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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 29, 2014 12:11:46 GMT -5
Commissioner walks out as pagan gives sing-song invocationPENSACOLA – A Florida pagan was given the opportunity to offer the invocation at an Escambia County Commission meeting Thursday, but one commissioner wouldn’t stick around to hear it. By law, the commission had to allow David Suhor, a self-described Agnostic Pagan Pantheist who worships nature, to give an invocation, according to ABC affiliate WEAR-TV.
When Suhor recited the pagan prayer in song calling the directions north, east, south and west, Commissioner Wilson Robertson walked out. “People may not realize it,” Robertson told WEAR. “But when we invite someone, a minister to pray, they are praying for the county commissioners, for us to make wise decisions and I’m just not going to have a pagan or satanic minister pray for me.”
Suhor said he wanted “other people to experience what it’s like when I go to a meeting and am asked to pray against my conscience. The boards have had prayers and they’ve been almost exclusively of the majority religion, so I wanted to offer an alternative.”
Suhor has been before the county commission previously, as well as the Pensacola City Council, but the Escambia County School Board has refused his request. School Board member Jeff Bergosh explained his stance on his personal blog site, saying this:
“I mean, should the majority of persons in attendance at one of our meetings really have to listen to a satanic verse? What if a “Witch Doctor” comes to the podium with a full-on costume, chicken-feet, a voodoo doll and other associated over-the-top regalia? It could easily get out of hand, so far as I can tell…. (I wonder what our local media would say about this?)
“And I won’t stay and listen if someone tries to be disrespectful like that.”
Litigation could be in the works soon, as Suhor says he may sue on the grounds of discrimination against religion, adding that the board should consider a moment of silence instead of any prayers. “I think they should not be offering a prayer or sponsoring a prayer of any particular religion,” he said. “Instead, I think they should have a more exclusive moment of silence which allows anyone to pray according to their own conscience.”
Watch the presentation here:www.bizpacreview.com/2014/09/28/video-fla-commissioner-walks-out-of-meeting-when-pagan-delivers-bizarre-satanic-singing-invocation-148589
Source: Cheryl Carpenter, Klimek, BizPac, September 28, 2014.
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Post by jason on Sept 29, 2014 17:34:25 GMT -5
I'm surprised more than one person didn't walk out. I'd walk out if I attended a meeting and some fool got up chanting like an idiot.
BTW, what is it with pagan men and these ridiculous tunics they wear? That Bert Dahl freak in Arkansas wears tunics.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Sept 30, 2014 11:10:51 GMT -5
I agree that it is not something I'd want to hear either. However I also think that if they are going to allow any religious sentiments or prayers, then they have to allow all.
Personally I have to agree with Suhor's statement - “I think they should not be offering a prayer or sponsoring a prayer of any particular religion,” he said. “Instead, I think they should have a more exclusive moment of silence which allows anyone to pray according to their own conscience.”
This would solve the problem in my opinion.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Sept 30, 2014 11:17:38 GMT -5
To add: I am not sure of the exact symbolism or reason for the tunics. Some masonic organizations use them as well, although they will dress them up with other regalia. I'll see if I can find out because that is a good question.
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Post by kitty on Sept 30, 2014 13:36:05 GMT -5
I'd also like to know about the tunics. Personally, I think that men look silly in tunics. I agree with Kate that witchcraft is for women. I've never known a man who claimed to be a witch or pagan who wasn't weird.
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Post by catherine on Sept 30, 2014 19:34:33 GMT -5
I agree, Kitty. It's one thing for a woman to dress a certain way, like a gypsy fortuneteller, or whatever, but men who call themselves pagan, Wiccan, Druids, or whatever, are just plain creepy. Men who like to play dress-up should confine it to the Masonic Lodge and other private clubs, not parade around in public looking like freaks.
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Post by kitty on Mar 10, 2015 18:06:23 GMT -5
To add: I am not sure of the exact symbolism or reason for the tunics. Some masonic organizations use them as well, although they will dress them up with other regalia. I'll see if I can find out because that is a good question.
April: Were you ever able to find out why men who call themselves pagans and Wiccans wear tunics?
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Post by aprillynn93 on Mar 11, 2015 13:21:49 GMT -5
I have been unable to find anything really definitive as to why it is "pagan" or wiccan men wear tunics. The only thing I found that could possibly relate is that it is reminiscent of the style people wore in ancient times as depicted in literature. Perhaps because they consider themselves pagan, they are wanting to wear what was worn pre-Christianity. That is just my guess though. I'm not even sure that any wiccan men would know any real symbolism for wearing them.
Certainly if I come across more info about them, I'll post it.
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Post by Kate on Mar 13, 2015 8:24:57 GMT -5
I think it's because we always think of magicians wearing robes and walking around in a robe is too weird even for weirdos like Bert Dahl, so they wear tunics instead.
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