Wiccan priestess: “Pagans mean no harm”
Many Livingston Parish residents want to keep a pagan festival from coming to Killian.
But one woman wants to set the “spell-casting” and “devil-worshipping” rumors straight.
Emily Turner sat down with a member of the pagan faith, who says she’s part of a community whos beliefs are far from evil. See Video from nbc33tv.com
Tolerance of paganism now a symbol of civilized society
A sign that paganism has come of age is that there are now lapsed pagans — heretics who resort to scientific explanations for phenomena formerly attributed to the supernatural. Read full story from timesonline.com
LOCH MEMORIAL TO FORFAR WITCHES
VISITORS to Forfar Loch Country Park have been intrigued by the appearance of a headstone which has been erected in a small clearing.
Inscribed with the words “The Forfar Witches, Just People”, it sits in a simple stone circle and is sheltered beneath a hawthorn tree. Read full story from kirriemuirherald.co.uk
Satire is Religion
Scatological humor. Crude drawings mocking revered religious figures. I am speaking, of course, of Lucas Cranach’s Birth and Origin of the Pope, one in a series of woodcuts commissioned by Martin Luther in the 1540s under the title “The True Depiction of the Papacy.” In it, an enormous grinning she-devil squats in the foreground, excreting the Pope along with a heap of bishops while in the background another infant pontiff suckles at the teat of a serpent-haired wet nurse. Read full story from religiondispatches.org
The Merest Christianity
ARLINGTON, VA – - The lower house of Belgium’s Parliament voted unanimously on April 29 to outlaw full-face veils. The Senate must also pass the measure. Read full story from newsblaze.com
Europe Under the Ash
Eyjafjallajokull, that unpronounceable volcano, prompted inevitable chatter about nature’s awesome fury and the inadequacy of human invention to deal with it. Few Europeans had even heard of the volcano before, and they marveled at, but mostly grumbled about, how such widespread havoc could be caused by such teensy particles of ash, adrift from Iceland. On the whole, Europeans tend to forget about Iceland until some fresh calamity compels their attention. The last was the banking implosion, and a line making the rounds in Europe has it that Iceland’s final wish after its economy kicked the bucket was to spread its ashes across Europe. Read full story from nytimes.com
