Chad Nesbitt and the Carolina Stompers [“Fighting Mad: Carolina Stompers Grab Headlines, Make Enemies,” Dec. 5] are a pansy bunch of pachyderms. They’ve repeatedly tried to ride our Witches’ cape-tails to fame—most recently by skulking around and surreptitiously filming the protest ritual we led to save a magnolia tree from a greedy developer. We know their type well. Secretly attracted to Witchcraft but having too big a stick up their chakras to admit it, they bash us in the media while ogling us every chance they get.
So far, these Stompers have talked big smack about us behind our backs, but haven’t had the guts to face us directly. Well, we’ve had it with their WWF-style posturing on the one hand and their wimpy ways on the other.
It’s time for a Spiritual Smackdown. We triple-dog-dare Chad and Nancy Nesbitt to debate us in public, couple on couple, fair and square.
We’re talking timed rounds, a neutral referee, mandatory cameras and a monster venue—we bet many good-hearted folk fed up with the loud-mouthed hatemongering the Nesbitts and their ilk peddle will pack the house to see us mop the floor with their hypocritical “Christian values.”
If the Nesbitts really believe in their own hype, they will rise to this opportunity to debate questions like these:
• Was the United States founded on Christian or Pagan principles?
• Is it better to worship one God, no God, or many Gods?
• Should children and teens be allowed to study Witchcraft?
• Should Man have dominion over Nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should humans treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe)?
If the Nesbitts refuse our challenge, the world will forever know that their rhetoric is empty and their claims are false: They do not aggressively pursue Republican and Christian ideals.
We—and thousands of others, no doubt—will watch this “Letters” section, awaiting the Nesbitts’ agreement that they’re ready to dance.
– Lady Passion (Dixie Deerman)
*Diuvei (Steve Rasmussen)
Coven Oldenwilde
Asheville
Us against them, those angainst these…black or white, up or down, and which one really came first?
Whatever happened to “so how do we co-exist?” I know, I know…they started it: and the game goes on and on. Here’s my coin-toss question: who’s going to quit playing first? Look at your questions. What was it founded on? Is it better to..? Okay, number 3 is a good point, but that’s bordering on Big Brother methods. Should it be this way OR that? Very, very few things have just two sides…and many more things than most are willing to admit have quite a lot in common. The challenge is to find the common viewpoints that most aren’t willing to see.
THAT’S the game I’d like to see played.
“Should Man have dominion over Nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should humans treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe)?”
I think it is certainly appropriate to treat pagans and rocks as essentially equal.
So much hate in the world….Pagans=rocks??? Geeeeeze, it must stink being you guys, hating everyone all the time. What a miserable life. What ever happened to LOVE????? Best of luck to you Lady Passion !!!!
your average rock is not especially smart… why would you want to be equal to a rock?
I don’t know…some rocks get treated like royalty. How many relationships, individual or between countries, have been cemented (or torn) because of a tiny chip of compressed coal called a diamond? Turning towards a modern take, some of the most common rocks (quartz, silicia, flint) have been given the ability to think faster and more accurately than any human alive. Welcome to the age of computers.
but the point is; this debate would be fun! let’s see it happen, ASAP!
As much as I hate the stompers, and would LOVE to see them put in their place, I have to agree with some of the above posts. A debate with them should not be us versus them, our gods/goddesses versus their god. It should be about why they think that their beliefs entitle them to rights that we should be denied (make no mistake, those bastards would burn all of us at stakes, and shoot liberals, gays, and activists like it’s hunting season). Their spewed hatred of all things left-wing is pretty damn scary, but why dwell on whose diety came first (when we already know the answer to THAT question:-)); and while many like them think they have dominion over nature, they certainly get their a**es kicked by natural disasters (as we all do). As for the question of raising children, the best we can do is raise our own to be open-minded. Perhaps they will influence others.
