The Town Scryer is a mixed bag of humor, socio-political observations and ephemera from the perspective of a eclectic Pagan veteran of the counter-culture.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Free Speech or Religious Persecution?

Nikki Kitchen, who practices witchcraft and runs White Trinity Witch in Plymouth, said Pro-Christian leaflets were pushed through the door.
Anonymous handwritten notes have also been delivered to the shop.
Ms Kitchen previously had to stop running a stall in Plymouth's indoor market because of abusive comments.
Ms Kitchen said: "Churchgoers think we're the spawn of Satan."

"They expect us to accept their religion but they don't look at Paganism as being one of the oldest religions going.
"I think people are just uneducated, it's not about devil worship at all.
"It's about love light and using the earth to heal the people around us."

Ms Kitchen said she had not reported the leaflets to the police but had emailed the company behind them to complain and had heard nothing back.
Dr Theodore Danson-Smith who runs a company which distributes leaflets like Ms Kitchen received, told BBC Radio Devon: "We don't sell any hate mail whatsoever.
"It's not hate mail, it's telling the way of salvation.
"Any witchcraft shop is working for Satan not for God."
He said he did not know which Christian group had posted the leaflets, which are entitled "The Beast" and written in comic book form, through Mrs Kitchen's door.

"The Beast" is a Jack Chick publication. Other Jack Chick publications conflate the role playing game :Dungeons and Dragons" with Satanic Ritual Magic.

Obnoxious and ill-mannered, but is it persecution or merely over-aggressive proselytizing? 

Re-read the story and substitute "Jew" for "Witch". That changes things a bit, doesn't it? It still isn't clear which side of "the line" this case is on, but the line moved, didn't it?  The laws are different in the U.K. than here on freedom from religious persecution, but they ought not to have a threshold demographic percentage before they apply.


     Be Seeing you.

     

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