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In a video on MSN, an "expert" identifies the Valknut as "a symbol used by white supremacists" which AOC then repeats. The symbol is hard to see in the video but it is verbally identified as a Valknut. The video does not say anything about the man with the Valknut, it says the symbol itself is a white supremacist symbol.  

video link here: 

In 2015, Kim Davis, in her capacity as county clerk, denied two male couples marriage licenses to which they were legally entitled. They sued. That case is now working its way up the legal ladder and will no doubt finally end up in the laps of the partisan hacks of the Supreme Court.

Apparently, Davis, a self-described “Christian”, claims the right to deny rights to others based on her own religious convictions.

According to MSNBC, her case has “profound First Amendment implications.” But does it?

If Kim Davis has religious objections to so-called interracial marriage—and it's not so long since lots of people like Davis did—does she have the right to deny a marriage license to an interracial couple?

Do her arguments have any legal merit? Is there a Constitutional right to deny Constitutional rights? Does religious law overrule secular law?

In fact, Davis and her case have no implications for free exercise whatsoever. If her fundamentalist Christian beliefs mean that she cannot in good conscience issue a marriage license to a couple who are legally entitled to marry, then she cannot hold the position of county clerk because she is not qualified to hold the position. A Mormon or Muslim cannot be a bartender if his religious principles prohibit him from serving alcohol to others. If you can't do the job, you don't get the job.

To the pagan eye, the main difference between our religions and the Abraham ones isn't the difference between One or Many.

It's the difference between Slave and Free.

With the spread of the Slave Religions across the world, loss of spiritual freedom has invariably gone hand in hand with loss of political freedom: spiritual imperialism with political imperialism. Pagan peoples everywhere have fought to preserve our political, cultural, and intellectual freedom. Sometimes we've won, most often we've lost, but in our hearts, even when shackled, we have never submitted, and we never will.

Unlike some, the pagan gods don't want slaves, and they don't want eternal children. They expect us to grow up, to stand on our own two feet, and to do for ourselves. If you raise your children to be dependent on you, you've failed as a parent.

We, the Pagans, have been here since the beginning; we've never gone away, and we never will. We dare to dream of a day when the Slavers and their ways will vanish from the Earth, when once again we will all live as our gods want us to live: as Free peoples, everywhere.

We are the Pagans, but “pagan” is a name from without. What do we call ourselves from within?

Since I founded the Pagan Educational Network in 1993, I have kept a close eye on the religious right (or “evangelicals”). I thought it was pointless to reach out to them since they had such strong prejudices and felt we’d have much better luck with moderates (which was true). But the religious right is dangerous to Pagans, from efforts by Senator Jesse Helms and Representative Bob Barr to strip us of constitutional protections to church-motivated violence against Pagans and damage to Pagan businesses.

They call us pagans, but we know who we are.

We are the Free Peoples of the Earth.

We are the free peoples, our gods the gods of the free.

Free is our goddess. Being her people, we bear her name.

Let the shackled call us what they will. In the end, they are slaves.

Pagans, better than anyone else, understand the power of symbols.

And statues in particular.

It's bad enough that, as you read this, the body of “evangelist” Billy Graham lies in state in the US Capitol rotunda.

Now there's a plan to memorialize him there permanently with a statue.

Graham never held public office. He simply does not deserve to be memorialized in a building dedicated to the preservation of a wall of separation between church and state.

That his body was exhibited at the US Capitol was a slap in the face of every non-Christian in America.

For his statue to stand there would be a knife in every non-Christian heart in the country.

We remember the important Muslim women who contributed to American society. A Confucian center opens in Houston. And religious rights activists look with concern towards the next year. It's Faithful Friday, our news segment about faiths and religious communities. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!