Neo-Pagans Taking Over GOP?

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Liberals have spent decades warning that Christian conservatives were attempting to use the Republican Party as a vehicle to impose their theocratic beliefs on America, I guess that’s why nobody was looking when the Wiccans, Druids and Odinists took over:

A New York City councilman who was arrested Tuesday in an alleged plot to rig this year’s mayoral election is a “prince” in a cult that practices an ancient pagan religion, the New York Post reported Saturday.
Republican Dan Halloran, a councilman from Queens, converted from Catholicism to the pagan belief known as “Theodism” in the 1980s. Members of Halloran’s group “wear medieval garb, make sacrifices to multiple gods and compete in combat games” as part of “the pre-Christian Germanic religion, whose believers drink mead or whiskey from horns and dress like characters in a Renaissance fair,” the Post‘s M.L. Nestel reported. Halloran was “publicly flogged and lost a spear-throwing contest as part of his Theodish punishments,” and formed his own tribe of Theodish followers known as New Normandy, according to the Post report. . . .

You can read the rest at ViralRead. I got it via Memeorandum and the Daily Mail. It’s hard to keep from laughing when you read about people whose “religion” involves spear-throwing contests.

The more you learn about this nonsense — read the Wikipedia page about Ásatrú — the more childishly ridiculous it is: Play-acting as Norsemen, in a cult that was started in 1976 in Watertown, N.Y., by a guy whose previous gig was as founder of “The Coven Witan of Anglo-Saxon Wicca.”

The good news is that very few Americans are stupid enough to fall for that kooky stuff. As Lisa Graas reported in 2011, a survey found 768,400 Neo-Pagans in the U.S. (0.28% of the population), which is larger than the CNN audience, but still too small to really matter in politics.

Some people take CNN seriously, however . . .

 

64 comments

  2. Mostly this glaringly illustrates how very poor the RNC’s own background checks on candidates are. This guy’s antics will be held up as more proof that Republicans are “wacky” and not to be trusted.

  3. You’re poking fun at religion?

    Why not focus on what Halloran and the (presumably Christian) others did?

    Casting stones at another faith seems a little petty.

  4. For Christianity to compete with modern paganism the mainline protestant denominations had better look to their Renaissance roots and bring back such things as pageants and processions. On the athletic side archery contests should work, either to Olympic standards or the old English furlong.

    It also seems the Catholic Church had better return to meatless Fridays and Latin, merely as starters.

    What is comical about Wicca (a Saxon word, BTW) is the mixture of elements, depending heavily on Celtic forms and symbols among others. We seem headed for a perfect religious democracy where every man or woman can start his own faith, if necessary depending upon a congregation of one.

  7. Chesterton was right! (“It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense.”)

  9. Believe the Bolsheviks took over Russia with fewer than 700,000 people. The main question: why did it take this long to notice? Subversion doesn’t happen overnight. In this case, it began with the fight against the Moral Majority back in the 1980s.
    The anti-Christian movement is a case study in effective Psychological Operations:
    – use of all entertainment outlets to mock Evangelical Christians, while ignoring Catholics, Jews and Muslims, and promoting eastern and new age religions.
    – use of all “news” media to mock Evangelicals and make any failing of a Christian a nation-wide, newsworthy event for several cycles plus whenever it is convenient.
    – criminalize Christian activism like anti-abortion protests.
    – redefine/criminalize Christianity throughout American history: Pilgrims, Founding Father, In God We Trust
    – redefine jurisprudence from mercy-based to strictly rule-based judgement – who needs a law degree when judges (who admittedly failed in their judgements prior) have to follow a simple flow chart for assigning guilt and punishment?

  10. I believe this fellow ran for US House of Representatives last fall. They do have some say over that.

  11. The Society of Creative Anachronism (‘all the good parts of the Middle Ages without the fleas, slavery, and famine’) is a fun hobby. HOBBY. Not Religion. Or it should be.

    First time a pretty girl curtseys to you, and says ‘milord?’ will knock your socks off.

    And the Asatru seem to be seeking a more manly religion than the feminized wussiness of modern America.

    That said ‘the Pagans are flaky’ has a lot going for it.

    And for any Pagan readers….if you’re of Nordic descent, Wotan or Odin is your ancestor. Not a god, just great-great grandpa.

  18. Not really. The Voting Rights Act probably has something to say about how strict a standard you can impose, and let’s not forget that the LA Republican Party couldn’t stop KKK leader David Dukes from running as a Republican. They told the party they’d better vote for the Democrat opponent.

