Did you hear the latest news out of the United Kingdom? Well those long oppressed  Druids have finally been recognized as a “real” religion. Mark Shea provides the snark so I don’t have to:

What passes for Druidry today is basically a fake reconstruction cooked up over the past few decades and largely driven by modern neo-pagan romanticizing about nature, reaction to Christianity, and reading too much Tolkien while remaining in ignorance of his Catholic faith. It’s a kluge of junk compounded of sexual revolution BS dressed up in archaic English, Gaia worship, and twaddle about the goddess. The UK can pretend it’s a serious religion. We are, after all, talking about the land where all religions are equally superior to the Catholic faith. But you have to be daft to take this stuff seriously.

The irony is that while they are not real Druids, they are real pagans, because being a pagan is as easy as pie. All you need do is what Paul describes all pagans as doing: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.” (Romans 1:22-23) The goal here is to abandon the worship of the Creator for the creature. Much of the West is currently engaged in that project. Whether you do it by exactly mimicking the rites of Dionysius or just make up crap in pseudo-Olde English matters not a jot. It’s the thought that counts.

What Mark doesn’t mention is that according to Roman accounts, from Julius Caesar for example, is that the original Druids engaged in human sacrifice. Here is an excerpt from a 2009 National Geographic special:

“In 55 B.C., said the native Celts “believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent.” First-century historian Pliny the Elder went further, suggesting the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies’ flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength. But with only the Romans’ word to go on—the ancient Celts left no written record of their own—it’s been easy for historians to dismiss such tales as wartime propaganda. Until now, that is.”  Read more here.

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