A Pagan in local politics?

At Religion Dispatches, Sarah M. Pike explores the significance of New York City Council candidate Dan Halloran’s Neopagan faith:

Sexy teenage witches or nature-worshipping environmentalists, not Republican politicians, serve as our popular images of contemporary Pagans. But as fall campaigns for New York City’s City Council heat up, a Republican candidate from Queens has been forced “out of the broom closet.” Given that Republicans are typically linked with conservative Christianity, both the Neopagan community and some Republicans are a bit puzzled by Dan Halloran, who is running on Republican, Libertarian, Conservative, and Independence lines for City Council.

Read more about Halloran’s Heathenism here.

Jessica Polebaum is a contributing editor for The Immanent Frame and a J.D. candidate at Georgetown University. A former program and editorial associate at the Social Science Research Council, she holds a B.A. in religion from Middlebury College, where her undergraduate work culminated in a senior honors thesis on ijtihad---a concept from classical Islamic law---and its use in modern reform movements. Upon graduating in 2008, she received the Ann and Edward Meyers Religion Prize for exceptional ability in the understanding, expression, and integration of ideas in the area of religious studies.

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