Curses!

File this under Voodoo -- for those of you who haven't been keeping track, there's been an ongoing battle between the organizers of Jerusalem's Gay Pride festival and conservative religious groups. There have been threats of violence, actual violence, and conservative Rabbis have blamed The Gays for the bird flu as well as Israel's recent war with Lebanon.

This year, the ultra-conservative Eda Haredit sect has decided to take it to another level by placing a curse on the event organizers and those who attend. "To all those involved, sinners in spirit, and whoever helps and protects them, may they feel a curse on their souls, may it plague them and may evil pursue them; they will not be requitted of their transgressions from heavenly judgment," the rabbis' statement... uh... cursed. Of course, a member of this same sect stabbed three attendees of the 2005 parade.

Now I suppose the easy route would be to dismiss this whole thing as a bunch of whackos trying to go all Miss Cleo on The Gays. As a spiritual person, however, I'm not one to dismiss these things -- while I'm hardly expecting anvils to fall out of the sky on anyone, it is a very bad thing to wish ill on anyone. Most religious traditions recognize this -- in witchcraft its called the "Rule of Three," in Christianity the principle is that "you reap what you sow." Regardless of how its described, the reality is that what you put out always comes back to you.

I'm truly sorry that anyone would want to create evil in this world or would wish ill to anyone and I can only hope that all sides are able to put their differences aside and allow everyone to live their lives in peace.

(via Towleroad.)