Posted on 11/28/2001 5:56:58 AM PST by Cagey
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Reuters) - A Kansas retreat that caters to witches and pagan rituals is fighting for survival amid community talk that naked witches may be weaving magical spells in the moonlight.
The owners of the Gaea Retreat Center, a 168-acre camp west of Kansas City that is home to such annual events as the Gaea Goddess Gathering and a "Heartland Pagan Spiritual event" filed suit on Monday in Leavenworth County District Court after county commissioners effectively put the retreat out of business by denying it a renewal of its land use permit.
"They say they're afraid of us, what we do here, the sound of drums. ... They don't know how lucky they are to have us as their neighbors," caretaker Wanda Roths said. "We're very quiet, very peaceful. There has never been any trouble out here."
The Leavenworth County commissioners denied the renewal for the permit, issued six years ago, in late October after a community petition raised accusations that the retreat fostered public nudity, pedophilia, and illegal drug and alcohol use. Neighbors also expressed concern about devil worship.
The suit claims the commissioners' denial is illegal and unconstitutional, as well as violating laws protecting freedom of religious expression and practice.
Lawyers for the county declined to comment.
The retreat denies any illegal activity, and county officials say there is no evidence of any.
Roths said there are "clothing optional" locations on the retreat grounds, and witches, Wiccans and other pagans do sometimes hold nighttime meetings around bonfires. But the retreat at times also attracts more traditional religious followers, she said.
Gaea, which means "Mother Earth," offers sanctuary to a variety of alternative religions and lifestyles, according to Roths. "We accept anybody," she said.
Before its current incarnation, the sprawling site was a church camp.
I'm not saying that at all, though I do believe our court system is one of the fairest and most consistent ever achieved by civilized man.What I was illuminating with my comment was your incredible hypocracy with church and state issues. When it comes to government inference with the practice of your religion, you get righteous and indignant. But when it comes to government interference with the practice of other peoples' religion---religion you deem invalid---you wipe your hands, walk away, and say so what. Even worse, you say if they get punished a little bit it's a-ok with you.
You can't have your cake and eat it too, Wonk. If government interference is bad for your religion, it's bad for all religion. I can't believe a contributor to a conservative website actually has difficulty with this simple bit of theory.
Yeah - THAT'LL get volunteers to go help!
Are you among 'em, volunteering to be RECON?
Sadly, we're too often not saying the right thing.
Saying that I expect persecution from the government and saying that I don't look to them for support is not getting righteous and indignant. When I see the government actually do something right in a higher view I'm not going to drop to a libertarian world view and defend everyone's right to do what ever they want. Defending a queers and witches rights to do what they want is like defending a baby's right to play in the street.
Wow! In message #58 you lament about Christians being persecuted, and you want to persecute others for not believing in your values. Hypocrite!
My dog tags would have said athiest when I joined the Army but they refused to put it there. They put non instead. Whatever they want covers a lot of ground which is a point I've tried to make several times on this thread.
These pagans aren't hurting anyone, and I fail to see why you object so strongly to their right to assemble and worship as they will in private.
I don't object that strongly. I believe they have a right to believe what ever they want as I've already said. I object to the lie they believe as I do the lie that you believe and I won't fight very hard to defend a lie. That is the point I am trying to make. It's a religious point.
Your kind of "I'm a Christian before I'm an American" pap is what makes me think that the ACLU might not be wrong in keeping religion out of public life.
"Defend to the death" is PAP. You proved it yourself before you even finished your little rant.
Even today, we (most of us, anyway) wear clothes, not only because we're cold or ugly. We do so because it's the right thing to do.
If you think that makes me an "ignorant prude," you can go "flog" yourself (verbally or not, I couldn't care less).
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