So Darn Normal
The latest assortment of “meet the Pagans” articles seem to point to a growing journalistic theme, Pagans are shockingly pedestrian. For example, Marvin Read from the Pueblo Chieftain discovers that a local Witch is “not fearsome at all”, and that she is decidedly lacking in an assortment of Halloween-witch accoutrement. In fact, she is downright normal!
“…it’s just plain ol’ Lyn Brown, telephone receptionist at Colorado State University-Pueblo, once-upon-a-time Presbyterian, a native Puebloan, a woman who believes that any and all church buildings and any and all faiths are sacred and good, even as she asserts her right to disagree with some of them.”
After these earth-shattering revelations of normalcy, what’s next? Pagans getting together to eat pizza?
“If there are two things, however alliterative, that one wouldn’t expect to find in combination, it’s paganism and pizza. Nonetheless, a dedicated group of Santa Barbara pagans have been meeting once a month on Friday night to hang out at the Carrillo Rusty’s, eat pizza, and talk about their beliefs, their lives, and their current projects – for the past fifteen years.”
I’m scandalized! Here I thought most Pagans preferred delivery. If you think our newly-discovered normalcy will give people the wrong impression, not to worry, our mere existence can still drive Christians to do some odd things.
“I was moved by the sincerity of their comments. None of them expressed anger; they simply could not find what they needed within the institutional church … I drove home with the windows down on that beautiful Easter day and when I arrived home immediately inserted The Passion of the Christ in my DVD player. Tears trickled down my cheeks as I watched unimaginable suffering. The representation of the price Jesus paid for our salvation made me grieve for a church that fails even one person who walks into its doors.”
Nothing like a little savior-torture to reassert your Christian identity after discovering that Pagans aren’t simply a bunch of resentful ex-Christians or rebellious teens. Yes, the secret is out, barring a minority of outright eccentrics (who the press still loves to give face-time to), most Pagans are quite indistinguishable from the general populace. It is no longer shocking to find out that a Nebula Award-nominee dabbled in Dianic Witchcraft, or that a sociology professor is giving talks on teenage Witches. We are everywhere, and after fifty-plus years of publicity, controversy, and growth, we are settling in quite nicely.
One response so far
:withering stare: Please, where did all this ‘witches have green skin’ business come from anyway? Or ‘pagans must howl at the full Moon and grow fur’ or something? Please get over it, it has no bearing on reality.
May I also make a comment that sinister people (and we can qualify sinister as being the anti-social, harmful kind of individuals) come in all religions and Paths, including no Path at all.
There is no stereotype that assures you or anyone of the quality of person. That determination must always be made each time, by you or anyone else, case by case.