“New media creators seek to report on their communities by being actively involved in them. They engage in newsgathering and reporting that is informed by their own knowledge and sense of place. They seek to entice members of their community in robust conversations. They pay close attention to their readers and communities to figure out what is of interest …New media news creators deliberately employ more involved (participatory), less dispassionate points of view, while maintaining the distinction between news and opinion …The primary motivation of news creators in starting a community news site is to amplify a sense of community and connect its members in meaningful interactions … For news creators, the primary gap is a geographic one. They are seeking to fill a void that exists because traditional media never covered their communities or have abandoned coverage because of economic pressures.”

The above could read as a mission-statement for The Wild Hunt and hundreds of other blogs, podcasts, and new-media resources out there. I’m not “embedded” in the Pagan community, I’m a part of the Pagan community, and that intimacy and familiarity gives me a perspective and vitality that no mainstream journalist can hope to match. I do believe I can be passionate about a topic while distinguishing what is fact and what is merely my opinion.  Further, the study makes plain that media creators and consumers (an increasingly blurry distinction) are both frustrated by the current state of mainstream news reporting, pointing out how “old media” has been petty and hostile towards emerging new-media solutions and  outlets.

This new attitude/reality is certainly worrying for newspapers and other traditional news-outlets. As Newspaper Death Watch states: “reinvention doesn’t come without pain”, and that pain has yet to run its course. However, I believe in the long run this change in journalism and news-gathering will ultimately create more quality journalism, not less. Further, it will forever change the old paradigm of a select few deciding what is “newsworthy”. For many, what happens in the world of modern Paganism isn’t worth reporting, or only worth reporting during Halloween, but we are no longer limited by the page-count or the deadline. In the future, news will be initially generated by self-interested communities which will then “trickle-up” to larger journalism-creating entities as “big” stories emerge. News outlets that continue to ignore these changes will just become another statistic for the media “death-watchers”.

In Other News: Turning briefly to Catholicism, I’ve previously mentioned that American nuns are currently undergoing a “doctrinal assessment” to see if they are coloring inside the lines and not straying too far into feminism, practicing Reiki, or getting too cozy with Goddess-worshipers. Well it looks like many of the women religious aren’t going to go down quietly, by, well, being quiet.

“Most US women religious are failing to comply with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document from Apostolic Visitator, Mother Angela Millea. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities’ constitutions, NCR Online reports. “There’s been almost universal resistance,” said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. “We are saying ‘enough!’ In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity.” The deadline for the questionnaires to be filled out and returned to the Vatican appointed apostolic visitator, Mother Mary Clare Millea, was November 20.”

So what happens when non-contemplative Catholic womens religious orders, the ones who are usually the most tied to and involved with their local communities (and hence, quite popular with the laity) put their foot down? Saying that they are through being “bullied”? We can’t be sure, but I doubt this is making Benedict XVI very happy. Something tells me this isn’t going to be the last instance of civil disobedience and non-compliance from American nuns.

The Religion Clause blog alerts me to an update on the South Carolina “I Believe” license plates story that I’ve covered here at The Wild Hunt in some depth. It seems the local Palmetto Family Council, instead of urging the state to issue unconstitutional endorsements of a single faith, is going to follow the law and sponsor the plates themselves.

“The plaintiffs who just won the lawsuit that killed the General Assembly-sanctioned “I Believe” license tag are saying they won’t protest Smith’s plan — as long as it’s a private group, and not state government, that is sponsoring the tag. “This would be a specialty license tag like all the other specialty tags,” said the Rev. Neal Jones, one of the four plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit over separation of church and state. “It would be an expression of freedom of speech by a private group, and we don’t have a problem with that.” Jones, pastor of the Universalist Unitarian Fellowship in Columbia, said he had discussed with the other three plaintiffs the possibility of a private group putting “I Believe” on a tag. “Everyone was fine with it,” he said.”

You know, if local Christian groups had just coughed up the $4000 dollars to sponsor the specialty plate in the first place we wouldn’t have had to have an expensive court battle. But I suppose that would rob local politicians of some quality Christian pandering for votes.

In another follow-up, the massive (and controversial) Nepalese ritual-animal-slaughter of the Gadhimai Mela is over and the AFP interviews some unrepentant participants in the killings.

