Stumble it!Damned Witches!
posted in Politics, Religion by themaiden |Ah, yes. Religious freedom…
… guess fighting for it doesn’t mean you have to enforce it too– at least, not until recently.
But, for nearly a decade, the department had refused to act on requests for the pentacle, without a clear reason. VA spokesman Matt Burns said that approximately 10 applications were pending from adherents of Wicca, a blend of witchcraft and nature worship that is one of the country’s fastest-growing religions.
Here is where I get to shock some people. I’m happy to see that things have changed– nominally, anyway.
Facing lawsuits by veterans and their families, the Bush administration relented yesterday and agreed to allow the Wiccan pentacle — a five-pointed star inside a circle — on tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery and other U.S. military burial grounds.
Don’t get me wrong. I happen to think that Wicca is absurd as any other faith one might name– not withstanding that I do think polytheism has something going for it that monotheism doesn’t, but that is another story that has yet to be told. Wicca– and I’ve more background in it than most people expect– strikes me as repackaged Christianity. It, like the whole of the New Age revolution, is Christianity for people who want to dress funny, play at have spookie powers, and… well… not admit that they are Christians deep down. And to rub salt in the wound, it ain’t no ancient religion. It was concocted by Gerald Gardner in the ’50s, not that such a thing is in itself a bad thing. And finally, the Rede is a pitifully eviscerated bastardization of Crowley’s “Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law”. “An it harm no one…” my shiny metal ass.
The point…
Unlike many of the faithful on the right who whine about religious freedom, I actually do support religious freedom. When I say that I support religious freedom I do not mean that “I support everyone’s right to follow my religion.” What I mean is that however stupid I think your faith is– and by implication, however stupid I think you are– I do support your right to practice it so long as it doesn’t involve, for example, making candles out of baby fat or otherwise injuring non-consenting people. I am quite happy to be tolerant, but that doesn’t mean I have to keep my mouth shut.
Popularity: 1%