They are sad little people, stewing in their own hatred…however, if they answer your challenge (which I seriously doubt they will), I’ll certainly be there. But, Lady Passion, I implore you, sister to sister, to become the one who steps back a bit from the same argument that has raged for centuries, in every multi-religious society…whose gods are better, more powerful, ect. Instead, bring the debate back to who it really is about…why is one human better than another? What gives any human rights over another? Why is one person’s belief less valid than another’s? These are the issues I see here. As much as we hate their narrow veiws, they have the same right to them as we do to ours. We just have to make sure it stays that way.
Look on the bright side…they are being investigated by the state elections board for that ‘commercial’ about Elaine and the tree protest. Hopefully they’ll dig their own hole.
( a sister of the dark moon)
actually, Morgana, the Stompers wer cleared on the elections board thingie, see:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771224069
and they were not at fault, it was Elaine Lite who showed the lapse of judgement… it was one of those GREAT moments in videoing (as we who produce and show on URTV) seek out — that perhaps changed the election.
what Elaine was thinking I do not know but dancing around that tree sure turned a lot of people off.
she was being lite headed at the time but please excuse her, she has been equated with a rock.
There have been many great points made, and your right morgana they would burn us at stakes and hunt us like it’s hunting season if they could. They also sit back and crack jokes at our beliefs and take things that are said out of text like,(Should Man have dominion over Nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should humans treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe). So now according to them pagans are equivalent to or equated with rocks? Well if that’s the way they want to look at it according to them they will cry out for us in the end, in their darkest times they say so in their own Holy Bible…… Revelations 6:16 And said to the mountains and ROCKS, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, Revelations 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? So for those of you who aren’t quite as smart as us “rocks” Stop Judging and think before you speak next time.
This is just what we want to see — debate! It’s the lifeblood of that institution the Pagan Greeks invented — democracy. (Other Pagans such as Native Americans and the Norse had forms of democracy too … but it’s practically non-existent amongst cultures that demand belief in only one God and only one Right Way.)
Lady Passion and I are pacifists — but that doesn’t mean we’re passivists. We’re not the kind of liberals who are going to just sit around and whine into our capuccinos while a bunch of well-funded right-wingers publicly ridicule our religion.
By Goddess, we may not change them, but at least we’ll teach them to spell Pagan right!
Let’s put lot’s of housing where the Magnolia Tree is, which will eventually depreciate into affordability, move the Magnolia tree, and use it to displace the veteran’s memorial. The Windsor and Interstate hotels weren’t affordable when built either.
“most recently by skulking around and surreptitiously filming the protest ritual we led to save a magnolia tree from a greedy developer.”
That was Richard Bernier who filmed the protest and added sniping sound and text. He first cablecast the footage on URTV and then gave it to “de stompers” for a TV spot to smear Elaine Lite in her run for council.
This is the intellectual level you would be dealing with in your smack-down debate. If “dem stompers” accept your challenge, I’d be happy to join you.
“If the Nesbitts really believe in their own hype, they will rise to this opportunity to debate questions like these:
• Was the United States founded on Christian or Pagan principles?
• Is it better to worship one God, no God, or many Gods?
• Should children and teens be allowed to study Witchcraft?
• Should Man have dominion over Nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should humans treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe)?”
———
OK, i’m totally opposed to the bulk of the idiocy coming from the “Stompers”, however these “debate points” from the local Pagans are about as idiotic as anything i have ever heard from the Stompers! 8-)
to simply answer them:
1. YES! America was founded on Christian principles. DUH!
2. Americans are free to worship whatever so called “gods” they wish to create for themselves! what kind of debate question is that???
3. parents are responsible for whatever education in which they choose to engage. if they wish to allow their kids to study such abominations as “Witchcraft”, then let the blood be on their own hands. regardless, it is a matter of CHURCH not STATE!
