Those Worthy Pagan Souls

Henry M. Bowles III, writing for The Daily Northwestern writes a love letter to the current pope. In it he asks some sincere questions.

“I am disappointed that you are shutting down limbo. But maybe I am biased. My mother tells me that our great-great grandfather is in limbo because he was a pagan but still worthy. Will he be shuffled into Purgatory? Most people in my generation think the two are the same! This important issue could serve as a future encyclical topic.”

He also tries to give the Pope some advice.

“I also want to advise you against sending the Jesuits down to Latin America to restore the status of the saints and the Virgin, as they will probably try to make nice with Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, who pray to the Incan gods and sacrifice men to utopian projects like socialism.”

But if Henry had read the news he would see that it is too late, and that indigenous faith, syncretic Christianity, and socialism is thriving in South America (or at least Bolivia).

“Christian and Andean religions in Bolivian politics are woven together in a tight weave with some indigenous church leaders seeing the results of the recent election as the fulfillment of Andean lore and prophesy. For the Methodist Church of Bolivia, which elected its first Aymara bishop in 1978, the election of indigenous coca leader Evo Morales as president of Bolivia is a prophetic completion. “I was very excited and I cried,” said Bishop Carlos Poma describing what he felt when the first Bolivian indigenous president was sworn in….Poma said that the faithful are “very happy and thankful to God and the Andean deities for the return of the great Pachakuti,” fulfilling the prophesy of the majority election of an Aymara indigenous president.”

In fact the recent left-ward shift in South American politics seems very much driven by (or at least beholding to) the indigenous populations of those countries than by renegade liberation theologians. How that affects the religious make-up of South American in the longer term remains to be seen.

Pagans Are The Target, We Are The Enemy

I didn’t even know that there was a “Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet” think tank. Or that they held a conference in which they name modern Paganism, gnostic thought, and those who acknowledge a metaphysical reality different from a Christian one are the enemy to whom they need to bring the fight.

“I just got off the plane from the first CWiPP-THINK (Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, a think tank), and the message was clear: secularism is dead and is about to be fully possessed by an in-your-face paganism: the worship of creation. And the conference was as heterogeneous as the church gets – not just theologians and pastors and missionaries, but also journalists, playwrights, screenwriters, directors – and all were gathered to discuss the rise of pagan spirituality: from the democrats to the uber-feminists to the panspermian evolutionists. But this religion looks and sounds more like the polytheism and Gnosticism circa B.C. and early A.D. than anything remotely monotheistic. In short, the New Age isn’t new anymore, and this isn’t the dawning of the Age of Aquarius: it’s more like noon…The experiences and testimony were the same: the day of the atheist and agnostic is (mostly) past, and Christians need to recognize that our fight is less with secularism than with men and women who acknowledge a metaphysical reality very different from ours.”

Those ranting about the evil secularists are behind the curve. We seem to be the “it” enemy for the forward-thinking conservative Christian.

My Unitarian-Universalist Moment

This blog has been nominated for awards in two categories of the second annual UU Blog Awards. I have been nominated under “Best Links” and “Best Non-UU-Themed Blog”. As some may know, I have been affiliated with the Unitarian-Universalists since I “signed the book” and became an official UU back in March. I’m also the office manager for a Unitarian-Universalist campus center in my town.

So in a rare moment of boosterism, I ask my readers to head over if they feel inclined and throw a vote my way. If you are looking for tips on whom to vote for in the other categories, I’m quite fond of “Phil’s Little Blog on the Prairie”, “PeaceBang” (an apostate Wiccan even!), “Lo-Fi Tribe”, and “Philocrites”. Thanks! I now return to this blog’s regularly scheduled content.

Quote of the Day

“I don’t see why today’s political progressives or secular left progressives should be embarrassed by the feminist spirituality movement. Take your allies where you can get them.” – Leigh Eric Schmidt, professor, Department of Religion at Princeton University; author of “Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality”

Chicken or the Egg is SO Last Year

Watching Christians debate which came first, monotheism or polytheism, is almost as fun as watching children wrestling with that classic chicken-egg question.

“I don’t think Adam and Eve were polytheists before the Fall (no matter what evil beliefs they and their offspring invented later), so monotheism had to come first.” – Ed Jordan

“Of course, if the Biblical account is true (and it is!), then monotheism predates polytheism. To say otherwise is to make the erroneous claim that “Christianity is only 2000 years old.” Of course, Scripture instructs us that believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, the Messiah was promised immediately after the Fall, and even Abraham had the gospel preached to him.” – TJ

“‘In the beginning, God…’, not ‘In the beginning, gods’. There has always been and always will be only one God.” – Sarah

Of course a couple heretical skeptics keep bringing up archeology and recorded history, but we all know who is pulling their strings.

The Very Model of A Modern Pagan

Eir’s Initiate, writing for The Witches’ Voice, demonstrates why journalists shouldn’t think that interviewing a couple modern Pagans will give them a clear view of the entire movement.

