Kathie Lee Gifford owes Pagans an Apology

You were doing great, right up until....

It is unthinkable that you would choose the same words to use toward Christians, even given their violent histories, is it not

Sorry, stopped reading after that. You can make an argument for something without tearing something else down. I'm not denying that the Catholic church and all of the progeny Christian religions derived from it had some horrible acts to atone for in their past, only that bringing it up is irrelevant to your point and weakens your argument.

Blessings,

Well Shirley, I love what YOU stand for and what WE stand for together, and thats what makes us WHO we are!! I am beside you all the way!! (I would have said In front or behind, but you might like that too much!)

KIDDING!

Anyhow on a serious note, Law or no Law, Rights or no Rights, We are ALL a part of this glorious world, we make it what it is, not just Pagans, Christians or all the other faiths, All of us together. To be singled out and called "Nasty Pagans" well I disagree, No 1 of us is better than another. It's a fine time that people start recognizing that, and lay their "hatred Masques" aside. Our world/economy is in much worse shape right now, without prejudicial remarks being selfishly added to it.

Anyhow I love you Shirley, You are a Terrific Pagan and Person, and I am glad to call you Friend!

Love & Light
Jennifer

Thanks for the article, Shirley. I did not see the original article, however. But as a Pagan (Wiccan) myself, I thank you for your stand.

God bless those pagans...

Thank you, Shirley, for writing this piece. Mrs. Gifford is hardly the first to malign the Pagan community. Sadly, she likely won't be the last, either. Your article will still hold great merit in times to come. However, one snippet gave me pause:

...better still, an education on what precisely a Pagan is, may be a better way...

Please understand that it is certainly neither my intention nor desire to ruffle any feathers - far from it! But wouldn't attempting to buttonhole the parameters of being Pagan be as seemingly impossible as counting the grains of sand on a beach? It's always been my assertion that we each are who we say we are, provided that we abide to the tenets of our respective spiritual paths. And we Pagans span a diverse cosmos indeed!

All our collective critics aside, and the countless amends owed from many entities, I feel that being the best individual living examples of modern day Pagans will only serve to reinforce the collective positive effect we do have in this world.

What I found in Kathie Lee's comment was blatant disrespect. No, she's not the first nor will she be the last. The fact that she is in the media spotlight makes this an issue. The insult-to-injury of her "blanket-apology" followed by the eleven-solid-minutes of joking about it all afterwards with her co-host on Friday was something that added to the obvious disrespect Kathie Lee obviously has for others, which I find so very sad. Now, she is a Christian woman, which is a lovely thing for her. However, one of the most beautiful things about our country is that we have freedoms....including Freedom of Religion. Now, what this means is that people beyond "The big three" (that is, Christianity, Judaism and Islam) who ALL fall under the umbrella of "Paganism" technically have a right and a fundamental freedom to worship and believe as they choose. Just as Kathie Lee is free to worship as she does, Pagans, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, etc. are free to worship as they do. It is not, however, up to Kathie Lee or anyone else to judge the beliefs of another (though yes, I am well aware that it happens every day, that does not make it right). The issue is that Ms. Gifford is a public figure and what she did was wrong and what she did was done on the air. I was watching with my children and my own 8 year-old daughter asked, "Mommy, are we dirty and nasty? Why would she say that?" To follow comments like that up with jokes, kissy-kissy noises of the 11-minute joke made of the "blanket-apology" and try to explain to my daughter, who is being raised to respect all religions that this woman is speaking in ignorance and is speaking of people she doesn't know. My daughter said, "But mommy, she's talking about people like YOU!" That hit home. She WAS talking about me, she was talking about people like the Dalai Lama, she was talking about people like Deepak Chopra, she was talking about others that I respect with my whole heart and I cannot and will not let this go until there is a genuine apology from Kathie Lee. My daughter did not deserve to see this from her. I did not deserve to see this. No-one did. The Today Show was at one time a MUCH better show that would have never allowed this sort of disrespectful treatment of the beliefs of others - and believe me, any other religion thus treated would have been up in arms as well by now. Kathie Lee is indeed lucky that for Pagans, the basis of our beliefs is to "Harm None". Nothing dirty or nasty about that, is there? We DO deserve an apology, and a sincere one.

