Pagan 'King' Has Council GOP Nod
For those who still imagine the Republican Party is a Christian organization:
Dan Halloran, the Republican candidate for City Council facing primary winner Kevin Kim in the 19th District, already has a leadership role in a vast community that very few people know about - or understand.
Halloran is the "First Atheling," or King, of Normandy, a branch of the Theod faith of pre-Christian Heathen religions assembled in the Greater New York area. A group of dedicated fellow pagans swear their allegiance to him through oaths of fidelity, allowing luck from a series of ancient gods - specifically the "Norse" or "Germanic" gods Odin, Tyr and Freyr - to pass through the King to his kinsmen.
posted by Old Rebel @ Friday, September 18, 2009
13 Comments
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13 Comments:
You cant make this stuff up! Well we do have freedom of religion here but this is pretty bizarre. Usually these neopagan moonbat types fall somewhere on the liberal Democrat scale so this is pretty surprising.
Well, the Grand Old Phonies have been fooling some of the people all of the time since Dishonest Abe's day. Unfortunately, "some of the people" includes modern Southerners. Do you reckon they'll think pagans have "family values," or will some of them wake up?
Show me any law--federal, state or local--that requires one to be a Christian to run for office or hold office. Likewise, show me any law--federal, state or local--establishing Christianity as the state or official religion.
"Usually these neopagan moonbat types fall somewhere on the liberal Democrat scale so this is pretty surprising."
I don't know what "neopagan moonbats" you are referring to but there is a growing right-wing pagan movement in the U.S. and especially in Europe. I'm surprised that this site would attack European paganism. Don't you believe in heritage and culture? As people of European descent, what could be more in line with our heritage than praciticing the religion of our forefathers?
I have great respect for traditional Christianity and was raised in a Christian home, but it is essentially an alien religion forced on our ancestors at the point of a Roman sword. Not only that, but many of the core ideals of conservative Christianity - fidelity, family values, courage, etc. - are actually pagan concepts that were interjected into Christianity when the religion was adopted by Germanic peoples.
I don't want to get into a big religious debate but the apparent contempt for traditional European religious practices on this site worries me. I have been a member of the LoS for years and I'm an ardent Southern nationalists; will I be accepted in the nation I am working to create?
"I don't want to get into a big religious debate but the apparent contempt for traditional European religious practices on this site worries me. I have been a member of the LoS for years and I'm an ardent Southern nationalists; will I be accepted in the nation I am working to create?"
I wouldn't bet my boots on it.
Anonymous at 11:33 raises some interesting points. While I don't accept everything he says in his analysis of how Christianity supplanted paganism in Europe, and while I don't think Southern paleoconservatism has anything to do with Teutonic neopaganism (i.e., the Stormfront crowd), he is right to ask whether or not he has a place at the Southern nationalist table.
It's a tough issue. On the one hand, LoS is a decidedly Christian organization. On the other hand, not only do Christianity and paganism have SOME things in common, some neopagan groups, e.g., Asatru, are pretty doggone conservative in their orientation. It's when Teutonic neopagan groups start edging over into the neo-nazi stuff that the heebie jeebies set in with me. Oftentimes, critics of Southern heritage proponents, as James Webb notes, attempt to "Nazify" us. As Webb notes, however, anyone who confuses the Confederacy with National Socialism knows nothing about either. Do we run the risk, however, of furthering that stereotype when we rub shoulders with the conservative neopagans, espcially when they take on symbology that seems "Nazi"?
I don't know. I'm really not sure what to say about it all (although I can sort of predict where I'll come finally down), and so I would like to hear what others have to say.
I am a member of SCLOS and have donated thousands of dollars toward Southern independence.
Although raised in a conservative Christian family I have respect for our European heritage religious and otherwise.
If the policy of the LOS is to mock non-Christian European based religions then I guess I can go elsewhere.
You may very well end up having to go elsewhere, Anonymous. Whether or not you do, I hope you will consider this:
Christianity, *historically considered*, has the best of both revealed religion and pagan wisdom. It is at once the fulfillment of the promises made to the Jews and of the aspirations of pagans everywhere. St. Paul only hints at this in Romans 2, but in the unfolding of Christian history we see, on the one hand, a rejection of certain elements of paganism, while on the other a synthesis of other elements of paganism, elements that the Fathers of the church deemed noble and true. You hinted at some of these in a previous post.
