Representative of NJ Pagans Responds to My Anti-Pagan Comments [EXCLUSIVE]

The other day, I posted about an upcoming Pagan Pride festival coming to New Jersey. Being that it's not up my alley, I got some of it wrong, including the fact that Lady Liberty League is an organization and not an individual activist with a strange name as was misreported in the South Jersey Times from where I picked this up.

Selena Fox, who will be one of the speakers, contacted me. She wanted to clear some things up about what this is really all about, and I thought the best way to do that is offer to place a post of her own here.

This is what she'd like you to know.

Today is the 15th Anniversary of the start of the Pagan Pride Project and the first Pagan Pride Day. These endeavors were begun to help Pagans connect with each other as well as to improve public understanding of Pagan people and Pagan forms of Nature religion. There are now Pagan Pride Days in cities and communities across the United States and in other counties around the world. These free, public events not only include workshops, rituals, performing arts, and exhibit and merchant booths, but also charity food drives and other community service.

The South Jersey Pagan Pride Day will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year at Cooper River Park, Pennsauken, New Jersey on Saturday, October 5, from 10am-6pm. I am looking forward to being part of this event and will be speaking as well as facilitating the main ritual, Celebrating Pagan Community. In addition, Circle Sanctuary minister, Rev. David Ewing, a U.S. Navy veteran, and I will be honoring Military Pagans with a Warrior Blessing ceremony as part of the day and collecting donations for Operation Circle Care which supports Pagans on active duty in the U.S. military. South Jersey Pagan Pride Day is free and open to the public. Those attending are invited to bring canned goods for the Food Bank of South Jersey.

Paganism is Nature religion, rooted in folk traditions of the ancient past in Europe and other places. Just as there are different branches of other world religions, there are different types of Paganism, including Strega, Druid, Heathen, Wicca, Roman, Egyptian, Latvian, Greek, and Pantheists, plus blended forms such as Unitarian Universalist Paganism and ChristoPaganism.

Pagans of many paths celebrate cycles of Sun and Moon, honor ancestors, and seek to be in good relationship not only with other humans but with the greater circle of Nature of which we are all part. Pagans are of many ethnicities, walks of life, and backgrounds. Some are open about being Pagans but others are not because of prejudice and discrimination in some places. Pagan Pride Day events are opportunities to connect with Pagan people and learn about Pagan practices. We do not seek converts but do seek to have respect and equal rights, and to work with those of many religions and beliefs for a society, and a world, with Equality, Liberty and Justice for All.

For more info, check out PaganPride.org and SouthJerseyPaganPride.org.