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.
Background information on the true facts about
Halloween:
http://www.saff.org.uk/haloween.htm
More on How The CofE are Slandering Pagans and have links with the Satan Scare
SAFF (Sub-culture Alternatives
Freedom Foundation) Leeds, Yorkshire U.K.
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