Religion and Politics

Pagan High Priest Finds Few Believers Inside an Arkansas City Hall

In The New York Times, Richard Fausset covers Bertram Dahl’s quest to open a Pagan temple next to his house in Beebe, Arkansas. Complicating Dahl’s desire for a temple is his contentious relationship with a Pentecostal church across the street and wariness on the part of Beebe’s large Christian population, as well as a more secular obstacle: city law. Mayor Mike Robertson argues that a temple in Dahl’s backyard would violate zoning codes; for his part, Fausset writes, “Mr. Dahl suspects the city government began discriminating against him once local officials realized he was a Pagan.”

Read at The New York Times

• Email
• Print