Pope Francis has continued to encourage my pope-crush today as he chided Vatican bureaucracy of a catalog of illnesses, including Feeling immortal or essential; lacking self-criticism Susceptibility to worldly profit Rivalry and vainglory Mental and spiritual petrification Disease of over-planning Spiritual Alzheimer’s Existential schizophrenia Gossip and chatter Deifying the leaders;Continue Reading
On October 28, 2014, Time magazine published Jennifer Latson’s “Why Witches on TV Spell Trouble in Real Life,” a look at why the witch has become so commonplace in pop culture, as well as the long-standing morality lesson taught by studies of the historical witch-trials, which gave us the phraseContinue Reading
This product offends me. Not because I think Ouija boards can accidentally (or deliberately!) summon demons. If we could accidentally summon supernatural beings they’d be everywhere. Moreover, of all the things that might accidentally bring forth the powers of darkness, a mass-produced printed piece of cardboard seems pretty far downContinue Reading
A few days ago, the following comment showed up on my being-retooled Wicca site: One thing I find very interesting to observe about your postings is that you’re very much a defender of Christianity. And I’m uncertain why that religion gets so much face-time on a site dedicated to Wicca.Continue Reading
This article was originally written for my Wicca website, currently undergoing updates. To my knowledge, there is a single book and website written by a Christian Wiccan. That website has changed multiple times, rendering my original footnotes useless. As of May 25, 2014, the website’s domain is expired, leaving nothingContinue Reading
I cross paths with fair amount of people very angry and jaded about religion, not merely non-religious but actively hostile toward it. One of the very common arguments is if we’d get rid of religion we’d get rid of excuses to go to war. I’m calling anthropological bullshit. War isContinue Reading
Studying both history and religion, I cross paths with a fair number of people angry and jaded about both specific religions and religion in general, and they support their position with history. Rather than simply being non-religious, these individuals are actively against it, calling it manipulative, fraudulent, and/or violent. SometimesContinue Reading
People are passing the following meme around thinking that it is arguing for the legalization of same-sex marriages. It’s not, although I’m confident Rev. Joe Hoffman would also like that to happen. The law in question, part of Amendment One, makes it a crime to perform a marriage ceremony forContinue Reading
Back when I worked for About.com, I made a blog post debunking some of the common myths about Easter’s connection with pagan beliefs. It gained, by far, the most comments of any post, and every year the post must show up in search engines, because I always got a newContinue Reading
This explains an awful lot about certain members of deeply conservative religious right who tout such winning ideas as: Creation science Women not being able to get pregnant by legitimate rape (Rep. Todd Akin) Windmills using up non-renewable wind resources (Rep. Joe Barton) Carbon dioxide not being a harmful substanceContinue Reading