Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nadaka]

http://news.yahoo.com/relatives-accused-killing-teen-thought-witch-080508832--abc-news.html

The fuck.

[RedKing]

Yeah, I saw that too. Then I saw they were sub-Saharan immigrants to the UK and it was..."oh. Yeah, that's still a problem down there." (killing people on suspicion of witchcraft, not witchcraft itself)

[ChairmanPoo]

I find the racist comments there even more deppressing. Apparently the biggest factor here isnt that a kid was murdered on charges of sorcery, but that the event polluted their mewsfeeds.

Besides, it's not like subsaharian immigrants are the only ones who hold ridiculous beliefs. Consider the deaths that have taken place through "partial unbirthing". Consider the casualties of the "vaccines are evil" movement, or of the "aids is not caused by vih" one, or by any of the faith healing cults, like scientologists, or christian science. There's plenty of homegrown murderous traditions to go around, so no sense in criminalizing all  immigrants because of the deeds of a particularily stupid couple

[Leafsnail]

I'm not sure about "stupid", really.  Having very sincerely held yet dangerous beliefs doesn't automatically mean you're an idiot, and I think doing so to some extent dismisses the serious problems that some countries still have with witch trials.

[Nadaka]

Should I point out the "witch" trials in the modern US?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Echols

Among many.

[DJ]

(Because of course woman cannot rape...)

You can't rape the willing.

[RedKing]

In that particular case, I'd say it's more of a case of "small-town cops being corrupt and/or incompetent" rather than religious persecution. Just like the 1980's slew of "Satanic daycare" scandals was mostly public hysteria rather than some deep-rooted superstition problem.

Actually a more prominent case would be the public reaction to Christine O'Donnell's Wiccan past when she was running for office. Mostly ridicule and the loss of Republican votes. I would say that in a fair chunk of the US today, being a Wiccan is no big deal. There are definitely spots in the South where I wouldn't go making a big deal of it, but I'd be shocked to see outright murders like these, especially of children.

[kaijyuu]

(Because of course woman cannot rape...)

You can't rape the willing.

Can't tell if you're seriously implying all men are always willing.

[DJ]

Sarcasm tags aren't working

[kaijyuu]

Hence the can't tell rather than flat accusations~

Silly text based internet.

[GlyphGryph]

sarcasm?

Or sarcarsm, perhaps

I think green drop shadow looks the best.

[Nadaka]

When I was in community college about 13 years ago, a girl I was dating was bullied, received death threats, was beaten and eventually kicked out of her high school by the administration because she was a satanist. I also have pagan family, and radical fundamentalist family, this could easilly happen to people I care about. So yes this shit hits close to home for me.

[RedKing]

Admittedly, there's probably less tolerance for Satanists than for other "New Age" religions. I sympathize...I have quite a few pagan friends, and there's probably a fair swath of people in the country that would consider me pagan (although that's pagan with a small p).

I guess it's the fact that the various Wiccan/Neopagan/Thelemite/druidic friends that I have don't really have problems in their daily life, that colors my perception of the severity of the problem. I mean, my biggest problem is the lack of proper place of worship and/or critical mass of like-minded people to get together with (damn you, California/Hawaii! *shakes fist*)

But at the same time, I keep my head down. I don't have anything that outwardly identifies my religion beyond a bagua on the front door, which most people probably just think is decoration. And in extended family gatherings and such, the topic just doesn't come up. And of course, when you're having dinner at somebody's house or at our kids' daycare (which is run by a Methodist church) and somebody says grace, I bow my head and say Amen.

It's called "reed bending in the wind doesn't get broken".

[Nadaka]

The pagans in my family occasionally worship at Universal Unitarian churches when they don't do their thing at home.

[Leafsnail]

I'm not sure if you're still talking about it, but the witch killing in the UK had nothing to do with persecution of religious groups calling themselves witches and was rather to do with the still prevalent view in some parts of the world that children can be evil magic users.  It's not that you can't discuss it, it's just that I'd be careful not to draw an equivalence between them.