‘Which Witch is Which?’ panel supports MUUU religious diversity
Members of Marshall University Unitarian Universalists gathered Monday in the Memorial Student Center for a panel discussion called “Which Witch is Which?”
Each panelist spoke about his or her religion before taking questions from audience members. Several topics of discussion included Atheistic Satanism, healing through mind, ceremonial magic and Egyptian Polytheism.
“Several of the students who were on the panel came up with [the idea],” said Pamela Mulder, professor of psychology. “We see Christianity all over campus, and that’s a great thing, but there are other views and we felt like the other views were not getting any attention. With October being such an important month for Pagans, we just decided to do some things to show people that maybe we’re not quite what they thought we were.”
“Which Witch is Which?” was just one event planned by MUUU members as part of Occupy October.
Future events will be a Full Moon Ceremony that Mulder said will consist of a land and water blessing on Oct. 17, an October Festival on Oct. 24 that will allow students to sell homemade goods and Samhain Festival on Oct. 31, all of which will take place on Buskirk Field.
Ash Prichard, a student panelist, said the idea for the event was developed from a lack of diversity on campus.
“I spearheaded the idea a couple years back when we were first starting the group,” Prichard said. “What I noticed was a lack of religious diversity on campus. One voice always dominated the public forum and I thought maybe other people should have a chance to speak since there was a very large Pagan and magical community.”
Prichard also said several of the group’s posters for the event were taken down without MUUU members’ consent, and that the point of Occupy October events is to give different religions more visibility.
“The fact that people have gotten so upset over religious visibility is very disheartening and makes me want to do events like this evening even more,” Prichard said. “I believe in all religions having a voice, whether it’s Christians or Muslims or Jews. The Christian Center has every right to do what they do here, and I would never take that away from them, but the fact that other people, not just one religion, want to take that opportunity from us goes against the spirit of the freedom of speech and democracy. Part of the reason we’re hosting events like this is to say ‘hey, we’re here and we exist and we deserve a chance to speak too.’”
Olivia Zarilla can be contacted at [email protected].
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Jason DeHaven • Oct 25, 2016 at 1:07 pm
Hey Olivia,
I’m Jason DeHaven and I was one of the panelist, and that’s truly not what the group is about. Ash Prichard founded the group but is no longer the President. As it seems shown this article prompts that MUUU is more of a pagan group and it isn’t. Ash was wrong about that. The person you should go to talk to would be Nicholas Richards because he is the president at the time now. The MUUU is a group of religious diversity who has welcoming arms to all religions even christians. It’s a place for people to go when they feel out of place or it’s a place to go for people to make friends through open minded religion and spirituality. The groups members don’t force to change ones religious views the group is a sanctuary to where people can be accepted of many different backgrounds. Another major thing I noticed you forgot was that I was a panelist who spoke of my Christian Pagan views in front of the audience and this was missed which would have lead away from the minirity religion being blocked out. The group isn’t around to enforce religious beliefs on others. It was a good article but here are the other important things.
Thanks,
Jason DeHaven