The sad events on Orlando where at least 50 people were slaughtered by a person impelled by murderous hatred at least reinforced by religious zeal will be used by many people, especially on the political right, as more evidence that Muslim Americans cannot be trusted to be peaceable citizens. Unmentioned by these same people will be the similar, if smaller scale, killings in Colorado Springs last November by a Christian who said his deeds were in service to his God.
The fallout from the Paris attacks from last week continues. Japan and the United States seek to resolve a longstanding dispute about military bases in Okinawa. And actress Emma Watson bonds with Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai. It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment about political and societal news from around the globe! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Is it okay for white Americans to practice the Day of the Dead? What impact could the TPP have on Japan's position in the globe? And how can we best oppose religious violence? It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly take on social and political issues from around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
A version of this appeared a day ago in Patheos. I think the points I am making are important enough to put this both places.
Violence in the name of a monotheistic religion has again captured the world’s attention. This time it was committed in Islam’s name. In response many columnists and politicians who should know better claim something supposedly unique to Islam is responsible. This malign misdiagnosis gets two central points utterly wrong. First, there are over one billion Muslims in the world, and the great majority are not violent. Second, while there has been considerable violence by some Muslims in the name of their religion, the majority of their victims have been other Muslims. In this respect Islam is not unusual. Historically a great many victims of monotheistic violence have been those most other people would regard as practicing the same religion. For mostly historical reasons, most religious violence today is by those claiming to be Muslims. But Islam has no monopoly here. Christianity has spilled plenty of blood in its past. The end of its worst violence did not come as a result of any advances in Christian morality or spiritual understanding. Relative peace arose from mutual exhaustion, when the various factions realized they could never kill all the other side. True religious tolerance considered as a matter of principle had to wait the coming of the Enlightenment, the rise of deism, and the triumph of the American Revolution. Deism is not monotheism, which is why so many Christian leaders of that time called them atheists.
Today's Faithful Friday post includes stories on witchcraft and witchhunting, religious violence (is it inevitable?), and an examination of eco-feminism from a Pagan point-of-view.
Witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries has been one of the most popular topics with historians and the reading public for almost half a century. Here's a review of a new book on the witchhunting mania in England at the time of James I.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...