Ms. Gifford's comment was uncalled for, hurtful, and unnecessary. Trust me they *the pagan communtiy alive and well in this day and age* would not make a comment about other's beliefs such as you have. There is a pagan community in the year 2008 Ms. Gifford. They have been around for quite a long time. Take foot out of mouth and do the right thing. Issue an apology.

Thank you

Barbara

What we deserve at this point is an apology for the "Blanket apology". Let's face it, Kathie Lee is a fundamentalist, and while she is entitled to her beliefs, so is the rest of America and Katie Lee is a member of the Media who has a responsibility: To put her personal feelings aside when the camera is turned on. She may believe that half of the actors/actresses are utterly terrible and/or have no morals or might believe that the person she is interviewing is the antichrist, however she would need to, in the professional capacity, be able to interview without spouting off in any way. She may well have been trying to be funny, however, her efforts to be "funny" have managed to offend many in one of the fastest growing religious groups in the world. Well done, Kathie Lee. With her "blanket apology" and the near 11-minute joke that was made of it between Kathie Lee and her co-host (the worst of this in the last 30 seconds or so of the broadcast), complete with kissy-kissy noises at the very end, making fun of all of the "offended ones". As one of the "Offended ones", I'd ask that this insult-to-injury excuse for an apology be looked at by the Producers of the Today Show. Truly looked at. This show once had dignity; would never in a million years have bashed the relgious beliefs of another; would have made this right immediately. I've watched the show since the Brokaw/Pauley days, however, if this is the quality of the Today Show of....well....today.....I would rather find an alternative morning news source....one that does not include Kathie Lee and her blatant disrespect and obvious inability to take responsibility for her actions. Or perhaps she'd prefer to blame another for her commentts? Or will she blame us Pagans for being so very offended that she disrespected our religion? To that I'd simply ask this: Would she be any different if the roles were reversed?

It is all Gods world that the pagans live in. They just don't know it.

She attacked the older Pagans. In so doing she attacked the very people who gave us the concepts of Democracy, architecture, plays, medicine etc. Many of those things were lost during the Dark Ages. If it had not been for the Dark Ages we could possibly already be colonizing space. We lost hundreds of years due to the repressive behavior of the Catholic Church which was Christianity at the time. However, Christians brought about Enlightenment and some of them helped bring back the things that we lost. So while there was some bad there was also some good. It is sad though that she could not recognize the great minds of the early Pagans as we today recognize the great minds of many Christians.

The point here is that she attacked Pagans. Whether ancient or modern it was Pagans that through her ignorance Kathie Lee went off on and did so on the air on a Nationally televised show. This is what is so unacceptable. If she had said, "Those dirty, nasty Jews" or , "Those dirty, nasty Muslims" can you imagine the outcry? Sure, she could have been referring to the ANCIENT Jewish or Muslim people.....but the material point would still be that there are still modern people who practice these religions just as there are people who practice religions that fall under the umbrella of Paganism (from Wicca to Buddhism to those who are Hindu to oh, really anyone not Christian, Jewish or Muslim) so really Kathie Lee's comments were more inappropriate than she may realize. Her "blanket apology" and the running joke that she and Hoda made after for so long after were equally inappropriate. It would be lovely if she could learn to think before speaking; however that could be asking for the moon.

Whether or not she cares for Pagans is her own personal choice. But we all saw the way the Jewish community attacked Mel Gibson and he apologized. What makes Kathy Lee so special.As a Pagan and a pagan parent of 8 Pagan children, I think her behavior on live TV is disgusting. I watch the Today show now till she comes on and the it is off. I will not sit here and allow my children to be TV bullied by a woman who was trying to pass out her damn CD to everyone then wants to belittle a faith older than her own. I am Druid and I believe Jesus was of Pagan blood and someone needs to seriously give her a religious reality check.