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In a shocking display of vitriol for the pages of an old and otherwise respectable mainstream magazine, The Atlantic ran an opinion piece titled The Return of the Pagans which makes numerous outrageous claims about both ancient paganism and the modern manifestations of paganism. The op-ed's author, David Wolpe, contrasts paganism with monotheism and repeatedly expresses his opinion that monotheism is better in every way. 

Every paragraph is a new wtf. Starting off by claiming that Trump is pagan because of his crass displays of wealth, the article only gets more disturbed from there. The entire article is a series of untrue and offensive statements about paganism.

I am a huge proponent of the right--God-given or otherwise--to free speech. I think we live in an age where individualism is valued to such a degree, however, that 'freedom of speech' has the potential to become a tool. A political one, when used to silence the opponent, or even a religious one, when used to incite hate or anger onto another religion.

Over the past few days, the on-line Pagan community has come together over some clear examples of the latter form of free speech: several Facebook groups have come up slandering witches (mostly) and actively calling for the eradication of said witches. I leave witches un-capitalized because I fear the founder(s) of these groups are ignorant enough of the modern Pagan movement to be completely unaware that there is even a potential for religious views within the practice of Witchcraft.

These groups happen. They have happened before, and will happen again. In general, I feel freedom of speech applies in these instances: the founder(s) of those pages are within their right to create these pages and speak their mind. That said, freedom of speech should end where others get hurt--and people are getting hurt. From this point on, a monitoring authority should step in and take away the public forum that is used by those harmful to others. In this case, Facebook is doing none of this.

Very few things in social media get me too terribly worked up, but today I encountered and reported a Facebook page titled, "Witches must die by fire." The fact that an anti-Pagan site on FB exists doesn't surprise me, though how overt that hate is took me aback. What disturbs me more is that Pagans who have reported are getting an answer of "there is no evidence of hate speech."

How can a page that spreads slander, misinformation and exhorts violence against Pagans not be termed hate speech? If this were any other faith, would this even be vaguely acceptable? If you subbed in Jews or Muslims, would this be allowed. I would hope not, but given this, I am kind of afraid to ask, actually.