Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 28, 2000, the Los Angeles Times printed comments from Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders on whether Halloween should be celebrated as a holiday. Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi of the Islamic Society of Orange County stated that "Halloween has no place in Islam. It was an old pagan holiday of the witches and the dead. Later some Christians tried to Christianize it by calling it "All Saints Day." However, there are still many Christians who resent it and consider it a bad holiday. Some even call it a "helliday."...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On October 27, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on the variety of ways that Pagans celebrate Halloween. Many allow their children to participate in the secularized trick-or-treating, and then they celebrate the high holiday, which represents the half-way point between the fall equinox and winter solstice. One Witch said, "It's that time of year when we commune with our parents and grandparents and animals that have passed over to the other side. We celebrate stories about them, which we call passing-...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On October 27, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle published an article about the work of Jo Ellen Michelle , a professional witch. Ms. Doney convenes a group, and the fall equinox ritual is described. "Due to inherent fire danger they use a flashlight instead of a flame to light up the small area. Members of the coven hold hands in the circle and begin chanting and walking counterclockwise around the altar. They welcome the north, the south, east and west. They welcome the names of forces from the pages of mythology, as...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 27, 2000, the Los Angeles Times published an article entitled "Aiming to Scare the Devil Out of You: Conservative Christians are Finding Alternatives to Halloween." Christian-themed haunted houses use real-life terror themes like drunken driving, gang shootings and drug overdoses, taking back "a pagan holiday and giving it back to God's Glory" according to Shawn Anthony, a 29-year-old pastor and director of Harvest Outreach, a national evangelical organization aimed at teenagers. 42 Orange County churches participated...

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

On October 27, 2000, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on some Christians' responses to Halloween: "To many Christians in the Bay Area, this night, when identities and inhibitions are shed and children turn into candy-crazed creatures out for a sustained sugar fix, is anything but the benignly spooky trick-or-treat ritual most relish. To them, Halloween is, well, evil. Far from being harmless, they believe, the holiday is harmful to one's faith and goes against church doctrine. They see it as a celebration of...

Source: ACLU Press Release

http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n102600.html

On October 26, 2000, the ACLU reported that "ACLU of Oklahoma Files Federal Lawsuit on Behalf of Student Accused of 'Hexing'"

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.merit.edu/free/v47/i08/08a04901.htm

On October 20, 2000, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article entitled "Campus Witches May Wear Black, but Don't Look for Hats or Broomsticks - Inspired by environmentalism, feminism, and TV, more students embrace pagan beliefs."

Source: The Seattle Times

On October 14, 2000, The Seattle Times reported that "Diversity Brings Wiccan Minister to Dallas Council for Invocation."

Source: Star Tribune

On October 7, 2000, the Star Tribune reported that "Monte Plaisance filed a lawsuit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, in U.S. District Court seeking to overturn a Terrebonne Parish ordinance that punishes fortune telling and palm reading with up to $500 in fines and one year in jail. Plaisance, a 28-year-old Wiccan minister who says he communicates with ancient Greek deities, let a detective investigating his witchcraft museum photograph Tarot cards, altar, crystal balls, trident wands and pentagrams. The museum also...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On September 21, 2000 The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "more than 300 pagans gathered Wednesday to dispel myths about their ancient religion, which they say has been unfairly demonized by Christians pushing for prayer in public schools. 'Our point is, you can have no religions in the public schools or you can have all religions in the public schools, but you are not going to have just the Christian religion in the public schools,' said rally organizer Ginger Strivelli. She is a co-founding...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On September 19, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "it's Pagan Pride Day, and hundreds of witches are out of the broom closet, flying high. In a meeting room at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Long Beach, a priestess of the Yoruban goddess Yemaya is teaching an enraptured group of four men and four women how to read Tarot cards. The priestess, June Gerron from Orange, is telling her class that the woman-with-a-lion card is often interpreted as 'power over your animal self--grrrrr!'...At the gathering Saturday, all...

Source: The New York Times

On September 19, 2000, The New York Times reported that "the bumper sticker on the sedan parked in front of Suzanne and Duke Egbert's house declares, 'We Are Everywhere.' 'We' refers to contemporary pagans, whose spiritual paths lead them to regard nature as divinely charged. To raise the public profile of pagans -- and try to gain them broader acceptance -- the Egberts and others have established Pagan Pride Day, to be celebrated with events in cities in the United States and Canada timed to coincide roughly with the autumn...

Source: The Denver Post

On September 17, 2000, The Denver Post reported that "for two millennia, pagans have lived on the spiritual periphery, their Earth-based faith demonized by mainstream religions. 'The Christian church has spent 2,000 years making 'witches' and 'pagans' bad words because we are the religion that lost the war (between paganism and Christianity),' says Denver psychotherapist Judith Brownlee, who is also a witch. 'Anthropologists will tell you that any time a culture comes in, takes over and ousts an older culture, the gods and goddesses...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On September 15, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "Goddess Trio Crafts a Handbook on Pagan Rituals for the Family."

Source: The Times-Picayune

n August 14, 2000, The Times-Picayune published an article on "Monte Plaisance, a self-proclaimed witch and High Priest of Wicca who runs a coven in Houma, where he plans to open a museum that he says will contain one of the rarest collections of witchcraft and pagan artifacts in the country. He has been displaying some of the artifacts in his occult shop in Houma one weekend a month." Some, such as the Rev. Velvet Rieth, High Priestess at Covenant of the Pentacle Wiccan Church in New Orleans,are worried about the museum and the...