Pagans and the Daily Mail - a year in the life of a hate campaign

The Daily Mail, for those who don't know, is a rather conservative newspaper in the UK. They are renowned for their backward, nimby attitudes towards anything new, fun or alternative. They feel threatened by people who live lives that do not mould well into the high-brow suburban society they seek to create. They attack the spiritual beliefs of most non-Christians.

This particularly applies to Pagans. The DM has, for many years, targetted an intense hate campaign against the very idea of Paganism. They hate the non-Christian values, the clothes, the attitudes; they hate the freedom the liberty and the feminism; they hate the rituals, the spells and the accoutrements; but most of all they hate the fact that most Pagans have jobs so they can't target them using the "worthless doley scum" arguments they apply to most hippy types.

Over the course of the last twelve month's articles, the full picture of the campaign comes to light. There were two articles about Pagans in the military. Apparently, some of these men and women may be serving in the war against terror. I'm not sure why that makes it any more or less shocking. Anyhow, apparently 130 people in the UK forces are practicing Pagans, though this figure is itself slightly suspect as it includes 50 Rastafarians. There was a separate article about a modern stone circle at a military training camp in Colorado, where apparently security is tight due following a row last year over a Pagan Cross.
There is also a lot of talk about Pagans in the police. The DM is very upset that Pagan Police Officers are permitted religious days off - for Samhain, Imbolc etc and the solstices and equinoxes. In a society that claims to be multicultural, why the fuck not? Just because the DM doesn't understand the need to worship the solstice, for example, doesn't make it wrong.

Following with the law and order theme, they are also up in arms about prisoners who are Pagans. (The main photo for the article is of some drugged-up hippies at the Stonehenge solstice celebration). They are permitted to get a day off work for four days per year, which they choose out of the main eight. They can also, within reason, request special food on these days (as can followers of other faiths). So the DM would disallow this would they? Deny someone their faith? Pagan prisoners are also allowed to have in their possession a wand and a hoodless robe. The DM are all upset about this too. You'd think they would want to encourage clothing like that, with all the ranting they do elsewhere in the paper about hoodies.

So how about the man from Wales who was on probation for a weapons offence? The offence was of having a knife in a public place. It turns out that it was an athamac that he uses in Pagan rituals. This arrest is an issue itself, though to be fair he did have previous for firearms. Nonetheless, he got a tag for four months, but was permitted special dispensation for full moon nights, when he was allowed to go out to do rituals up on the moors. If he'd asked for special dispensation to go to Midnight Mass this wouldn't have even been a story. The DM spins this gentleman as an evil criminal who is using the ridiculous equality laws to get away with a lighter sentence.

They also reported a case in April about a man acquitted of benefit fraud. Once again, it's the kind of thing that happens every day, but the DM reports it because the man was a pagan. They obviously did not think he should have been acquitted. They described him as, "The emotional Druid, who has long flowing brown hair, a thick chest-length curly grey beard and walks with a wooden staff". No stereotypes there, then.

The attitude of the DM to Pagans is symptomatic of their general campaign against "political correctness gone mad". They feel that the laws protecting the rights of followers of Paganism (as a bona fide religion) are what is at fault. Furthermore, they make paltry hints that they believe New Labour, with their Equality and Diversity agenda, are "responsible" for the rise of Paganism and (what they see as) the problems this causes in society. In one particularly impressive rant last october, to mark the Charity Commission's decision to recognise Paganism as a religion of equal status to the more mainstream ones, columnist Melanie Phillips begins: "Will somebody please tell me this is all a joke?" She argues that equality and human rights laws serve to minimise and alienate traditional monotheistic beliefs whilst trumping up out of proportionate the more obscure ones. This is bullcrap. She minimises and alienates Christian values, by purporting to speak for them with one hand, while with the other she pisses over her neighbours and preaches hate. Pagans, on the other hand, tend to believe that all people are equal regardless of their spiritual beliefs.

Sticking with politics, DM reported that Christine O'Donnell, a Republican politician from Delaware, is a Pagan. If you read the small print it says that she went on a date with a witch when she was 17 years old and has never practiced any kind of Paganism herself. (To be fair, the DM did not start this smear of O'Donnell which has been going on for years). However the DM have their own agenda against her - for why, I dare not ponder - so have listed half a dozen reasons to mistrust her, concluding, "she's a Witch, what do you expect?" (Instead of the more obvious, "she's a politician, what do you expect?") This is quite a clever way to reinforce their anti-Pagan stance.

One sensationalist headline in november stated, "Schools get go ahead to teach Paganism." Let's break that down a little. That statement implies that all schools across the nation will now be teaching Pagan values as a whole subject. It almost implies that other belief systems could be scrapped from schools. I can almost imagine the worried suburban parents, thinking their children will be sacrificing goats instead of singing hymns. What's the reality? One local council claims to have had a debate about it. Some vague inconclusive discussion is reported on some council meeting minutes, which were probably largely fabricated by the secretary anyway, (like most meeting minutes), and of course they were discussing the teaching of it as a system of beliefs alongside all the other ones. I was shocked to discover that this does not happen already. The DM is shocked that it might happen. Why? What are they scared of, that their kids might learn that there are different types of people in the world?

There were many other stories following these kinds of themes. A harrassment tribunal in New York where a woman's colleagues were frightened she was putting spells on their cars. The BBC show one TV programme about Samhain and are accused of marginalising Christianity. More policemen doing rituals with pig's trotters. Some academic trying to argue that Paganism is a dangerous cult. That sort of thing. One other article deserves special mention - a celebratory story announcing a new book, produced by the Catholic Church, which is a guide for parents worried that their children might be getting into witchcraft. The pic for the story shows the main cast of the Harry Potter films, as if they represent all the reasons children might get into witchcraft. I won't be rushing out to buy a copy (though I might try and download one to have a laugh at it!)

Perhaps the DM will see the light and recognise that people who practice the various forms of Paganism are, basically, just like them. Human beings with their own ways of living, own beliefs, own ways of thinking that are just as valid. Perhaps someone will point out that worshipping an almighty deity in the sky sounds just as ridiculous, to a nonbeliever, as worshipping the spirits of the earth. Though in actuality, the DM probably don't care about that stuff, just as long as the Pagans are lower down the economic and social scales than they are - as long as they have a worse status in the law - they can feel like they have kept some of the fencing around their back yard.