PAGAN FEDERATION MEMBERS 'TODAY' PROBABLY HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST, SO HERE IS A TINY SNIPPET OF THE TRUTH FROM THE OLD PAN ARCHIVES ....
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PAGAN ANTI DEFAMATION NETWORK
THE PF ‘MASTER OF MISINFORMATION’ DROPS ANOTHER CLANGER!
PETE JENNINGS, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE PAGAN FEDERATION, USES UK PAGAN FORUM FOR PROMOTING LIES ABOUT SAFF AND DUPES PAGANS WITH UNTRUTHS ABOUT PAN
(May, 2002 e.v.)
Pete Jennings, the outspoken ex-president of the Pagan Federation who summarily expelled the Regans from the PF against its own constitution for political purposes, is now getting a strong taste of justice as his actions come home to roost. Pagan's who have taken Jennings at his word should study the following carefully.
It would appear that Jennings has spent the past decade working to besmirch the honourable intentions of PAN and SAFF in their eyes. Now the whole truth can be told. The PF has apparently allowed him to use their power-base against fellow pagans.
Hard questions must now be asked about his previous PF leadership/direction (especially regarding wacky PF Christo/Pagan Interfaith policies that he loudly promoted) and the gullible plastic Pagan pretenders that have been influenced by his manipulations.
PAN recently opened up the C/P Interfaith debate in UK Pagan.com Forum with a heading: ‘PAN WARNING OVER INTERFAITH.’ This, as always, was going to be a heated and controversial discussion with PAN having to educate, inform and generally refute many attempts by the misguided C/P Interfaith lobby.
Pete Jennings, under the guise of ‘Blackdragon,’ entered the forum debate with a very spiteful little email, which was highly insulting to the Regans who run PAN and overtly ‘libelous’ to the founder of SAFF and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mr Chris Bray.
Jennings wickedly portrayed SAFF and PAN as insane. He told readers that the Regans had been thrown out of the PF because they were 'extremists', not that they had simply objected to the PF's interfaith policy. Not content with those fictions, he went on to make a chain of falsehoods, which included the following. Despicable claims that The Sorcerer's Apprentice sold Voodoo Dolls with pins specifically to harm Christians and other Pagans, inferences that Mr Bray was misappropriating SAFF funds and that he had libelled several pagans and had had to settle out of court with them.
All these statements were completely false! The Sorcerer's Apprentice contacted the people who ran the forum. They immediately struck the lies from the thread and carried the following correction:
This thread has been inadvertently carrying an email from Peter Jennings of Gippeswic containing libelous inaccuracies about the Sorcerer's Apprentice® Bookshop. (www.sorcerers-apprentice.co.uk).
After correspondence with them it is clear that the statements were completely in error and gave an unfair view of the true situation in that:
(i) The S.A. has never sold Voodoo Dolls with pins for harming others.
(ii) The dolls are sold primarily for healing and love magic.
(iii) The suggestion that these dolls were to be used negatively against Pagans or Christians is solely a product of the imagination of Peter Jennings.
(iv) There has only been one out of court settlement not many as Jennings stated.
(v) The settlement occurred a decade ago and concerned a competitor in a trading dispute not other pagans as Jennings stated.
(vi) Mr Bray has never charged the SAFF for office rent or made any money out of donations to the SAFF as Jennings inferred. SAFF accounts show that he has been a net contributor to SAFF funds.
(vii) The address used for the SAFF is not 'misleading' - if it was they obviously wouldn't get any mail delivered.
(viii) The S.A.F.F. is NOT a 'fundamentalist' organisation as Jennings opined. Nor is it anti-interfaith as Jennings inferred. The SAFF has spent 13 years communicating at length with many other beliefs and has actually manifested interfaith dialogue in reality in many and varied ways. http://www.saff.ukhq.co.uk/ The SAFF condemns only the type of Interfaith arrangements which the Pagan Federation, lead by Jennings, accepted and pursued because it perceived them as being in the worst interests of paganism.
(ix) The S.A. is not anti-pagan. It was one of the first organisations to put paganism on the map in the early 1970s and has spent 27 years fighting for the rights of pagans and paganism at considerable risk to life and limb.
We are sorry if Peter Jennings statement conveyed the wrong impression to any users of this forum.
Ends
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"I am sorry if the posting caused any distress to Mr Bray and would like to thank him for bringing it to my attention."
db www.ukpagan.com
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Jennings has carelessly and irresponsibly promoted defamatory lies about the SA & SAFF, just like he did after his out-of-hand totalitarian actions against the Regan’s.
We shall let the SAFF and the SA deal with Jennings (legally or otherwise) as they see fit. We, however, as the driving force behind PAN, must address Jennings' childish insults against us as follows.
