In Recent News...
Jacquielynn Floyd: Why all
the intolerance, pray tell? 10/05/2000
By Jacquielynn Floyd / The Dallas Morning News
Bully for Mayor Ron Kirk, who listened respectfully to the invocation before
Wednesday's Dallas City Council meeting. He didn't hear anything to get
upset about, and he had the good sense to say so.
After a week's delay wrought by invitation, un-invitation and re-invitation,
Bryan Lankford, a Wiccan minister from Mesquite, delivered the opening prayer
for the meeting. Local clergy of different faiths are invited in turn to
deliver the invocation, a pleasant formality before the sometimes-contentious
and frequently boring business at hand.
But (predictably) the issue turned into a fierce little tempest, pitting
either – depending on which side is talking – faithful Christians
against cult weirdos or small-minded busybodies against a peaceable religious
minority.
My personal taste in religion runs to the conventional – I didn't find
the Methodists oppressive enough to inspire any lasting rebellion –
but I can't find fault with any doctrine that urges its adherents toward
decency and compassion. I don't know much about Wiccans except what I've
read since this issue came up, but based on the things I heard them say
at City Hall, they readily passed that test.
Best behavior
The 50 or so Wiccans who came downtown for the occasion were on their best
behavior, too. There was certainly an eccentric element among their ranks
– magenta-haired kids who looked like refugees from a Deep Ellum goth
club, a guy named Trickster who looked like his time machine is permanently
stuck on "1968" – but nobody who struck me as scary or objectionable
or even unfriendly.
Plenty has been said and written about the female deity, the love of nature
and other elements of the Wiccan faith. Nothing I've read and nobody I talked
to at City Hall struck me as offensive, but the trappings – spells
and pentagrams and so forth – seem to unhinge a lot of ordinarily reasonable
people.
The Wiccans I met seemed like nice, if self-consciously countercultural
folks – lots of unreconstructed hippies and New Agers with toe rings
– but a lot of people seem determined to believe that "pagan"
means cartoon devil worshipers straight off a heavy-metal album cover.
Here's some of what Mr. Lankford said in his invocation. Judge for yourself:
"Mother Goddess, Father God," he said in opening, and I doubt
Mr. Lankford would have objected if some in the audience preferred to pick
just one or the other.
"We ask that you bless this council and the mayor with wisdom to lead
this city into our tomorrows, that it may flourish in harmony and prosperity."
Can't quarrel with that!
"May we show compassion for those whose lives are not as easy as our
own. ... We pray for honesty, love, compassion and faith. ... We ask this
of deity in whatever form each of us perceives it."
He continued:
"We ask this city be transformed with the harmony and balance that
faith in a greater power brings."
No harm done
No goats were sacrificed. The prayer was an easy segue into the Pledge of
Allegiance (although I could hear some mischievous Wiccans behind me slyly
amending the words to "one nation under Goddess ...").
The only awkward moments came when one guy tried to shout Mr. Lankford down
– the mayor threatened to have the heckler thrown out – and when
three speakers bawled out the council for allowing the Wiccan invocation.
"Will the next prayer be offered by the KKK?" one woman demanded,
an especially unpleasant effort, I thought, to draw an unsavory and unfair
parallel.
Mr. Kirk was swift to respond that there wasn't a darn thing in the invocation
to find fault with. As far as I'm concerned, the mayor's answer goes for
me, too:
"The City Council is not in the business of choosing one faith over
another," he said. "I was moved by the invocation that was given
today, as I have been before." An invocation is a prayer, he reminded
the audience, not a manifesto.
And finally, I might add what so many of our mothers told us, but so many
of us sometimes forget: You don't have to agree with everybody. You just
have to be polite.
Jacquielynn Floyd can be reached at 214-977-8065 or jfloyd@dallasnews.com.
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Letters
Holiday History Wars
I always appreciate members of my e-groups and other lists sending in the shocking and offensive things they find that the Christian evangelists and prostheletizers are saying bout Wiccans and other Pagans. It's important for us to know what is going on out in the world and to see just how painful it is when someone tries to convert you to their religion. Maybe that will remind us never to prostheletize for Wicca or Paganism.
So now the Christians are fighting us for the ownership of Halloween? You know, I have heard both Pagans and Christians offering about a hundred different and contradictory histories about where Halloween came from (and where Wicca came from and where Christianity came from) and I'm beginning to get tired of the history wars. We can never know what truly happened in the past. As they say, history is written by the winners (of the wars).
On the evening of October 31st, all I was concerned with was getting the Jack-o-Lantern out on the front porch to guide the trick-or-treaters, getting my candles lit in the windows before dark to guide the spirits, blessing the house, and getting the spray glitter on myself thick enough so that the fae would dance along with me that night (-;
It is the present that concerns me the most. How I live, who my friends are, how I contribute to society, how I treat my loved ones, how I manage to deal with the harsh realities of life, and whether or not I am fulfilled as a human being. I don't need history to teach me those things. I have my feelings and observations to teach me, I have my friends and family to teach me, I have the trials and tribulations of life to teach me, and I have the Mother Earth, the God, and the Goddess to teach me. Although historical musings are very interesting, ultimately I don't care what the holidays were like in the past, because I'm going to celebrate them my way, in the here and now, regardless.
I've decided to celebrate Samhain for myself and with my Wicca friends, Halloween (costumes, candy, parties, The Monster Mash) with my muggle friends, and to ignore anyone who feels they need to convert me to their version of history or any holiday.
~Gillie
In response to an article in
the news on the CBS.com website for WSBT22:
Article: Some parents in Niles are upset
over a witchcraft book that was given to some students by a teacher. Diane and Brian Wozniack found the book in their daughter's room. It's called "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner." They say the book is inappropriate and talks about magic spells, daggers and satanism.
It belongs to an 8th grade science teacher at Ring Lardner Junior High.The teacher, Cheryl Malinowski, was suspended for three days for givingthe book to students. Malinowski served her suspension and is teaching again. School administrators are now reviewing their policy on appropriate and inappropriate resource materials.
I wrote the webmasters:
In your article about the book "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" being given to a student by a public school teacher,only one side of the argument was given.
The accusations of the people who were opposed to this teacher's actions were given, but nothing was mentioned about the teachers point of view or any other opinions about why the school board might be reconsidering their decision to suspend the teacher.
The article leaves it sounding like the accusations about the book's content are true. The fact is, however, that this book does not contain any information about satanism. It is a book about the religion called Wicca which does
not embrace belief in any being or deity called "Satan" or even matching the Christian description of "Satan." Furthermore, the precepts that this religion does embrace are completely different from what I understand Satanism to represent. The book
that this teacher gave to that student advocates "concern and love for our planet," "improving ourselves and the world in which we live," and doing what we feel is right "as long as it harms none."
In this book, the word "Satan" is mentioned one time as an example of something negative found in other religions.
I quote directly from
the book:
"Although we honor and revere the Goddess and the God, we know that we are free souls with full control and responsibility for our lives. We can't point at an image of an evil god, such as Satan, and blame it for our faults and weaknesses. We can't blame fate. Every second of each day we are creating our futures, shaping the courses of our lives. Once a Wiccan takes full responsibility for all that she or he has done, and determines that future actions will be in accord with higher ideals and goals, magic will blossom and life will be a joy."
~Scott Cunningham.
Please publish this letter if you can so that readers may know the other side of the story.
Sincerely,
Gillian Durham
any feedback? please e-mail me at GillieDu@aol.com
Please specify if it would be ok for me to publish your response on this page.
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