Moreover, *historic* Christianity incorporated some of the warlike nature of both Old Testament and pagan faith in its embrace of chivalry. If you ever wonder why both pagans and Christians love the literature of Tolkien, this is why. Lewis and Tolkien, orthodox Christians both, weren't enemies of paganism per se. And the chivalric code is at once Christian and pagan to the core.
I'll end with something of an aside, since it's not exactly on point, but it's a poem about Christians and Pagans you might appreciate. It was penned by the German martyr/patriot/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
"Christians and Pagans"
Men go to God when they are sore bestead,
Pray to him for succour, for his peace, for bread,
For mercy for them sick, sinning, or dead;
All men do so, Christian and unbelieving.
Men go to God when he is sore bestead,
Find him poor and scorned, without shelter or bread,
Whelmed under weight of the wicked, the weak, the dead;
Christians stand by God in his hour of grieving.
God goes to every man when sore bestead,
Feeds body and spirit with his bread;
For Christians, pagans alike he hangs dead,
And both alike forgiving.
If you decide to go, please go in peace.
I apologize if my comment offended anyone. I will say that I agree with the person who posted that when neopaganism dips into the nazi stormfront type stuff I want to turn and run, this type of stuff has no place in society period. I personally do not care what you believe (or not believe) religiously but what I have seen recently is that minority religious groups have demanded that any trace of Christianity be removed from public life, even though that is not even close to what the contitution says.
As to the "moonbat" comment, there are moonbats who call themselves Christians... Jeremiah Wright and Fr Michael Fleger come to mind immediatly. Just because someone is a Christian does not make him or her a conservative and I guess a pagan can be a conservative as well. The only caveat I would have with such religions (as well as any other major religion) would be to understand that they are in the minority and that they cannot be catered to (like the special prayer rooms in PUBLIC schools for Muslim students when a Christian teacher gets in trouble for having a Bible on her desk).
I really don't care what religion a politician is as long as they stand up for Constitutional liberty and conservative values. The fact that the GOP has a non-Christian candidate is the least of their worries.
I have no problem with the government promoting Christian values; the problem is when you start trying to use the government to promote theocracy.
If you study any religion in depth you will find they are ALL pretty bizzare.More people have been killed in the name of a "GOD" than all wars ever, combined.Thats why ALL religions are based on FAITH. Because there is NO PROOF any type of god"religious diety" exists. God didnt create man, Man created gods. But if believing in one makes you happy,gives you strength, makes you able to face another day, and makes your life a happy fulfilling adventure, then MORE POWER TO YOU. IF there is a god, and a HELL I would think it would be full of lying scumbag politicians standing atop one anothers shoulders. Lets try voting 3rd party since ALL democraps and republicants are all the same.GET RID OF ALL ISREHELL FIRSTERS AND DUAL CITIZENSHIPS OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT.Until that is done this country will ramain in the grips of an insane tribe of terrorists.
I'm a Southerner, it's my heritage. You can't take that away from me - and I don't give a damn what you think about my religion.
Now, can we get back to the fun stuff? ;-)
"I have been a member of the LoS for years and I'm an ardent Southern nationalists; will I be accepted in the nation I am working to create?"
As far as I'm concerned, as a pagan, no you wouldn't be, and we would make that abundantly clear.
Our ancestors were raised up from living as illiterate barbarians in northern forests 2000 years ago to creating the greatest culture & civilization in human history, affording unimaginable prosperity, liberty and opportunity. It was Christianity and the influence of the gospel that caused this transformation. It was not spread by the point of Roman swords, but by missionaries who risked their necks to bring the light of the gospel into pagan darkness.
To ignore that history, turn your back on God's blessing and start dabbling with idiotic paganism would be suicidally stupid and would bring down the wrath of God on all of us.
You would be the poster boy for the campaign to "Bring back the Inquisition" with that nescient behavior.
Please take it somewhere else, say New England or California.
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