CNN.com posted this fascinating article about a mini-”holy war” erupting between Wiccans in Salem, MA:
Salem ‘witch,’ associate accused of leaving animal remains at stores
SALEM, Massachusetts (AP) — A self-proclaimed high priestess of Salem witches and a second person were accused of tossing raccoon parts on the doorsteps of businesses, allegedly as part of a Wiccan community feud.
Sharon Graham, 46, and a fellow Wiccan, Frederick Purtz, 22, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of littering and malicious destruction of property. Graham also was charged with intimidating a witness.
They were accused of putting a raccoon head and entrails on the doorsteps of Angelica of the Angels and the Goddess’ Treasure Chest in May.
Salem, a historic seaport famous for holding witch trials in the 17th century, has an active Wiccan community and thriving witch-related tourism.
David Gavegnano, a lawyer for Graham, and Sean Wynne, a lawyer for Purtz, both denied that their clients had anything to do with the incident. They also argued that at any rate, the malicious destruction charge wasn’t valid because the storefronts weren’t permanently damaged.
A witness, Richard Watson, told police he accompanied Graham, Purtz and other people when they put the raccoon remains on the doorsteps. He said Graham hoped to frame a Wiccan businessman who had fired Graham from a psychic telephone business last spring.
Watson also said Graham had a disagreement with the owners of the two targeted businesses over proposed regulations that would limit the number of psychics who come to the city during the Halloween season. He said he was told the group had found the raccoon dead.
Gavegnano declined to comment on Watson’s accusations Thursday. Wynne told The Boston Herald said there were probably “internal issues within the Wiccan community,” but the tossing of raccoon entrails may be a “bastardization” of Wiccan practice because the religion doesn’t condone harming others.
Well there goes Wicca in to the same morass that has plagued Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism…
What would the Dalai Lama do? Probably fight the Shaolin monks for the I Ching manual in an epic brawl…
I’ve noticed that many folks will paint with broad strokes and say, “Religion is the cause of a lot of world’s problems”, but I submit this opinion:
The problem is human nature!
duh!
Regardless of whether you believe that human nature is dictated by the Flying Spaghetti monster, brought to you exclusively by the teachings of Jesus, or revealed through the universal truths of Buddha, or guided by the precepts found in the Qu’ran, the one thing that is obvious is that people simply use any form of organization to separate themselves from “others” for their own benefit.
Of course, when that division between self and others becomes a point of contention, well… that’s when we humans demonstrate that we’re just like any other animal — the red ants and the black ants fight (Is that supposed to be a real news story?) and its no different than when we engage in conflicts.
We are not that far removed from the other species on this planet.
This all seems obvious to me because when I grew up.. well, I grew up in D.C. when it was known as the murder capital of the United States (no, really), so I remember trying to avoid the usual problems that come with having peers who would drop off of my radar only to wind up in the drug trade. Even on the “periphery” of the violence, living a middle class neighborhood, I always had this sense that anyone could wind up dead in the cross fire… probably because we lived between two drug dealers, and there was a crack house on the cross street just a few houses up from where I lived.
(Incidentally, it was apparently owned by the son of my art teacher from elementary school. The drug culture permeated everything in D.C. at the time.)
The truth of the matter is, people will go to war for just about any reason. They will kill, maim, and destroy the lives of others to “secure” their own futures and for personal gain.
As long as human beings have egos that are motivated by a sense of insecurity, subscribe to a mob mentality when it serves them, or when a privileged few are aware that they can manipulate such thinking to their own gain, then it doesn’t matter what the basis is — people will always form cliques, mobs, and armies. They will organize to defend or “promote” their way of living. And they will fight. They will do battle. They will wage war.
Blaming it all on religion is simply a straw man, and serves only to divide people further by creating yet another point of contention. The intolerance I see for people who “think differently” in online communities shows me that the poisonous atmosphere created by the religious extremists (of all faiths) to drive a wedge between people, arousing the ire (and intolerance) to well up within even the atheist “community” as, much like their theist opposition, some begin to use condescending tones to belittle the views of others.
And no, it’s no better when a Bible-thumpin’ zealot tries to convert people via LOUD TALKING.
The sad thing is… we all know better than this!
We know, for example, that the violence in Rwanda was not the result of a holy war.
If we are to transcend the hatred, then people are going to have to learn how to accept (not just tolerate) people who are different. That means being willing to accept the fact that what seems silly and stupid to you may very well form the basis of someone else’s worldview, because, simply put, that is the only way we can promote peace.