CHURCH OF ENGLAND ACCUSED OF PROMOTING RELIGIOUS HATRED

The Church of England was today branded intransigent and imperialistic for breaking all its previous promises with regard to multi-faith harmony by condoning an attack on the religion of Paganism

The Sub-culture Alternatives Freedom Foundation (SAFF), a human rights group formed in 1988 which works to protect the religious rights of minority groups, has accused the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, of allowing his evangelical wing to breach the religious hate laws in a campaign by the Manchester Diocese. The campaign, despite a complete lack of evidence, alleges that Pagan Children who are allowed to celebrate Halloween will suffer permanent psychological damage.

The SAFF has demanded that Rowan Williams take action to correct this sectarian propaganda. If no action is taken the SAFF will have no alternative but to take the Church of England to the courts with an official complaint of a breach of the new Religious Hatred laws.

SAFF director Tony Rhodes said: "I was completely stunned by the Church's breach of UK Religious hatred law with such unsubstantiated claims. Especially after so many years of trying to include individual Pagans, and their organisations, in Interfaith forums up and down the country. Our phones have been red hot with angry Pagans who feel insulted by this insensitive and malicious allegation that they can't look after their kids. People who took part in interfaith forums must feel really betrayed."

SUPERMARKET BLACKMAIL?

It is common knowledge that Christian evangelists have for years campaigned against the popularity of Halloween but this deceitful allegation about harm to Children at Halloween is a step too far.  The Church of England's Manchester Diocese appear to be trying to use this misdirection to frighten supermarkets and corner shops into not stocking Halloween masks and costumes, or to force them to display Christian related regalia alongside them. If the CofE tried this with Eid or Diwali there would be utter outrage from the Moslem and Hindu population, yet the imperialist minded evangelists in the CofE are so behind the times they think they can get away with it in relation to minority beliefs. Halloween one of the most sacred festivals of the pagan calendar.

WHO IS DAMAGING WHOM?

They claim Halloween can cause long term psychological damage but all kids know that Halloween toys are make-believe. They know that putting on masks and costumes is not reality and is meant as fun. What damage could this possibly cause? The vast commercialisation of Halloween in recent decades is not something pagans find objectionable because we like children to enjoy themselves, but apparently the killjoys in the Church of England do not. The crux of the matter is that some evangelical activists in the CofE are trying to establish the lie that children who celebrate Halloween will be psychologically damaged and Rowan Williams is letting them get away with. .

Tony Rhodes said:  "They are trying to say that allowing kids to wear Halloween costumes is a form of abuse.  The implications for Pagan families is immense and we have every right to be outraged. "

They hypocrisy of the CofE is very clear when one compares the Christian festival of Easter to Halloween. Children are shown an image of Christ nailed to a cross with blood dripping from wounds. If there was any truth in the Manchester Diocese's slur; if exposure to images did permanently damage children then Christianity would clearly have questions to answer. Yet here they are besmirching the genuinely held beliefs of a religion which is much older than theirs by inferring that our celebration is a form of child abuse.

The hysterical Satanic Ritual Abuse scare, long proved to be a dangerous and socially damaging libel, was also based on accusations of child abuse and first fostered in the UK by troublemakers from evangelical Christian groups. Ultimately wasting taxpayers' millions of pounds, and destroying many innocent families. Have the British public forgotten the cold shiver when they first heard of the 'dawn lifts' of children snatched from their beds by social work stormtroopers? The Manchester Diocese of the CofE is located only a stone's throw from Rochdale, the scene of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the Satan Scare of the 1990s. How can these people be so totally insensitive?

In conjunction with the Pagan Anti-Defamation Network (PAN) the SAFF are already in correspondence with Dr Rowan's secretary Andrew Nunn at Lambeth Palace ( andrew.nunn@lampal.c-of-e.org.uk ) over the matter but fear that the evangelical wing of the CofE is now so powerful that they will be allowed to get away with this open and direct insult to another religion. We demand that Rowan Williams reigns in these troublemakers forthwith.