“The Parliament may be taking place on the other side of the world from Copenhagen, but Copenhagen is not very far from peoples’ minds. There are at least eight talks here with “climate change” in the title, more in the descriptions, and it is appearing as a persistent subtheme throughout the conference, from all traditions. Despite not having a voice on any of the Ecology panels, we Pagans are working it in too. The Community Night Pagan ritual hosted by Melbourne Reclaiming ended with an activist-style raising of energy for the healing of Mother Earth, ‘all the way through to Copenhagen!’”

Can religious groups influence the debate over a new global climate pact? U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon seems to think so, saying that religious leaders “can have the largest, widest and deepest reach”, and hundreds of religious folks are coming, some directly from the Parliament, to make their voice heard.

“[Sister Joan Brown] will be among numerous preachers, rabbis, ministers and other faith-based figures who are bringing a spiritual presence — and, often, a strong point of view on the political issues — to Copenhagen. At a time when political leaders are struggling to pass environmental legislation in the USA and elsewhere … as many as 100 religiously affiliated representatives from the USA plan to attend the summit, estimates Tyler Edgar, assistant director for the environmental arm of the NCC. Worldwide, she says that number will likely run ‘in the hundreds.’”

What will these mainstream religious voices for a tougher climate change pact at this “Woodstock of the environmental movement” say? According to reports from the Parliament, they may sound amazing like Pagans, even if the Pagans weren’t invited to most of the panels on climate change and the environment (with one exception). Don’t believe me? Check out the blog of a Franciscan Nun heading to Copenhagen for a beautiful evocation of sacred Earth. We may not be there, but the nature-reverent ethic many of us hold does indeed seem to be traveling “all the way through to Copenhagen”.

In Other News: We turn once again to the international epidemic of witch-hunting. Some think I’m trying to equate Western Paganism with innocent folks accused of sorcery and witchcraft in Africa and the Middle East, but my reporting isn’t about questions of identity, but about a simmering religious and cultural phenomenon that won’t be contained much longer in the mostly-ignored developing nations. This isn’t merely about controversial blessings, or even American-funded witch-hunting churches, but of this madness spreading right to our doorstep.

“An evangelist church leader who tortured his 10-year-old daughter and kept her prisoner for four days with no food because he was convinced she was a witch was jailed for eight-and-a-half years today. The twisted 39-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, dripped boiling hot plastic over his terrified daughter’s feet and beat her senseless after she became ‘possessed by evil spirits’. The girl was held prisoner and force-fed olive oil and milk for four days after the man became convinced she had powers to make people fall asleep, Coventry Crown Court heard.”

Even when it does happens “here”, some may be tempted to write this off as an “immigrant” problem, but that ignores how easily we “rational” and “civilized” folks in affluent first-world nations drift into the same madness when certain triggers are pushed. We need to address this problem, not because the accused “witches” are Pagan, but because hysteria is an easily exportable commodity, and some very prominent people here at home seem to be very tempted to see if it can make them a prophet profit.

Turning to my ongoing coverage of the Pagan presence at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, I present an audio interview with Reclaiming Witch and community organizer Zay Speer. Speer works with the Onondaga Nation, part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, on environmental and interfaith issues. We talk about how she came to be a part of the Onondaga delegation, what the Onondaga hope to accomplish at the Melbourne Parliament, working to end the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, and her own experiences as a Pagan at the Parliament.

If you are a Pagan podcaster, or host a Pagan-friendly radio show, you are welcome to download this file to play on your program. Be sure to credit the Pagan Newswire Collective as the audio source. For more Parliament-related audio, check out my discussion with Ed Hubbard, a PNC correspondent, and my interview with Pagan Scholar Michael York. For more great Parliament coverage, stay tuned to the Pagans at the Parliament blog for the latest news.

Salon.com gives some more coverage to the upcoming documentary about Norway’s black-metal scene “Until the Light Takes Us”, which I’ve mentioned here before. Movie critic Andrew O’Hehir wonders if the documentary-makers went too far towards making controversial figures like Varg Vikernes seem like “misunderstood Robin Hoods” instead of  “Satanic church-burning maniacs”.

