Censorship and Age of Consent

I’m sure this essay will be offensive to most non-Pagan readers, but my intent is to show stupidity of our law makers and of the Christian people who have voted for these insane statutes.  I like to refer back to the height of the Roman Empire for my displeased interest in censoring the visual and written arts. The Greco-Romans were of a working democracy and liberal free thinkers of their time.  Our civilization grew from their utopianism, but as we know, this was practically destroyed by the Christians.  I am not an atheist; I am a very religious and spiritual person that comes from years in the study of Paganism. 

Censorship is and has been an unpleasant subject for me to dwell upon.  I usually try to avoid it in conversations, writing, and the arts.  I do believe censorship should not be controlled by any government.  This is the responsibility of the parents and teachers to educate family values of their own morals and righteousness.   In Greco-Roman times, the ruling republic had no interest in governing the censorship of human sexuality and of what today we call victimless crimes, such as prostitution, pornography, and lewdness.  In the Roman society this meant fewer laws to enforce.  

I cannot understand of what one does in his/her own privacy, would be the concern of others and of the officials in a democratic government.  The Constitution of the United States is a conceptive thought procreated by Christian men, and it also gave everyone freedom of religion.  At the signing of this document, Pagans, Jews, and other non-Christians were not a part of the voting public, and women was also excluded.  At this day and cultural age, the Native American’s pagan faith is not recognized in most lawful extracts of cities and states.  Pink liberals of the Christian Church, it seems, had wished to play upon some god (who they refuse to name) when they created their inspirations and victimless laws.  Would this be because of the myths they read in their holy book?

At the age of eight, I discovered I loved art.  In some of the old encyclopedias of the 1940’s and ‘50’s, I studied the works of the old masters.  The old geography books, I came upon information of the wall paintings in a little coastal town of Pompeii, which is near Napoli, Italy.  I could only read about them, since the art had been censored.  But, Pompeii was a resort city for all Romans and seafaring visitors to relax and enjoy the pleasures given to them by the gods.  Most of the artwork, when discovered in the year, 1764, was either reburied or removed and hidden in a sealed vault in Napoli by the Christian excavators.  These immoral, hateful individuals didn’t wish the so called “modern civilized” population to be embarrassed by the “dirty” pictures.  In the year 2000, the vault was finally opened for public viewing.  And, because of the internet, I am now able to view most of this splendid art work.

I can’t interpret the primitive teachings of the cement-headed Christians, but I know my God and Goddess developed this world and the purpose is for all creatures to procreate and preserve life.  We, as a human race, are here to learn about our environment and to make life improvements for future incarnations.  Each cell of our bodies has been placed there for a purpose, and should be glorified and worshipped.  Meditation and yoga must be studied to acquire the purification of our soul and the healthful mechanics of our bodies.

Christians censored the teachings of Rome, replaced the government with bad Popes, and became responsible for Europe’s dark ages.  The sinful lunatics attempted to place an end to the Pagan Gods and this became a Christian Medieval Europe.  Pointed out in history records, nothing of any importance was invented during this time.  Most of the world could not read or write.  The only people with power and money lived in the expensive palace of Rome.  Since this time, every Christian explorer discovering a new world would always bring the righteous clergymen with them to save the heathens.  By the way, Pope John XII, also known as Octavian, practiced the same immoral sins of the previous rulers of the Roman Republic, and in my opinion, could have been another Caligula.

From the time the self-proclaimed holy men ruled the world, people were forced to wear clothing, which is against nature.  I, at one time, belonged to the AANR, but after raising their dues, I couldn’t afford the nudist organization.  Why pay for something the Goddess gave us for free?  My wife and I visited several clubs, and the one important item I noticed, the children were very comfortable in the nude.  They were not forced to do this by anyone, and most kids had their clothes off before the parents were done unpacking for the weekend.  The ages of the members in the AANR were from an infant to over a hundred years old.  I met and became friends with several nudists; these were the happiest, healthiest, and relaxed people I had ever met.  Not one pervert in the whole bunch.

During the medieval period, water was rarely used for anything, especially washing one’s body.  Seeing yourself naked was one of the most terrible sins.  Wearing dirty, unwashed clothing over dirt covered skin, plus the flea-infested rats, over fifty-percent of the world’s population died from the black plague.  The ruling Church blamed this on the wicked sinners.  They refused to listen to the Heathens of Arabia, who had knowledge of a cure.  But, a modern person would have to understand, the world at this time was not globular. 

