Witchcraft Web Sites Banned by City Council

The City Council of Birmingham, UK has blocked its staff from looking at websites about witchcraft, as well as sites that promote atheism, the paranormal, sexual deviancy and criminal activity. But sites about so-called “conventional” religions are readily available. The filter means staff may look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other conventional religions as they wish, but sites relating to “witchcraft or Satanism” and “occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism” are blocked, as are sites concerning Wicca, the alternative religion associated with witchcraft.

Lawyers at the National Secular Society said the move by Birmingham City Council was “discriminatory” and they would consider legal action. The society’s president Terry Sanderson described the blocking of atheistic websites as “slightly deranged”, and said, “It’s an open-and-shut case of discrimination as far as we’re concerned. If you can access religious sites you should be able to access sites for non-religious people. We’ve taken legal advice from our barrister and she tells us quite clearly that there is no justification for it.”

A city council statement said the authority had a “long-standing internet usage policy for staff”. It added: “We are currently implementing new internet monitoring software to make the control of internet access easier to manage. The aim of this is to provide greater control for individual line managers to monitor internet usage, and for departments, such as trading standards and child protection, to gain access, if needed, to certain sites for business reasons.”

They did not explain how employees looking at witchcraft and atheist web sites posed more of a problem than employees visiting Christian and Islamic web sites.

Terry Sanderson said the National Secular Society would initially contact the council and ask for the policy to be changed, and otherwise pursue legal action. He said he believed he would have a “very strong case”.

Mr Sanderson said: “It is discriminatory not only against atheists but they also are banning access to sites to do with witchcraft. Witchcraft these days is called Wicca, which is an actual legitimate and recognised religion. We feel very strongly that people who don’t believe should not be denied the access that people who do believe have got.”

He added that some opinion polls said that up to 25% of the UK population now considered themselves atheist.

No News Is Good News?

I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to start posting Pagan and Wiccan news articles again. But I’ve had a hard time finding anything. Despite the fact that both Yahoo! and Google daily update me on various search parameters such as “Wicca”, “Pagan”, “Paganism” etc., there’s just not much going on Pagan-wise. So that’s why the site has remain so quiet. There’s nothing going on. Apparently the much lauded Pagan revival is going on without much of a hitch. No one really cares about it, I guess.

Case in point, there was a story today. Apparently a woman in Lebanon, Indiana accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery. Okay. Sorry. My first reaction to that was laughter. She stuck a sword through her foot while performing a good luck ritual. Come on! That’s hilarious!

I wouldn’t have even have mentioned this, but while researching it I discovered that the story was posted on just about every Pagan and Wiccan web site that I could find. Maybe we simply have different criteria here. I sympathize with this woman for the extreme pain she’s experienced, but I fail to see how her stabbing herself in the foot qualifies as Pagan news.

I’ll try to do better in rounding up some Pagan stories. Honestly, it seems to me that all the news that Pagans need to be interested in is right there on the mainstream news.

We’re Back!

I thought maybe I should mention that we’ve been tinkering with resurrecting the web site. It’s funny, actually. There’s been some renewed interest in PaganCentric as an organization (or whatever the hell we are), but we’ve focused mostly on real world interaction. But a lot of people have complained that we didn’t have a web presence. Well, that we didn’t have an active web presence, anyway.

Well, on a lark, I’ve put together a WordPress based blog system and tied in the various people who have shown interest through the years. I won’t promise that there’ll be a lot of activity here, but I will promise that it’ll receive at least my passing attention. I may not be able to make it flourish, but I will keep it from dying. Whether or not it flourishes is largely up to the people who seem to be gathering under the PaganCentric umbrella.

Forum Removed

Hello, all. You may have noticed that the Forum has been removed. Sorry for the inconvenience. Frankly, we’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time just fighting back against the spammers, and no one was using the forums anyway. Why keep banging out heads against the walls?

At some late date, when it’s needed, I’m sure we’ll put the forums back up. But right now it’s just a major pain in the ass.

I’d personally like to express a heartfelt “f**k you” to the spammers who made this move necessary. I cannot imagine that there are living, breathing people on this planet who have nothing better to do with their time than register e-mail addresses on little known forums just so they can entertain some bizarre notion that we would want to buy their shit and make them some money.

Working Again … Sort Of

Hey, all. If you’re still visiting this page, then you’re a very stubborn person. I like that.

Anyway, this post is the official declaration that the web site is back up and reasonably functional. It’ll take some time to get some bugs worked, and even more time to figure out what the hell we want to do with it, but it’s here. You’ve been warned.

