Thanks to all the folks who emailed me this story -- CNN reports that on Saturday, Great Britain officially recognized Druidry as a religion, and has granted a Druid group charitable status. The Charity Commission for England and Wales processed the Druid Network's application for charitable recognition, and determined that "There is a sufficient belief in a supreme being or entity to constitute a religion for the purposes of charity law."
British Druids have been active in trying to promote education about their beliefs, and hope that this decision will lead to even broader public acceptance. Phil Ryder, of Darwen, Lancashire, led the campaign, and told the Lancashire Telegraph that even though there are only 350 members in his group, there may be upwards of 10,000 practicing Druids in Great Britain today.
Meanwhile, not everyone thinks this is so wonderful. Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail says Druidry is really just a cult of silly people in white robes, and refers to the whole thing as just "totally barking mumbo-jumbo."
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British Druids have been active in trying to promote education about their beliefs, and hope that this decision will lead to even broader public acceptance. Phil Ryder, of Darwen, Lancashire, led the campaign, and told the Lancashire Telegraph that even though there are only 350 members in his group, there may be upwards of 10,000 practicing Druids in Great Britain today.
Meanwhile, not everyone thinks this is so wonderful. Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail says Druidry is really just a cult of silly people in white robes, and refers to the whole thing as just "totally barking mumbo-jumbo."
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook.
Funny isn’t it, that believers of non-pagan faiths feel pagan rituals are “totally barking mumbo jumbo” and never see their own “rituals” in this light. Hmm…
Having read this article, I can only conclude that Melanie Philips has never studied a pagan faith in her life, and I find her comments both disturbing and potentially very damaging.
I wonder if Melanie Phillips is vaguely aware that all the major religions practiced today are based in/STOLEN from Pagan traditions? Somehow, I don’t think she is..
It is about time! The great thing about pagan/wiccan religion is that unlike most other religions, ours isn’t forced on anyone, planes aren’t flown into buildings in our gods’ names, wars aren’t waged because of it.
Whether Melanie Philips believes or not makes no difference. The government recognizes their right to do so. We know how hard it is to get the general christian public to accept us or to recognize our right to worship as we please. Our own former president considers us to be “totally barking mumbo jumbo”. Though those are not his exact words but hers.
One step forward and 2 steps back..Druid finally recognized as a religion is so wonderful but on the other spectrum..we have Christine O’ Donnell and her antics..
“Great Britain officially recognized Druidry as a religion, and has granted a Druid group charitable status.”
Well, whoop-de-do. Druidism WAS the religion pf Great Britian, until the followers of the Cult of Death decided to wipe out their competition, using the Roman Army as the weapon of choice.
We will never know who were the original Druids, and what were their rituals and way of life. It’s still in our racial memory though, and if we dig deep enough, those memories will surface, if a little clouded by memories and experiences of lives in between.
Ditch the Christ, it should never have spread this far across the globe. Go back to our basics, rediscover our traditional roots and belief systems.
Interesting that Christine O’ Donnell claims that paganisim is the bedrock of Communisim and Fascism. Especially since Communisim is staunchly anti any religion save the religion of the state and one of the most notible fascist of the 20th century is Hitler who used his Judeo/Christian leanings to eradicate over 6 million Jews, Jypsies, homosexuals, mentally infirm, and political/social rivals to name a few. And that her so called Judeo/Christian morrals have led to more deaths than any other known religion. Even the ones that used human sacrifice. This woman should learn to do her homework lest she get corrected by thoes who did.