Just Stop It

Here's a nice story about some Pagans using the occasion of their annual picnic to raise money to plant trees in a park that has recently lost a lot of its trees. The article does a good job of: (1) not getting a comment from a xian to "balance" the story; (2) not feeling required to say that Pagans don't worship the devil; and (3) explaining Paganism:

The term pagan usually describes a person who does not acknowledge the Jewish, Christian or Muslim god and believes in a polytheistic religion. Many modern pagans follow a nature religion, and they embrace the term once used to denigrate them.

Points off, though, for describing the organizer as a a self-described Wiccan priest and herbalist from Benton Park . This is the 15th year that these Pagans have been having an annual picnic, and they expect 3,000 people to attend, so this is hardly some fly-by-night group that deserves to have its clergy diminished in that manner. In fact, as the article acknowledges, Brown is a leader of the Yarrow Coven of North American Eclectic Wicca, [and] sees the pagan effort to replant trees in the park as a long-term campaign that could last several years. Unless you're going to describe the head of the local synagogue as a self-described rabbi, the head of the catholic church as a self-proclaimed pope, and the man who runs the Lutheran church as a self-described minister, lay off the "self-described Wiccan priest" bullshit.