For Gods and Country - The Army Chaplain Who Wanted to Switch to Wicca? Transfer Denied.

Ahhhh Texans...what a fascinating, earthy & independent lot. Still pioneers.
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Wicca doesn't fly with powers that be

For Gods and Country
The Army Chaplain Who Wanted to Switch to Wicca? Transfer Denied.

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 19, 2007; Page C01

SCHERTZ, TEX. - The night wind pushes Don Larsen's green robe against his
lanky frame. A circle of torches lights his face.

"The old gods are standing near!" calls a retired army intelligence officer.

"To watch the turning of the year!" replies the wife of a soldier.

"What night is this?" calls a former fighter pilot.

"It is the night of Imbolc," responds Larsen, a former army chaplain.

Of the 16 self-described witches who have gathered on this Texas plain to
celebrate a late-winter pagan festival, all but two are current or former
military personnel. Each has a story. None can compete with Larsen's.

A year ago, he was a Pentecostal Christian minister at Camp Anaconda, the
largest U.S. support base in Iraq. But inwardly, he says, he was torn
between Christianity's exclusive claims about salvation and a "universalist
streak" in his thinking. The Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of the Golden Mosque in
Samarra, which collapsed the dome of a 1,200year-old holy site and triggered
revenge attacks between Shiite and Sunni militants, prompted a decision.

"I realized so many innocent people are dying again in the name of God," he
says. "When you think back over the Catholic-Protestant conflict, how the
Jews have suffered, how some Christians justified slavery, the Crusades, and
now the fighting between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, I just decided I'm done.
... I will not be part of any church that unleashes its clergy to preach
that particular individuals or faith groups are damned."

Larsen's private crisis of faith might have remained just that, but for one
other fateful choice. He decided the religion that best matched his
universalist vision was Wicca, a blend of witchcraft, feminism and nature
worship with ancient pagan roots...cont'd

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801396.html

The universalist aspect of spirituality grows, and as it does, the dogma of religions crack.

religion, after he saw the light. Why not reject religion all together? I'm not trying to be provocative or arrogant here, I just don't get it.

traditionally attributed to the ancient Gods, deeply rooted in non-dualistic 'reality'.

Simply because they don't ascribe to existing dogma doesn't mean they have any less reverence for this greater organizing and divine intelligence. I think Paganism is having a rebirth in part because it is deeply embedded in our Western cultural roots prior to Christianity and is a better reflection of an evolving global consciousness and our shifting values which are holistic, nonlinear, feminine and inclusive by nature.

But Wiccan isn't the only other alternative. There are many inclusive, holistic 'hybrids' emerging.

"I will not be part of any church that unleashes its clergy to preach
that particular individuals or faith groups are damned."

I think his decision is HIGHLY commendable. It proves him to be a thinking, reasoning person. We have far too MANY people dying because of several major religions that advocate *theirs* is the chosen path, and all others be damned.

Of course, he'll be flamed for his decision, as all people who walk away from violence in search of a more humane belief.

Hell, I did a long time ago with great relief. Religion separates us from them, and all the holy books out there that drive men to kill in wanton abandon need to be shelved in the fiction section. The answer is reject all religion. Why adopt Wicca?

Are you saying that his rejection of christianity means that he cannot find comfort in another religion?

Perhaps this person needs the comfort of being with like-minded individuals. Perhaps what he has been taught regarding Wicca touches something in him that allowed him to make that personal choice. I cannot speak for him, it could be for many reasons.

There are far more Wiccans out there than is acknowledged. Many choose not to *announce* their affiliation because of the negative reaction by christianns. Prejudice and hypocrisy in this country towards any non-christian/judeo religion is pretty fierce.

That very same prejudice allows some to minimize Wicca to a "group that meets at Halloween to sit around a campfire and howl at the moon". It's not fair, it's wrong - but it happens.

I believe it is part of the evolution to agnosticism.

As a Liberal, Secular Franciscan-type Catholic (way far from being an example), I find there's many antics that the patriarchal Church leadership dictate over the centuries that are just absurd. Such as "animals don't have souls." So untrue. The foregoing is the tip of the iceberg with regard to "rules" and "tenets." :crazy: Still, I love Catholicism.

I love The Catholic Faith unvarnished by authoritarian fear and coercion.

What it boils down to is how we "individually" choose to express that part of us that is in communion with God - Our spirituality - soul - that is IMO truly immortal. :shrug:

I think this guy just wishes to either get out of his service OR loves Wicca and wants to snag some publicity for it. Remember, all media attention is good media attention. ;)

I went from your basic believer in a christian god to Mormonism to checking out other beliefs, mostly christian type. My final conclusion was there was not a supreme being and my soul was dead when I become dead. It seemed to me that our universe was awesome and life in general was too. It seemed to me that while we are alive we need to be kind to others and other things. That is where my religion stands at this point. I do respect others beliefs, truly do, this is what I am able to live with deep down.

many different manifestations of agnosticism.

Personally, I choose "agnostic theism" from the numerous varieties of agnosticism, i.e., Theism as belief in god(s), Agnosticism as don't/can't know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_theism

1) Strong agnosticism
2) Weak agnosticism
3) Apathetic agnosticism
4) Ignosticism
5) Model agnosticism
6) Agnostic theism (also called religious agnosticism)
7) Agnostic spiritualism
8) Relative Agnostic atheism

This is how I make sense of my life (and afterlife).

We all must come to terms with our spiritual nature in our own, often times, very personal, way. :shrug:

"You can't intellectually talk about witchcraft. You gotta show up," he says. "What Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and a lot of us universalists think is, people need the magical side, the mythological side, of religion.

"We don't need more Calvinist rationalizing. We need mystery. We need horizons. We need journeys."


..snip..


By the Pentagon's count, there are now 1,511 self-identified Wiccans in the Air Force and 354 in the Marines. No figures are available for the much larger Army and Navy. Wiccan groups estimate they have at least 4,000 followers in uniform, but they say many active-duty Wiccans hide their beliefs to avoid ridicule and discrimination. Two incidents may bear them out.

When a Texas newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, reported in 1999 that a circle of Wiccans was meeting regularly at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, then-Gov. George W. Bush told ABC's "Good Morning America": "I don't think witchcraft is a religion, and I wish the military would take another look at this and decide against it."

That way you cannot rationalize that YOUR expression of the spiritual is any more valid than THEIRS.

It's beautiful philosophy (agnostic theism) because it accepts Organized Religions without encouraging them. Further, it does not discriminate (rank) any religion (whether Christian or NOT) above another.

There's nothing wrong with Wiccan but it sure gets some of the Bible Thumping Christian Sects all aflutter. For that one fact, it's fun to watch the show. ;)

Because there are so many Christian Nutcases around the Services, I suggest that this Chaplin consider parking his "flying broom" and allow the publicity to fade a little. <tongue in cheek> :blush: