It hasn't been a good month to be a Pagan, atheist, or occultist of any stripe. Some of the strangest stories:

The gunman who shot up a Colorado Megachurch and killed five people turns out to have been a member of the OTO, which he joined prior to his rampage. I'm guessing that we're going to see a lot of blame directed at Thelemites rather than at the man's mental condition or his anguish and rage over his struggles with his strict Christian upbringing. The OTO's already having a hard time, still battling ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Maybe it's holiday stress, but American evangelicals are getting touchier about having to share the "holiday season" with anyone else, as evidenced by the Olean pentacle debacle. A Connecticut atheist group's "holiday" display doesn't have many fans, either, but at least it's still standing. There is a bright spot: the residents of Vilnius, Lithuania, showed that Christians and Pagans can indeed get along for the holidays.

They were also unhappy about the Golden Compass, which was accused of promoting everything from Gnosticism to Atheism. As Gnosticism is a bit tougher to identify than "witchcraft," the controversy pretty much deflated. That didn't stop Bill Donohue's Catholic League from kicking up a fuss, but even they had the air let out of them when the American Conference of Catholic Bishops enthusiastically endorsed the film. (Although public outcry led to the review's speedy disappearance.)

Christian legislators decided it was necessary to pass a resolution declaring the Christian religion and its trappings to be culturally and historically important. I guess it was a slow day.

An article attempting to educate the public about their pagan neighbors ends up perpetuating more misconceptions than it clears up.

The publisher of a Turkish edition of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion is facing a possible prison sentence.

Here's one so strange I don't klnow what to make of it- a Canadian police officer posed as an "Obeah man" in an elaborate undercover operation apparently designed to scare up information from a mursder suspect and his mother, who appear to have been believers. This seems at best an ethical breach- I can't imagine an officer posing as a priest with a confessional, and this seems no different.

Another oddball black magic story involves the Wiccan deputy of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction's Inspector General (say that three times fast!), who is accused of threatening coworkers with hexes.