The Examiner (Beaumont, TX) July 25-31, 1996 Pastor Credits Religious Persecution For Arrest By Brian Cox Quote in box: The whole place (cult awareness seminar) stank of sweat and fear of the unknown. /bold texted/ If Jesus Christ himself had been there, /end bold text/ they probably would have thrown him out too." - Rev. Michael Thompson, Spindletop Unitarian The Rev. Michael Thompson said his arrest outside Highland Avenue Baptist Church this past week dates back to a misunderstanding in May. And he and other church leaders in Beaumont see his arrest as representative of religious intolerance and witch hunts hundreds of years ago in Salem, Mass. Thompson, the pastor of Spindletop Unitarian Church, said his congregation and that of Highland Avenue Baptist Church has been at odds since the Rev. Dennis Rozell and others at the Baptist church took issue with the pagan rituals and lifestyles of some Unitarians. These and other differences prompted Rozell to sponsor what he called a cult awareness seminar this past Thursday at the church, where police officers arrested Thursday for trespassing and disrupting the seminar. "The whole place stank of sweat and fear of the unknown," Thompson said, referring to the seminar. "If Jesus Christ himself had been there, they probably would have thrown him out, too." Thompson said Spindletop Unitarian Church is a member of the Unitaria Universalist Association. They embrace a variety of sects and beliefs. Individual freedom of religious belief is something the Unitarian Universalists hold in high regard, and the final authority of theological questions is the conscience of each person. Rozell takes exception to that final authority. "Christ and the Bible are ultimate authority for right and wrong," Rozell said. The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, commonly called CUUPS, is one group in the Spindletop church and Unitarian association, and has been since 1985. It is because of these pagans - which total seven in Spindletop's congregation of 107 members - that a campaign of harrassment has been wrought against the church, Thompson said. A flyer distributed by Spindletop Unitarian states that pagans believe in goddess worship, which takes place outdoors and sometimes at night. The pagans believe they can change into animal forms, and their worship ceremonies are scheduled with the phases of the moon and the changing of the seasons. This worship usually includes singing, drumming, and dancing. "We pride ourselves on our tolerance and theological breadth," Thompson said. He said his congregation includes pagans and others who identify themselves as Buddhists, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Protestants and others. The initial encounter that sparked the animosity in May occurred when the pagan church members were doing some groundskeeping at their church, said pagan high priestess Tish Alexander, who was present at their encounter. After finishing their work, the pagans took a walk to examine the church property lines and a clearing the pagans refer to as the temple. Some children were walking through the woods on their way home from a nearby baseball park and came across the pagans. "There were two women, two men and one boy in our group," Alexander said. "When they saw us, they started throwing sticks, raised a base- ball bat and told us we'd better leave. We told them we were fairies. It's a name we use to identify ourselves with nature." Alexander contends the pagans then started talking to the children, sprinkling with she called magic dust on them and played with them for a couple hours, and then both groups left. Rozell contends the encounter was not that innocent. "As far as I'm concerned, they crossed the line when they told the children they could changed into animal forms," Rozell said. He said this incident opened his eyes to the emergence and acceptance of the occult in Southeast Texas. Rozell contends the pagans in their worship services meet at night behind the church, and use a bare circle of ground with a fire in the middle. They use as an altar a pentagram with candles, a chichen feather, and a horn from an animal. He said they believe in shape- shifting, and the practice of magic. Tom McCauley, a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, is a member of Highland Avenue Baptist Church. His two children were among those in the encounter with the pagans, and he denies the contention that the children attacked or threatened the pagans. "One girl threw a stick in the woods," said McCauley. "That was before the two groups met. The children were intimidated and afraid" during the encounter. Thompson contends Rozell then began a campaign of harassment against his church and its congregations because of the pagans' beliefs. "We don't have anything against the Unitarian church, it's just the pagans," McCauley said. Rozell said: "The differences we have are with the pagans and their practices of magic. I will not compromise on that issue." And Thompson said: "To attack one group of our membership is to attack us all." He met with Rozell and gave him a tour of the chruch to quell rumors about the church and try to settle differences. Thompson said within a few days after the meeting two officers with the Beaumont Police Department showed up at the Unitarian church to investigate a report about occult acitvity. After a tour of the church, the officers left, he said. The seminar was conducted July 18 at Highland Avenue Baptist Church in the 100 block of East Threadneedle. Included among the speakers was Frank Coffin the deputy chief of police for the Beaumont Police Department. He talk about the occult and cults in Southeast Texas. Coffin said he was asked to speak because of his experience with cults in the area. He said what the pagans do in their religious service are none of his business, as long as they don't violate any law. When asked if he considered the pagans anymore of a threat to the community that Baptist or Catholics and if was watching pagans more closely than other religions, he said: "Obviously not." Before the seminar, Tompson and some pagans were passing out literature outside the Baptist church. "We allowed them to do that," Rozell said. Thompson entered the church when the seminar began and was asked to leave when he interrupted Rozell, who was speaking from the podium. Thompson contends Rozell held up a list of Unitarian pagan members, and said Thompson gave him the information. It was then that Thompson said he stood up and said Rozell never got that list from him. That was his