"The Malevolent Roots of Wicca" (beliefs, hell, church)

[Feathers in Hair]

It is, thankfully! One of our pagans here notes that the town where the fictional organization is based is not at all intolerant toward our path.

[Mike182]

just to quote the general rules from that site aswell

General Rules

The following violations will result in a monetary fine of no less than $200.00 as to be determined by Church Pastors and Elders: Failure to show up at church on time, Failure to attend a church service without written permission from a pastor or other agreed upon authority, Church parking lot violations, Single males or females caught in the houses of members of the opposite sex without proper supervision, out after curfew, failure to tithe, failure to perform Christian Service obligations, Use of a church key without proper permission, Sleeping and/or horseplay during church services, reading of 'crime oriented' comic books, possession of alcohol outside of Post Communion Party regulations, idol worship, inappropriate dress in town or in church, dress related to 'counter-culture' movement, beards are not allowed except with special permission from Pastor Smith himself, long earrings on women, use of tampons is strictly prohibited, men with earrings or jewelry of any kind, hugging, possession of pornographic material (except for widowed or single men over the age of 65), failure to identify oneself to a church authority, failure to answer a call slip, witchcraft, dancing and/or skipping, association with Catholics, Presbyterians, Mormons, Methodists, Unitarians, Episkypols, or any other occult activity (unless under supervision by Dr. J. Edwards), failure to conform to rules and regulations, failure to submit to authority, the questioning of church authority is not tolerated and may result in dismissal, failure to bring at least one new guest to church a week, failure to win at least one soul a week, disrespect, lying, stealing, cheating, plotting, failure to have a demon-possessed infant sterilized, attendance at non-Christian owned picture houses, and rock music. General Rules are subject to change at any time without notice. Members are expected to find out what the new rules are within two hours. Let us note here, 'A Christian who is interested in doing their own thing, will not feel comfortable at Landover.. we would even go as far to question whether or not that individual is a Christian to begin with.

im sure this style fits the people who worship their, but i wouldn't enter a place like this

[Draka]

Um, actually Feathers...there is no Freehold, Iowa. The town doesn't even exist. They made it up. So, yes, it is a purely fictional and satirical site. Really I find it makes fun of Christians more than anything. To show the absurdity and the lengths some radicals may go to in their own heads.

[Sunstone]

Personally, I feel it is only a reasonable precaution to have demon possessed infant sterilized.

[Feathers in Hair]

That's odd. I could've sworn one of our Pagan members said they had lived there for a time. (And I will admit, it took me about five minutes to be certain it was a satiric site, and I was very worried until I finally figured it out.)

[Feathers in Hair]

*smacks self in head* I can't believe I managed to misread one of your old quotes, Draka.

I saw this ages ago. It is a joke...but I guess it kind of ticks me...if for no other reason than some may actually take it seriously and the supposed church is in Iowa...where I live[img]images/smilies/eek.gif[/img] . There isn't even a Freehold, Iowa anyway, and Iowa, with all its churches, is still one of the most tolerant places I have ever been in. I openly wear my pentacle in public and even perform outdoor rituals and have had people watch on. As of yet I haven't been drug into the basement of any church [img]images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] .

I must not have read that clearly, and managed to interpret it as "where I live... Freehold, Iowa." I'm very sorry about that, and need to give myself a good tuna-smacking.

[s2a]

My extended apologies to those that were either confused or felt misled by my OP. I thought that the satirical (and patently absurd) aspects of the provided "flowchart" were too profoundly ridiculous for anyone to seriously misconstrue otherwise.

I suppose (sadly enough) that the reality of the day opens the door to readily accepting (absurd claims/allegations) overtly expressed religious intolerance as "legitimate differences of religious opinion". How readily our general society accepts (or tolerates) proclamations of abject (even offensive) absurdities when sheathed in the protective raiments of "religious belief".

The fact that we are willing to accept such ignorant and fearful opinions as expected and predictable expressions of extreme (or ideologically prejudiced) "religious beliefs", is an indictment of ourselves in favoring ignorance and fear (even manifest stupidity) as more legitimate than reason and circumspect evaluation of merit.

When some accused murderewr stands public trial, and the accused claims that "God told him to do it", or..."I was just following God's Will"; it never ceases to amaze me that some called juror's would even consider such a defense as plausible, or a factor of reasonable doubt as to guilt/non-guilt in commission of such crimes. "Yeah, he killed nine people...but he thought he was commanded by God to do so...therefore his proffered rationale is worthy of equal consideration as excuse for his heinous actions."

And some believers still continually wonder/question why I'm an atheist...*sigh*