Druidry granted charitable status.

[solidair]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11457795

Thought I might see some discussion of this on here. Maybe I missed it?

That Arthur Pendragon has always struck me as a bit of a wacko and what he has to say here dosn't alter my views of him or of so called druidry generally.

[solidair]

Quote:-

"The commission says the network's work in promoting druidry as a religion is in the public interest."

[lewist]

We didn't miss it, Solidair. Try here.

It looks like we didn't take it too seriously, rather with amused and bemused incredulity.

[solidair]

Thanks, Lewist. I'm sorry I missed that one.
I find the whole 'new age'/'neo pagan'/wicca business troubling. I once had the dubious privilige of meeting Arthur Pendragon and found him rather disturbing.

[Alan H]

I once had the dubious privilige of meeting Arthur Pendragon and found him rather disturbing.

But did you bow?

[solidair]

I once had the dubious privilige of meeting Arthur Pendragon and found him rather disturbing.

But did you bow?

No and it all went down hill from there.

[thundril]

There's a guy works down the chipshop swears he's elvis...
And I know a guy who has played at being Gandalf continuously for the last thirty-five years to my certain knowledge..
Harmless? Well, as long as they remain ineffectual, yes.
It's the ones who think they are carrying out the will of Jahweh that give me the horrors..
T Blair and GW Bush, for example.

[Paolo]

This kind of recognition lends more credibility to the neo-druidism movement - which in itself I don't have a problem with, but I will start having a problem when neo-druids start making repatriation claims for the remains of Ancient Britons held in museums, using their new-found charitable status as support for their position. If you think I'm joking, they attempted it a couple of years ago.

I don't have a problem with repatriation of human remains when the claimants have strong cultural reasons to request the return of their ancestors, but when the justification is a hotch-potch reinvention of a culture over a thousand years after it disappeared, I don't see it as valid. It's rather like me marching into a museum and demanding Roman remains, justifying my claim by saying that I have an Italian surname and I've decided to start worshipping Mithras.

[solidair]

Strangely perhaps, I have more of a problem with these sort of new age 'faiths' than the traditional ones. And it's matters such as these reburials and their interference in archaological digs that bug me. I'd rather they didn't just make up a load of old tosh and claim it as 'sacred' but that's their right. But sticking their nose into normal peoples business on the basis of their made up tosh doesn't please me at all.

[Alan C.]

And it's matters such as these reburials

Not just a new age thing, didn't the Catholics try to dig up Newman and re-bury him? Fortunately he requested to be buried in quick lime to speed up decomposition so when they opened his grave they found nothing.

I'd rather they didn't just make up a load of old tosh and claim it as 'sacred' but that's their right. But sticking their nose into normal peoples business on the basis of their made up tosh doesn't please me at all.

Again; that doesn't just apply to new agers but all forms of organised religion, especially when it comes to anything to do with sex.

[solidair]

I haven't come across any new agers with bigoted views about sex/sexuality. Not that they mayn't exist. There are those more...erm...'fruity' sorts who practice sex magic, of course

Taigs seeking to reinter Newman? I can kind of see why they might want to. But interfering with genuine research based on faux connections with ancient sites...or human remains I find different.

[Alan C.]

solidair
seeking to re-inter Newman? I can kind of see why they might want to.

Yes so can I,
To separate him (against his express wishes) from his long time friend (lover?) Ambrose St. John.

[Griblet]

I also worry about the increase in 'New Age' groups and mysticism in general.

GK Chesterton is supposed to have said: 'When a Man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything.' Unfortunately, there is turning out to be a lot of truth in that, and it should be more of a concern to rationalists than to faithheads.

Dowsing, ley-lines, astrology, homeopathy, spiritualism, crystal healing, astral projection, unidentified flying objects, crop circles .... it's all part of the same disease. But what's the remedy?