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This article appeared in NightScapes (a Journal of Magick, Paganism and the
Occult), Vol. 2, No. 1. Subscriptions are $13.00 a year/six issues. Sample
copy $3.00. For more information, write to: NightScapes, P.O. Box 4559,
Mesa, AZ 85211-4559.
HANG TOGETHER OR HANG SEPARATELY:
Which Will It Be?
By Diane DesRochers, B.A.; M.C.
(This article refers to events that transpired during 1992--Ed).
The time has come to fight back against the erosion of our civil freedoms by
the Fundamentalist Christian Right. They use fear to manipulate their
fanatical followers: Fear of damnation; fear of Satan, fear of demons
lurking behind every bush. They burn books! They infiltrate school boards
as well as local, state and Federal government. They even employ terrorist
tactics such as blatant harassment and physical assault on private citizens.
In most states so far, they have been unsuccessful in ramming through
legislation that would make abortion illegal once more. So groups like the
"Lambs of God," threaten the families of physicians, telling school-age
children that their mothers or fathers are baby-killers. They post round-
the-clock surveillance and picketing lines at their homes, and follow
wherever their victims go. In many states they have frightened doctors and
surgeons so effectively that almost none of them are willing to perform
abortions, even though it is still legal.
In Massachusetts, Fundamentalist Christians invaded Salem early last June.
Although vowing to descend on the city in waves, throughout the summer and
fall, to sabotage its "celebration"? of the three-hundredth anniversary of
the infamous "Salem Witch Trials," their primary target was the local Pagan
community. While video cameras rolled, a young Pagan mother pushing a
stroller was grabbed, her hands forced together in parody of prayer and a
Bible waved in front of her. She was ordered to repent and call on Jesus in
order to save her soul. The woman was terrified, for herself as well as for
her infant child. Shops were picketed; customers were blocked from entering
or were filmed without permission for airing on The 700 Club.
The leader of these fanatics, Eric Prior, has a hefty criminal record that
includes arrests for carrying concealed weapons. He is also a third
generation neo-Nazi whose grandfather helped establish the Nazi movement in
the U.S. At what had been publicized as a local rock concert, Prior lead
public prayers for the demise of Laurie Cabot, Salem's "Official Witch."
At this same "concert" one local witch was approached and told that if he
would be willing to publicly denounce the Craft and convert...he really
didn't have to believe....he could earn thirty-thousand dollars and more per
year touring around the country as one of their ministers.
Pagan Community leaders, from as far south as Rhode Island, met with
representatives of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Chief Paul
Murphy of the Salem Police. Also attending this meeting were many local non-
Pagan business owners who were concerned over the threat to their livelihood.
Their shops were being harassed as well; and as a tourist attraction, Laurie
Cabot is an economic asset to the city.
Chief Murphy told the gathering, "The police know what your civil rights are.
But do you?" When rights are violated, he advised, and the police fail to
respond, there are also the State Police, the FBI, the Attorney General's
office, etc. to appeal to for help. Letter-writing and demonstrations are
not the answer. Charges must be filed! "If you don't want to be involved, if
you don't want to take action to defend your rights, then you are part of the
problem."
The Massachusetts Attorney General's office worked with the Salem Police and
local Pagans who had finally decided to take Chief Murphy's advise. Within
several weeks, statewide warrants went out for the arrests of Prior & Co.
The case of a Framingham Pagan came to our attention during the first week of
August. Annoyed by roaches in her apartment building, she called the local
Board of Health. The inspector they sent, on seeing the alter area where she
meditated, immediately started pawing everything, despite her pleas to stop.
He lectured her sternly about her "Satanic" practices and counseled her to
repent in Jesus' name. He then proceeded to search the entire apartment.
When he saw the cage where she kept her ferret, a pet she had owned for seven
years, he flew into a frenzy about the harboring of wild animals being
against the law and then left.
