Burning Times On-line Evidence of Persecution

Public Pagan File 3

In the Broom Closet	His-tory is Written by the Winners
Security Guard nearly Losses Job	'Buyers Guide' Censors Pagan events

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Pagan Girl "In the Broom Closet" By Ann F. Fronzuto Bakersfield, CA Age: 19

After many years of study of Paganism, and after finally moving out on my own, I converted to Wicca. I was among many other Pagan people in the college town that I lived in and was a member of the Alachua Pagan Alliance. I had never really felt a connection to the Christian "God" and I felt that the Goddess was a friend and sister and an understanding mother. My own mother has yet to know of this and is a fanatical Christian. Unfortunately about eight months after I changed my faith I experienced some financial problems which forced me to move back in with my mother. Now I am a 'closet' Pagan, and cannot practice my faith in the open. I have tried to explain Paganism to my mother (in hopes that she might be more understanding towards it) but all she does is quote the bible at me and say that anything that isn't for her Christian 'God' is evil. I go to church with her every Sunday and Wednesday night whilst my Pagan reference books are hidden in my room. I try to stay in contact with Pagan people through chat rooms but when the topic turns to what they are going to do for a particular holiday or some sort of Festival that they are going to, I am reminded of my seclusion and my inability to 'enjoy' my faith. I have tried to find a Pagan association or group here in Bakersfield but haven't even found an Occult bookstore. My wish is that my mother would be more understanding to my faith so that I could share it with her and not have to hide any longer.

Burning Times Index…..…PAGAN FILES.

Public Newspaper Censors Pagan events by Rynne M. Cowham.

I am 32 years old, and My husband is 28. We are Thelemites and head the Living Flame Camp of the Ordo Templi Orientis here in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Last spring we got the idea to host a series of free and open-to-the-public seminars on diverse magical topics -- anything from herbs to Golden Dawn ritual symbolism. We had a room reserved at the public library one Saturday per month, and an agenda of interesting and knowledgeable speakers -- but not many people were coming. We figured we needed to advertise better -- do something more than just post at the local esoteric book store or flood Shepherd College with pamphlets.

There is a local weekly free paper called the "Buyer's Guide". Each week it publishes oodles of "flea-market" style "for sale" ads, but it also has a real estate sale/rent section and a separate "community events" calendar. There are quite a lot of those little "for sale" ads, and the fact is, anyone wanting to know what's going on in the community isn't going to read through the whole thing. They're going to go straight for the Community Events calendar.

Now as far as I could tell, the Daystar Hermetic Collegial seminars were community events. No fees were charged, the seminars were held at the public library, and open to the general public. I composed a tasteful advertisement referring to the subject matter as "discussions on topics of magical and esoteric interest" and took it to the B.G. office to publish it in the Community Events Calendar. I figured those ads would probably cost more than the "family reader ads" (the for sales), but I was ready to pay -- and as far as I knew, My money was as green as anyone else's.

I handed the ad to the woman behind the counter and inquired what the fee would be to run it for two or three weeks. To my surprise, however, she began vigorously shaking her head and saying, "Oh, no, no, no, we can't publish this." I asked, "why not?", and before I even got an answer, a co-worker of hers came up behind her and asked, "what? what is it?" In an extremely smarmy and derogatory tone, she replied (to the co-worker, not to me): "It's witchcraft". She said the word "witchcraft" as if it were a disease, or as if she were saying child pornography or something.

I confronted her on the spot, saying that it was NOT witchcraft (and strictly speaking, it wasn't), that it was an event, that it was taking place in the community, and that My money was as good as anyone else's, and what was the big deal? Whereupon she frantically called for the head honcho, some guy named Tom. He began asking Me whether or not we were a non-profit organization, tax-exempt, etc. I told him we weren't an "organization" at all, at least, not in business terms. I reiterated that the event was free to the public, and that no moneys or fees would be exchanging hands, nothing would be sold there, etc. I asked this guy, "are you trying to tell me the only way I can post an ad in the community event section is if I don't make a profit on it? Because no one is making any money here." I also pointed out that churches, even though they are "non-profit" orgs, hold their fund-raisers and ham suppers, et al., from which they reap a rich monetary profit for their own purposes, yet no one questions THEIR right to publish events in the Calendar.

The long & the short of it is that we got nowhere on this thing. The local cable co. gave us the same run-around. The gist of it is that these people justify it all by saying, for example, "Well, this is a privately owned newspaper -- " that guy Tom said, "I am the editor and I decide whether something gets published or not; I have a responsibility to the owners of the publication and to the community" - etc. I would have been glad to fight it, but I can't afford a lawyer, frankly -- and since there were no "damages" in terms of loss of employment or loss of moneys, it isn't the sort of case an attorney would bother with.

By Shedona Rynne M. Cowham - Soror Meno E.P.B.E.S., Camp Master - Living Flame Camp, O.T.O.

Burning Times Index…..…PAGAN FILES.

Security Guard nearly Looses Job by Mia Soderquist (wife)

"At this time last year, my husband was working as a security guard, with, and under the supervision of, the senior security guard, who also happened to be a born-again Christian. One night, my husband brought a book about Wicca to read while he sat there in the little guard shack all night. His supervisor told him that he could not bring those books to work with him, even those this man had Bibles and Christian reading materials stored there in the guard shack. He started leaving anti-Pagan articles on the desk for my husband. And then he filled out my husband's 90-day evaluation after only 60 days, and the score my husband received was 1 point short of what was required to stay employed there. My husband went above his supervisor's head to his immediate boss, and explained that if he was not yet due for a 90-day evaluation and continued to be harassed by this man, we'd have to file a lawsuit because we have civil rights too. And that was the end of THAT little problem."

Burning Times Index…..…PAGAN FILES.

His-tory is Written by the Winners

"I'm a sophomore in high school in a small white-bred town in northern California. Right now in HIS-story we're studying the discovery of America and the times around the 1600's. There was one mention of the Inquisition and no further study of it's meanings nor it's significance on western society and the oppression of women. I found this rather discouraging and offensive, so I proposed to teach my class on the witch-hunts, the disaster it left behind and the destruction of a way of life. I was shocked and amazed to find so little known by our generation on the witch-trials and the like. It was one of the most horrible and oppressive events in history and yet those times were not studied over in an American history class. This is me is wrong, offensive and incredibly disturbing. Of course, we're only taught about the fantastic white men in history and it's domesticated version of what REALLY happened."

Terri Schaefer

Burning Times Index…..…PAGAN FILES.