Public Stoning: Not Just for the Taliban Anymore

POSTED BY: misbehaven
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 16:55
VIEWED: 5383
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FREMDFIRMA

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 1:58 AM

Quote:
For some time now, I've thought of Christian fundamentalists as being simply comical. I think I'm going to have to revisit that opinion. These people have gone from ridiculous to dangerous.

You shoulda been with me in Florida, or worse, Utah!

While my own beliefs are my own business and rather singular, I do get along well with those who behave decently to their fellow man, and this brings me into contact with a lot of pagans that, while idealistic and admirable, have some damn-fool ideas about pacifist solutions to problems like rabid fundies.

In Florida it came down to shots fired at them and by them during ritual, while doubtful they were aimed at anyone, it took a malenky bit of the ole ultraviolence to convince the thumpers to leave alone and get left alone, which came after this particular incident, and left a few vehicles damaged besides.

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (UPI) -- A witches' ceremony came to an abrupt
halt over the weekend when angry neighbors and members of the nature
worshiping coven exchanged gunshots, authorities said.

The witches said the attack Sunday was just the latest in a series of
violent acts against their group and its island shrine near Moon Lake,
northeast of New Port Richey.

Five witches from the Coven Lothlorien told Pasco County deputies
they had just finished a ritual seeking protection from threats when
gunfire ripped through the trees surrounding their ceremonial grounds at
about 11 p.m.

No one was wounded and no arrests were made, the Pasco Sheriff's
Office said.

Witches, or wiccans, are nature worshipers who honor celestial cycles
and the seasons, said Ron Parshley, president of National Association of
Pantheists.

Wiccans' ceremonies include torch-lit dancing, chanting and burning
of incense, he said.

"We heard the bullets ripping past and we all crouched down on the
ground and started crawling back to my house on our hands and knees,"
said Kassie Cornwell, a witch and a registered nurse.

The small island sits in the middle of a pond at the end of a lush
pathway behind Cornwell's house. Only one other house stands within 200
yards of the pond, which backs up to a vast stretch of swamp.

Members said Sunday's ritual was in response to threats they received
the day before. Cornwell's house had been pelted with eggs, she said,
and a note was left in her front yard Saturday.

The note warned the group to stop their "Satan worshiping or be
prepared for worse. Next time we won't stop at eggs."

Another note said, "We are the ultimate enemy. We are out to kill!"

Cornwell, 43, said she heard people cursing, calling them Satanists
and other names during Sunday's attack.

When the gunfire started, coven member Curtis Niles of Spring Hill
grabbed a shotgun and fired several rounds in the air, Cornwell said.

Neighbor Art Gray, 39, told a sheriff's deputy he heard shots coming
from Cornwell's property and he fired back, also in the air, to warn the
people away from his house.

Several of Cornwell's neighbors said they believed the group
practices Satanism and sacrifices animals. But Cornwell said the group
doesn't allow animals near their worshiping area.

She said the group's credo is to "do what you will, but harm none."

Parshley said the group has "nothing to do with Satanism."

The coven has worshiped at Cornwell's property since she bought her
home a year ago. She said the worship area has been desecrated six or
seven times.

Mary Niles, another member, said the coven is named for the tree that
the elves inhabited in "The Hobbit," J.R. Tolkien's novel about an
imaginary dwarf-like people.

Detective Jerry Puig, a religion specialist for the Pasco Sheriff's
Office who has interviewed coven members, said there is a big difference
between Satanism and the group's religion.

"Wicca is all nature worship; worship of the sun, the wind, the moon,"
Puig said. "There is no blood and no devils involved."
---------------
Copyright 1990 United Press International

Utah, on the other hand

ROCKETJOCK

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 4:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by misbehaven:
I also find it fascinating that so many people think if you're an Atheist, then you're somehow lacking in morals and ethics.

Indeed. I've have that one thrown at me from time to time, back during my pure agnostic days.

"There can be no morality without God, because God decides what is good and what is evil."

My answer to that is "How convenient this is for those whose appointed job is to speak for God."

I have found that those who look to God to decide Good and Evil for them generally aren't interested in morality. They just want rules. They don't want to do good because it's right; they just want to do what God wants them to because otherwise he can throw them in a bad place.

No worries about right or moral. Just the voice of authority, so they don't have to think.

"Any religion that teaches there is only heaven or hell is gonna be a haven for manic-depressives." -- Simon Jester

GEEZER

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 5:09 PM

We used to have public stonings back in the '60s. They were called smoke-ins. Don't remember much else about them, for some reason.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

SIGNYM

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 7:04 PM

But people were always hungry afterwards.

---------------------------------
Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.

MISBEHAVEN

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 11:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
We used to have public stonings back in the '60s. They were called smoke-ins. Don't remember much else about them, for some reason.

Some still do, but not me of course.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

Hunter S. Thompson

FLAMETREE

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 4:55 PM

Education earned the most vitriol at the conference. Effusing that the Religious Right has captured politics and much of the media, North proclaimed: "The only thing they (secularists) have still got a grip on is the university system." Academic doctorates, he contended, are a conspiracy fomented by the Rockefeller family. All academic programs (except, he said, engineering) are now dominated by secularists and Darwinists.

How dare he!

Engineers aren't seculists? Least religious bunch of people you will ever meet. Should know I am one.

The Jews,, Christians and Muslims have it all wrong.
The world is only devided into two, those who believe and have no brains and those who have brains and do not believe.

11th Century poet.

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