The Christians does not realize what germs and bacteria a person can obtain from clothing.  A naked body fights its own bad cells as the Goddess intended.  It does not matter how often you have your clothing washed, the skin picks up bacterium from cloth and leather material.  This is why we now have inoculations and the wild savages of the Americas never became sick, until they met the Europeans.  

I have no hatred towards any structured religions.  I am totally uncomfortable with the theology of the Christians and their book of mythology, or what they call a holy bible.  I know most of the Christians believe this comic book was written with the inspiration of their God, and I have read this book a few times and find it no different than reading the stories of Ancient Egypt.  Most people do not know at one time Egypt practiced henotheism, the belief of one God.  This ancient religion continued on by a group, who later became known as Israelites.  As history shows, the Church followed through with this tradition, but then added a Goddess, they called Mary, and another God, and they called him Jesus.

Recently, an exhibition of the Qumran Scrolls has been placed on the internet.  These scrolls were hidden by the Jewish scholars over 2000 years ago, possibly because they didn’t want the ancient, academic intellectuals to discover the truth of world history and of the facts of the ancient religions.  I have always been leery of the Jews deceitfulness.  Israel never has been a country, except what they had stolen from Palestine.  Hoping in the near future, more pages of history will be discovered by open-minded, intellectuals from within the sands of northern Africa.

Being a Pagan, I do not believe in sins, hell, or this fantasy creature the Christians call Satan.  Summerland is a place my soul will go for reincarnation.  In Summerland I will find the spirits of our forefathers, who attempted to teach the truth of my Goddess, which we call Earth.

Over the years, since the beginning of the dark ages, the Church has screwed up the minds of millions of people; their peaceful God has caused many meaningless wars, developed crimes against humanity, and invented sexual perversions.  In ancient times, wars were planned and depended upon, in the acquiring land for their people, and to please their Gods, not forcing others to accept their Gods.  Now, all wars are a religious bureaucracy.  It seems, this all started with killing off the Pagans.

Censorship is an invention of the Christians to insure their wealth.  Although clothing can be unhealthy to the body, it’s a mollifying business of extreme financial income.  The intellectual age of the Roman Empire, clothing, if worn at all, were loose fitting and allowed air to destroy the bacterial attaching itself to the skin, from the cloth material.

Why is a painting or a photograph of a nude so obscene?  The body, created by the Goddess Earth, has been represented among nature to show love and to prove the human race is part of the universe.  There is no such thing as pornography.  A child has pleasure and sexual feelings in the same way as adults. Art has shown since the beginning of recorded history sexual attractions to each other is normal.  From the time I was seven to about twelve years old, a neighbor girl (the same age) and I walked two miles from town to a small creek, and went skinny-dipping during the summer months.  At the age of twelve, one of the other neighbor kids told her mother, and she quickly put an end to our visits, but even though I had an attraction for her, I never thought of having sex with her.  I can see no harm was done.

I enjoy the beauty of the visual arts.  I have had no sexual attractions to the nude in art, even to the skin magazines popular during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.  I did absorb the creativeness and the pleasure the artist communicated.  The nude photos and movies are all produced with paid models and actors, but this is an expansive, profitable business.  I would rather have my children watch art films instead of the violence, mayhem, murders, wars, and live shots of people dying, which we all see in the news.  People represented in a sexual composition is art, it is the gift the Goddess created for us.  I am not talking of forced rape and sexual assaults on children or adults, this is not the consent of the people involved.  Every unforced act of love is a sign of worship to all the Gods and Goddesses.

I pray and meditate in the nude.  Why should I be ashamed of what the Goddess Earth created?  I am sure she seen a lot of naked humans, being the Earth, She knows and sees everything.  There is no need for censorship.  A researcher from the University of Hawaii, Professor Milton Diamond, spent a few years studying child pornography and its effects on children and adults. In the countries, where pornography was once illegal, but is now legal, the sex crimes are noticeably lower.  Sex crimes against children have been much decreased.  In other studies, children used with their parents’ consent during filming sex scenes have no bearing on their psychological development.   A good example is Brooke Shields in the movie Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon.  I can recognize the crime and the terrible insult to the Goddess when forced, uncontrolled sexual assaults are taking place with underage children.