only outburst, he contends. Coffin and Rozell contend Thompson made more than one verbal outburst before he was asked to leave the meeting and before his arrest outside. Thompson contends Highland Avenue Baptist Church is attempting to infringe on the pagans' religious freedom. This past Friday, Thompson conducted a press conference with Rabbi Peter Hyman of Temple Emanuel, the Rev. Harlan Merriman of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Bruce Booher of Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The church leaders supported religious freedom but also said they do not endorse paganism. THey said people have a right to express religious freedom any way they choose, and Hyman said some people use the pulpit as a vehicle to limit the freedom of others. "There have been times in history when people have tried to limit forms of worship," said Rabbi Hyman. "Lines are crossed when that happens, and we must speak for freedom everywhere." Rozell said: "To expose their beliefs is not infringing upon their religious freedom. It's informing the community as to what this group does." Thompson is free on $400 bond on a charge of trespassing, a class B misdemeanor with a maximum sentence a $2,000 fine and 180 days in jail. No trial date has been scheduled. Houston Chronicle Sunday, July 28, 1996 page D-1 - front page of "State" Section Some Unitarians aren't moonstruck with pagans beliefs by Richard Stewart Houston Chronicle East Texas Bureau BEAUMONT - Unitarians pride themselves on religious tolerance, welcoming the godless and the God-fearing alike. But a tiny band of glitter-sprinkling, nature-worshiping pagans are causing an uncomfortable schism within Beaumont's usually docile Spindletop Unitarian Church. "We don't mind them being pagans," said Ruth Doyle, a Spindletop membe for the past 40 years. "We just don't want them to do it in our back yard." And that's where the pagans are - literally. In a shade-drenched clearing behind the small church, seven practicin pagans, many of whom got some of their religious ideas from the Renaissance Festival, meet at the changing of the moon to pay homage to nature and a host of harvest, fertility and other gods. They sprinkle fairy dust and dance around a campfire surrounded by a terra cotta statuette of the Greek god Pan, a ceramic fairy that looks like Tinker Bell and an Oriental wise man cast in concrete. Besides the debate it has caused among the Unitarian congregation, this so-called fairy circle circle has irritated one local minister and sent another briefly to jail. "It's a religion within a religion," said Ruth Doyle's husband, Richard. He said some of the other older members of the church, located in a secluded part of south Beaumont, said they feel their church is in the process of being taken over by pagans. The Rev. Michael Thompson, pastor of the church, counters that the denomination has members whose faith is based on humanism, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism as well as paganism. "It's perfect legal," he said, and within the structure of the Unitarian Universalist religion. Indeed, Beaumont's group of seven avowed pagans is one of 100 such groups around the country that are part of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. Called CUUPS for short, the group obtained official status within the Unitarian church more than a decade ago. About 2,000 of the quarter-million Unitarians in the country profess to be pagans. The only other official CUUPS chapter in Texas is in Fort Worth, but there are Unitarian pagans in Houston and most other large Texas cities. "We had hoped to do this quietly," said Thompson. The low-profile approach was shattered recently when Thompson, feeling that his congregation was being vilified during a seminar on the occult at a local Baptist church, ended up being arrested on tresapssing charges. He was released on $500 bond. The Rev. Dennis Rozell, pastor of Highland Avenue Baptist, said his church organized the seminar after some children in his congregation strayed from a Little League basefall field onto the Unitarian grounds and encountered the pagans. The pagans said they were fairies and could change their shapes into animals, Rozell said. One woman sprinkled glitter onto a child, saying it was fairy dust. Rozell visited Thompson and saw the ceremonial circle in back of the Unitarian church. He said he was concerned when he saw a pentagram, a deer horn, a chicken feather and other objects that he had been told are often associated with satanic rituals. A local private detective who claims to have investigated satanic human sacrifices, said he noticied a chain attached to a tree near the altar, as if ready to hold a sacraficial victim. The chain is used to hold a pet dog belonging to one of the pagans, said Richard Jones, Spindletop Unitarian's CUUPS representative. He said people who worship Satan would never be welcome in his group because the existance of Satan is part of Christian theology. Beaumont residents have little to fear from the pagans, said Stuart Wright, a Lamar University socialogy professor who is the media representative for the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. "They're pretty passive," he said. He said that interest in paganism is mushrooming around the country. Many pagans began as ardent enviromentalists who believe the diety resides in nature. The Unitarians' ready acceptance of others has made the church attractive to pagans, who are rejected by more mainstream denominations. Ruth Doyle said she would be happier if the pagans "had held one of their ceremonies and showed it to us and we could have argued about it." Margaret Hartman, a member of Spindletop Unitarian since 1957, said whether to accept the pagans "should have been a congregational decision We don't care what they think, but we don't want them to practice a cult at out church "If they want to get their stuff out of our yard and stay with us, I'll welcome them." The Unitarian symbol is a single flace coming from a plain chalice, and except for a few candles, the chalice is the only religious symbol inside the church. Jones acknowledges that the Celtic cross at the entrance to the pagan prayer circle and other objects might upset some Unitarians. He said the various symbols represent the many different beliefs held by pagans. His personal theology is based on ancient Celtic beliefs, Jones said, explaining the Celtic cross. Other members follow Oriental or Native American themes, he said. Some pagans like to think of themselves as being fairies, some as