The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/religious-freedom)
The Becket Fund’s 2025 Religious Freedom Index shows rising support for religion in public life, yet its findings leave key questions unanswered for Pagans. Christian-centered examples dominate the survey, highlighting tensions between broad claims of pluralism and uneven real-world application.
In this week’s Pagan Community Notes, we begin with some good news: celebrations of Imbolc and the Feast of Brigid offered beautiful videos and thoughtful lessons; Via Lactea Sanctuary reached a property tax settlement in New York; and a federal judge allowed The Satanic Temple’s lawsuit against the City of Boston to move forward. Then comes the strange: reports of David Hume’s grave being vandalized with so-called “satanic” imagery. And stranger still, the National Prayer Breakfast unfolded largely as predicted, while New Hampshire lawmakers introduced a constitutional amendment to move the state toward Christian theocracy.
This week’s National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance and National Prayer Breakfast present contrasting tones but a shared theology, exposing how Christian nationalist ideas about sin, repentance, and national identity are being woven into the fabric of American political and religious life.
Heritage’s new family policy blueprint presents a vision of America rooted in Christian norms of faith, family, and Sunday observance. It also advances a prescriptive view of women’s social roles, while rendering Pagan and other minority religions absent—raising concerns about whether “religious freedom” still means equal protection for all traditions.
In her own words, an Iranian Pagan recounts life, faith, and fear under Iran’s theocracy, explaining how ancient stories, seasonal rites, and spiritual identity have become tools of survival and resistance against the regime during the current protests.