“Munna Bahadur Khadgi, a professional butcher, said he had enjoyed the chance to give the goddess “something in return.” “Gadhimai has been kind enough for me to have a good life and I take this slaughter as a way of saying ‘thank you’,” said the 40-year-old, who said he had killed 200 buffalo this year. “I make money by killing animals normally but at the festival I do it for spiritual satisfaction. It is the least that I could do for the goddess and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.” For 31-year-old Abhimanyu Rana, the slaughtering was in keeping with the family’s religious belief and practice. “When I was young I had seen my dad and grandpa slaughtering animals. I am proud that I am continuing the family history,” said Rana, who owns a local restaurant.”

But while many local Nepalese participants seemed pleased with the festivities, Utpal Parashar of the Hindustan Times seemed to have had a terrible time, saying the slaughter was “nauseating” and that he was pick-pocketed twice. Inside Nepal, a commentator for the Kathmandu Post, invoking Peter Singer, said the event was “the legitimization of violence in Nepal writ large”. The coalition lobbying to stop the mass-sacrifice points out that few safety and humane regulations were witnessed during the festival, and I can’t help but wonder if a reformation movement would have met with better success than a movement for a complete ban.

In a final note, now that Thanksgiving is over, people are turning toward Yuletide gift-giving and reporters are anxious to turn in their “pagan origins of Christmas” story before heading out for Black Friday deal-hunting. In an article about a festival of trees, the pre-Christian origins of hauling a tree indoors was cited, while a variety of letter-writers are quick to point out the pagan-ness of Christmas while considering church-state concerns. Meanwhile, SF Gate columnist Jon Carroll quotes a reader on the issue of Jews adapting and adopting Christmas for themselves.

“So can’t the Jews attempt something that the Christians did so successfully 200 or so years ago with a pagan celebration?”

Yes Virginia, Winter festivals do predate Christianity, and that religion did steal borrow many popular pagan traditions in the process. However, I’m not sold on the theory that Santa was a shaman. I’m more a “he exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist” kind of guy. I’m also a let everyone celebrate their Winter festivals in whatever way they want kind of guy, but I still think that Gap ad is stupid.

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

“In Great Falls, we had a Wiccan witch, a Wiccan high priestess, who brought a lawsuit…the ACLU brought a lawsuit for her because they were opening the meeting at Great Falls – the Town Council – with a prayer, which typically included Jesus, a prayer to Jesus. And they said that was unconstitutional,” McMaster says in the video. “So, we got involved in the case. And we told them that we would fight for them,” says McMaster. “As I have said, under the Constitution, you are allowed to pray the way you want to pray. If you want to pray to Jesus, which of course many people do, then that’s the way that you ought to be allowed to pray.”

McMaster then offers to defend anyone in the state who is “on the receiving end on an ACLU lawsuit”. That this invoking of uppity Wiccans to win votes is tied to the recent “I Believe” ruling is pretty apparent. McMaster was reportedly “utterly disappointed” at the ruling, and was well-known to be an ardent supporter of the license plates, attending pro-plate rallies that featured a greatest-hits reel from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”. But for all his bleating on the subject, there is little, legally, he can do at the moment. His current role as Attorney General prevents him from appealing the case, so no doubt his message that he’ll “support” and “defend” anyone in a lawsuit most likely means that he’s looking for someone to get litigious regarding the plates, or public sectarian prayer, so he can get in their corner (and win votes).

What’s troubling is that we don’t know what this will do to Darla Wynne, or other Pagans living in South Carolina. If “Wiccan witches” are being lumped in with the ACLU (one of the great Satans of conservative Christianity), how long will it be before people start blaming us for the perceived slights against their “religious freedom”? Is McMaster invoking something he can’t ultimately control, something that may end up harming the lives of innocent Pagans, just to win an election? I’d hate to think that such a man may soon be governing the entire state, a state that includes many modern Pagans (and several other religious minorities) who are just as concerned about their own religious freedom and safety as any Christian.

“In finding the sectarian plate unconstitutional, Judge Currie held, “Such a law amounts to state endorsement not only of religion in general, but of a specific sect in particular.” The judge noted that legislators and other state officials have unnecessarily drawn the state into an expensive lawsuit.”

I don’t see why non-Christians would have a problem with this.

