it ourselves and be doubted - we believe in the Divine,
and they believe only in themselves. The link to a Satanist site is there so
people can read further, if they wish, to see how different we are, and there
is also a link to the Ontario Org. for Religious Tolerance, which has
excellent, unbiased information on Paganism, Satanism and all the other
‘isms‘…
“What IS healthy is that this
is a free country, where people may follow whatever spiritual path they wish
(backed up by the Charter of Rights), and we may speak as we wish. (Though
any similar column on any other religion would probably not make it past the
editor...)”
From this point in his column Coren
attempted to make fun of a series of groups representing professionals who
happen to be Pagan. He started with
the Pagan Firefighters Association, founded by John Tennant, a Wiccan
firefighter with Wilmington Fire Department, Station 13, in Connecticut: “The Pagan Firefighters Association
unfortunately has ‘no info at the moment, but will post when we do.’ This is
very good news indeed. The average speed of a broom is several miles an hour
faster than that of even the most advanced fire truck. There is also the
chance of communing with the god of fire and asking him (or is it her?) to be
reasonable and simply put the flames out without any human
intervention.” I later wrote to Coren
to tell him that Pagan firefighters put out fires the same way that their
co-workers from other faiths do, with a combination of water, know how and
guts.
Next Coren mentioned the Pagan
Bar Association and attempted to make a joke about it, stating “I think I may
have met some of the members.” Coren
quotes the founder, who tells us that he “wanted to communicate with other
attorneys who, like me, follow the way of the Witch”. “Right,” Coren sneers, “Lots of
nose-wiggling I suppose, and stopping your mother from getting cross with
poor old Darrin.” Coren went on to
slam the Pagan Alliance of Nurses, founder by Pagan nurse Shaughna Savage,
and the Automotive Pagans, “a networking group for Pagans working in the
automotive industry - no matter where they live, or which company they work
for, whether they work for manufacturers or suppliers, hourly or
salary." “I just know CAW members all over Canada have been counting the
days until they can have the union fight for crystal manipulation lessons,”
Coren scoffs, “Look out, Buzz Hargrove, you could be replaced by Harry
Potter. Mind you, is Harry a socialist? Goes to a private school, speaks in a
posh accent. No, it's Ron Weasley who's the member of the proletariat.”
“We also have the great North
American disease of being offended,” Coren states, pointing out that
Automative Pagans had complained that the SciFi Channel had been actively
misrepresenting Pagans in its programs Evil Witches and Declassified Evil. Coren tells us that “Mr. Warlock or Ms.
Goblin [are] moved to tears” by these programs. “Stay tuned for Buffy with a bad hair day,”
Coren taunts.
Coren used several scenes from
the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail in his attempts to make his column
humorous. He referred to the scene in
which the villagers bring forward a woman who they’ve dressed in a pointy hat
and a false nose in an attempt to convince a knight that she is a witch. “’How do you know she's a witch?’ Reply:
‘Because she looks like one.’ In that case the local peasants had put a big,
false nose and a funny hat on the woman.”
Later in his column Coren described Pagans as people with “A liking
for dark makeup and black clothes, often mingled with Hollywood witch fashion
and Celtic jewelry. A habit of staring a lot and speaking in a slow,
deliberate manner that is supposed to indicate authority and wisdom. Oh, and
a fair helping of middle-class neurosis.”
In other words, Coren was engaging in precisely the same activity as
the peasants in the Monty Python movie:
Trying to convince his readers that we are evil people by “dressing us
up” in the same manner.
“My experience,” Coren
explains, “has been that such people tend to have a little too much time and
money on their hands and a feeling they are superior to the ‘ordinary people’
around them ‘who don't quite understand.’ Also a contempt for and crass ignorance
of what is referred to as ‘organized religion’ and a total lack of contextual
knowledge of ancient and medieval history.”
In my
letter to his editor I challenged Coren to check out the schedules of any one
of the members of the Pagan Firefighters Association, the Pagan Alliance of
Nurses, or my own Officers of Avalon.
“Your ‘experience’ isn't as extensive as you seem to think, “I told
him, “Officers of Avalon members do not have ‘too much time and money on
their hands.’ If any of them ever feel superior it is because they've rescued
someone or solved a difficult case. The Wiccan community includes people in
many other professions that work hard and contribute to society. I certainly
haven't had a lot of extra time on my hands as on top of my police schedule
in the past fifteen years as I've been active in anti-defamation work dealing
with articles such as yours.”
Later
in his column Coren got serious.
“While nobody would allege that all pagans break the law,” Coren
stated, “people proudly calling themselves pagans have been involved in child
abuse circles and grotesque dark cults.”
Coren provided no evidence to substantiate such a claim. “Is it healthy that a pagan group called
the Officers of Avalon is listed and claims to have police members in the
U.S., Canada, Britain, Ireland and Australia?” Coren asks. He concludes his article with a line from