4. OF COURSE mankind has dominion over nature! humans equal to animals, rocks & trees, GIMMIE A BREAK! LOL! from what planet is the creator of these foolish debate questions???
locals SHOULD be CHALLENGING the Stompers. however, these debate questions are not a challenge by any sense of the word! they are complete foolishness!
PEOPLE, if you want to effect politics in a POSITIVE way, GET REAL ALREADY!!!
8-)
bbc
•••
I think it would be great entertainment to watch the pagans and the stompers stone each other with their peers.
Why should they?
Edna Campos refuses to debate, or even appear to speak to people who might oppose her views on Illegal Immigration.
And Al Gore will not debate those who oppose his religion of Human-caused Global Warming.
I will be advising them not to accept on the following grounds: that it would be casting pearls before swine, and an unnecessary test conceived with a satanic goal in mind to test God, and attack His believers. And the Coven Oldenwilde is truly a Satanic Organization, denying the Word of God.
Does this mean that there is never an occasion where we can test, try, or prove God? No, it doesn’t mean that. Certainly we can use the information that is in the world to come to the right conclusions about God as we are seeking after Him. Certainly we can seek to discover whether or not the Bible is the inspired word of God and so ask legitimate questions in that regard. But this test of Satan is not a legitimate test. Satan knows what God can and cannot do, as does Jesus himself. Hence, to test something that you already know can be done, is merely an affront. It is childishness. We might as well imagine the conversation of two young boys here. “Can you break that stick in two pieces?” “Of course I can.” “Well, then prove it.” That is Satan’s attitude here; not one of legitimately showing that God keeps his word.
Bobby, aka Thunder Pig
PS At least the Lady Passion is finally acknowledging the ascendancy of the Carolina Stompers with this move to try to trip them up.
(apparently, i’m being censored… i’ll try and tone my comments down a bit, even though i don’t see how they were inappropriate, and see if i am allowed to share my thoughts on the subject.)
“If the Nesbitts really believe in their own hype, they will rise to this opportunity to debate questions like these:
• Was the United States founded on Christian or Pagan principles?
• Is it better to worship one God, no God, or many Gods?
• Should children and teens be allowed to study Witchcraft?
• Should Man have dominion over Nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should humans treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe)?”
———
OK, i’m totally opposed to many of “Stompers” philosophy , however these “debate points” from the local Pagans are about as off topic and moot as i have ever heard!
to simply answer them:
1. YES! America was founded on Christian principles. i believe that is a no-brainer.
2. Americans are free to worship whatever so called “gods” they wish to create for themselves! what kind of debate question is that?
3. parents are responsible for whatever education in which they choose to engage. if they wish to allow their kids to study such abominations as “Witchcraft”, then that is their business and their problem. regardless, it is a matter of CHURCH not STATE!
4. OF COURSE mankind has dominion over nature! humans equal to animals, rocks & trees? GIMMIE A BREAK! LOL!
locals SHOULD be CHALLENGING the Stompers. however, these debate questions are not a challenge by any sense of the word — they are complete foolishness!
PEOPLE, if you want to effect politics in a POSITIVE way, GET REAL ALREADY!!!
8-)
bbc
•••
(now, if these comments of mine do not pass moderation, then i will have come to the conclusion that the moderator must be severely biased about this matter. but it’s OK, i don’t ever expect contemporary media to be unbiased! 8-)
it also occurs to me that ironically, Pagans & mainstream Christians have much in common… they observe many of the same “holy days”, but use different names.
and Christ preached tolerance to others — true Christians do not FORCE anyone to believe anything they don’t want to.
and regarding “publicly ridiculing our religion”, followers of Christ have been putting up with atheists, pagans, and people of all sorts of other faiths ridiculing Christ for centuries at least! if you cannot take a bit of ribbing, then i suggest holding such practices as the “tree rituals” in a more private and intimate setting! ;-)
further, i wouldn’t be praising the Pagan Greeks for “inventing” Democracy. unchecked Democracy is evil – it’s called “MOB RULES”, and it’s NOT the government upon which America was founded.
it’s obvious that our public education system has largely failed us, but to reiterate what all political activists SHOULD already know is that America is SUPPOSED to be a Constitutional Republic, NOT an open and unchecked Democracy.
