The Bridport Pagan Moot is due to take place at the George Hotel, Bridport, on Tuesday, July 5 at 8pm.
The group planning the protest, Christian Soldiers Dorset, said: “We are a new Christian movement in Dorset, set up to warn people, especially the young, of the dangers of getting involved in the occult."
If the moot is at a pub, which the George Hotel sounds like, then there won't be any young people there because children aren't allowed in pubs. Perhaps the Christian group should consider that and respect responsible adults' wishes to have a drink and chat about any subject they like - paganism, the occult or whatever.
You can read the full story here: http://www.viewfrompublishing.co.uk/news_view/11580/7/1/bridport-christian-group-to-protest-at-bridport
7 comments:
I think Pagans hold the moral high ground here. I've never seen us demonstrating outside churches! If these people are so aggressive that the police needed to be called, then they're not doing themselves any favours.
There have been small groups or individuals outside Witchfest in Croydon some years. I found a polite refusal to engage worked fine.
Honestly, the anger and need to "be right" and "show them all" I get. What boggles my mind is that the only way they can find to channel this is by pissing off a few pub patrons? I mean, really?
There was a group of fundamentalists down in Asheville who regularly gathered to ridicule and hassel the folks attending Coven Oldenwilde's public rituals. Pagans ignored them. The church folks made fools of themselves. And the police stood in the middle to protect us from the nice church folks yelling stupid things -- from a distance (since the police were there to keep them from coming closer). Other than being slightly annoying and somewhat entertaining, the churchies did us no harm. The same thing happened every year. I don't recall any Pagn ever speaking back to the church group. We simply enjoyed our ritual and left them standing there with their ten pound Bibles and their signs.
"Perhaps the Christian group should consider that and respect responsible adults' wishes to have a drink and chat about any subject they like - paganism, the occult or whatever."
Nope. Minding one's own business is not a concept with which this type of person is familiar, nor would they accept it if it were suggested to them.
Ere, it be getting like the deep south down here, what with protests about our godless mayor scrapping prayers in council meetings, and now self-appointed busybodies trying to save those devil-worshiping pagans from the pits of hell by er… standing around outside a pub.
The more the “christian soldiers” and their ilk interfere in how other people choose to live their lives and the more the god-botherers try to push their opinions and religious rituals on others, the more they expose themselves as the narrow-minded bigots they are.
(I don’t hold with astrology or new-age stuff like colour energy either, but I know who’s side I am on on this one).
Im from bridport and i have always been interested in the occult, i love reading about crystals and using runes and leaning about paganism, i love the idea of looking after the planet. However i find the idea of admitting it to anyone down here very hard, for the above reason. Has anyone else had this problem? Its a shame that other religions cannot leave people to their own beliefs and make it difficult to find your own way. Sorry needed to get that off my chest!
Glad no-one seemed to turn up for whatever reason. I think it's sad that people waste their time and energy interferring against other citizen's right of free speech. If they're so worried about young people falling into bad company, perhaps a more positive move would be to fund and manage more youth clubs - as the PM suggests in his Big Society (natch) agenda. Then at least young people would have somewhere to go that's safe and not be hanging around bus shelters drinking and being preyed upon by drug-dealers, kerb-crawlers and worse....
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