Monstrous
Witches Brew => Pagan Living => Topic started by: Ladygriffin on October 08, 2010, 07:38:50 AM
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This is misleading - it is actually just a financial thing, accepting that the approximately 350 members of a single organization, are entitled to tax breaks.
Druids have always been an accepted and respected part of British society: for example, the Brits have had the Eisteddfods since 1176, the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru (also registered as a charity and provided with funding in law by the Eisteddfod Act of 1959) since 1861, the Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain (Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain) since 1792, and King Arthur, as Battle Chieftain of the Council of British Druid Orders, is the only man in the country today legally allowed to walk the streets wearing a sword.
To intimate that somehow pagans/druids get a raw deal in Britain is nonsense.
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- it ALSO means that Druidry is seen as a religion that is beneficial for society in the UK.
Rubbish. You are over-egging the pudding and you should (a) actually take time to read the Charities Act 1993 (as amended by the Charities Act 2006) before claiming that and (b) look at the submissions and responses in the case in question. The Charity Commission for England and Wales has merely, for tax purposes, accepted druidry as a bona fide religion, and agreed that tdn meets the "public benefit" test as the group have stated that they will undertake conservation work viz Britain’s heritage and environment. They're not even registered as a charity yet as they don't have an income of £5000 per annum. The fact that the commission regularly fails to recognise Christian organisations as "charities" should indicate that the whole deal is a well-achieved success in a tortuous bureaucratic process, and hardly Scopes v. The State of Tennessee.
This has been purely an administrative exercise on both sides - as I pointed out above, druidry is already recognised and accepted in British society. This just legally enables them to get fat and rich like other "organi$ed" religions. I'm half-expecting them to launch an appeal for funds for a new roof at Stonehenge...
Claiming some sort of moral victory or major achievement is like a person receiving their first passport and then yelling to the world: "At last! I'm officially me!" Well, duh, dude.
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I should add that it isn't just the pagans who are blowing this out of all proportion, uninformed Christian groups have also misunderstood what it actually means and got their mamby-pamby knickers in a twist about it, rolling out the traditional "the country's going to Hell in a hand-cart!" hand-wringery.
As far as I'm concerned, the best thing about it all is that it must really piss the Scientologists off, as the Commission refused to accept that they were a religion last time that they applied.