fightingforfaith

May Day pagans up at dawn to sow fertility | Vancouver Sun.

A well-written article by the Vancouver Sun about a Canadian Beltane festival. This article is very tolerant, and very informative. Apparently, there exists a produced in Vancouver,” which is used as a reference in this article to explain Beltaine as an event which “celebrates the conjoining of the infinite potential of the Goddess with the life-sparking energy of the God in a sacred marriage, the basis of all creation.”

It is always refreshing to see an article in which minority religious viewpoints are well expressed.

PLS PIC: Teenager convicted for harassing Pagan – Telegraph.

A teenager has been convicted in the UK for harassment of a pagan McDonald’s employee.

Though the teenager is reportedly apologetic, what I found most striking about this story was that the teenager originally claimed to be unaware that this harassment was religious harassment because the teenager did not know paganism was a religion.

This only seems to suggest that further education on religious tolerance is necessary in places that have a significant pagan community or other minority religious population, like the UK. Whether this teen was truly ignorant of paganism’s recognized status is, to me, debatable, because the teen seemed unaware of the effects of his bullying and as soon as was “made aware of the effect” he became immediately apologetic. Sounds more like a case of religious intolerance and misunderstanding than a case of ignorance.

Comments?

Forum 18 Search/Archive.

“These results suggest that religion has made an important come-back in China after decades of enforced atheism. But despite the rising number of religious believers and increasing signs of religiosity, the great majority of ordinary people – as Forum 18 has noted in China – consistently express little interest in religion. Along with this, they also may profess open hostility toward religion”

Religion may be making a comeback in China, but many individuals define themselves as not religious or having no interest in religion after decades of state-sponsored atheism and religious oppression. Further, many of these individuals have come to hold religion as something undesirable, and harbor hostility towards religion and religious individuals. It is interesting to note the still-remaining impacts of state-sponsored atheism, and how China’s religious makeup is constantly changing.

Religious Groups Criticize Government for Weak Support of Religious Freedom | The Jakarta Globe.

An article about religious freedom and the Constitution in Indonesia.

Quick response by local school over Pagan necklace « PNC-Minnesota Bureau.

This story comes to us from the Pagan Newswire Collective based in St. Paul, MN (where this story is also set) and is quite a happy one.

A young girl was singled out by a substitute teacher and asked to hide her pentacle necklace. When she asked why she must do this the substitute said something about keeping beliefs to oneself but the substitute did not ask the same thing of the other children displaying religious jewelry in turn.

Luckily, unlike a recent story that took place in Georgia, the school system in St. Paul moved swiftly to rectify the injustice and to make it up to the young girl and her family.

Fighting for Faith would like to applaud the school system in this story for how they handled the situation and we pray that more stories like this will begin to appear in the news

Virginia groups may sue over state adoption decision | Reuters.

As of May 1st of this coming year, adoption agencies in the state of Virginia will have the legal right to discriminate who can adopt a child based upon gender, sexual preference, disability and religion. The rationales behind the laws are that 1) the birth-mother has the right to have the child that she is giving up brought up a certain way and 2) “Faith-based” adoption agencies have to right not to be “force[d]…to choose between abandoning their adoption ministries or violating their sincerely-held religious beliefs.” Luckily organizations such as the ACLU and Equality Virginia are not going to accept this sitting down. We will do our best to keep you posted on this story as we hope for changes to happen quickly.

Children Have Rights Too!!! | Atlanta Independent Media Center.

This is the kind of story that makes me ashamed to be a Georgian. A fifth grade boy (I’m assuming fifth or sixth grade since he is eleven years old) is facing a challenge that makes most adults uneasy: religious intolerance.

After missing class for the Samhain Holiday a teacher berated him ending the conversation with, “Paganism is not a religion.” Multiple attempts by the boy’s mother to rectify the situation have all proved fruitless.

This article gives the email addresses and phone numbers for those in charge at the school system that the boy attended (as he will now be home schooled). However, I want to state that this blog does not condone any hateful or dangerous messages sent to any of these people.

The Wild Hunt » Did The Village Voice’s Halloran Piece Cross the Line?.

Okay, Lacy and I know that we have to stop “pressing” stories from The Wild Hunt; however, Jason does such a good job of finding these stories that it can be hard not to link his stuff.

This story discusses the attacks on New York City Councilman Dan Halloran by writers at the Village Voice. Dan Halloran is an open Theodist, a form of Germanic neo-pagan, and the Village Voice has repeatedly linked heathenism to racism and then back to Dan Halloran. Following their pattern of cum hoc ergo propter hoc, the Village Voice has yet again released a story and caricature (both can be found here) that many heathens have called offensive.

To take from “The Wild Hunt’s” article: “David Carron, Ombudsman for Asatru organization The Troth, said that Thrasher’s “questioning of Halloran’s actions is quite appropriate,” but that his “slurring of Heathenry is not.” Carron wonders if “the religion have been Jewish and the picture being one of a large nosed profile, would your readers not rightfully ask for a retraction?”’

Lawsuit claims Georgia factory worker was fired for refusing to wear ‘666’ sticker at work – The Washington Post.

At a factory in Georgia, workers wore stickers proclaiming how many days the factory had been accident free. A Christian man refused to wear the sticker on the 666th day, because he felt it would be the ‘mark of the beast’. He was suspended and fired shortly after.

He was also told that his beliefs were ‘ridiculous’.

Personally, I believe that when we are protecting religious freedoms, we must look at the benefits of restricting freedom versus the costs. I doubt that the factory would have suffered much from a single worker not wearing a ‘666’ sticker. I do not see what the company gained in requiring the man to wear this sticker, which went totally against his beliefs, however ridiculous those beliefs might seem to someone else.  I feel that the company has no reason to place this burden on the individual, especially for something as simple as a sticker.

Thoughts? Is this fair or unfair? Was this man just following his faith, or was he overly superstitious? Is there a difference? Does it matter?

Blessed be,

Lacy

Pagans find warm welcome at ‘Gateways to the Air Force’ « PNC-Minnesota Bureau.

This article (along with it’s follow up found here) comes from the Pagan Newswire Collective based in Minnesota. Both articles discuss how the military (specifically the Air Force) handles minority faith and pagan cadets.

These articles are a great success stories of how an entity so large as the US Air Force can be so personal and care so much for men and women of every background.