Portrait of a Conservative Pagan
I have pointed out before that modern Paganism, just like any other societal grouping, has a “left” and “right” wing to it. Usually the lion’s share of attention is focused on our vocal left and modern Paganism’s ties to the counterculture. But this introductory column by Pat Wray sums up nicely the voice of a conservative Pagan.
“I am a registered Republican who has serious problems with the neo-cons and fundamentalists who seem to have taken over the state and national Republican parties. I have voted for Democrats in the last several elections…I am religious ? after my own, somewhat pagan fashion ? and have little use for people who believe their religion is the ONLY way…I believe in capital punishment but would like to have more confidence in the fairness of our trial and appeal process. I hate abortion, at any stage, but don?t see how anyone has the right to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body. I think gay people have as much right to live their lives as everyone else, and they should have full access to societal institutions, including marriage.”
This backs up my theory that most Pagan conservatives are of the libertarian variety, or as Heathen farmer Dave Haxton put it a “paleoconservative”. Expect to see more of them jump the fence and pull the donkey’s tail as the current Republican party strays farther away from the core values of conservative thought.
2 responses so far
It seems to me that the vast majority of people have some of both in them, left and right, but tend to vote based on whatever issue is the most key to them. For some that may be abortion, or gay rights, or taxes. I tend to think the vast majority of republicans I have met start by saying “I want lower taxes,” and are willing to justify anything else their party does towards that end, to the point that I’ve had very very liberal people tell me that Bush really “won’t harm” civil liberties. Oh my!
Of course I don’t agree with the democrats all the time either. Frankly both our parties are corrupt and total disasters at the moment, IMO!
Great post!
Synchronicity: I’ve just been corresponding a little with Pat Wray about something completely different. I think he is only a pagan in a small-P sense, but like a lot of the best outdoor writers (David Petersen, for instance), he probably has an animistic streak.