The firing of a Waterville Sentinel reporter and his wife just in time for the holidays is raising serious questions about the limits of tolerance within the liberal establishment. The reporter, Larry Grard, was ostensibly fired by the paper for sending a personal email on a company computer.

The real reason behind his firing was that Grard dared question the heavy-handed tactics used by the nation's largest homosexual rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign. In a reply to a press release put out by the HRC explaining their loss on Question 1, Grard stated the obvious: that the same sex marriage movement is itself hateful and intolerant. Two weeks after Grard was fired by the paper, his wife, a freelance food columnist for the paper, was also terminated.

Last week, The League received a communication from Grard stating that he has received the support of Dr. Bill Donohue's Catholic League and World Net Daily, which is coming out with a major statement of support for Grard on Tuesday. Grard also says that Christians across the country have sent messages of support. 

Just as Larry and Lisa Grard were deprived of their livelihood after years of faithful service, others have risen to positions of power and influence by espousing very different views on religion. Occultists, in contrast to Christians, meet with no resistance from politicians who hypocritically demand a strict separation of church and state. In 2007, The Record reported on the activities of Rita Moran, Chairwoman of the Kennebec County Democrats, at a shrine devoted to the goddess of witchcraft. Now The Record has learned of another center of occult activity located in the small town of Winthrop, a short distance from the state capital.

Winthrop is home to the EarthTides Pagan Network, an organization which aspires to be a network for pagans throughout the state. Rita Moran has played an active role in the organization, serving in the past as a member of the governing board of the EPN. "Pagan" is of course, a euphemism for an occultist, who is most often a practitioner of "Wicca." The word "Wicca" is itself a play on the words "witchcraft" and "wicked."

The identities of the members of these organizations are often kept secret. Moran is active in the EarthTides Pagan Network under the pseudonym "Arwen Evenstar." Under this pseudonym, Moran has written a book review column in the group's newsletter for the past several years. The following comments from one of her columns are typical. She was reviewing the book "A Year and a Day: 366 Days of Spiritual Practice in the Craft of the Wise. Moran wrote:

"[This book] breaks down beliefs and practices into daily lessons. It's a nice presentation, with things to make, meditations, spiritual practices, divination, theology, history and much more. This is an excellent way for solitary practitioners to begin on the path."

And Wicca is not only for adults, apparently. As in many other groups, there   are efforts to reach out to the young. As early as the fall of 2000, the EPN had prepared a pamphlet for teens, over a hundred of which were distributed at the Maine Arts Festival and more at the Common Ground Fair.  At a September 16th, 2000 meeting of the EPN Board, the organization discussed expanding the outreach to include schools. The board sought to build on the success of their 'paganism for teens' pamphlet, and discussed a possible second pamphlet designed to explain "paganism" (witchcraft) to school administrators.

During the meeting, Moran suggested contacting a teacher who was a fellow occultist and the head of her school's Civil Rights Team. It was eventually decided that another board member, not Moran, would contact the teacher to help with the pamphlet. The EPN board went on to discuss sending the pamphlet to all Civil Rights Teams, principals, and superintendents in the state.

Eric Robbins, who is active in EPN under the name "Harper Meader," said during the meeting that "School Diversity Days are an excellent vehicle for educating school communities about Paganism, and the pamphlet might also be a means to inform administrators that there are Pagans in Maine who are willing to speak in the schools."

At another meeting, the EPN discussed the possibility of attending the annual convocation of the Bangor Theological Seminary and participating in the "green coalition" in the Maine Clergy Association.

The newsletter of the EPN often strays from the shadow world of the occult into the political realm. One article in the newsletter tried to give a new justification for abortion. Another article criticized conservative Supreme Court justices, each Christian member of the court being photo-shopped with a white cross displayed prominently on his robe.

In addition to being Chairwoman of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, Moran is also a member of the top Democrat committee in Maine, the Democratic Executive Committee, and was discussed as a possible delegate to the Democrat national convention which nominated Barak Obama.

It is a sad commentary on politics in Maine that the highest levels of the Democrat Party rely on an occultist whose political prudence consists of Tarot Card reading and crystal-ball gazing; and whose leadership effectiveness is a matter of casting the right spell. 

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