Paintings, sculpture, and all forms of the visual and written art have introduced naked beings within the composition.  We find this in the works of the great masters, and to name a few:  Sandro Botticelli, Caravaggio, Mary Cassatt, Eugene Delacroix, Edouard Manet, and Michelangelo.  We can even go back to the cave paintings discovered in France.  The great art of photography, like Sally Mann and Jock Surges has even produced naked children.  This was never a crime until in the late 1970’s, about the time the Catholic clergymen were caught molesting boys, which I can testify this has happen to me in the late 1950’s. 

My parents, being strong Catholics, and I being sixteen, thought I should have a religious education at St. Mary’s Monastery in Kenosha, Wisconsin for a few weeks.  It wasn’t until the second day, I found Brother Thomas giving another brother oral sex right outside the poolroom.  I remember, I was not shock in witnessing this, but very curious.  Soon after, they wanted me to join them, but turned them down.  And, I had a cousin at this place, who also wanted sex with me.  I have nothing against gays, I have a few friends who are, but I was sixteen at the time, and being a farm boy, this was new to me.  The Brothers of the monastery were all practicing celibacy, but not with each other.  I avoided everyone, even Father Superior, who had one of the Brothers sleeping with him.

The gay individual should have the same rights as anyone.  The gift of the Earth Goddess is to love, whether in lust or in commitment of any age or gender.  I speak as a straight person, but how can mankind, who had invented a one God religion, and where in this Christian myth book that says anything about a gay individual being condemned to some comical place of fire?

 A few months after this experience at the monastery, I met a man, who lived in Chicago, and yes he was gay, but I was introduced to various copies of the Wiccan hypothesis manuscripts.  You have to understand, my knowledge of being Pagan happened before computers, and the written books of Pagan subjects were hard to find.  I lost contact of this person, but kept the papers for years, and I studied them religiously.  At sixteen I proclaimed myself a Pagan.  I have never belonged to a coven, but after stepping out of the bloom closet, I recently met other people of the same interest.

But are naked children in visual arts wrong?  There are so many innocent people being jailed because they took a picture of their kid in the bathtub.  What harm does a photo of a naked child do?  Does it harm the child or the observer?  Ancient Rome practiced pederasty, and this only occurred as long as the boy was a slave.  It was also a custom to take a twelve year old boy to the brothels to introduce him to manhood.  And, this was all legal.

I understand that a child, who is forced to pose naked, is a crime against local laws and the Goddess.  But, if the parents and/or the child consent to it, I cannot see a crime.  Most all countries of Europe have the age of consent at fourteen years for both male and female.  I also found it interesting the countries who recognize the younger age of consent has higher scores in academics than what we have in the United States.  The most important of these are math and science.  This may not have anything to do with the age of consent, but I do find it interesting. 

Because of the idiot Christian culture in the United States, most all schools are very primitive in comparison to the foreign schools, which are liberal with their sex taboos and free thinking.

My favorite artists have always been Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Sally Mann, David Hansen, Jock Sturges, Pissarro, Monet, and Manet.  Yes, some are very controversial in their art, but they are masters in their work.  I read Henry Miller before his books were legal in the United States.  I also admired the erotic writings of Marquis De Sade when I was twelve.  How I received these books was the result of knowing a pen-pal in Japan, who I haven’t had contact with for a lot of years, but hope to someday.

During my years in the U.S. Navy, I visited Subic Bay, Philippines several times.  Instead of paying money for sexual pleasures, I took my sketchbook and drew naked girls that agreed to model for me (for the same price of having sex).  I admit some were as young as ten years old, but this was in a country where prostitution was tolerated, and this was the only means of self-supporting.  They were interested in being paid, and I had no interest in having sex with someone that young.  I also knew at the time, many of the girls were forced to work the streets because of the people who owned them, and had paid the parents for the girls’ services.  I could do nothing about their legal prostitution, and I kept away from the sexual pleasures because of the diseases.  I concentrated only on my pages of sketches.  By the way, my art work has been destroyed because of the insane laws of this country. 

I am also a photographer, and I do not take many pictures because of the insane discrimination.  A person can be sued for taking a photo if a child just happens to be in the frame.  I usually concentrate only on landscapes.

I wrote this manuscript to remind myself why I dislike censorship and the victimless laws of this country.  It is very unfortunate that an artist cannot express his true creativeness in expressing his art.  The human body is created by the soul of Earth, and should not be considered sinful.  It hasn’t been too many years ago, I would be jailed for being a Pagan.  Isn’t it about time the Christians admit they built their beliefs on pagan doctrine?