My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

Over at the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog, panelist and Reclaiming co-founder Starhawk answers the question of whether we are our “brother’s keeper” economically speaking (in short asking if the fiscally “responsible” should help out the “irresponsible”). In her response, Starhawk wisely takes aim at the limiting binary of responsible/irresponsible when discussing the current economic crisis.

“Let’s not be too quick to judge other peoples’ irresponsibility. I don’t particularly want my tax dollars to bail out the overpaid CEOs and financial manipulators who got us into this mess. But I do believe we need to extend a hand to help people stay in their homes, renegotiate their mortgages, and find new jobs. The core teaching of Goddess traditions is simply this: we are all interconnected and interdependent. If we recognize that truth, if we acknowledge that we must all pull together, we can steer through even the heaviest rapids. But if we start pushing people off the raft and fighting over the oars, we will all go under, responsible and irresponsible alike.”

For other non-Judeo-Christian takes on the issue of responsibility in our current fiscal meltdown, check out the responses from Deepak Chopra and Susan Jacoby as well.

The Reuter’s FaithWorld blog covers Carnival celebrations in Bolivia, but while reporter Fiona Ortiz is awed by the sheer spectacle of the main events, she is even more impressed by the pervasive and simple offerings to the earth goddess Pachamama.

“Driving through the Andes, I saw Bolivians on streets, in the fields, and in the patios of their houses, getting together for ch’alla rituals, making offerings to the Pachamama and blessing their cars. Apparently Bolivians do ch’alla often when they drink — spilling or flicking alcohol onto the ground — but the practice becomes a full-blown ceremony on special days, such as at the end of Carnival, just before Lent begins.”

I don’t know about you, but the simplicity and pervasive integrated nature of their offerings says so much about the appeal of indigenous and polytheistic worship. Simple, direct, and rooted in everyday experience. Ortiz also notes that she saw many “Westernized” Bolivians partaking in offerings to Pachamama, and wonders if this is a result of Bolivian president Evo Morales’ government re-writing the country’s consititution to guarantee freedom of religion and removing Catholicism as the sole recognized faith.

Over at her Driving Audhumla blog, Pagan journalist Victoria Slind-Flor reports back from a gathering of the goddess group Gaia’s Womb in Racine, Wisconsin. What’s particularly interesting and noteworthy here is that the gathering was held at the motherhouse of the Racine Dominicans.

“The retreat was at the motherhouse of the Racine Dominicans, on the shore of Lake Michigan, just south of Milwaukee. As the number of vocations has declined, the community has turned to other ministries, one of which is making a large part of their home available for retreat groups … The Dominicans could not have been more hospitable, even when we did a ritual with loud drumming, chanted our way through the hallways and even some of us showed up at meals wearing the crowns created in my workshop … And all the nuns with whom I spoke talked about loving the energy we brought to the motherhouse.”

Remember my recent post about what might happen as religion becomes more female-dominated? Is the future when Catholic nuns and goddess-worshipers can peacefully commune in the same space already arrived?

In the UK, a Grantown Baptist Church is concerned about an year-long and escalating series of hostile notes, and more recently a dead rabbit, that they claim are “pagan” in nature. Many of the notes are apparantly marked with the “all-seeing eye” (or Eye of Providene) commonly used in a variety of fraternal orders and esoteric groups.

“There have been a series of pagan-style notes over the past year,” said Mr Fishwick, who has been deacon of the church for the past 20 years … “It seems to be the work of a bit of a crackpot. They only ever pick out our church; none of the others have had this, but we don’t know why. “The notes are heathen quotations: things like ‘Your days are numbered’, ‘Wrongs remain unrectified’ and ‘Judgement has been passed’.”

Seems to me to be the work of someone with a personal grudge, and not some sort of deranged Mason or cultist. If the police are looking for leads they should start with the membership roles.

In a final note, missional Christian blogger John Morehead interviews Terry Muck and Frances Adeney, authors of the book “Christianity Encountering World Religions: The Practice of Mission in the Twenty-first Century” about doing mission-work to various World religions when traditional evangelistic tactics have reached a standstill. At the end of the piece, Morehead asks for advice on how to approach modern Pagans resistant to the notion of “gospel as gift”.

“Terry Muck: Our offer of gifts will not always be accepted. Our motives will always be challenged by some. That shouldn’t stop us from doing what Christ commands, though, giving the gift of the gospel to any and all. Also, it may that there are ways to give in the context of Neo-Pagaism that we haven’t discovered; gospel gift-giving must always be contextualized so as much as possible cultural inhibitors are avoided and cultural opportunities are taken advantage of. Frances Adeney: Yes. A few years ago, one of the students in my evangelism class became quite involved with Pagans in the Louisville area. As she got to know individuals in the group she repeatedly heard from them that she was the only Christian they had ever met who listened to them and really cared about their beliefs and practices. That’s a good place to start.”

I’ve debated before with Christians about notions of proper “contextualization” in relaying the gospel to modern Pagans. In fact, I brought it up in my own interview experience with John Morehead.

“…stop thinking that we haven’t embraced the gospel because it hasn’t been “contextualized” properly to our community. Most of us are extremely well-read and have had numerous experiences (both positive and negative) with the Christian tradition, we understand the gospel message, we just happen to reject it as an exclusive truth (which according to recent Pew data is a growing attitude).”

The truth is that there is only so much narrative leeway in transmitting the gospel story. Too much change and it’s no longer recognizable as Christianity. Plus, once “Christianized”, those converts are then expected to be subject to the same theological limitations and moralities as the rest of the “flock”. No amount of metaphorical backflips will make a committed and content Pagan polytheist suddenly switch to a dominant (and patriarchal) monotheism.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

Tags: Bolivia, Catholicism, Christianity, economics, Gaia's Womb, goddess, John Morehead, Pagan News of Note, Paganism, Starhawk, UK