Outraged, she called the police. Minutes later, two of Framingham's Men in
Blue were knocking at her door. They immediately fired off a barrage of
offensive questions such as: "Are you on medication for mental or emotional
problems?...Do you have any drugs or weapons?.....Do you have any pets, and
if so, do you use them in Satanic rituals?" Insisting on seeing the
contraband creature, the young woman took her tiny ferret out of its cage,
holding and petting it to demonstrate how gentle it was. As soon as she did
this, one of Framingham's Finest panicked. Shouting, "Put that wild animal
back in its cage! It can kill us!" he bolted for the door. A few moments
later, two women from the Department of Animal Control arrived with nets,
nooses and a box to confiscate this dangerous beast.
With the help of her veterinarian, the woman was able to secure a license and
retrieve her severely traumatized pet. By the time the incident was over she
was not in much better shape herself and had lost more than a week of
income....all because a witch wanted to get rid of some cockroaches!
New Hampshire is notoriously conservative and the "Christian" Right is a
threatening shadow over the land. Needless to say, NH Pagans are master at
invisibility; their jobs, their standing in the community, their very lives,
they believed...until recently...depended on it. As this state's Regional
Director of WARD (Witches Against Religious Discrimination), I felt great
need her for a sense of Pagan Community and strength in numbers. So we
organized a May Day Festival last spring to lure Pagans out of the broom
closet. It worked! A hundred people attended. The tiny Unitarian Church it
was held in was bursting at the seams.
In March, while we were still hammering the festival together, one of our
fliers brought us to the attention of a Pagan mother up in the Laconia area
who needed our help. Her teenage daughter, also Pagan, had a circle of
friends who were being influenced by one of the older members. Fancying
himself both witch and wizard (Dungeons & Dragons Tradition), he was bragging
that he controlled demons which could possess all of them.
Mother and daughter both wanted someone to come up and talk to them who was a
representative of the Craft: Someone with credentials and prestige that the
young people would be willing to listen to.
We agreed to help. The mother, who incidentally is now a member and Local
Contact for WARD immediately went to work to find a place for us to meet with
her group.
She was given permission to use a local, privately-owned teen center, then
went to the Laconia Evening Citizen to request the presence of a reported at
the meeting....to assure the public that the visiting Witches were acting
knowledgeably and responsibly, assuring these young people that demons (human
or otherwise) were not about to be possessing them and that their "wizard"
was legend only in his mind. A reporter called us the very next day
requesting a telephone interview, which we granted. The article, titled
Witches to Speak at Area Teen Club, quoted us fairly accurately. It was
printed the following day and blew the roof off of Laconia. The place will
never be quite the same again.
The teen center, under a barrage of calls from good "Christians," aghast at
the thought of their young people being exposed to "Satanic" influences,
disavowed any knowledge of what we were and immediately denied us use of
their facilities. Not to be undone, our Pagan mother then approached the
local Unitarian Church. After a call to us from Reverend Paddock to satisfy
himself that we were responsible representatives of the Pagan Community, we
were granted use of the church facilities.
We arrived on the appointed Sunday expecting to talk to a few teenagers in a
small meeting room. Instead, we were ushered into the main sanctuary, packed
with eager, receptive townspeople waiting for us to speak. We arrived around
two in the afternoon. it was almost six before the flood of enthusiastic
questions and dialogue died down sufficiently for us to slip away.
Exhausted, we left with empty stomachs but full hearts.
And then the cauldron really hit the fan! Just about every major paper in
the state ran the story. We were swamped with requests for newspaper, radio
and television interviews. WENH called asking for permission to videotape
our Beltane (Mayday) Celebration as well, which I granted on condition they
warn everyone in advance of shooting, so those who still felt the need to
protect their anonymity could slip out of camera shot. The segment,
broadcast on New Hampshire Journal was excellently done. The Laconia Evening
Citizen ran a week-long series of full page articles featuring our festival,
some well-reported, well-researched pieces on the Neo-Pagan movement in
America, and, thank Goddess, interviews with Pagans as well as Pagan families
living in the Laconia area who had finally decided it was time to
proudly...and bravely....march out of the broom closet and into the sunshine.
As recently as July we were still feeling the fallout. A small weekly talk---