| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
14 Aug 2005 02:18:11 AM |
| Object: |
Wiccan prayer POs County Board - again. |
Why do they need prayers before county meetings anyway? And if they must
have them, who cares which imaginary entity the prayer leader chooses to
honor that day?
---
For religious issues, devil's in the details
Tamara Dietrich
August 13 2005
Stephanie LaTronica of Williamsburg has never offered an opening prayer
before a public meeting. But if she did, this is how it might go:
"Goddess, let only truth be spoken here, and only truth be heard. Let
our actions and our decisions be in benefit of the earth and the cycle
of nature. Blessed be."
Unfortunately, the concept of such a prayer is either so alien or so
offensive to public officials up in Chesterfield County, they are
willing to crusade against it right up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Why? Because it would be offered by a Wiccan. LaTronica is Wiccan, just
like Cynthia Simpson of Chesterfield County. Simpson is the woman who
was denied the right to deliver the invocation before one of her local
county board meetings. She was told the prayer must be made to a
divinity within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
"We have had this policy in place for 20 years," County Attorney Steven
L. Micas said in an earlier newspaper report. "It's remained through
five boards of supervisors. The law supports the policy." Micas did not
return telephone calls Friday for more comment.
Simpson sued, and in 2003, she won in federal court. In April, the
county won a reversal in the U.S. Circuit Court in Richmond. So Tuesday,
the American Civil Liberties Union petitioned on Simpson's behalf to the
highest court in the land. Arguments should start this fall.
"What Wicca represents is the expanding nature (of religion), the
diversity," says David L. Holmes, religion professor at the College of
William and Mary in Williamsburg. "America is becoming more and more
diverse, so boards of supervisors are faced with questions that they
would not have been faced with not many decades ago."
On the other hand, he said, "From the board's point of view, there are
hundreds of other religious groups out there that would like to be part
of the rotation."
True enough. So where do you draw the line?
Well, you draw the line according to your own constituency. If you don't
have a resident Hindu, for instance - or if you do and he's just fine
with the status quo - then praise the Lord however you like.
But if he would like his faith represented in a respectful way, a
representative government should oblige, within reason.
County boards or city councils each have their own traditions. Not all
have a rotation. In Isle of Wight, for instance, supervisors take turns,
board member Richard MacManus said. The gist of what they pray for, he
adds, is "wisdom and guidance during the meeting."
Heck, even an atheist could manage that.
Local invocations also are delivered by city council members, staff or
representatives from the religious community. So far as I know, none has
been Wiccan.
What likely trips people up about Wicca is the lingering stigma that
practitioners are into witchcraft or Satan. "It's not devil-worship. We
don't even have a concept of the devil," LaTronica says.
Wicca, recognized even by the U.S. government, is based on a respect for
earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons. It focuses on the feminine
aspects of the divinity, a concept that even intrigues many Christians.
"Look at this wildly popular 'Da Vinci Code,' " LaTronica says of the
national best-seller. "It's just another mother goddess. We have much
more in common than they think."
LaTronica says she still has hate mail from her own court battle several
years ago - aided also by the ACLU - to obtain a minister's license that
enables her to marry people.
She still recalls Howard Stern yukking about her case: "Why don't they
just throw water on her?" Now a supervisor in Chesterfield County jokes
that he hopes Simpson is a "good witch, like Glenda."
Frankly, if anyone has the right to be religiously offended here, it's
pagans. Christians have piggybacked on their traditions for 2,000 years.
Take Christmas: Biblical evidence is that Jesus was born in the spring
(remember all those lambs running around?) But early Christians found
they got more traction among pagans - and less flak from persecuting
Romans - by rescheduling the celebration around the winter solstice,
which pagans celebrated as the sun's rebirth out of the goddess. The
Yule log, candles, mistletoe, holly? All pagan.
Then there's Halloween. Before Jesus was even a gleam in God's eye,
Celtic druids were celebrating Samhain, the night when pagans believed
that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In the seventh century, a
pope sought to replace the pagan festival with a church-sanctioned one
and declared Nov. 1 All Saints Day, or All-hallowmas, to honor Christian
saints and martyrs. Samhain became All-hallow's Eve.
And at Eastertime, those eggs and rabbits are obvious signs of
fertility. Majorly pagan.
Finally, for more evidence of the pagan in our modern lives, here's a
very short list of words we use every day that happen to be named for
pagan gods, goddesses or symbols. I'll let you figure them out, and you
will:
Moon Day
Tiu's Day
Woden's Day
Thor's Day
Frigga's Day
Saturn's Day
Sun Day
And none of us is the worse for it.
---
http://www.dailypress.com/dp-66507cm0aug13,0,6825325.column?track=mostema
iledlink
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
.
|
|
| User: "Walter Bushell" |
|
| Title: Re: Wiccan prayer POs County Board - again. |
14 Aug 2005 11:17:52 AM |
|
|
In article <jhachm-E5BF10.00181114082005@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachm@ixpres.com> wrote:
<snip
Why? Because it would be offered by a Wiccan. LaTronica is Wiccan, just
like Cynthia Simpson of Chesterfield County. Simpson is the woman who
was denied the right to deliver the invocation before one of her local
county board meetings. She was told the prayer must be made to a
divinity within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
<snip>
Which does not exist. The raising of a person to the level of G-d is as
offensive to Judaism as it is to Islam. There is some debate among Jews
as to whether Islam can be considered idolatrous.
--
Guns don't kill people; automobiles kill people.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Uncle Buck" |
|
| Title: Re: Wiccan prayer POs County Board - again. |
14 Aug 2005 02:46:33 PM |
|
|
<piggybacking>
In article <jhachm-E5BF10.00181114082005@news.giganews.com>,
johac <jhachm@ixpres.com> wrote:
Why? Because it would be offered by a Wiccan. LaTronica is Wiccan, just
like Cynthia Simpson of Chesterfield County. Simpson is the woman who
was denied the right to deliver the invocation before one of her local
county board meetings. She was told the prayer must be made to a
divinity within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
To "a divinity"? Well, why doesn't she just say a prayer, then, to
"The Great Horned One"? :-? They certainly wouldn't be able to use
that excuse on her _then_, right? ;-)
--
L8r,
Uncle Buck
_o-O=~_o-O=~_o-O=~_o-O=~_o-O=~_o-O=~_o-O=
http://surrenderingtothefall.blogspot.com
~=O-o_~=O-o_~=O-o_~=O-o_~=O-o_~=O-o_~=O-o
"I absolutely detest it when people quote
themselves." - Me
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Michael Gray" |
|
| Title: Re: Wiccan prayer POs County Board - again. |
14 Aug 2005 03:05:59 AM |
|
|
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:18:11 -0700, johac <jhachm@ixpres.com> wrote:
:
On the other hand, he said, "From the board's point of view, there are
hundreds of other religious groups out there that would like to be part
of the rotation."
True enough. So where do you draw the line?
:
I bet they haven't even thought of the obvious solution:
No prayers at all.
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "Uncle Vic" |
|
| Title: Re: Wiccan prayer POs County Board - again. |
14 Aug 2005 12:45:38 PM |
|
|
on 14 Aug 2005 in alt.atheism, dear sweet johac (jhachm@ixpres.com) made
the light shine upon us with this:
Why? Because it would be offered by a Wiccan. LaTronica is Wiccan, just
like Cynthia Simpson of Chesterfield County. Simpson is the woman who
was denied the right to deliver the invocation before one of her local
county board meetings. She was told the prayer must be made to a
divinity within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
IOW
"You cannot begin a session with mind delusions. You must begin them with
*our* mind delusions."
--
Uncle Vic
aa#2011
Supervisor, EAC Department of little adhesive-backed "L" shaped
chrome-plastic doo-dads to add feet to Jesus fish department
http://home.comcast.net/~vickman/
______________
'03 XVS650A
'04 XVS1100
.
|
|
|
| User: "johac" |
|
| Title: Re: Wiccan prayer POs County Board - again. |
14 Aug 2005 06:33:35 PM |
|
|
In article <Xns96B26DA2253AEvicman@127.0.0.1>,
Uncle Vic <address@withheld.com> wrote:
on 14 Aug 2005 in alt.atheism, dear sweet johac (jhachm@ixpres.com) made
the light shine upon us with this:
Why? Because it would be offered by a Wiccan. LaTronica is Wiccan, just
like Cynthia Simpson of Chesterfield County. Simpson is the woman who
was denied the right to deliver the invocation before one of her local
county board meetings. She was told the prayer must be made to a
divinity within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
IOW
"You cannot begin a session with mind delusions. You must begin them with
*our* mind delusions."
They should publish a disclaimer before each meeting stating which
superstitions and mythological characters will be permitted to be
officially honored.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
