US Air Force Academy spends $80,000 to accommodate pagan worship? Oh you KNOW this is going to make heads explode over at Fox News!

Courtesy of the LA Times:

In the still of a cold November evening, a small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the coming winter solstice. But these are not just any pagans, and this is not just any setting. They are future officers of the United States Air Force practicing their faith in the basement of the Air Force Academy's cadet chapel. 

Their ranks are slim. According to the academy's enrollment records, only three of 4,300 cadets identified themselves as pagans, followers of an ancient religion that generally does not worship a single god and considers all things in nature interconnected. 

Still, the academy this year dedicated an $80,000 outdoor worship center — a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders with propane fire pit — high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of "Earth-based." Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths.

In my opinion this is long overdue. Working to make cadets who have differing belief system than those that are, shall we say, more  accepted in this country, can really only make for a stronger, military force.

You know just to give a historical perspective, it should be noted that pagans were NEVER associated with evil, or the devil.  That was the sole creation of early Christians who wanted to undermine the healers, witchdoctors, shamans, and even mid-wives who they identified as posing a threat to the acceptance of their religion, and kept people from placing ALL of their faith in the Christian God, and his earthly representatives. (You can read more about that here.)

There was nothing new about what the early Christians did on behalf of their faith. That same scorched earth philosophy of dealing with religious competition was widely accepted in those times.

So it is nice to see that those old superstitions and fears can no be put to rest and that these once widely accepted belief systems can finally be practiced openly without fear of ridicule or retribution. 

Of course I say that knowing full well that for some there will simply NEVER be acceptance, and that they will cling to their superstitions and hate until their last days on this earth. One can only hope that their children will have a more open and accepting heart.

It is not okay to laugh at this. (But we both know that you will.)

Now before any of you Wiccans start getting all worked up for no good reason, let me say that in this context we are talking about mean evil, movie witches. Not nurturing, free spirited practitioners of Wicca.

By the way I dated a Wiccan once and she was delightful.

And she only turned me into a frog once. (Just kidding!)

I have to imagine that if Sarah Palin were a witch she would look much like this.

(You know when she takes off her glasses it really DOES change her looks!)

Report claims that women are being led to witchcraft by "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer".

The report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives.

It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books.

The study comes amid ongoing controversy over the role of women in all Christian denominations. Last month its governing body voted to allow women to become bishops for the first time, having admitted them to the priesthood in 1994, but traditionalist bishops have warned that hundreds of clergy and parishes will leave if the move goes ahead as planned.

The report's author, Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby, said: "In short, women are abandoning the church.

"Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Aww look at how cute Willow is in that picture. How could she be blamed for corrupting anybody?

You know every time anybody threatens to open the minds of Christians about other religions or philosophical beliefs they go on the attack and try to make them the villain. Well in my mind the villain is any organization that denies its followers the opportunity to learn about opposing points of view or the freedom in choosing their own religion.

By the way, and this is just between us, I LOVE Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I am a died in the wool geek when it comes to the show, and it is still the ONLY television series that I own on DVD. Yep all seven seasons worth. But if you tell anybody I will totally deny it.

You know when I talk about religious persecution I am not talking about Christianity.

Wiccans worship the divine in nature. Some practice it privately in their homes, and others worship with large congregations. Most people do not grow up Wiccan but come to it from another religion.

“It’s a very open religion,” said Helen A. Berger, a sociology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. “Each person can do what they want, and they don’t have to belong to a group. They take things from a number of different sources, like Eastern religions, Celtic practices. You are the ultimate authority of your own experience.”

But its symbols and practices elicit suspicion from outsiders, Wiccans and religion scholars say.

Many Wiccans practice some form of magic or witchcraft, which they say is a way of affecting one’s destiny, but which many outsiders see as evil. The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star inside a circle, is often confused with symbols of Satanism. (The five points of the star represent the elements of nature — earth, air, fire and water — and the spirit, within the eternal circle of life.)

Christianity is really to blame for the horrible connotations associated with Wicca and other pagan religions. The extremely aggressive campaign waged by this upstart religion in its infancy against the other established belief systems, which grew even more fierce as Christianity grew, is the very definition of "religious intolerance".

Christian missionaries went into countries with indigenous people who worshipped a different God or perhaps some form of animism or spirituality, and essentially told them they were worshipping the devil and were going to be punished for it. The devil is not a Wiccan concept. It is a Christian symbol used to label and denigrate the beliefs of other religions.

When Christians argue for religious tolerance you can bet your ass they are thinking only of their own belief system and would not lose a second of sleep over the religious persecution of an alternate religious belief.

In the secular world we call that hypocrisy.