Original Link: https://wildhunt.org/2022/07/pagan-community-notes-for-the-week-of-july-11-2022.html
MIAMI – Chaz Stevens, an atheist who founded the Mount Jab Church of Mars activist group, has contacted Broward County Schools with a request to lead a Satanic prayer at a football game at Deerfield Beach High School. He is an alumnus of the High School.
The request comes two weeks after the US Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case. The case focused on a football coach who in his lawsuit claimed the school district that employed him violated his 1st amendment rights when they forbid him from going out to the 50-yard line after the game to publicly pray while students and attendees were still present.
The court ruled 6-3 with all the conservatives justices siding with Kennedy, and the more justices dissenting in favor of Bremerton.
Speaking with Patch, Stevens said “I want to give a prayer at the 50-yard line at my alma mater… I assume they’re going to tell me to kiss off. This all started when the U.S. Supreme Court, aka the ‘American Taliban,’ sided in favor of a high school coach in Bremerton, Washington, and now he is allowed to give his prayer after the game.”
Stevens’ advocacy for the separation of church and state is well known in Florida.
In 2013, after a Nativity scene was placed in the state Capitol building, Stevens created a 6-foot Festivus pole using empty Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans and PVC pipe for display. In 2015, after a religious invocation at a commission meeting of the city of Dania Beach near Ft. Lauderdale, he launched a project called “Satan or Silence.”
Earlier this year, he asked the Florida school districts to “immediately remove the Bible from the classroom, library, and any instructional material,” Stevens wrote in the documents. Citing a new law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which lets parents object to educational materials, Stevens said, “Additionally, I also seek the banishment of any book that references the Bible.”
The law has been used to ban books like GenderQueer: A Memoir and others with LGBTQ+ themes.
Stevens noted that the Bible is full of again-inappropriate material. He says the Bible has “casual” references to murder, adultery, sexual immorality, and fornication. “Do we really want to teach our youth about drunken orgies?”
“In the end, if Jimmy and Susie are curious about any of the above, they can do what everyone else does – get a room at the Motel Six and grab the Gideons,” he wrote.
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White House Logo
WASHINGTON – In a White House ceremony, President Biden is set to reveal the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope at 5:30 PM EDT today. It will be the deepest view ever captured of our universe. Subsequent images will be released by NASA tomorrow.
Eric Smith, Webb program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington who has worked on the Webb telescope since the mid-1990s said in a statement, “Even after working on the program for many years, I’m as excited as everyone else who is anticipating the release of the first beautiful full-color images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – an audacious endeavor in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies. From a professional perspective, I’m thrilled with the mission and the realization that astronomers around the world will receive an amazing new tool to explore space.”
Smith added, “Yet, as stunning as these capabilities are, NASA is always looking to the future. Even today, we are constructing the next great observatory that will come after Webb, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Unlike the existing facilities, Roman is designed to capture images of huge portions of the sky all at once, allowing scientists to look for very rare and even time-variable phenomena.”
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will release its first full-color images and data on Tuesday, July 12 beginning at 10:30 AM EDT. Smith said, ” The world is about to be new again.”
BELFAST- A high court in Northern Ireland has ruled that laws requiring schools to provide faith-based Christian religious education and collective worship breach European Convention on Human Rights. The law in Northern Ireland requires schools to “include collective worship whether in one or more than one assembly” daily. The right to withdraw children from events of collective worship is available to parents, but no independent right of withdrawal is available to pupils. The complaint says that the system was imposing Christianity.
The current lawsuit against the Northern Irish school system was brought on behalf of a seven-year-old girl and her father. The family describes itself as non-religious, and the girl’s parents were concerned the focus on Christian teaching may lead her to adopt that worldview to the exclusion of other faiths. The parents report they found the girl praying at night. They were represented by human rights lawyer Darragh Mackin of Phoenix Law.
Mr. Justice Colton ruled that the exclusively Christian nature of religious education and worship violates the freedom of religion or belief of a non-religious family.
Mr. Justice Colton wrote, “The unlawfulness… identified requires a reconsideration of the core curriculum and the impugned legislation in relation to the teaching of Religious Education (RE) and the provision of Collective Worship (CW).”
Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson said in a statement, “this ruling should resound around the UK as a lesson to every jurisdiction that our current laws on religion in education are not only unfit for purpose in light of today’s diverse society but they are also unlawful. Parliaments across the UK should take action now.”
Developing News
via Facebook
LIVINGSTON, Texas – Senior Pastor Kevin Hendrix of FaithWorld International Outreach Church released a public post on Facebook condemning an upcoming event called the Polk County Pagan Market.
The pastor wrote, “Pastors and Christians you better take your stand now and let’s put a stop to this!! This is NOT welcome in Polk County!! Polk County is hungry and thirsty for righteousness and Jesus said those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled!!”
The post also contained the Polk County Pagan Market flyer to the left.
A subsequent post by the pastor added, “Has passivity become the norm for some in the church? When did we get to the point that things of the world became ‘ok’ or ‘maybe it won’t hurt?’ Hold your beliefs up to the standard of God’s word and see the difference. Call me old fashioned if you want to it does not matter to me!! If you play around with worldly things you’ll get results you probably don’t want!!!”
Post responses include not only a barrage of Bible verses and calls to end the event but also information on how to contact the event organizers. One person wrote, “We curse this pagan market at the root in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!!!”
At the time of writing, the post had been shared almost 500 times. It had also been locked for commenting presumably by the original poster, Pastor Hendrix.
The lock spurred a laugh-react campaign that remains underway. Laugh-react campaigns use the laughing emoji on Facebook to react to posts because emoji reactions remain usable when commenting is blocked.
The Wild Hunt is in communication with event organizers and will be following up on this story.
In other news:
The United Nations is observing World Population Day today as the human population will soon reach 8 billion people. The UN says that “some will marvel at the advancements in health that have extended lifespans, reduced maternal mortality and child mortality and given rise to vaccine development in record time. Others will tout technological innovations that have eased our lives and connected us more than ever. Still others will herald gains in gender equality.” The UN adds that “progress is not universal, throwing inequality into razor-sharp relief. The same concerns and challenges raised 11 years ago remain or have worsened: Climate change, violence, discrimination. The world reached a particularly grim milestone in May: More than 100 million forcibly displaced worldwide.” The UN notes that 8 billion people should mean “8 billion opportunities for healthier societies empowered by rights and choices.” However, biases against gender, ethnicity, class, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and origin continue to expose too many people to discrimination, harassment and violence. The UN says it looks to a world where economic equality, and universal access to health care, education, housing, sanitation, water, food, and energy is materialized.
The Yarmukians were a Neolithic culture that flourished in the Levant some 8,000 years ago. It was the first known culture in the area now known as Israel and the first to use pottery that is stylized with a herringbone pattern. In 2020, a surprising discovery of a mother fertility goddess was made. The findings were published in Hadashot Arkheologiyot. This week, another “Mother goddess” figure discovery was announced after new excavations at the Sha’ar HaGolan Yarmukian archaeological site. Found in 2 pieces, the figure is an impressive 20cm (about 8 inches) and has become a hallmark of Yarmukian culture. “This is one of the largest examples of the figurine found. It is of a large, seated woman with big hips, a unique pointed hat and what is known as ‘coffee-bean’ eyes and a big nose. One hand is positioned on her hip and the other one under her breast,” said Anna Eirikh-Rose, an Israeli Antiquity Authority Judea district archaeologist and excavation co-director, to the Jerusalem Post. The archeologists will be trying to sort out whether the Mother goddess was part of Yarmukian religion or some other cultic practice of that culture.
via Hadashot Arkheologiyot Bet Hilqiya
Positively Noteworthy
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust based in Nairobi, Kenya is one of Africa’s oldest wildlife charities and a leading conservation organization. The Trust is known for its work to protect elephants, operating the most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. Last week Kwale, a hartebeest, and his best friend Scooter the warthog got very excited chugging some milk.
Sheldrick Wildlife @SheldrickTrust
Rescued hartebeest, Kwale, is so over excited for his next bottle that he's inadvertently delaying it by blocking Peter! He and best friend Scooter, the warthog, are soon chugging down their milk though #animalrescue