“Do Aites and Ewell owe the viewership a clearer explication of Vikernes’ ties to white nationalist groups, his long record of troubling racial, sexual and religious rhetoric and his public flirtation with Nazi ideology? You won’t learn this in the film, for instance, but Vikernes is viewed as the philosophical father of the musical-political subgenre called “National Socialist black metal,” or NSBM. Or is it fairer to this disturbing and complicated figure to present him on his own terms, without recourse to prejudicial buzzwords? (For the record, Vikernes has not called himself a Nazi since the late ’90s, preferring the invented term “Odalism,” said to signify “paganism, traditional nationalism, racialism and environmentalism,” along with an opposition to modern civilization in all its forms.)”

I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t comment, but it does seem like a calmer, even friendlier, tone may be welcome after the waves of sensationalist reporting and media on the topic. I certainly couldn’t see the film-makers gaining the trust of the local black-metal scene had they gone in looking to portray “Satanic church-burning maniacs”. Again, whatever its flaws, I still think this will be a welcome asset for those wanting to explore Pagan and Heathen spirituality in underground subcultures.

In a final note, according to Cumbrian Witch Marcus Katz, Wicca is no stranger than pigeon racing.

“We offer a very open, authentic and down-to-earth approach. We don’t consider it any stranger than people joining a pigeon-racing club, which is something I find bizarre!”

So there you go. Wicca is equal-to or less-strange than the sport of pigeon racing. Please take note.

That’s all I have for now, don’t forget to check the Pagans at the Parliament blog for the latest updates and links from Melbourne,  and have a great day!

Anna Korn, Donald Frew, and River Higginbotham at the Parliament. Photo by Ed Hubbard.

I’ve gathered some initial thoughts and pre-Parliament musings from Pagans heading to Melbourne on the importance of our participation. Starting with Thorn Coyle’s blog, where she shares her hopes for what she will experience, and why she came.

“Here is a preliminary answer: I am hoping for some magic. I have come to Melbourne, and we representatives of Solar Cross have come here, because religious pluralism is important. This parliament is a gathering, I hope, in which people of different religious beliefs will share ideas and meals with one another. This gathering, I hope, is one in which mutual respect can be fostered even in the midst of basic disagreements. There is work to be done here. There are conversations to be had. There are things to be learned.”

Meanwhile, Ed Hubbard from MagickTV and Pagans Tonight is already posting photos and video from Australia, but before that, he explained why our presence and active role in this year’s Parliament is so vital.

“Yet, for me, the greatest reason for Pagans to attend is to demonstrate bravery and courage. By being present at this world-class event is to say that Pagans are not afraid of what others think of our beliefs, that we will no longer hide them out of fear of persecution, and that the Pagan ideals have value. By attending, Pagans are claiming equality and a right to openly practice; not by demanding them, but by demonstrating we can take responsibility to participate in the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Our attendance and subsequent actions as a community shows that we are ready to become a active and cooperative force for creating good in the world. This is why I feel this is important to the Pagan community and why I am truly humbled and awed to be attending the Parliament of the World’s Religions.”

The Pagan Newswire Collective-sponsored Pagans at the Parliament project won’t be the only place to receive updates, reflections, and thoughts regarding this event. Circle Sanctuary has set up the Circle Interfaith News blog for updates from their delegation, Spiritual Resources, in association with Interfaith Center at the Presidio, will be doing live web-casts, C.O.G. has their COG Interfath Reports blog (New post up by Don Frew, check it out!), and EarthSpirit has the EarthSpirit Voices blog, where EarthSpirit founder Andras Corban Arthen discusses his work within the Indigenous Task Force.

“The Indigenous Task Force named me as one of the speakers for the European traditions, and gave me the task of finding others to bring to the Parliament. The first person I invited was Jonas Trinkunas, krivis (chief high priest) of Romuva, the pagan religion of Lithuania. I have known Jonas for a long time, and in 1997 he attended our annual Rites of Spring celebration. He is quite a remarkable man, who has maintained his ancestral tradition alive in spite of opposition not only from the Catholic church, but also from the Soviet Union during its occupation of his homeland. I am glad to report that Jonas readily accepted the invitation.”

That’s just the beginning of the flood of news and information that’s expected! In the coming days I’ll be doing my best to give you all an ongoing overview of the various reports and reflections here at The Wild Hunt, and I’ll also be arranging some audio interviews with folks in Australia that I plan to post as well. So stay tuned! Also, for those who want to experience the Parliament more directly, they have set up their own social networking site called PeaceNext. Pagans there and abroad are already signing up, so check that out if you are interested in interfaith interactions. This is shaping up to be a historic event for modern Pagans within the context of global interfaith relations, and I’m excited about what the coming days will bring.

“The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions was created to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.”

