{"id":4794,"date":"2006-11-04T14:29:40","date_gmt":"2006-11-04T14:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/pagans-v-christians.html"},"modified":"2006-11-04T14:29:40","modified_gmt":"2006-11-04T14:29:40","slug":"pagans-v-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/pagans-v-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"Pagans v. Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glastonbury, a small town in the south of England, is a center of mythic\/mystical\/neopagan activity.<\/a> A sort of Lilydale<\/a> or Cassadage<\/a> across the Pond. Last weekend, a group called Youth2000 <\/a>sponsored a retreat in Glastonbury that drew about 300 attendees. <\/a>Conflicts between the pagans and Christians have made the news.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Christians were visiting for the Lightswitch@glastonbury festival, the eighth such event organised by the Catholic charity Youth 2000. Promotional material tempted them there with slogans such as: \u201cHas the light on your halo gone dark? Have your wings gone a bit grubby? Just want to switch your faith back on?\u201d <\/p>\n

Organised with the co-operation of the Catholic Parish Church and Shrine of Our Lady St Mary in Glastonbury, it was intended to be the Hallowe\u2019en of choice \u201cfor those who have grown tired of tatty fancy dress and the Blair Witch Project\u201d. <\/p>\n

But police were called after militants told locals that they wanted to cleanse the town of paganism, cast salt around to exorcise \u201cevil\u201d spirits and called one woman a \u201cwhore witch\u201d. <\/p>\n

Yemaya Pinder, a witch and a member of the Pagan Federation who owns The Magick Box store, said thatshe believed the Christians should be prosecuted for a religious hate crime. <\/p>\n

Mrs Pinder, a mother of two and grandmother of four, and whose sister is an Anglican vicar in Basildon, described how a group of Catholics had entered her shop and abused her. <\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIt was as if we had returned to the dark ages. They told me they wanted to cleanse Glastonbury of paganism. They said they had lighters and were going to come back and burn us down. When the police asked them to apologise, they refused.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The official statement from Youth2000 <\/a>apologizes for the incidents, but says that there were only a few individuals involved, and that there are two sides to every story:<\/p>\n