Today's Fiery Tuesday posts are sure to stir a bit of controversy -- hopefully of a useful kind! Pagan Activism Conference, lowering police shootings; secularization of holidays; the (humanistic Pagan) case against spellwork; scary monsters in "pagan" festival.

First up, a report on last week's online Pagan Activism Conference. Which brings up the question: when and how should Paganism and political/environmental activism come together?

The PaganNewsBeagle approves of this post: it shows that police can actually do their jobs *and* serve their communities with a minimum of violence. Richmond is not some privileged, crime-free utopia, yet police there are using MUCH less deadly force than in the past. Two thumbs up, Richmond PD!

The Religious News Service discusses the recent trend to secularize holidays. Do you think schools should change their official holidays to use non-religious names?

Over at his blog on Humanistic Pagans, John Halstead makes a case against "instrumental magick" (that is to say, spellwork for a specific purpose). He posits that such magick treats nature (and natural forces) merely as a resource for human use, and hence, directly contradicts earth-centered Paganism. What do you think of his argument? (Please, read the article before commenting, it's pretty complex and I'm only summarizing here.)

There's a lot of ways to celebrate the winter holidays (whatever you call them) and one of the more outre is the Bavarian Perchen parade, which celebrates the Krampus (Santa's Bad Cop), and it's certainly fiery (and colorful)! Have you ever been to one of these parades?