Thursday, July 28, 2011

Charming and Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland (a la Joyce Miller)

In spite of herself, Joyce Miller (Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh) has clearly demonstrated what fans of "The Charmed Ones" already know: that there is no real difference between "Charmers" and "Witches". Read all about it over at my WordPress blog here:
Charming and Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland

Book Burning Hindus?


The so-called “Forum For Hindu Awakening” has posted a story on their website titled “Alert Hindus foil ploy of conversion by Christians on the day of Ashadhi Ekadashi“. This story brags about the fact that a bunch of thugs in Nashik (Maharashtra) physically assaulted a group of “8-10 Christians [who] were going around in two vehicles with the books and explaining importance of Jesus.”

According to the story (at the link) these “Hindu” thugs seized the Christians and their books. And then they burned the books (over one thousand copies). The Christians were turned over to the police, who released them without charges (for they had committed to crime in India, a nation with a Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion).

The twitter feed of the Hinduism Today magazine has also posted a link to the story. Since the people spreading this story are themselves Hindus, it seems, sadly, that it is probably true.
The fools at the “Forum for Hindu Awakening”, along with the world’s most hyperactively self-promoting “Hindu Statesman” Rajan Zed, were the geniuses behind the ridiculous calls last Summer for a boycott of Sacred Source, because of some items for sale at the Sacred Source website that Rajan Zed and some others found offensive. Well, perhaps the boycott wasn’t so ridiculous since it included death-threats!