Warning if you are easily offended by my blunt honesty stop reading now.
If I ever had any doubts about leaving Witch School far behind me a few years ago they were put to rest today. I subscribe to the Witch in the City podcast and her latest was on the "Rise and Fall of Witch School". She did not go into a lot of details about what has been going on there she just mentioned that one of the leaders of that site had put the school up for auction on Ebay. That makes me so mad I could spit nails. I have a permanent account there which would give anyone who buys the site access to my personal information. I believe I will try to contact them and have my account removed from the site because I have no desire for my e-mail and other information to be sold to someone who I don't know.
I did some digging online after listening to the podcast to find out what's been going on there since I left. Apparently the internal politics of the "leaders" of the Correllian Nativist Tradition have gotten worse since I left. If anyone who reads my blog is familiar with Witch School you may understand why I feel the need to start over with the basics since you probably know the quality of the lessons there are not what one should expect from one of the largest online Wiccan Schools around.
The movie "Jesus Camp" scares me as much as it does many people. However, I do not see this as a reason to think that these people are an example of how ALL Christians think. My great-grandfather was a Methodist minister he was a gentle soul (from what I can remember) and my very Irish great-grandmother told stories about the Fae her husband never told her she was wrong to tell me these stories. And while my grandmother would not approve of my religious choice...She would also not agree with the fanatics who run Jesus Camp.
Fanatics in any religion scare me because they can be quite dangerous. This is one of the reasons I am so anti-Christian bashing. When you start to act like a fanatic yourself then you are no better than the ones you claim to hate IMHO. I'm not saying don't stand up for yourself or your religion as some people seem to think. I'm simply saying that in order to avoid becoming something which you (using this as a general term not speaking directly to anyone here) there must be a better way than by doing exactly as they do. For me the better way would be to educate them through calm and rational discussion rather than returning tit for tat. I believe that we can stand up for ourselves and our religion without "doing to them what they do to us". I am not a pacifist by any means and I will defend myself and my home through any means necessary if someone were to break in with the intent to do any sort of harm to me or someone I love. However, tearing someone down for their religion is not defending yourself (Once again just my opinion). I truly feel that the entire human race is doomed when I see young people of any religion being raised to believe that violence toward or abuse and intolerance of other religions is the "right" way to be. Understanding comes from education...Fear and intolerance come from ignorance. We all have the choice to either educate people on what it means to us to be Pagan and hope for understanding through education or become the fanatics who use any means necessary to force our opinons on others effectively becoming that which we ourselves fear. Which will you choose?
Pagan fanatics are no less frighning than Christian fanatics to me. And as I said both are dangerous. The people who run "Jesus Camp" are fanatics they do not represent the entire Christian religion.
I debated whether or not I would even make this post because contrary to popular belief I am not as argumentative as some people would think. Nor am I a coward like some people who like to make inflammatory posts about me and then block me from responding. She of course has been blocked from making comments to me because I see no point in allowing somene that petty to have her say on my personal space.
Ok now that I'm done being catty..Back to my final thoughts on intolerance. Talerith made the comment on my profile that most bashing comes from ignorance. And to a point I agree with that statement. However, there are other reasons that Pagans bash Christians and each other as well as why the Christians bash us. Fear is another factor although that's directly tied to ignorance. There's also the "They do it to us so I'm going to do it to them" excuse which I find quite lame. It reminds me of when my younger sister and I were children and got in trouble for fighting there was always finger pointing and "She started it!". When you are 6 and 4 years old it's to be expected that you aren't going to take responsibility for your actions in most cases. When you are an adult or a young adult/teenager that excuse doesn't really make sense to me. At that age you should be old enough to know that two wrongs do not make a right. Wouldn't it make more sense to be the better person and walk away rather than perpetuate the hostility and intolerance? No one deserves to be put down for their religious belifs and I know it's hard to sit and listen to those who don't understand Paganism make the assumptions that they do. But I feel that education through civil dialogue is preferable to the "they did it to me first" attitude.
Now, to touch on something I found disturbing about some of the other comments I got on the Christian bashing entry. A couple of people seem to think that Christian bashing is ok because 1) They do it to us-Which I've already covered. And 2) Christians are child molesters and start wars-OMG You have got to be kidding me! Child abuse or abuse of any kind for that matter is not about religion. It's about having power over someone weaker than yourself I should know since I had a father who was not Christian and practiced this regularly as well as an abusive ex-husband. How in the world someone could deside ALL Christians are bad for the actions of (to my knowledge) a handful of Catholic priests is beyond me. And let's not forget the "Christians start wars" excuse either. Ever heard of the Celts? I promise you those folks were not running around shouting "Harm None" in battle. War often is about religion but the Christians aren't the only ones who ever started a war. And please I invite you to tell me what war in modern history was about Chrisitanity? I honestly cannot think of one war in the past 50 years that has had anything to do with religion including the current situation in Iraq.
