textfiles/occult/htohs.txt

  This article appeared in NightScapes (a Journal of Magick, Paganism and the 
Occult), Vol. 2, No. 1.  Subscriptions are $13.00 a year/six issues.  Sample 
copy $3.00.  For more information, write to:  NightScapes, P.O. Box 4559, 
Mesa, AZ 85211-4559. 
   
                HANG TOGETHER OR HANG SEPARATELY:
                        Which Will It Be?
                 By Diane DesRochers, B.A.; M.C.

(This article refers to events that transpired during 1992--Ed).

The time has come to fight back against the erosion of our civil freedoms by 
the Fundamentalist Christian Right.  They use fear to manipulate their 
fanatical followers:  Fear of damnation; fear of Satan, fear of demons 
lurking behind every bush.  They burn books!  They infiltrate school boards 
as well as local, state and Federal government.  They even employ terrorist 
tactics such as blatant harassment and physical assault on private citizens. 

In most states so far, they have been unsuccessful in ramming through 
legislation that would make abortion illegal once more. So groups like the 
"Lambs of God," threaten the families of physicians, telling school-age 
children that their mothers or fathers are baby-killers.  They post round-
the-clock surveillance and picketing lines at their homes, and follow 
wherever their victims go.  In many states they have frightened doctors and 
surgeons so effectively that almost none of them are willing to perform 
abortions, even though it is still legal. 

In Massachusetts, Fundamentalist Christians invaded Salem early last June.  
Although vowing to descend on the city in waves, throughout the summer and 
fall, to sabotage its "celebration"? of the three-hundredth anniversary of 
the infamous "Salem Witch Trials," their primary target was the local Pagan 
community. While video cameras rolled, a young Pagan mother pushing a 
stroller was grabbed, her hands forced together in parody of prayer and a 
Bible waved in front of her.  She was ordered to repent and call on Jesus in 
order to save her soul.  The woman was terrified, for herself as well as for 
her infant child. Shops were picketed; customers were blocked from entering 
or were filmed without permission for airing on The 700 Club. 

The leader of these fanatics, Eric Prior, has a hefty criminal record that 
includes arrests for carrying concealed weapons.  He is also a third 
generation neo-Nazi whose grandfather helped establish the Nazi movement in 
the U.S.  At what had been publicized as a local rock concert, Prior lead 
public prayers for the demise of Laurie Cabot, Salem's "Official Witch." 

At this same "concert" one local witch was approached and told that if he 
would be willing to publicly denounce the Craft and convert...he really 
didn't have to believe....he could earn thirty-thousand dollars and more per 
year touring around the country as one of their ministers. 

Pagan Community leaders, from as far south as Rhode Island, met with 
representatives of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Chief Paul 
Murphy of the Salem Police.  Also attending this meeting were many local non-
Pagan business owners who were concerned over the threat to their livelihood. 
Their shops were being harassed as well; and as a tourist attraction, Laurie 
Cabot is an economic asset to the city. 

Chief Murphy told the gathering, "The police know what your civil rights are. 
But do you?"  When rights are violated, he advised, and the police fail to 
respond, there are also the State Police, the FBI, the Attorney General's 
office, etc. to appeal to for help.  Letter-writing and demonstrations are 
not the answer. Charges must be filed!  "If you don't want to be involved, if 
you don't want to take action to defend your rights, then you are part of the 
problem." 

The Massachusetts Attorney General's office worked with the Salem Police and 
local Pagans who had finally decided to take Chief Murphy's advise.  Within 
several weeks, statewide warrants went out for the arrests of Prior & Co. 

The case of a Framingham Pagan came to our attention during the first week of 
August.  Annoyed by roaches in her apartment building, she called the local 
Board of Health.  The inspector they sent, on seeing the alter area where she 
meditated, immediately started pawing everything, despite her pleas to stop. 
He lectured her sternly about her "Satanic" practices and counseled her to 
repent in Jesus' name.  He then proceeded to search the entire apartment.  
When he saw the cage where she kept her ferret, a pet she had owned for seven 
years, he flew into a frenzy about the harboring of wild animals being 
against the law and then left. 

