only a hate crime against her religion, but offensive to the entire community. “It’s depicting death. I wouldn’t destroy a cross or bash a religion or race,so I don’t expect that to happen to me,” adds Lynch.”

The Halloween display in question.

“At one point the protest got a little heated, and Chicopee police were called to East street, but in the end both parties stayed on their own sides and continued to stand up for what they believe. “It is strong, strong dislike and hate for a person and a specific religion that is known all over the United States,” says protestor Melissa Mercier … “Witches have rights too, under freedom of religion,” adds Lynch.”

Then on Halloween night, someone decided to take matters into their own hands, and burned the faux-witch down.

“The witch hanging from a noose outside a home on East Street in Chicopee has been burned at the stake. Neighbors say when they went to bed last night, the witch was intact, but this morning, it was found burned on the ground. The halloween decoration stirred controversy when a group claiming witchcraft as their religion protested outside the home. But neighbors say whoever set fire to the witch went too far.”

So now the question is: who burned the witch? Lynch? A supporter of Lynch’s? Random hooligans? Some conspiratorial-minded folks have even suggested the homeowner did it himself. But whoever burned the witch, one thing is clear, thanks to this action the issue isn’t going to go away now.

“One neighbor says he wants to put up four more witches for next year’s Halloween season.”

It seems that any positive outcome from this situation has been lost. It will now become a show of solidarity in the neighborhood to hang witches, and what most likely started out as something not aimed at modern Pagans could very well evolve into the thing Lynch feared. Wiccan effigies on suburban lawns.

* The hung witch in this instance isn’t a hate crime in any legal sense of the term. A “hate crime” is a very specific thing. It is the intentional use of threats, violence, or intimidation against someone because of their race, religion, orientation, or creed. So far there is not a shred of proof this man hung this witch in order to threaten or intimidate Pagans. He may be a rude insensitive jerk, but that isn’t against the law.