[ACML] Religion at Conventions

[Emily Morse-Lee]

mile-hi con here in denver, one of the oldest sci-fi cons in the nation (41
years old), has non-denominational services on sunday, officiated by an
ordained pastor, who also, coincidentally, started denver anime
international (one of the oldest, still extant, anime clubs in the nation. i
think we're at 30 years now?)

mile-hi con has attendance of about 1K (becca, correct me if i'm wrong), and
i don't think they've ever had a problem with holding services, despite the
hueg number of pagan convention attendees, not to mention other faiths.

i believe ACEN had a non-denominational service this year.

i've also been to many a convention, though not anime, where there were full
moon rituals, wiccanings, various flavor of weddings, etc., held. it's never
been a big deal, in my experience.

not my cup of tea, personally, but if you've got someone that can run a
religious service like that, i.e., an ordained pastor of some flavor, then
what's the problem? you're going to have attendees bitch about something,
regardless what you do, be it the programming, the guests, the prices, etc.

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 8:22 AM, Bill Johnston <hakootoko at gmail.com> wrote:

> It could be interpreted as a political statement by the convention,
> and could endanger non-profit tax status.
>
> Bill Johnston
>
> On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Rob Barba<shinzakura at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Yes, I'll readily agree to that, but I don't think it was a bias call but
> > rather an awkwardly worded observation.  In any case, to get back to the
> > message at hand, while I don't see any problem with these ceremonies at
> cons
> > (I'd personally love to have Caitlin and Vic do one, and I'd just as soon
> > schedule something for someone from another belief as well - though I'd
> draw
> > the line at animal sacrifices as we're not paying the hotel cleanup
> costs...
> > ^_-), I can see how that might offend a non-believer and/or atheists and
> > that's something to be concerned about as well.
> >
> > On a slightly related note, since we're on this subject, what about
> > political issues?  In the same meeting where the staffers complained
> about
> > Caitlin's event, the same group wanted to have the Voices for Peace group
> do
> > a concert the next con year (for the record, I'm not picking on said
> > staffers as this is for reference purposes only).  Several people were
> for
> > that, but I had quite a few people from the opposing political alignment
> get
> > pretty vociferous about it as well (IIRC, we ultimately did not schedule
> > them for booking reasons rather than anything political).  But what's
> folks
> > take on that?
> >
> > -Rob
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