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December 08, 2006

School Invitation to Pagan Celebration Causes Uproar

If you want a good example of the ridiculous hype in the right wing community about the supposed "War on Christmas," you need look no further than the uproar over a flier that was distributed in a Virginia public school inviting children to an event that would explain the various other traditional celebrations occurring this season. Because the event will, in addition to Christmas and Hanukkah, also look at Yule, Christians are claiming the flier's distribution in a public school is an effort to promote Satanism.

The flier reads:

Happy Holidays? Have you ever wondered what "Holidays" refers to? Everyone knows about Christmas – But what else are people celebrating in December? Why do we celebrate the way we do?

Find out!

Come to Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church
717 Rugby Road, Charlottesville
On December 9th, 2006
From 1-3 pm

We'll have an educational program for children of all ages
(and their adults), where we'll explore the
traditions of December and their origins,
followed by a Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule.

The flier is decorated with three symbols: a cross, a Star of David and a pentagram.

The most obvious thing here is the persistence of misunderstanding about Wicca or paganism. It is not Satan worship. It is not witchcraft in the sense of evil witches casting spells and giving little girls poisoned apples. It really is more of a worship of nature and a philosophy of living in harmony with nature.

The misunderstanding is not surprising; in the Bible, God repeatedly destroys pagans, so Bible-believers unequivocally reject paganism as utterly contrary to all that is good. WorldNet Daily is even running a poll about this incident that it calls "Sympathy for the Devil." But this is a free country, and pagans have every bit as much of a right to participate in the public square as anyone else – a right that is particularly important to them when facing such irrational and incorrect prejudice. Which brings me to my main point.

Christians are, on the one hand, complaining that they are barred from exercising their religion in the classroom or in any other official capacity at schools. On the other hand, they are complaining quite loudly because members of a different religion simply passed out a flier to students inviting them to a program to be held on private property and not during school time where they could learn about other seasonal celebrations – a flier that explicitly stated the event was not endorsed by the school. Bear in mind that the Court requires schools to be non-discriminatory in allowing the public to pass out fliers to students. They can either allow them all or ban them all. Banning pagan fliers will mean Christian fliers are banned as well, not to mention the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, youth sports groups, and everyone else.

How Christians can insulate their children from reality to this degree and still believe they will be able to function in the real world is beyond me. If a family has a problem with Wicca, it seems to me that receiving a flier like this would provide a perfect opportunity for them to sit down with their children and explain their views of Wicca and paganism. I would add that it might be a good time for them to explain how some of the Yule traditions worked their way into Christian celebrations of Christmas. Maybe, if they weren't too terribly afraid of reality, they could take a look at some of the other pagan and ancient mystical religious influences on the development of their own faith. If their children are curious like I am, they'll find out eventually anyway. In fact, Christmas itself is so full of pagan rituals that during colonial times, Christians in New England actually outlawed it.

How ironic that those whose traditions actually formed the basis of modern Christmas celebrations are being told by Christians that they should not be allowed to share their traditions with the community, and that by doing so they are the ones waging a war on Christmas! I am beginning to see as this "war" rages on that in truth it is Christians who want to throw out Santa, the Yule log, the Christmas tree, the menorah, and even those delicious potato latkes, and instead force America to focus solely on the "reason for the season" - the birth of Christ - and nothing else. Nobody else is waging a war on all that fun and tradition, and I don't think many of us really want to lose any of it.

Posted by Becky at December 8, 2006 11:07 AM