Simply put, our participation and movement toward leadership roles within the global interfaith community in the last fifteen years is extraordinary. We are emerging as a significant world-wide religious movement at a time where our voice and perspective is increasingly relevant and needed, especially when you consider that this Parliament in Melbourne is built around themes of healing the earth, dialog and reconciliation with indigenous peoples, and addressing the roots of religious extremism. This is an extraordinary time to be a Pagan, and Melbourne holds great potential to show where our future challenges and victories will emerge.

Because of the special nature of this event, I’ve coordinated with attending Pagans to create a Pagan Newswire Collective-hosted project to transmit the voices of Pagans at the Parliament to as many people in our interconnected communities as possible. “Pagans at the Parliament” will feature updates from Pagan attendees and presenters, including Moira Ashleigh of EarthSpirit, Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum, Ed Hubbard of MagickTV/PagansTonight, and Parliament Board of Trustees members Angie Buchanan, and Phyllis Curott*. In addition, I’ll be linking to updates and media posted by attending Pagans elsewhere, and coordinating phone/Skype interviews with individuals in Melbourne. All the content will be licensed under the Creative Commons so that Pagan media outlets, including blogs, podcasts, and magazines, can immediately re-transmit content, and use the site as a primary source for longer articles and explorations of the issues raised. Here is the address, spread the word, link to it, and subscribe to the RSS feed.

http://parliament.pagannewswirecollective.com/

There are also social networking “Pagans at the Parliament” options, including a Twitter feed (follow us!) that will syndicate the blog and track Parliament-related tweets, as well as a fan-page on Facebook (become a fan!).  You can also count on The Wild Hunt distilling and commenting on all available updates on a regular basis during the Parliament.

I hope this endeavor will not only be enlightening, giving us a as-it-happens picture of Pagan participation in this historic event, but will also drive home the importance of building a modern Pagan journalism that can cover them when they happen. So join us December 3rd – 9th for what promises to be an exciting time.

*The three Pagan members of the Parliament Board of Trustees are Angie Buchanan, Phyllis Curott, and Andras Corban Arthen of EarthSpirit.

“The world’s biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India. The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power … The dead beasts will be sold to companies who will profit from the sale of the meat, bones and hide. Organisers will funnel the proceeds into development of the area, including the temple upkeep … Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festival’s high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. “The goddess needs blood,” he said.”

The high-profile ritualized slaughter of so many animals has gained international attention from animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot, who told the Nepalese Prime Minister that “hundreds of horrified tourists report their disgust at witnessing ritual sacrifices at various festivals in Nepal”. Also attempting to halt the animal sacrifices was Ram Bahadur Bomjon, the famous “Buddha Boy”, who met with organizers and plans to appeal directly to participants. Local opponents included the Anti-Sacrifice Alliance and the Animal Welfare Network Nepal. But the appeals have fallen on deaf ears and rural Nepalese along with throngs of Indian tourists have flocked to the gathering, animals in tow, to gain the blessing of the goddess, whom they believe will grant their wish within five years.

“Kushawa, who belongs to the opposition Maoist party that claims to be atheists, said almost 75 percent of the visitors at the fair – whose main attraction is the slaughter of tens of thousands of birds and animals – are from India. “While they are mostly from Bihar, there are others from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other Indian states neighbouring Nepal,” he said.”

This rite no doubt shocks the sensibilities of many Westerners, who see them as unnecessary and barbaric. Then again, the slaughtered animals are cooked, sold, and eaten, so the main differences seem to be the religious aspect, and the fact that the slaughter is open to the public. America, by contrast, doesn’t  (usually) allow people to attend or sanctify their slaughter-houses. To compare scale, perhaps a half-million animals will be ritually killed at the Gadhimai Mela, while Americans will eat 45 million turkeys for Thanksgiving alone, with 250 million grown in 2008. We also killed and consumed over 34 million cows. Is context king? If they were kept out of sight, not ritualized, would we not care? I don’t think Bardot or the “Buddha Boy” are planning a trip to America’s meat-packing plants any time soon. How much of this outrage stems from people not conforming to what we consider civilized?

In Other News: We start off “below the fold” with some good news for South Jersey Vodou priest Houngan Hector Salva. Salva was embroiled in controversy after the death of a transgendered woman at a three-day Vodou cleansing ritual this past Summer. Officials have ruled the death accidental, and not suspicious.

