Ares was acquitted.

I am beyond disgusted to see how many prominent neopagans are rallying behind Kenny Klein.

What was Christine Kraemer, managing editor of the pagan portal of Patheos thinking when she wrote:

I don’t know Mr. Klein, but here are some things that I wonder… not every collector of child pornography is a child molester. Some people do struggle to resist those urges and eventually seek help for them (including the controversial “chemical castration”). This, of course, doesn’t change the fact that child pornography should be illegal and possessors should go to jail. But (based on some recent reading I’ve been doing on the subject) the nature of the crime does have some bearing on what treatments are available to sex offenders and how successful those treatments are likely to be.

So what happens when sex offenders are released? If they seek help and treatment, can they still never again be in any kind of (adult) Pagan community? A lot of our groups are so small and unstable, perhaps the reality is that they can’t ever accommodate a sex offender (and indeed there is a high recidivism rate). But I wonder about our long-term viability as a movement if we have venues in which the abused can heal, but none for abusers (particularly since abusers have usually also been the abused).

Considering that there’s no proven cure for child abusers coupled with their high recidivism rate I am perfectly fine saying such people have no place in our community, especially in any capacity where they may have contact with our most vulnerable members. Neglecting the safety of our own in order to make some kind of philosophical point about inclusivity is morally repugnant as well as criminally negligent. Because all it takes is one slip to completely destroy a child’s life. And to propose such a dangerous social experiment with concern for the “viability” of the community – there are far more important things than numbers!

Disgusting.

But not half as disgusting as Peg Aloi’s victim-blaming. I don’t always agree with the comments that Northern_Light_27 leaves at the Wild Hunt but after seeing their response to Peg I’d like buy them a beer:

The first quote isn’t under a pseudonym and said that she did come forward and was brushed aside by the Ren Faire. The person with the pseudonym also said she came forward and was brushed aside. I find it disturbing that in an effort to avoid witch hunts, you’re engaging in victim-blaming. These are people saying “this happened TO ME”, and you’re putting “coming forward” in scare quotes and blaming them for not having the “presence of mind or initiative to come forward on their own” (even when they both said they did)? How much “presence of mind” is a teenager new to a religious community supposed to have when harassed by an elder in it? What precisely would you like them to do when they *do* complain and nobody listens, because they’re a kid and the elder is an elder? Would it make any difference if they used the name on their driver’s license to make the same post, and opened themselves up for more harassment? How many hoops do you want a survivor to jump through before you listen to them? And might this kind of response be exactly *why* people don’t come forward, especially under their legal names?

(Also, how is it inappropriate for people to share what happened to them, that is directly germane to the crime for which he has been arrested, but it’s appropriate to finish your article breaking this story with a quote about how a Vodou priestess feels he appropriated her tradition? Personal grudge over theology=appropriate. Survivors sharing what happened to them=not okay. *smh*)

Theological concerns aside, if this is the direction that the “leaders” of contemporary paganism want to take the community in perhaps we polytheists shouldn’t be so quick to secede since they are clearly lacking in the moral virtues central to a polytheist worldview.

Agraulos and Ares had a daughter Alkippe. As Halirrhothios, son of Poseidon and a nymph named Eurtye, was trying to rape Alkippe, Ares caught him at it and slew him. Poseidon had Ares tried on the Areopagos with the twelve gods presiding. Ares was acquitted. (Apollodoros, Bibliotheca 3. 180)