Thanks to all those who have written or called me with messages of support and encouragement. I really appreciate that there are people out there who aren’t willing to give up on the idea of PaganCentric. I’ll try not to disappoint you.

- Claire

Forums

Hey, all. If you’re still visiting this page, then you’re a very stubborn person. I like that.

Well, we’ve finally put up a link to the forums. We’ve been testing it and can’t seem the break the thing, so we figure it’s probably safe for the general public.

Just so no one gets lost and hurts themself trying to get back to the main page, we’ve put the forums page into frames. Our lame-ass tech-wiz (namely me) can’t figure out how to make the forums display return links. Well, without creating new style sheets and templates, etcetera. That smells like work to me. Maybe this winter when I’m curled up with a cup of hot chocolate on a snowy afternoon with nothing else to do.

Anyway, there it is. I’m looking forward to arguing with a lot of you. And dreading arguing with some of you. Hehe

But I love ya.

- Claire

New Addition: The Watch

Some of you may have stumbled across this web site by following The Watch over here. Many of you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Long story short, The Watch has been my personal project for ages, and largely exists to keep tabs on the nutjobs on the Right. It was originally intended to keep an eye upon the Religious Right, and report items of interest to the Pagan community (or at least that segment of the Pagan community that was more concerned with potential dangers than with looking scary). In the years that followed, the Religious Right has all but taken control of the Republican Party and, by extension, the United States Government. They are only being kept in check by the fact that some of their more extreme desires are at odds with some of the business interests of their unholy allies, the Neo-Conservatives. Yes, Virginia. Right now all that’s keeping us from a de-facto theocracy is the Neo-Conservatives (but not for the right reasons).

Anyway, The Watch never seemed to fit on my personal web page, so I decided to move it here. It had Pagan beginnings, and this just felt … right.

I’ve created a bit of a problem for myself.

The PaganCentric web site was intended to support and enhance the characters from a work of fiction. So Claire and Agnon are not real (you should know that by now), and this web site was meant to support the eventual telling of their story. That story is set twenty years or so in the future, and involves their organization, PaganCentric. Much of the background of the story is that Claire and Agnon live in a United States in which the Neo-Cons have receded in their influence (possibly because of disasters such as the Iraq War), while the Religious Right have finally come to the forefront and are running the show. Anyone care to live in an America where a nutjob like Pat Robertson would be the most trusted spiritual adviser of the president?

Now that I’ve moved The Watch over here, obvious problems have arisen. In a thematic sense, The Watch fits over here nicely. But in an obvious way, it’s at odds with everything else. For one thing, no matter how some of us might wish it, the stories and articles that are featured on The Watch and on the Watch Alert mailing list are not works of fiction. They’re all too real. The Religious Right is real. Neo-Conservatives are real. George W. Bush is too real.

So how do I blend the fictional elements of this web site with the real ones? Or should I mix them at all? Can Claire and Agnon have their side of the web site, while The Watch has its own? And what about the people who come here and can’t grasp the difference; that one part is fiction and one is not? Should I remove Claire and Agnon? Should I remove The Watch?

You can see my dilemma. Right now I don’t know what the answers are. But I’ll be working on them. Please bear with me as I figure this out. In the meantime, keep in mind that however unreal the issues reported upon it may seem, The Watch is the only part of this web site that is not fiction.

We Suck

Apparently, there is some truth to the contention of some people that we suck. This was a great idea, in theory, but we seem to be lacking in the execution department. Maybe we should consider whether we’re going to get off of our asses and do something with this or if we’re just going to hang out at Izzy’s and drink coffee.

Speaking of Izzy’s, I could use some coffee right now. I’ll be right back.

Not To Be Left Out

I think we should limit who can post to the blog. Otherwise this will become a forum. It should be used to post information to the PaganCentric community about upcoming events and issues. We can, and should, chat elsewhere.

New Blog for PaganCentric

I’ve put up this blog because I think PaganCentric needs a web site of some sort. Since we are all obviously too lazy to create one, this will have to do.

I haven’t decided yet whether I will use this web site to dissiminate my wit and wisdom to the underserving (please imagine a devilish grin here), or if I will allow you lesser beings in PaganCentric to post, as well.

Okay, so we’ll probably make this a community blog. If you can all behave. Assuming, of course, proper decorum is observed and ample libations are made with the aim of keeping me happy.

Yes, Deb. I’m a bitch (grin). But I’m a cute bitch.

Love ya.

- Claire