witches. "There are as many different kinds of pagan beliefs as there are of us" said one woman who asked not to be identified. Paganism's unifying theme is loving nature and seeing the diety within nature. Rather than celebrate on certain days of the week, pagans tend to hold their ceremonies on nights when the moon enters new phases. A new moon ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday night. Eight special holidays are celebrated on the equinoxes, the solstices and at points midway between each, Jones said. Far from dancing around in the nude, as portrayed in some movies, the members usually wear ceremonial finery, depending on the experessions of paganism they have adopted. Pagans have developed an active informational network via books on the subject and computer chat groups on the Internet, Jones said. Events like the popular Renaissance Festival near Houston every year give members and prospective members a chance to meet and exchange ideas. Some pagans invent their own gods, Jones said, deities that weren't gods in antiquity. Yet others are more fundamentalist and agree only to ceremonies that were used by ancient peoples. One member, Edward LeBlanc, a chemical plant worker, embraces both ancient Egyptian and Hebrew beliefs. "We're really just a bunch of old hippies," Jones said with a laugh. Some like to sprinkle glitter, referring to it as fairy dust, and other s express a belief that they can-metaphorically, at least-change their shapes into those of animals. It was the fairy dust and the shape-changing that got the pagans in trouble with Highland Avenue Baptist. Each minister claims the other wa s using the incident to gain publicity. Thompson claims the Baptists are stirring up a "holy war" against the pagans and says he was baited into being arrested. Rozell claims Thompson came to the seminar to make a scene. "He's trying to turn this into a religious rights issue and it isn't. They've got a legal right to do whatever they want over there," Rozell said, adding that he feels that the Baptists have a duty to tell people that the route to salvation is through Christianity. Thompson said he intends to fight the trespassing charge in court. Meanwhile, the Doyles and other Unitarian members are pressing for a meeting to decide if Spindletop wants to continue its association with pagans. Some members have quit over the issue, they said. "We're going to stay and fight it out," Ruth Doyle said. Thompson doesn't doubt that a meeting will be held, but he is sure tha this congregation will wind up supporting the pagans. The meeting could be as early as next month because the Doyles have to get petitions from only 11 members of the 109 members to call one. And, in typical Unitarian fashion, one of the pagans even signed the petition. "There's nothing we can't talk about," he said. We, the Executive Committee, of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) would like to voice our concernes about the recent actions to inhibit the right to worship freely in the town of Beaumont, Texas. Under the purposes and principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association, we the members of CUUPS believe in: * The inherent worth and dignity of every person * Justice, equity and compassion in human relations * Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations * Free and responsible search for truth and meaning * The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large * The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all * Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. The living tradition we share draws from many sources: * Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life * Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love * Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life * Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves * Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit. * Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature. CUUPS operates as part of an interfaith community within the Unitarian Universalist Association. This gives us the freedom and privilege to worship with people actively striving to create a world of peace and a place where all human beings are free to worship and follow their own particular spiritual calling. Together we find in our community the common threads of all human thinking that bonds us together in love, dignity and respect. Common misconceptions in language and misinterpretations of ancient words and texts have created the impression among some that the ancient spiritual traditions of the world are somehow evil or the wrong way to think. We should not forget that many of our modern holidays, celebrations and honor rites of passage ceremonies are steeped in traditions much older than any of the contemporary world religions. The celebratory acts of the folk people were the very tools incorporated to convert Pagans and heathens into accepting these new ways. Those who condemn thes old ways fail to acknowledge this. Recent articles make use of several words which if followed back to the actual interpretations mean nothing like what our modern day society has made them be. Words such as: Pagan (Latin paganus for country person), Witch (Anglo-Saxon wicche/ wiccha for wise person), occult (Latin occultus for hidden) and several others could be used in any description of the practice of many religions around the world including western monotheistic traditions. Our organization is concerned by the possibility that in our country today, religious freedom could be so easily threatened. We must guard against any chance of the witch hunts of the 1600's lifting their heads again. If one groups freedom to worship is shut down or challenged, who will be next? Let not those of popular modern religions forget that they once fought to worship as they do today. We, the Executive Committee of CUUPS stand by the Spindletop Unitarian Church and the CUUPS chapter of that church in their right to worship freely in this country. As Unitarian Universalists, we believe strongly in the right of every person to practice their religion as their conscience dictates. This is a right granted to each of us by our maker, whether it be god, goddess or by any other name. We encourage everyone to do your own research, find your own truth and love and respect the creatures of our planet Earth. Regards, Brydie Palmore, Chair Joan Vanbeceleare, Co-Chair David Pollard, Secretary Patrick Sileo, Treasurer Jerrie Hildebrand, Communications Editor
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