Merchants Divided Over Local Pagan Fest
Saturday September 5, 2009
In Adamstown, Pennsylvania, there's a neat little area called Stoudtburg Village, which is a collection of European-style homes with businesses on the first floor. The whole thing is available to rent if you'd like to put on an event, and you're a non-profit group. Renting Stoudtburg Village is exactly what the Reading Pagans and Witches group did, in order to host an event called Celebrating Earth Spirituality Festival, which is their version of the national Pagan Pride Day.
Some of the shop owners are troubled by this, and a few have even decided to close for business on the day of the festival. One says, "Earth Spirituality Festival is not the image we want to portray for Stoudtburg Village." Another doesn't bother to hide her disapproval, stating, "I am a Christian, and anything that is not worshipping God is something I object to." A few folks say that the festival was misrepresented to them, and they thought it was about aromatherapy and protecting the environment.
On the flip side, other merchants think it's really no big deal. Most recognize that any kind of event that brings in new customers can't be a bad thing. Reading Pagans & Witches president Jen Anderson-Wenger said, "I'm saddened that the stores would choose to close rather than stay open and get potential new customers... but it's their prerogative (to close). I offered to meet with the shop owners who want to talk to us."
Stoudtburg Village is available for rent for $50, which covers trash pickup and restroom facilities. All rentals are first approved by an events committee, who then refer it to an advertising committee. Once both have approved the event, organizers are asked to sign a rental contract. DeLyn Alumbaugh, president of Stoudtburg's advertising committee, said, "We're open to any organization — churches or whatever — that would like to rent the village."
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook!
Some of the shop owners are troubled by this, and a few have even decided to close for business on the day of the festival. One says, "Earth Spirituality Festival is not the image we want to portray for Stoudtburg Village." Another doesn't bother to hide her disapproval, stating, "I am a Christian, and anything that is not worshipping God is something I object to." A few folks say that the festival was misrepresented to them, and they thought it was about aromatherapy and protecting the environment.
On the flip side, other merchants think it's really no big deal. Most recognize that any kind of event that brings in new customers can't be a bad thing. Reading Pagans & Witches president Jen Anderson-Wenger said, "I'm saddened that the stores would choose to close rather than stay open and get potential new customers... but it's their prerogative (to close). I offered to meet with the shop owners who want to talk to us."
Stoudtburg Village is available for rent for $50, which covers trash pickup and restroom facilities. All rentals are first approved by an events committee, who then refer it to an advertising committee. Once both have approved the event, organizers are asked to sign a rental contract. DeLyn Alumbaugh, president of Stoudtburg's advertising committee, said, "We're open to any organization — churches or whatever — that would like to rent the village."
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook!
Comments
How ignorant some people are to other faiths. It almost reminds me of a horse wearing blinders. They have the tendency to listen to hear-say, gossip, and rumors with outlandish information about different faiths but don’t actually take the time to see it. What a shame!
Hi Patti! I’m actually a pretty regular reader here. I’m so grateful that you’ve picked this up.
From my comment on your Facebook: Thank you for all your support! We’re hoping next weekend is a huge success. If you’re in the area and able to attend, please make sure to introduce yourself to me. I’ll be the bubbly red-head running around like a chicken with her head cut off…lol.
What ppl need to realize is …Let’s say God, Buddah, The Divine, Jehovah, Heavenly Father, whichever your belief calls him/her by is in the middle of a forest. Please try to remember folks, there are many paths into the middle of the forest. It is not just one that can get you there. The important thing is that we get there.
Well, because these few are so negative about this event and blinded by their own faiths, they will be missing out on not only an opportunity to perhaps prosper a little, but also the learning experience. Those whom are ignorant usually choose to remain so, and it’s a pitty indeed.
The Christian shop closed? What a wasted opportunity for them to lure potential converts. Their loss.
Yep, it’s a missed opportunity. Also I wish people’s religious beliefs would quit interfering with their ability to be hospitable.
TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WISH TO BE TREATED AND NEVER THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE! WE ARE ALL ONE PEOPLE! WAKE UP!!!
The Wildhunt has a piece on this too.
http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/09/avoiding-pagan-dollars.html#idc-container
A HUGE thank you to DeLyn Alumbaugh, president of Stoudtburg’s advertising committee. I’m glad to see no discrimination from him/her.
I want to thank *everyone* who came out yesterday and everyone who sent prayers our way. We received support, both in words and in person, from all over, even an email from Holland. Pagans, Christians, and Athiests all came out in support (if there were folks from other faiths there I do not know about it).
Even in the rain we had a wonderful day. The shop owners who were open were all very kind and welcoming. Some of the shops that had originally decided to close changed their minds. One in particular even apologized to me for deciding to close in the first place, that this is America and we have the right of religious freedom. Almost each and every shop that we talked to expressed that they were not only glad we were there, but invited us to return. One even made me promise to make this an annual event. Even a few residents who aren’t shop owners expressed the same.
The Opening & Closing Blessings were so heartfelt (though I wish I could have heard the entire Opening). The Harvest Rite was beautifully done by our Youth Exploring Spirituality & Family Time-Out Circles (they even received a round of applause at the end). I would estimate that we had at least 200 people attend, not including those out there in protest and concern. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for more. The rain seemed to keep the “circus” stirred up before the event to a minimum. I saw so many familiar faces, and even more that I didn’t know. So many people came up and thanked us for having the event, many who didn’t know about us or even the Village, and those were the locals!