(now i have to wonder if i’m going to be censored again for some reason unbeknown to me.)
so which version of the bible is the actual inspired word of God? did the devil edit the rest of them? which Christians are right, and which are wrong? please let this heathen know, as i have too many people telling me that everyone else is going to hell but them. it’s like pascal’s wager, but every option still leaves me burning forever in someone else’s eyes.
do you know the divine truth for a fact? how? and how come the rest of the weren’t presented with your cold, hard, factual evidence? I’ve spent the last 2 days learning about carbon-dating because a good friend insists the world is 11,000 years old – who is right?!? how can i KNOW?
Rob:
I will address the age of the earth thing, because there have been so many misconceptions and outright lies based on that piece of myth.
No where in the Bible does it state the age of the earth. No. where. People have made inferences from trying to follow genealogies, and computing the age from that.
Bishop Ussher calculated the day of creation as 23 October 4004 B.C. using such inferences, and I have read others, all of which are trash, and based on faulty reasoning.
The reasoning is that every last person in the genealogical chain was included in the Bible. I think only the important people were listed.
I believe that the earth is old. Until someone can lead me down the path scientifically, I’ll continue to do so. Here is an interesting website that discusses attempts to answer how old the earth is. I don’t really have time to investigate it fully, knowing that my salvation does not require a belief in a young, or an old earth. These are things that can distract us from the harvest of souls.
The questions we proposed in our Letter are perennial questions of popular interest to many folks of diverse backgrounds and viewspoints.
Thus far it appears that Chad and Nancy can dish it out to serve their narrow agenda, but can’t take it return by debating their intellectual Pagan betters in a civilized manner in a public forum.
Typical, and not surprising…
Soon we will be able to crow in print about their timidity!
What’s the point of a dbate about religion? Debates win or lose on logic. no religion is based on logic (unless you are Vulcan) You cant use logic to uphold or refute faith. Faith in itself is a leap away from logic. A debate over such issues is a waste.
Find a better use of your time. Take a dinner to the fire department. Go play with the dogs and cats at the animal shelter, make their last days more enjoyable. Go to the school and help a child learn to read. A debate on Faith? Take a deep breath and think about it.
Your dismissive over-generalizations prove why a debate IS needed. Not all religions are based on personal faith or on revelations by some dead prophet. Many are empirical — based on people’s collective, replicable experiences of spiritual phenomena.
And the forms religions take exert enormous influence in other realms. For instance, monotheism — the belief in only one God — is directly tied to the rise of monarchy (one divinely anointed ruler) and monopoly (one manifestly destined economic power). Whereas polytheism — the belief in many diverse Gods and Goddesses — is historically tied to political pluralism and environmental sustainability.
Man, where are the “agressive” Republican Stompers in all this???
As usual, they love to lob word bombs in print and on TV, but vanish like spooked ghosts when challennged to a real public debate with their intellectual Pagan betters :-)
Typical of their ilk.
A lot of New Agers revere rocks more than they do human beings. Crystals and other rocks are held in very high esteem by many of the alternative religion folks. But in the end, I say live and let live. We are all a bit nutty in our own way. If you want to hug trees and hold witchy prayer circles around them, go right ahead. I would like to see a little more civility. Lets ALL of us be loving and accepting rather than fight about such nonsense. That is the best advertisement for a religion,whether it be Pagan earth-based, or fundamentalist Christian. Any religion worthwhile teaches love and tolerance.
Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
~ Lenny Bruce
“Every day people are straying away from heroin addiction and going back to church.”
(what Lenny Bruce wished he’d done after he died from a heroin overdose)
~NM