This case had been a joint effort of local clergy and Americans United who felt the plate amounted to a state-sponsored endorsement of Christianity. This entire process has also been haunted by the Pagans in South Carolina and their own quest for equal treatment under the law. From the local politicians pushing the plates under the assumption that “any” religion could have their own tags, just so long as those tags weren’t from a Pagan faith, to the fact that the judge on this case also ruled in favor of Wiccan Darla Kaye Wynne during the Great Falls invocation saga. Our presence played a small part in reminding politicians, judges, lawyers, and journalists that  minority religions exist everywhere, even in the “Christian” South. That a Christian cross emblazoned on these plates sent a message of exclusion, not inclusion.

Of course the saga of Christian license plates is hardly over, the state of South Carolina could try to appeal the decision, and other states, most notably Florida, are engaging in the same shenanigans. But at least a message was sent today that America is not merely a “Christian” nation, but a nation of many religions, or of no religion at all, and you can’t raise one up in the government without pushing the others down in some fashion.

Tasteful isn’t it? Now, obviously this would never get Sen. Larcenia Bullard’s vote since it’s a figure with “horns on each side”, but a guy can dream can’t he? I challenge my readers to come up with their own Pagan license plates, and maybe the next time this issue comes up in Florida or South Carolina (or any state) we can send them in and demand that our plates come next!

No Church-State problems here!

“If you want Jesus on your license plate, the Florida Senate is looking out for you. Because why worry about a budget impasse or property insurance when you can spend more than an hour talking about Jesus, the devil and license plates? Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill Friday even though many members had not seen images of those plates and none was produced for the debate.”

The Jesus plate pictured above is joined by the infamous “I Believe” cross plate that failed to get traction last year (and is currently being litigated in South Carolina). Also, lest you think this plate would open the doors for any number of religious-themed plates, Sen. Larcenia Bullard made clear that gods (and devils) with horns would be right out!

But those options would come too late for Friday’s debate in the Senate, where Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, invoked the devil to make her point: “What if someone comes next year and decides to vote on something that has the devil on it, and horns, horns on each side. I know that people are called the devil, but if the symbol of a devil is on it, I would not vote for that.”

Luckily for people who like their spiritual guides to have “horns on each side”, the ACLU and ADL mobilized after the news broke and managed to get a similar-worded proposal removed from House legislation (preventing, I assume, the plates from seeing the light of day). Meanwhile, some Florida senators are trying to solve the issue by pushing for the removal of all specialty plates in exchange for specialty stickers that would serve the same charitable purpose. Such compromise measures most likely won’t please co-sponsor Sen. Gary Siplin (Democrat) who compared putting Jesus on the plate with other states putting animals on theirs.

For his part, Siplin said FAMU has a snake on its plate and the University of Miami has “a duck or something on their license plate so I think we should have an opportunity for every citizen around the state to be able to purchase a license plate of their choice.”

Christianity, it’s a lot like a duck, or something. Good to know that lawmakers in Florida are so untroubled by our nation’s current ills that they can spend time trying to blur the line between church and state. Oh, and thanks to Pax for originally tipping me off to this story.

I don’t see why non-Christians would have a problem with this.

Supporters of the cross-emblazoned plates have argued that they are legal since any religious group can sponsor similarly biased tags, an argument that quickly falls apart when you speak to local officials about what exactly counts as a religion.

“In South Carolina, Baptists wanted the tag on cars here and pitched the idea to Republican South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s chief of staff. State Sen. Yancey McGill, a Kingstree Democrat, got the bill passed in a couple of days without even having a public hearing or debate. “It’s a great idea,” McGill said Tuesday, calling it an opportunity to express beliefs. “People don’t have to buy them. But it affords them that opportunity. I welcome any religion tags.” What about Wicca, commonly referred to as witchcraft? “Well, that’s not what I consider to be a religion,” McGill said.”

That sentiment doesn’t just apply to Wiccans of course, Muslims are right out too.

“Asked by a reporter if he would support a license plate for Islam, Rep. Bill Sandifer replied, ‘Absolutely and positively no… I would not because of my personal belief, and because I believe that wouldn’t be the wish of the majority of the constituency in this house district.’”

Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, who is expected to release a written opinion concerning the injunction on Monday, is no stranger to protecting the rights of minority religions. In 2003 the judge ruled in favor of Darla Kaye Wynne, a Wiccan, who was battling against exclusively Christian invocations in the town of Great Falls. There is no word if Currie will also be overseeing the actual trial (though we can all hope). Whomever presides, this case will most likely be litigated for quite some time. South Carolina has become a “hot zone” for battles over church and state issues, and things are just getting warmed up.
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