Maine Pagans

New stuff from what the Civic League has called a thriving Pagan underground. First, this weekend will be the 26th annual very public, non-secret, Beltane on the Beach potluck and Sabbat observance. This kicks off at around ten on Sunday, April 27th, at Popham State Park. All welcome, and anyone wanting to participate in the maypole dance, bring a 9-yard piece of fabric ribbon. Other attractions include a Torch Race Honoring Pan.
This is an Earthtides event. (Earthtides is a very nifty networking organization here in Maine, officially formed back in 1989, but the event predates the group.) Many years this event draws a couple hundred of those secretive Pagans. Details about this, along with other recent Maine Pagan stuff, can be read on the EPNN newsletter (pdf), which is very much worth subscribing to!

First Baptist Church Wins

First, sorry it has been so long between posts. Would you believe I was learning to Rhumba? Nah, anyway, on to today's item of interest...
Like everyone else, I've been getting the news on the raids on the Polygamist FLDS Compound in Eldorado, Texas, where authorities have taken hundreds of children from their families, ostensibly to protect them all from sex abuse. I get that forcing middle teens into undesired marriages with older men, so they can immediately start making babies, is not good. I understand that someone claiming to be a sixteen-year-old mother in this situation called a 911 line asking for rescue. I watched Big Love, so I know as much about it as most Americans.
What I don't get is how, with a straight face, the state authorities can actually cart all these kids away in First Baptist Church buses! Hello, separation of church and state? Ring a bell? Everyone has been careful to say that this is all about the safety of the young girls, and I'm not diminishing that concern, but it looks a lot like the root cause of concern is really the polygamy, and I have always wondered why in the world polygamy is against the law. Any reason? People getting hurt? Please, I've been married myself, and two people can do enough damage to one another, so that's not going anywhere.
I see those church buses as a great visual aid in a future Supreme Court case against th state of Texas. It looks like nothing more than faith-based kidnapping to me.