News

HHS makes changes to strengthen “conscience protections”

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WASHINGTON — The United States department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two announcements last week concerning “conscience protections” for health-care workers and state programs. These announcements are the latest in the Trump administration’s attempts to bring religious freedom rhetoric to the forefront within a deeply-divided political climate. On Jan. 18, the HHS announced that it has formed a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). According to the announcement, the division’s purpose is “to restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.” OCR director Roger Severino said, “Laws protecting religious freedom and conscience rights are just empty words on paper if they aren’t enforced.”

News

Accusations of abuse surface against ADF founder Isaac Bonewits

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TWH – In her newly-published book The Last Closet: the Dark Side of Avalon, author Marion Zimmer Bradley’s daughter, Moira Greyland, offers a tell-all account of her harrowing and abusive experience growing up, including how she eventually came forward and put her own father, Walter Breen, in jail. Included in those detailed and difficult accounts are accusations that ADF founder Isaac Bonewits, who died in 2010, participated in the sexual abuse. “When I was at Greyhaven I had some unfortunate run-ins with an individual from the Pagan community someone named Isaac Bonewits,” Greyland writes. “Some people called him the Pagan pope […] I hated Isaac, and refused to be in the same room with him, even if the only way I could articulate my objections to him was to say ‘he tickled me.'” (Chapter 13)  Greyland recalls being six years old. Greyland then goes on to recall in non-specific terms the sexual abuse.

Paganism

Paranormal reality show blames Witch community for hauntings

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WOLF CREEK, Ore. — The paranormal reality show Ghost Adventures (2008- ) blamed a local Witch community for the hauntings being reported in a Oregon ghost town. Airing Sept. 23, the episode “Golden Ghost Town” finds the Ghost Adventures crew in an old mining town in southwestern Oregon. The old town, which is currently in a state park and being restored, is well-known for its hauntings, which the show labels as being demonic and “unleashed” by local Witches.

Paganism

Top ten Pagan news stories of 2017

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TWH – The Wild Hunt team is taking a break today in order to gather with family and friends as the old year ends and the new one begins. We will return tomorrow to start the year 2018 with our popular feature Pagan Voices, followed by Pagan Community Notes on Tuesday. Then we will be back with a regular schedule of news and commentary. The Wild Hunt team looks forward to yet another exciting year of covering the stories and subjects of interest to the collective Pagan, Heathen, and polytheist communities. The coming year promises to be an engaging one, and we will be there ready to “cover the cauldron” as our motto says.

Paganism

Looking forward: 2018 predictions

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TWH – The year 2017 is quickly coming to an end. Most of the December holidays are over, both the secular and religious; the leftovers have been consumed; friends and relatives are now returning to their homes. This week, we looked back at the year through the stories that made headlines here at The Wild Hunt and beyond. As the seasons shift, we pay tribute to the year’s successes, and remember the failings. Today, we look forward through divination.