{"id":20142,"date":"2012-11-20T02:08:40","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T05:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=20142"},"modified":"2012-11-20T02:08:40","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T05:08:40","slug":"us-troop-is-soldier-businessman-pagan-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/20\/us-troop-is-soldier-businessman-pagan-priest\/","title":{"rendered":"US Troop is Soldier, Businessman, Pagan Priest"},"content":{"rendered":"

An official DoD article covering the theme “Why We Serve” highlights SPC Adama Blackthorn, who has the nickname “Evil.”\u00a0 It highlights his unusual life story, from a practically homeless bouncer to making candles as a hobby with his family<\/a>:<\/p>\n

His all-natural candles also play a role in his faith — the Earth-based Pagan religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a practicing Pagan for almost two decades, and it\u2019s very fulfilling,\u201d said Blackthorn…<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up Southern Baptist and my family is all Christian. They wanted me to become a pastor. I kind of am, but as a Pagan,\u201d said Blackthorn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blackthorn has an interesting view of paganism in the US military:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a large Pagan, Wiccan community in the military. The reason why people don\u2019t realize we\u2019re there is because the faith had to go underground…\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Still, he has taken advantage of the military’s environment of religious freedom, ultimately becoming the “distinctive faith group leader” for pagans:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe military is about giving everyone the opportunity to practice their spiritual beliefs. I stepped forward as a Pagan minister and said, \u2018I hear there is a need for a Pagan, Wiccan representative and I\u2019m willing to do it\u2019,\u201d said Blackthorn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an interesting comparison, the presence of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism — even Christianity and Islam — within the US military seem to get far less intentional coverage than paganism.\u00a0 The occasional emphasis by reporters on Earth-based religions<\/a> may simply be out of surprise that paganism\/wicca is “popular,” or it could be an effort to demonstrate the free exercise of religion in the US military afforded even to groups not historically considered “mainstream.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An official DoD article covering the theme “Why We Serve” highlights SPC Adama Blackthorn, who has the nickname “Evil.”\u00a0 It highlights his unusual life story, from a practically homeless bouncer to making candles as a hobby with his family: His all-natural candles also play a role in his faith — the Earth-based Pagan religion. \u201cI\u2019ve been a practicing Pagan for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3691,37,3690,96,73,44,39,76,10,171],"class_list":["post-20142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-adama-blackthorn","tag-buddhism","tag-candles","tag-christian","tag-hindu","tag-islam","tag-jewish","tag-pagan","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}