Though the good far outweighed the bad, I’d be doing a disservice to all of you waiting to hear about the “protesters” if I didn’t let you know what happened with them.
From what I’m told, there was a wall of prayer far outside the village, but I never got the chance to see them. Inside the event there were 2 distinctly different groups of those who gathered in protest. The one group, who made it *very* clear that they were NOT with the proselytizing group, were kind, loving, and invited into an interfaith opening prayer with us. Though they politely declined, they did to a touching (it brought tears to my eyes how much love they have to share) blessing for one of our vendors who couldn’t be there because her husband had his leg amputated earlier this week. They then turned their prayers of light and love to me, personally, and our event as a whole. To this Pagan, those men & women walk the path that Jesus did. I had some wonderful talks with some of these folks who were, I believe, out from Gateway House of Prayer & Good Shepherd Community Church. I even had a very jovial, theological discussion with an older gentleman at the beginning of the day, I don’t think he was part of the GHP or GSCC, that will bring smiles to my face for a long to come, I’m certain.
We did have several benign, and one not-so-benign, incidents that involved another group from Ephrata Christian Fellowship. This proselytizing group interrupted “the natural order of business” (to quote one of the Village’s shop owners). They went as far as to interrupt a reader who was in the middle of a reading. This particular reader is Christian. They then began moving from merchant to merchant. I interceded at one point and asked that they, and the RPW group member speaking with them, move to the (empty) tent where we had talks scheduled for later in the day. When Project Wendigo went on for their first set the men decided to start singing in front of a nearby store. This is when several residents told them that they were welcome to hold an event of their own; however they had to move to the parking lot if they wanted to sing, but they couldn’t sing in our event area.
They even cornered several of our children and asked them what religion they were. When they cornered my daughter, I got involved in a conversation with them. I’m told I politely held my own, I really don’t even remember what was said on either part as I was pretty upset. I do remember telling them that if my 15 year old daughter chose to accept their invitation for her to visit their place of worship she would be allowed to. I left the conversation when someone else engaged them and went about my business of visiting the shop owners. Shortly thereafter I was flagged down by someone who said one of our kids was hurt!
One of our Youth Exploring Spirituality members told the man who tried to give him the pamphlet, “no”. He then tried to walk away, was followed, and began to run away, fell and twisted/scraped his ankle. By the time I got to him, less than 3 minutes later, the man had left. The police were then called by the Village’s own Owners Association. A report was indeed filed and the police, from what I understand, suggested that the remaining members of the group should leave. Some of the members of our Youth Exploring Spirituality Circle are Christian. They were the ones who got the most upset with the proselytizers. They couldn’t understand how someone claiming to be Christian acted, in their opinion, so un-Christ-like.
All-in-all the day was a huge success!
I live in Stoudtburg Village and am deeply dismayed by the ignorance of some of the inhabitants here. There is a good deal of foolishness that goes on here, but this reeks of scary discrimination to me. This is a list of the shops that did close:
Country Pastthymes
Hand Made’N Gift Shop
Hertzog’s Yard Sale Store
The Soxy Lady
Piggies, Papers, and Potpourri
Treasures
These shop owners have publically stated their views, and have chosen to close their doors in the name of Christ. Part of their justification is that Christians will approve of their actions. I will not shop in any of these shops to show them the negative consequences.
Please feel free to copy this list to use elsewhere.
I came up from Frederick MD to attend in support and was very happy to have done so. I agree with Jen – the shopkeepers who were open were quite nice and friendly and glad to have us there. The event seemed well attended despite the rain. The protestors were more amusing to me than threatening, though I was sorry to hear that they frightened the children and one was injured because of it. All in all, it was worth the 2+ hour drive just for the vendors and networking of the event. I wish we could have stayed longer.
Hi Patti! It’s Kat out in Boise, Idaho!
I was driving down a fairly-busy road the other day; I had a good friend with me. IT was fairly warm outside, so we had the windows down….A white Explorer came roaring up, nearly hitting us. THe man reached-out and said, “These are for you…” and then sped off….They were tracs. We had no idea what he was handing us…..SO, after we figured it all out, we sped-up a bit, in an attempt to catch him, but the traffic was quite heavy….HE could have caused an accident with his ignorant behavior….Anyway, both Malia and I simply drew a Pentagram on the back window of his vehicle as he disappeared in front of us.
I wanted to catch-up with him, give him his tracs back and bless him in the name of the Goddess….I work a lot with Diana….so I don’t think I’d be rude, but EXTREMELY abrupt in my candor…
THIS is one of the reasons I am not a Christian anymore…Not that I don’t belive that Jesus was a great teacher….but because of the behavior of many of the folks I KNEW….
Just wanted to share my experience
I am VERY SORRY that the Reading group was treated so poorly…Those merchants should be ashamed of themselves….
BLessings,
Kat )O( – - aka: Moriaria
PS – - He knew I was Pagan, because of the bumper stickers on the back of my truck….Just thought I should add that….
Kat )O(
It saddens me to see that the Christian God has so little room for others.
Man I wish I had heard about this sooner! I would have attended if I had known about it. It’s a shame because this is really the first Pagan event around here I’ve ever even heard about. Although, I’m 15 and the thought of those protesters coming up to me sort of makes me glad I didn’t go. I don’t do well with those people, haha.
Next year I hope I’ll be able to attend.