Beauty Queen Fired Over Tarot And Reiki
Or How Reiki Became "The Dark Side"...
Sometimes one wonders what it must have felt to live in the old times. You know - bigotry, primitivism, "our beliefs are right and the rest of the world is wrong", "it's sin to have a bath more than twice a year" and that sort of stuff. Even though it's 21st century now, sometimes we still get to experience such spirit of middle ages in our times.
Stephanie Elizabeth Conover was crowned Miss Canada Plus in 2007. As such, she was invited to be one of the judges at the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant on February 2nd 2008. Then the organizers (who apparently didn't know who they invited) read Stephanie's bio.
The problem is that she listed Reiki and Tarot as her interests. Apparently, prior to inviting her, the board members didn't just Google her name and see this page where the same info was already made public.
After short deliberation, the pageant sent a letter to Miss Canada Plus group, explaining that "our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and is not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians. Tarot card reading is witchcraft and is used by witches, spiritists and mediums to consult the dark world." Karen Murray, pageant director of Miss Toronto Tourism said "We just got her bio a week ago and we don't agree with it... We want someone down to earth, not someone into the dark side or the occult."
We might draw Ms. Murray's attention to Acts 1:26 where it is explained that after the betrayal by Judas and consequent death of Jesus, apostles chose a new 12th apostle by casting lots.
If casting lots is respectable enough to choose an apostle, why is a person casting Tarot in her spare time unfit for a beauty pageant? Also, we would like to be enlightened as to why Ms. Murray believes it is Ok when Jesus and his disciples heal people by "laying of hands", but when Reiki practitioners do the same or similar, it constitutes "dark side or the occult"?
Where do these double standards come from? When Jospeh in Genesis 37:3-11 tells his dream about Sun, Moon and eleven stars, then he is a prophet. If someone these days talks about prophetic dreams, then he is just "silly". When three people follow a star to find baby Jesus, then they are "three wise men". If someone talks about astrology, then they are what? "Naive"? When apostles decide who should join them, they base their decision solely on casting lots and it is OK. But if someone consults Tarot cards, Miss Toronto Tourism pageant board finds such person unacceptable because board wants someone "...acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians", but at the same time "...someone down to earth."
Ah, the world of pageants...
To quote Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality" - "harsher punishment for parole-violators... and world peace".
