Rita Moran, a delegate to the DNC from Maine and chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, is an out Wiccan who was attacked by the local right wing "Christian" Civic League over her faith. The intent was to make the Kennebec County Democratic Committee remove her from the chairmanship of the county party. They failed. The county Democratic party stood up for religious freedom and supported her as chair.
Well, now she is at the convention, blogging her experiences as an out pagan at the DNC and she has a review of the interfaith service that opened the convention.
Rita Moran, the delegate in question had her doubts about just how "interfaith" the service would be:
I approached today's interfaith service with a grain of salt. OK, let's be truthful...a bucket of salt would be closer to the way I was feeling. Knowing that several folks in Pagan leadership had sent e-mails to the Obama "people of faith"outreach, and that none of us had received a response, I was prepared for disappointment.
The good news is that she was pleasantly surprised. The symbols chosen - a globe, a mandala, and some stars - were universal in nature and not associated with one faith or another.
Rita summed it up:
Led by convention CEO Rev. Leah Daughtry, who is pastor of a church in Washington, DC, the service stressed equality, peace, social justice, and free speech...
The high point for me, where Rev. Daughtry proved how inclusive she had planned the service to be, came when she stated, "We are created in the image of our Creator, whatever we call Him or Her." Acknowledgment of the feminine divine truly demonstrated how inclusive the Democratic Party is, and made me proud to be a Democrat.
Makes me proud too - proud as a Democrat, proud as a Pagan.