I was going to discuss "Harm None" and "Threefold Return" in this entry but I've decided not to. I had something else in mind for entries on those two subjects. So, I'm now ending my final entry on religious intolerance.
Ok so, yesterday I wrote about Pagans intolerance toward Christians. Today I'm about to open another proverbial "can of worms" and talk about the intolerant attitude of Pagans toward other Pagans along with the preachy almost Christian-like attitude towards those who practice a darker path than what is taught in modern Wicca. I will also state that I am not innocent of being intolerant myself. There are times when I have said things about other paths that were less than nice. I've been on the so called "fluff bunny" side where I was even guilty of telling people that the dark path was wrong. From there I went towards the more fundamentalist attitude of total disregard and disdain for the "fluffies". Now I try to be tolerant and respectful of other people's paths but I have never and will never claim that all paths are valid if the person who practices it feels that it's right. And that is a topic for a whole other blog post which I will eventually write when I have the time. So, let's get started on the intolerance I have seen, participated in and been the target of over the years I've been Pagan.
The two most prevelant types of intolerance I've seen (And have been guilty of doing myself in the past) are the "fluffy bunnies" (I really don't like this term but can't think of a nicer one) intolerance of the "Fundie Pagans" and those who practice a darker path. And the reverse intolerance of the fundies and "left-handed" or "dark" path towards the "fluffies".
While I have my own personal issues with the attitude of many Wiccans/Pagans on the whole "It's all about loving yourself and everybody else", "harm none" and "three fold return" aspects of modern Wicca I see no reason to bash or be intolerant of people who practice this. That doesn't mean if they try to force those values on me or tell me I'm not a "true", "good" or "real" Pagan because I don't hold those values that I will sit back and take it. I do try to ignore it or explain in a calm and reasonable manner that not all Pagans hold those values and that I have my own code of ethics and values that I personally live by (I will explain a bit more about that in another post).
Now I personally know very little about British Traditional Wicca other than I know most people who practice this can trace their linneage back to Gardner himself. And while I completely respect this path because without Gardner we would not have what is now known as modern or Neo-Wicca...I don't think that it makes you so special that you have the right to make fun of those you refer to as "fluffy bunnies". No amount of yelling, name calling, or other forms of abuse will ever make them "see the light" and start calling themselves something other than Wiccans. Not all "fluffies" stay fluffy and those that do have the right to make that choice. The only real way in my opinion to show them where Wicca comes from an what it is would be to educate them in a calm and rational manner rather than to try and force them to see things your way. Dark Pagans also need to try explaining things to those who tell you that "karma is going to get you" and you aren't a "true" Pagan in a little calmer and more rational manner. Once again I have been guilty of this myself and I've realized that calm and rational explanation most often gets better results than name calling and yelling. Although it occaisionally gets me told that I should "Meditate on where all my hostility comes from" from poor souls who just don't understand that the "Wicca Police" do not have the right to tell me I'm not a "true" Pagan any more than I have the right to say they aren't really Wiccan if they aren't BTW.
I'll stop now before I write another novel rather than blog post. This post and the one prior to it about Christian bashing are not meant to pass judgement or name call. They are simply meant to share my viewpoint based on observations I've made about the Pagan community over the years. The next rant I write will conver some issues brought up in comments on my Christian Bashing post that I found hard to digest.
There is a trend among Pagans today to point fingers at the Christians and cry "Persecution". A couple of questions here:
1. Have you been dragged from your home and stoned, drowned, or burned at the stake?
2. Does bashing the Christians for "persecuting" you make you any better than they are?
My answers:
1. If this has happened to you then you would not be alive to call the Christians names and whine about "persecution" in your blogs. While I agree with you that it is wrong of them to call all Pagans Satan/Devil worshipers...I will fight to the death for their right to have an opinion because I live in a free country where we can choose what we believe, who we worship etc. I have quite a few Christian friends who don't truly understand why I have made the choice to be Pagan they accept my right to do so and do not preach to me about their God. I in turn accept their choice and would staunchly defend them against any Pagan who would dare to lump my friends into the group of closed minded folks who say Pagans are Devil worshipers. My friends do not deserve to be bashed any more than you do.
2. No one deserves to be bashed for their religious belifs period. Not Christians, Wiccans, Pagans, Muslims, Jews or any other religion out there. If you expect your religion to be tolerated and accepted then you must also be tolerant and accepting of other people's beliefs. So dear Pagan brothers and sisters if you in turn are bashing Christians for their assumptions based on the teaching of their religion then you are in fact no better than the people who are supposedly "persecuting" you.
I have other things to say about the intolerant attitude of the Pagan community against other Pagans. But, I think that needs to be a completely separate entry otherwise this could become terribly long and confusing.
