Monday, September 3, 2012

ALERT! Religious Discrimination on eBay?

(Forwarded from HOGD/AO Yahoo Group)
"eBay has announced that it will be banning the sale of all "metaphysical" goods from their auction site. This will not only include the sale of spells and services such as tarot readings, but all metaphysical supplies such as tarot cards, Wiccan items, etc. 
So, you will be able to buy Christian prayer books, rosaries, etc, but you will NOT be able to buy Pagan altar items, pagan books, etc. 
In my opinion this is blatant religious discrimination, and eBay needs to be both boycotted and sued. 
In the meantime, there is an online petition to stop this located HERE."

In other words, the sale of Goddess statues will be banned, but bobble-head "Plastic Jesus" for for your dashboard are still approved for purchase and sale!




IMPORTANT UPDATE: Crossposting the information posted on the Golden Dawn Yahoo Group this morning may have been a bit premature. I have been investigating the matter further and found this interesting article on the subject over on The Wild Hunt blog here. According to Jason Pitzl-Waters:

"It should be noted before we go any further that magical items, physical objects that have an attributable value, are not banned under this change. Spokeswoman Johnna Hoff told Tiffany Hsu at the Los Angeles Times that such items would be allowed in most cases.
“It’s important to note that items that have a tangible value for the item itself and may also be used in metaphysical rites and practices (ie  jewelry, crystals, incense, candles, and books) are allowed in most cases.”
Which means most of the products in the Wicca and Paganism section of eBay are safe, at least for now. A comfort, no doubt, to the many Pagan vendors and shop-owners who supplement their income by placing items on the site."
The same article suggests that Etsy may adopt the same policy in the near future. Still, it looks like bobble head Goddess figurines will be safe next to plastic Jesus for a while longer on eBay after all! 


Anyone with additional information of substance on the changes on eBay and Etsy, please post it in the comments section below.



6 comments:

  1. Here in the city of Denver, fortune-telling is considered a "gateway" crime by some members of the police department. Periodically, the local community has to fight this idea.

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  2. In the UK recently it was the Anniversary of the Pendle Witch Trials, and a family day was made of it at the hill. Many in the Anglican clergy were supportive, but there were also some pretty ugly voices raised by local churchmen... essentially that Christians must accept the reality of evil forces and many Witches WERE evil, and should not be whitewashed by such an event where, horror of horrors, some children were even dressed up as Witches!

    And no, in this case the Pendle Witches were not just Christians being persecuted by other Christians, these were self-professed Witches, even if some of them may have been playing to their audience in an attempt to ease their lives as poor peasants.

    I mention this to underline that this fight is a tireless battle for basic rights, wherever we happen to live. (The UK should be especially ashamed of the Satanic Child Abuse hysteria it bought into in the 90's!)

    That local Denver police policy could be dictated by such views is clearly obscene!

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  3. In Las Vegas, fortune telling is hamstrung by draconian licensing requirements into near nonexistence. Marriage by Pagan clergy is likewise limited nearly into a black hole. All of this, of course, has to do more with tourism and the cottage wedding industry than anything else, but still, it is outrageous. Fortunately, over the hump in Nye county, all of these draconian rules go out the window.

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  4. Actually, the Denver law is part of the anti-gypsy laws--but (let's be honest) it is the pagans and Wiccans who ended up living with the aftermath of the law. It is actually a lot more complicated than my brief comments about it.

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  5. I love that remark - "It is actually a lot more complicated than my brief comments about it."

    I am going to shamelessly misquote you out of context elsewhere - but only in a good way!

    It is true of this whole 20 year era of fruitless feuding. Informed conclusions CANNOT be arrived at without a great deal of reading and even then, the various agents are obscured by the distorting mirror of a history that is itself constantly argued over!

    Humanity is forgotten. Yet the amnesiacs are not monsters... they get carried along by this rip-tide of troll delusion.

    They don't stop to consider what it would be like if THEIR loved ones were unable to return home in safety.

    To see eye to eye, becomes impossible without physically seeing eye to eye!

    Pow Wow is not just an idea, it is a necessity.

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  6. Your link to The wild hunt-blog is broken.

    Kind regards,

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