article on censorship and pagan books...cut for length...

This seems worth being aware of...delete if inappropriate...

Part 1 in a series based on the new talk
Sex Religion & Politics: The Growing Threat of the American Theocracy
censorship - subtle and otherwise
by Phyllis Curott, attorney, author and activist


"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of
all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily
defeat us." - Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "The One Un-
American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

There's no such thing as a coincidence. This last week in September
is Banned Book Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. A
celebration of freedom of speech, it's also a warning about the
growing threats to that precious liberty. And these days, those
dangers are directly affecting our minority faith community.

Each year the ALA posts a list of Banned Books, and you probably
won't be surprised to learn that, for the last four years, Harry
Potter has topped that list (joining the great American classics "Of
Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck and "The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn" by Mark Twain).

This beloved children's series has nothing more to do with real
Witchcraft or Wicca than the heroism, decency and compassion of its
young hero, but there are many who think Harry Potter is a seductive
rendition of the evils of Witchcraft and Satanism. And those fears
have led to incidents of book banning and even burning. Harry Potter
may be lighthearted, but these attempts to remove books, and ideas,
from public availability are just the opposite. They are censorship.
And censorship denies our freedom to read what we wish to and to
think for ourselves.

These attacks also threaten our freedom of religion because they stem
from a Dominionist agenda and dangerous misperceptions about our
spirituality. And though Harry Potter may be protected by record-
breaking popularity, books that are actually about Wicca, Witchcraft
and neo-Paganism aren't faring as well. As you've probably noticed,
Pagan books have begun disappearing from many mainstream bookstores,
sections devoted to Pagan spirituality are shrinking, being moved to
remote sections of stores, and even re-categorized as "Occult."

Why? I've been told that the Pagan community isn't buying as many
books, the market is saturated, books don't have the quality that
readers want, and worst of all that the community doesn't support its
authors. All of these discouraging explanations may be true, but
there are other forces that are at play.

Censorship isn't just blatant, brutal and overt like book burnings or
angry proselytizing from pulpits. It can also be done by stealth,
with such subtlety as to be almost imperceptible. After hiding behind
a cloak of media invisibility, the Theocratic Right (I prefer this
term to the often-used "Christian Right, " as the latter is unfair to
true Christianity) has begun to flex its muscle.

"Christian publishing is a force to be reckoned with, " Carol
Johnson, Vice President of Bethany House Publishing recently said to
Publisher's Weekly.

Perfectly comfortable with the power that Mammon affords them, it's
been reported that the Christian Book and Evangelical Christian
Publishing Associations are having an impact on major booksellers and
mass retailers like WalMart. Knowing that it's all about the bottom
line, they've pointed out that Christian titles such as The Left
Behind series earn retailers, and publishers, far more money per
square inch of book shelf space than subjects such as Wicca,
feminism, and psychology, subjects which also happen to offend the so-
called "family values" of their vast consumer market.

It's no coincidence that Wiccan shelf space is disappearing
while "Christian" sections are exploding.

And Pagan authors are already feeling the impact. One of the
community's most prominent elders and authors was just told by his
publisher that they weren't interested in his new book because
publishing books on Witchcraft is too politically controversial and
just not lucrative enough right now. Instead, this publisher which
has so dominated the market that you're often unable to find anything
but their books in Pagan stores, will now be publishing more books on
angels.

If this trend continues, many more Pagan authors are going to find
themselves unable to publish. I've had my own grim experience with my
latest book, The Love Spell. It's the sequel to Book of Shadows, a
best seller in Italy and a strong ongoing U.S. success with over
100,00 copies sold to date. The Love Spell is a sexy, thoughtful
memoir about the spiritual mysteries of love, eroticism and soulmates
and was expected to do well. And it did, selling 6,000 copies in the
first few months of release.

Despite this healthy launch (without any publicity), you won't find a
single copy of The Love Spell in any Barnes & Noble anywhere in the
U.S. and you'll have trouble finding it elsewhere.

Everyone was shocked when 10,000 hardcover copies were suddenly
returned just a few short months after the book's release in January,
2005. Hardcovers that are selling aren't usually returned to the
publisher until a month before the paperback's released (March, 2006
for TLS). There's no smoking gun, but there are also no coincidences.

Unless those returned hardcovers sell, the publisher is unlikely to
renew my contract and The Love Spell could be my last book, at least
for quite awhile. Frankly, I figured it was my problem, and I'm still
not too comfortable talking about it. But a lot of Pagan elders and
authors whom I love and respect made me realize that I needed to tell
folks what was happening. Hard as it is to ask, after years of
helping our community as an activist in the courts and the media, I
need your help. And so do other Pagan authors and Pagan bookstore
owners.

Every book brings a certain amount of screwball mail, nasty mentions
on fundamentalist websites and even threats. This most recent book
seems to have really touched a nerve as there's been an increase in
all of these. And again I'm not alone in this problem. As I've
traveled around the country I've learned that many bookstores - Pagan
and "New Age" -- are experiencing increased harassment and threats,
including death threats. Like I was, many of the storeowners have
been reluctant to mention their situations, feeling that it was
something they just had to deal with, by themselves.

None of us can deal with this changing political climate alone. An
author can't sell a book if it isn't published and on the shelves.
And you can't buy it. Authors are barely able to eke out a minimal
living by writing, and the loss of our beloved occupation presents us
with a great personal and professional crisis. And our Pagan stores,
which are also more devotions of love than income, can't sell books
if they're forced to close due to harassment, loss of business or a
lease. And these harsh realities will have dramatic consequences not
just for authors and storeowners, but for our entire community.

One of the main reasons this spiritual movement has grown so rapidly
over the last twenty-five years is because of books. Many people find
Paganism because they find our books in mainstream stores. That
presence, along with our growing visibility in the media, has also
helped transform the negative stereotypes that have afflicted us for
centuries. Growing mainstream understanding has allowed us to
practice our religion in freedom and peace, to retain custody of our
children, to keep our jobs and our leases, to be included in
Interfaith and academic conferences, to be free from violence and
harassment in our homes, schools, military, and our larger
communities.

And our growing visibility has allowed us to contribute the
desperately needed beauty and wisdom of our spirituality to this
wounded culture and endangered planet. But if people can no longer
find our books, our community will once again be marginalized,
reduced in size, and more easily persecuted. And the gifts that we
have to offer will be lost.

The political climate has shifted radically and dangerously to the
extreme right and the media, the stores and the publishers have moved
along with the politics. Money follows the market, enforcing its own
kind of insidious censorship. But if we don't respond, individually
and collectively, in the end we will have to acknowledge that the
real reason we disappeared back into the broom closet was because of
our own apathy. It's no coincidence that when Pat Robertson began his
campaign to take over the government and secular institutions of
America 30 years ago he predicted that the apathy of the American
people would be the fundamentalist right's greatest weapon.

I got my wake up call months before Banned Book Week, and though I'd
rather be working on my next book, I've been propelled to action. If
I don't stand up now and fight for the rights which are slipping
away, the day will come when there will be no more chances to write
that book. And there will be no more opportunities for you read it,
or many other titles, not even "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
I hope to see you the next time I give my talk Sex, Religion and
Politics: The Growing Threat of America's New Theocracy, and I urge
you to find your own words and ways to express them before it is too
late for you to do so.

Phyllis Curott