News Briefs
TITLE:A Necessary Apocalypse
LINK:http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/02/a_necessary_apocalypse.html
EXCERPT:When religious belief is subverted, it does not, as Chesterton implied, simply vanish. It is almost immediately replaced by another set of beliefs on a similar level of abstraction and serving the same purpose. Sometimes it's an import, such as Buddhism or TM. Sometimes it's a creed deliberately created to serve a political agenda, as we see in Nazism and Communism. Sometimes it's the goofy SoCal syncretism currently expressed in Wicca and Neopaganism. ("If people seriously want to be pagans," the late Joe Myers, a Christian brother of my acquaintance once said. "They'd become Roman Catholics.") And sometimes they're a combination, a weird melange of ideas picked up from various sources that (and usually not coincidentally) also serve a political purpose. Which brings us to environmentalism.
Comment: What a moron. Since he basically says those who disagree with him are morons, I'm willing to risk it to point out his obvious flaws.
TITLE:Groundhog Day shouldn't be just another silly custom
LINK:http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/columnists/bogert/articles/5521151.html
EXCERPT:The silliness was codified on Feb. 2, 1886, when Clymer Freas, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit, wrote, "Today is Groundhog Day and up to the time of going to press the beast has not seen its shadow." The same dweeb also named the beast, "Phil, seer of seers, sage of sages, prognosticator of prognosticators," and so on until you want to either attend a chamber breakfast or blow your brains out.
TITLE: Ye gods
LINK:http://www.bitsofnews.com/component/option,com_diary/op,view/id,4812/Itemid,42/
EXCERPT:The need to believe seems hard wired into most of us. And it is a need that political ideologies and other secular belief systems are ill equipped to fulfil. So it should come as no surprise that, as the Christian churches have lost their monopoly on faith in the Western world, even the old pagan gods are staging a comeback.
TITLE:Halloween Costumes Promote Witchcraft According to ChristiaNet Poll
LINK:http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?storyid=12597&ret=news.aspx&cat=Business
EXCERPT:ChristiaNet.com (http://www.christianet.com), the world's largest Christian portal with twelve million monthly page loads, gave readers an opportunity to take part in a poll answering the question, "Should Christians participate in Halloween?" An overwhelming majority of 181 out of 266 felt that it wasn't appropriate for God's children to take part in a holiday that is Pagan. The overall consensus is that it is a holiday that encourages evil behavior. One participant made a very good point by commenting, "Although it has its origins in the Catholic Church it has resulted in a corruption of what initially was a Catholic day of observance in honor of the saints."
Comment: Look! War on Halloween. In related news, Christians lower the standard for overwhelming support to 68%, and the standard for "support" to 30, to make it seem like most Americans support the President, I assume.
Older news items below:
TITLE: Unconditional Love: God Doesn't Buy It
LINK:http://www.americandaily.com/article/17458
EXCERPT:
Christ spoke pointedly to the wayward souls of his own religion. He did not show them unconditional love. He was blunt. He warned them that by their writing their own religion apart from Scripture, they were children of the devil, they were whitewashed tombstones, they were cups with clean exteriors but dirty insides.
Comment: Very often I see Wiccans saying of Christians the same thing this Christian is saying of Christians. Not sure why we're involved at all, but there you go.
TITLE: Tricked or a real treat?
LINK: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/Columnists/BarryRonge/Article.aspx?id=311366
EXCERPT:Why on Earth has South Africa bought into the whole Halloween thing, when what we should be doing is celebrating summer and jacaranda blooms?
TITLE:Seasons of Love: History.com Delivers Interactive Resource on the History of Valentine's Day
LINK:http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-30-2007/0004515751&EDATE=
EXCERPT:Each February, candy, flowers and
gifts are exchanged, while individuals send notes with expressions of love.
All of these activities take place in the name of the somewhat elusive
"Valentine." But, who is Valentine?
TITLE:Gaia’s Rising Covenant to hold ritual
LINK:http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16556315.htm
EXCERPT:Gaia’s Rising Covenant, a Columbia group that practices paganism, a nature-centered spirituality, will hold a public ceremony to observe Imbolc, or Caldemas, at 7 p.m. Friday.
TITLE:W is for Wicca
LINK:http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/jan/26/w-wicca/
EXCERPT:This is the 23rd week of the ABCs of faith. Wiccans believe that everything in nature is sacred and humans are a part of nature, rather than its rulers. Also known as witchcraft or the “Old Religion,” Wicca dates back to Paleolithic times, but today’s version is more part of the new pagan movement. It connects humans to their environment and tries to find the feminine face of the divine.
TITLE:The crone
LINK:http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A43155
EXCERPT: When I was home for the holidays, my mother's Wiccan friend Rebecca asked me to write something for my mother's croning ceremony, celebrating the accumulated wisdom of her six decades as a woman. The first thing that came to mind was the little note mom always put in the school lunches she packed for me. Sometimes she'd draw silly pictures meant to make me smile; other times she'd write sweet poems to make me feel special; at least once she used the letters of my name to spell out my good qualities. As I think about those notes now, I realize they were like little love letters.
TITLE:Former Witch and Christian Author Featured on The Tyra Banks Show
LINK:http://www.wdcmedia.com/newsArticle.php?ID=2691
EXCERPT:“When I was in high school, I was a practicing witch. It wasn’t until college that I became a Christian and came out of that dark world.” Sumpolec said. “The Tyra producers thought my story of coming out of witchcraft, how it lead me to attempt suicide, and my current beliefs about it, was the right balance for their program.” That put Sarah on a plane that night and in L.A. for the taping the next day.
Comment: You, too, can leave Witchcraft, be a nut job and make money. You'll still be the same nutjob you were before being a witch, but you'll have money!