Outraged, she called the police.  Minutes later, two of Framingham's Men in 
Blue were knocking at her door.  They immediately fired off a barrage of 
offensive questions such as: "Are you on medication for mental or emotional 
problems?...Do you have any drugs or weapons?.....Do you have any pets, and 
if so, do you use them in Satanic rituals?"  Insisting on seeing the 
contraband creature, the young woman took her tiny ferret out of its cage, 
holding and petting it to demonstrate how gentle it was.  As soon as she did 
this, one of Framingham's Finest panicked.  Shouting, "Put that wild animal 
back in its cage!  It can kill us!" he bolted for the door.  A few moments 
later, two women from the Department of Animal Control arrived with nets, 
nooses and a box to confiscate this dangerous beast. 

With the help of her veterinarian, the woman was able to secure a license and 
retrieve her severely traumatized pet.  By the time the incident was over she 
was not in much better shape herself and had lost more than a week of 
income....all because a witch wanted to get rid of some cockroaches! 

New Hampshire is notoriously conservative and the "Christian" Right is a 
threatening shadow over the land.  Needless to say, NH Pagans are master at 
invisibility; their jobs, their standing in the community, their very lives, 
they believed...until recently...depended on it.  As this state's Regional 
Director of WARD (Witches Against Religious Discrimination), I felt great 
need her for a sense of Pagan Community and strength in numbers. So we 
organized a May Day Festival last spring to lure Pagans out of the broom 
closet.  It worked!  A hundred people attended.  The tiny Unitarian Church it 
was held in was bursting at the seams. 

In March, while we were still hammering the festival together, one of our 
fliers brought us to the attention of a Pagan mother up in the Laconia area 
who needed our help.  Her teenage daughter, also Pagan, had a circle of 
friends who were being influenced by one of the older members.  Fancying 
himself both witch and wizard (Dungeons & Dragons Tradition), he was bragging 
that he controlled demons which could possess all of them. 

Mother and daughter both wanted someone to come up and talk to them who was a 
representative of the Craft:  Someone with credentials and prestige that the 
young people would be willing to listen to. 

We agreed to help.  The mother, who incidentally is now a member and Local 
Contact for WARD immediately went to work to find a place for us to meet with 
her group. 

She was given permission to use a local, privately-owned teen center, then 
went to the Laconia Evening Citizen to request the presence of a reported at 
the meeting....to assure the public that the visiting Witches were acting 
knowledgeably and responsibly, assuring these young people that demons (human 
or otherwise) were not about to be possessing them and that their "wizard" 
was legend only in his mind.  A reporter called us the very next day 
requesting a telephone interview, which we granted. The article, titled 
Witches to Speak at Area Teen Club, quoted us fairly accurately.  It was 
printed the following day and blew the roof off of Laconia.  The place will 
never be quite the same again. 

The teen center, under a barrage of calls from good "Christians," aghast at 
the thought of their young people being exposed to "Satanic" influences, 
disavowed any knowledge of what we were and immediately denied us use of 
their facilities.  Not to be undone, our Pagan mother then approached the 
local Unitarian Church. After a call to us from Reverend Paddock to satisfy 
himself that we were responsible representatives of the Pagan Community, we 
were granted use of the church facilities. 

We arrived on the appointed Sunday expecting to talk to a few teenagers in a 
small meeting room.  Instead, we were ushered into the main sanctuary, packed 
with eager, receptive townspeople waiting for us to speak.  We arrived around 
two in the afternoon. it was almost six before the flood of enthusiastic 
questions and dialogue died down sufficiently for us to slip away.  
Exhausted, we left with empty stomachs but full hearts. 

And then the cauldron really hit the fan!  Just about every major paper in 
the state ran the story.  We were swamped with requests for newspaper, radio 
and television interviews.  WENH called asking for permission to videotape 
our Beltane (Mayday) Celebration as well, which I granted on condition they 
warn everyone in advance of shooting, so those who still felt the need to 
protect their anonymity could slip out of camera shot.  The segment, 
broadcast on New Hampshire Journal was excellently done. The Laconia Evening 
Citizen ran a week-long series of full page articles featuring our festival, 
some well-reported, well-researched pieces on the Neo-Pagan movement in 
America, and, thank Goddess, interviews with Pagans as well as Pagan families 
living in the Laconia area who had finally decided it was time to 
proudly...and bravely....march out of the broom closet and into the sunshine. 

As recently as July we were still feeling the fallout.  A small weekly talk---