IN ANSWER TO MISLEADING DIATRIBE FROM PETE JENNINGS (EX PAGAN FEDERATION PRESIDENT) MADE AGAINST PAN MEMBERS, CATH & PAT REGAN, PRINTED IN UK PAGAN.COM
(MAY 2002 E.V.)
Pete Jennings has proved by his odious and misleading diatribe in UK Pagan.com that he is still the same old dictator who will not tolerate dissent. He has not changed his ways since he expelled the Regans, without reason or fair right to reply, from the PF several years ago.
Jennings' pro-interfaith policy is absolutely clear and like all dictators, he will go to any lengths to avoid a proper debate. The expulsion of the Regans was an attempt to cut short any input from them on the Interfaith issue - so that other Pagans and Paganism generally were not made aware of the alternative options. Like some New Labour spin-doctor Jennings was misusing the PF to crush genuine debate on a crucial issue to all Pagans. The despicable treatment of the Regans and the continued hounding of them by Jennings years after the event are simply a cover-up. Rank and File pagans should ask themselves if Jennings and other leaders of the PF were able to victimise the Regans in this fashion what else is being done by the PF in the name of Paganism and whether there is any possibility of genuine dissent being expressed?
PAN hereby prints slightly amended extracts of our ‘earlier’ literature concerning Jennings' totalitarian actions against his own hard-working PF members. We shall let our readers decide for themselves as to whom the real ‘Extremists’ are in this particular matter!
A personal statement by PAN Founder & ex - PF N/W member, Patrick Regan presented in good faith in the quest to enlighten fair-minded Pagan folk everywhere.
PAN is one of the principal organisations working tirelessly to counteract the rising tide of Christian Fundamentalist activity against Paganism. My wife Cath and myself run PAN. As committed Pagans, we have contributed a large part of our lives to PAN and have had to make many personal sacrifices. We are always, however, most grateful to the growing band of friends and helpers who assist in sharing the increasing workload. PAN specialises in protecting the interests of Pagans. Cath and I realised that ages ago many Pagans failed to see the dangers from fundamentalism to their beliefs.
Unfortunately many had listened to naive Pagan leaders who even refused to accept that a concerted fundie campaign against Paganism actually existed. It seems hard to believe now, when the fundie persecution of Paganism is so evident but we remember when one Pagan Magazine Editor we approached with the dangers said that she only had ‘aggro’ with Pagans and that a fundie campaign against her beliefs was just a false conspiracy theory! Cath and I served for a time on the Pagan Federation North West Committee.
We provided (at their request,) information for their newsletter on the subject of anti-defamation. Unfortunately, the vast amount of data that we sent into the editor eventually appeared to become too much for him to handle and our page was ludicrously omitted from the magazine because of this. We protested but were met with hollow excuses and eventual silence. The Editor in question that merely sat on our hard-earned data had by now left and we noticed that he had also been criticised from other Pagan quarters too. The well had dried up and the only people who would suffer would have been the ordinary Pagans who knew nothing of this avoidable cut in the chain of vital anti-defamation information. We didn't ask to be put in the position as PAN leaders, it just developed; the Will of the Gods sort of thing is the way we see it. Nobody else in Paganism was taking the fundie menace seriously so we had to do something; it was our ‘duty’ as genuine Pagans. The SAFF remit, on the other hand, is to defend all non-absolutist beliefs. This includes Paganism but also every other minority too.
SAFF had acknowledged back in 1988 that the Pagan situation should be dealt with by the Pagan Federation. SAFF supported the PF and worked closely with a past president. This worthwhile defence of paganism apparently came to a full stop immediately that the new clutch of Pagan Archbishops took over. They stabbed the SAFF in the back and cut all ties in 1994. It was the lack of any foresight on the fundamentalist campaign by the PF that prompted us to augment the PF's normal work in this arena. We believed that PAN could do a lot more good concerning anti-defamation for the Pagan community than the PF. We were in effect filling a vacuum left by the PF’s laziness and in all honesty we got very little help from them whatsoever-often the reverse was the case. It was only common sense that we used the brilliantly successful research material gained from SAFF to act as a resource bank for PAN. We add to their data banks of knowledge through our own efforts for the good of Pagans everywhere. We have always been autonomous from SAFF yet we often work with them because we know that it is in the best interests of Pagans. When we have failed to agree with them we have said so. The unworthy leaders of the PF appear to have been trying to misinform the Pagan community that we are somehow in the pocket of SAFF.
The self-righteous hypocrites in the PF fail to tell their members that the PF was comfortably in the SAFF's pocket, depending on the SAFF for vital research material during the four years when the Satanic Abuse Myth was at it's zenith. To enable PAN to catch up on events pronto it was essential for us to access data on the SRAM from the acknowledged experts who had tracked it for years - the SAFF.