“I personally am a paradox. I love the Norse Gods, but not necessarily their goals. I love knowledge and wisdom, but Odin is not my patron. I’m an eternal skeptic, but I’m also a hopeless romantic. I combine modern and ancient belief. I don’t like astral planes or trancework. I believe and disbelieve in divination. I like to search for Pagan truths among the tales recorded by ancient Christians. I have respect and disrespect for both Christianity and Paganism. I believe and disbelieve in magick. Music is more important to me than ritual. Nature even more so. Beauty is key. So is dance and poetry and self-expression. I hate incense but I like to dress up. I feel awkward in a circle. I like routine, but not the trappings of rituals. I love my Gods, but I don’t try to manipulate them and I kneel to no one, mortal or otherwise. Idun is real. Frigga and Freya are two separate Goddesses (contrary to scholarly speculation). Not all Gods are one God. The universe was not created from a void and the primal cow, Audumla, but neither is creation all happenstance. Mortality is real, but so is reincarnation. I’m not so sure about Ragnarok.”

While the Internet has in many ways brought modern Pagans closer together (or at least established a dialogue between camps), it should never be forgotten that modern Paganism (or neopaganism if you prefer) is a highly personal and regional faith. A Witch on the East coast is going to have a very different outlook than one on the West coast. Neither of them is going to have much in common with an Asatruar living in Minnesota. None of the above may take the Discordians very seriously (not that they take themselves seriously, but you take my meaning). This doesn’t even delve into the differences within the smaller regional groups.

Before one starts to damn Pagans for their lack of consistency, it should be noted that all faiths are like this once you scratch the surface. No experience, especially a religious experince, is monolithic. If it were there would be no heresy, no excommunications, no splinter churches, and no need for any faith except for the “right” one (your mileage may vary on which one is the “right” one). Modern Pagans, being a young faith, broadcast their differences louder than some established religions. But it is these differences (and the ability to have them without losing their Pagan or Heathen identity) that ensure their faiths will be around in the generations to come.

Getting Sirius About Podcasting

Author and futurist R.U. Sirius has an interview podcast show that features many personalities and thinkers that have been featured on this blog. This includes author Erik Davis, Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, and Free Will Astrology maven Rob Brezny. Most of the show’s archives are available for download via mp3 format.

How’s That For An Allegory!

While writing about Marija Gimbutas, Starhawk, and the failures of modern feminists, columnist Peter Byrne also gives us his take on the allegorical meanings of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”.

“Patriarchal Christianity transformed the ancient images. Gimbutas wrote about the symbolic evolution of “the White Lady, ‘Death,’ who is also a bird of prey and . . . a tall slim woman dressed in white. [She is] the Killer-Regeneratrix, the overseer of cyclic life energy, the personification of winter and Mother of the Dead, [who] was turned into a witch of night and magic . . . a disciple of Satan.” Gimbutas’ Regeneratrix appears in The Chronicles of Narnia as a tall, slim, white queen of winter, the personification of sex and evil power. In this upside-down allegory, the matriarchal White Witch is attacked and eaten by patriarchy, symbolized by the wrathful lion, Aslan. One day, hopefully, the Regeneratrix will, in reality, arise from within our collective unconsciousness and free us from the rule of all men–not just Judge Alito.”

So really, the White Witch represents a degraded pagan survival finally eliminated by a power-hungry male-dominated religion. I’m sure that isn’t quite what C.S. Lewis intended. But then, histories are often (as they say) written by the winners. For a very nice review of the film (with almost no mention of an evil patriarchy) from a big Inklings fan, click here.

A Pagan Talks Sex Education

The Montreal Mirror interviews sex educator, activist, and self-described pagan Patrick Califia, about HIV, sex education, and the stigmatization of sexual minorities.

“My lecture will be about how the stigmatization of sexual minorities has hampered HIV prevention work. HIV prevention materials are being treated as obscene. The same attitudes that make it possible for politicians to generate moral panic about obscenity have helped the Christian right to handicap HIV education. In the U.S., we cannot use federal funds to produce sexually explicit materials or to “advocate homosexuality.” But how do you produce something that says “use a condom when you have anal sex” if that’s considered obscene? HIV workers? hands are tied.”

You can find out more about the utterly fascinating life of Califia, here.

Did Julian Build From Christian Charity?

Pope Benedict’s first encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” makes love and charity its main focus. In the letter Benedict reflects on Roman paganism and Julian the Apostate’s attempt to rebuild paganism in the wake of Constantius.

“A mention of the emperor Julian the Apostate (? 363) can also show how essential the early Church considered the organized practice of charity. As a child of six years, Julian witnessed the assassination of his father, brother and other family members by the guards of the imperial palace; rightly or wrongly, he blamed this brutal act on the Emperor Constantius, who passed himself off as an outstanding Christian. The Christian faith was thus definitively discredited in his eyes. Upon becoming emperor, Julian decided to restore paganism, the ancient Roman religion, while reforming it in the hope of making it the driving force behind the empire. In this project he was amply inspired by Christianity. He established a hierarchy of metropolitans and priests who were to foster love of God and neighbour. In one of his letters, he wrote that the sole aspect of Christianity which had impressed him was the Church’s charitable activity. He thus considered it essential for his new pagan religion that, alongside the system of the Church’s charity, an equivalent activity of its own be established. According to him, this was the reason for the popularity of the “Galileans”. They needed now to be imitated and outdone. In this way, then, the Emperor confirmed that charity was a decisive feature of the Christian community, the Church.”

Comments? How accurate do my more historically minded readers feel this is? Was Julian trying to imitate and outdo the charitable instincts of early Christians in order to make classical paganism more attractive to the masses?