  21. Is it too soon to invoke Godwin’s Law and the results onwestern societies that promote non-Abrahamic religions?
    The de-Christianization of our military has been going on for quite a while. Recently, the Army used the SPLC to promote Evangelical Christians as the #1 Terrorists in America.

  23. And Odin had ancestors, as well. Seventeen, according to the Wessex Pedigree: Sceaf, Bedwig, Hwala, Hathra (the “th” is a diphthong I don’t see a good way to import), Itermon, Heremod, Sceldwa, Beaw, Taetwa, Geat, Godwulf, Finn (yeah, I know, how’d the Irish get in there?!), Frithwulf (diphthong again, sorry), Frealaf, Freawine, Frithuwald and finally Woden/Odin.

    We can pare that well down, though, in others.

  27. At least he didn’t win.

    Though, now that I think of it, if we’re still discussing Halloran the semi-Pagan, he’d be right at home in the halls of congress.

  28. Pagans drinking mead and tossing spears don’t worry me much.

    It’s when the “religions” begin executing those who insult or joke about them that I get concerned.

  29. Sceaf…..

    “Se Sceaf waes Noes sunu and he waes innan threae earce geborhen”. or as Cooper translates, “This Sceaf was Noahs son, and he was born in the Ark.” (4) Cooper (5) Reliq. Ant. p. 173

    So, if its the same Sceaf, then Wotan is the grandson of Japheth, and the great-grandson of Noah.

  31. Oops, Bill Cooper’s theory is that the pre-Christian Saxons got it slightly in error, and that Sceaf was Japheth. This actually helps the case as every Christian monk would have known that Japheth was not born on the Ark.

  35. Nope, just haven’t commented before.

    Just look at the comments in this thread. Some are all set to attack one guy because of his faith, but they overlook the character and actions of the others accused of the same crime.

    Again, I’m not defending a religion. I’m just saying that if a Christian complains because Christianity is being mocked or attacked, calling another faith silly is deluded at best. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander. Or if you prefer, the Golden Rule. Or that bit about casting stones…

    You know, I usually tell other non-Christians that it’s better to deal with conservatives because at least they will tell you what they think up front.

    Oh, and it’s pretty insulting in some quarters to call someone heathen when they aren’t.

  37. Muscular Christianity was once popular. Perhaps the new movement can be Bloody-handed Christianity following general training with edged weapons. That should show the atheists!

  38. ‘th’ is the modern representation of thorn or eth, which won’t reproduce in some browsers. Thorn is oftn showon as a ‘y’ in laater time. Thus “Ye Olde Tea Shoppe”, which is actually ‘The’ Olde…

  39. Let us not do Neo-Paganism the favor of calling it a faith. It’s simply play-acting to gain attention. Those folks don’t actually believe Woden will answer their prayers any more that they believe Zeus will.

  40. Except you’re not allowed to make that distinction, anymore than a non-Christian is allowed to make that call about Christianity.

    Parity, you see. It’s not a right unless EVERYBODY has it.

    You can’t speak for the validity of someone else’s beliefs unless you accept that someone will do the exact same for you. It’s way too easy to say that the other guy’s beliefs don’t REALLY matter if you can exempt your own beliefs from criticism.

    That’s all that I’m saying.

    No one here is talking about Malcolm Smith’s religion.

  42. You don’t seem to fully comprehend what freedom of speech and conscience comprise. You are, in fact, recommending political correctness. Think about it.

  44. Better Odin….
    1. Wolftime by Lars Walker. Perceptive, LOL funny, and bizarre.
    Odin has come to a post-Christian university in Minnesota…
    2. Title is???: American vet is ticked that Odin killed vet’s brother, so decides to track down the god, and give him a second eye with a .45. Good guy story, adventure with a bit of weird.
    3. The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card. Dysfunctional family, hero trying to overcome and grow up, clever outworking of powers. The ‘gods’ are families of human mages, who recycle titles like Odin and Freya. And then a gatemage, a Loki is revealed, and the chance is there for the mages to become gods again….Not much about Odin tho’.

    I didn’t like American Gods. The sum was less than the parts.

  45. Troy of Illiad fame goes from minor inland village to massively rich trading city on a chokepoint (which some say is the real reason for Helen’s War) after the Great Ice melts and the ocean floods into what had been a large lake, and becomes the Black Sea.

    A few centuries???? later there’s the Trojan Horse, and then Aeneas goes off to have a couple of twins named Romulus and Remus,….And Rome is born.

    My knowledge is sketchy, and I haven’t read the Illiad. Does it describe the founders of Troy?
    Oh, btw….what is the amount of beauty necessary to launch one ship….a millihelen, of course.

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