The PF Junta doesn't like it but that’s the truth of the matter. The SAFF is the organisation that knows "where it’s at" when it comes to the SRAM. They are the people who have the largest data bank in existence on the fundie campaign to outlaw all minority belief systems. The current PF leaders have failed Paganism miserably by rejecting SAFF help.
They are now failing the Goddess again by rejecting PAN expertise. Pagans should be demanding much more from their leaders. If the vast majority of the Pagan Federation is supporting these airheads then the greedy power-mongers in the PF will of course need to censor and suppress PAN and the SAFF. They will need to ban us from their contact lists, outlaw all debates regarding interfaith and spread odious disinformation about us to mislead others. They will have to, in a nutshell, follow the PF leader's example and expel us out of hand without rhyme or reason.
They would already have a mandate to do these despicable things from the dictatorship that leads them. The fact that the PF archbishops are going to such extraordinary lengths to silence Cath and myself is indicative of the reverse i.e. an UN-MANDATED policy. Are they bringing this policy through the back door unbeknown to the rank and file? I believe these ‘Archbishops’ booted us out to stifle a proper debate over Interfaith and stop us highlighting their inadequacy in supporting Paganism's best interests. It is time for YOU to start asking questions about the PF and about whom is running the show.
Does it really now protect your rights or is it so full of self-righteousness that it cannot see a ‘helping hand’ when one is offered? The PF 'en-masse’ is an essential body yet its current leadership is unworthy.
Those in its current leadership who do not know about the corruption of PF ideals over the Regans expulsion are treading a path created for them by self-serving politicos who were involved but who are still keeping silent! This is corrupting a vital force for the good of Paganism. Are they doing what they have done in victimising Cath and myself in the Goddess’s name, or are they merely supporting their own shaky platform of Pagan Priesthood?
This particular Pagan hierarchy seems to be seeking approval from the Christian Priesthood for their own existence. At the moment they are behaving more like Christians than Pagans asking for a blessing from the Christian powers through Interfaith, instead of realising that Paganism does not need the thumbs up from the mainly intolerant clerical-machine which has for two thousand years sought to demean, discredit and destroy every form of Paganism wherever in the world it is based. We are committed Pagans, please do not let the PF leaders tell you that we are troublemakers, Pagan fundamentalists or extremists. We have devoted our lives to the cause of Pagan defence. We do the work we do because somebody must for the survival of Paganism in all its wonderful forms. How many more folk must complain before you begin to question what is happening here?
Before you know it the PF leaders will have formulated and excepted ON YOUR BEHALF, a CHRISTO-PAGAN compromise like an equivalent of the Nicene Creed and shackled genuine Paganism into bondage for centuries to come. That is why we are bringing it to your attention right now.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to make the same mistakes in the future." Your only chance to bypass the misinformation system enjoyed by the PF leaders is the PF's annual conference, where the rank and file have an opportunity to air their views and question them on their policies.
I told Pete Jennings (the then newly elected PF President) that he couldn’t silence the debate on Interfaith by expelling us. I told him that if the PF stifled this topic then I would make things clear at the next PF conference.
He replied saying that if I did so then he would have me ‘arrested’ by the police for ‘Breach of the peace’!
With this threat, it appears that honest debate has been outlawed from the PF conference as well. It would seem then that if the victimisation of the Regans is anything to go by, you disagree with PF policy at your peril.
We printed this PAN statement some time ago yet the message is still very much the same as Jennings recently proved so well in UKPAGAN.COM. He and his dictatorial ilk will ‘not’ permit ‘any’ opposition to stupid and dangerous PF Christo/Pagan Interfaith policy. That is why he still insults PAN the SAFF and the Regans and that is the real reason that he had Cath and myself expelled.
Factual data is SAVED FOR POSTERITY so you know where tyrants like him are coming from. We believe that Jennings' odious libel against the good name of the SAFF & SA also suggests that he is willing to publish any falsehood, which serves his purposes.
PF members beware - you are NOT being given the proper representation you deserve and no amount of blustering gasconade against the hard work of PAN or the SAFF will change this vital situation!
If today’s Pagan Federation leadership had any appreciable dignity and commonsense in their ranks they would immediately foster a full ‘apology’ to the Regans for Jennings' unforgivable actions back then and offer to work with both PAN and the SAFF for the ultimate good of Paganism.
ENDS.
Addendum:
See the photo below as one small example of how Jennings ran away, when challenged in public
SAFF Report on the Jennings issue...
Disclaimer:
PAN realises that the vast majority of Christians are not fundamentalist or evangelical in make up and we only criticise religious extremists who seek to disenfranchise other faiths whilst bolstering their own. PAN does not in any way condone violence against any persons or property and we must state that we have always worked towards a more tolerant and equal society.
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