“Her death – which was never considered suspicious — was ruled accidental on Monday by the Camden County prosecutor’s office and the case was closed. Lucie, a male-to-female transgender, died from the combined effects of “physical exhaustion, ambient room temperature and an oxygen-depleted atmosphere,” according to The Daily News.”

While Salva has been cleared of any criminal negligence, Lucie’s mother calls him “young, stupid and negligent” and wants people to know that her daughter died under his care. Salva has already moved from his former home, after the flurry of sensationalist press made it nearly impossible for him to continue his religious practice there.

The FBI has released hate-crime statistics for 2008, and offenses against religions are up across the board. This includes 212 offenses against “other” religions in 2008, up from 140 in 2007. Making up 12.8 percent of total religious hate-crimes. Unfortunately we have no way of telling who the “others” are, but we do know it isn’t any of the Abrahamic faiths (each of whom have their own category), so it’s probably of mish-mash of Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and all the other “Others” combined. As ominous as this rise is, what isn’t reported may be even scarier.

“The FBI’s report reflects only the information gathered by participating law enforcement agencies. Experts warned that the numbers may reflect different standards for what constitutes a hate crime, as well as the inability of some law enforcement agencies to coordinate the report because of budget constraints. “The most frightening thing about these numbers is what goes unrecorded,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, the Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.”

One has to wonder how many hate-crimes get ignored by non-participating law enforcement agencies, and how many want to report these crimes but just don’t have the resources to do so. Addressing a problem often starts with having the data to support that there is, indeed, a problem. Let’s hope the FBI’s data improves, and that we someday learn who, exactly, the “others” are.

The press have reported on two Thanksgiving interfaith events that included Pagans and Wiccans, the first in Madison Wisconsin (sponsored by the Greater Madison Interreligious Association), where Selena Fox from Circle Sanctuary talked about Wiccan harvest festivals.

“Like many other religious groups, Wiccans have a tradition of giving thanks in connection with the harvest season, said the Rev. Selena Fox, of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church near Barneveld. Some contemporary Wiccans celebrate the first harvest at the beginning of August, the abundant harvest in September, and the end of the harvest in late October, Fox told a group of about 100 people Sunday during the fourth annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration.”

Meanwhile, Modesto, California’s Inter-Faith Thanksgiving Celebration included Pagans for the first time. The Pagans performed a song-chant, and local Pagan Edye Cheeseman said that it felt “very inclusive, very nice.” Both events seem like a warm-up of sorts to the up-coming Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest interfaith gathering in the world, where the expected Pagan presence is thought to be substantial. More on that soon.

In a final god-adapting-to-modern-times story, it seems that the city of Chennai in India has flocked to the worship of Iraniamman Amma, the “highway goddess” to avoid accidents and ensure a safe journey on the roads.

“Daily thousands of vehicles stop by and queue up at the Iraniamman temple to offer prayer on the highway including two wheelers, autos, cars, buses, lorry drivers, etc People from across the nation come here to worship the highway goddess in Chennai, which keep them away from the deadly accident on that accident-prone highway. “The reason for coming here to this goddess is that I need to go safe and come back safe too. That’s why I always come here, put the lime before the vehicle and do the puja, for a good, wonderful and safe journey. I am a catholic but I do believe in this because it is a highway Goddess,” said Jude, a traveller.”

Which leaves me with the question, which god or goddess in your pantheon handles highway safety? How about computer health? How have your gods adapted to modern times?

Citing his research, Barna indicated that the United States has seven dominant faith tribes that hold the key to the restoration of the nation. “We must recover the values that made this nation great and that must be firmly in place for order, reason, freedom and unity to prevail,” the researcher explained. “Our faith tribes are central to the development and application of people’s worldviews, which in turn produce the values on which we base our daily decisions. It is on the basis of such values that a nation rises to greatness or plummets to oblivion. The choice is ours. And it is up to our faith tribes to demonstrate the courageous leadership necessary to facilitate a national restoration of the mind, heart and soul. Without a nationwide commitment to this process, we are destined to become a country of historical significance and present-day insignificance.”

So what are the seven “faith tribes” that Barna describes?

“Casual Christians – 66% of the adult population, Captive Christians – 16% of the adult population, Jews – 2% of the adult population, Mormons – 2% of the adult population, Pantheists – 2% of the adult population, Muslims – one-half of 1% of the adult population, Skeptics – 11% of the adult population”

If you guessed that Pagans are probably filed under “Pantheists” (along with, I’m assuming, Buddhists, New Agers, and “Spiritual But Not Religious” types) you’re probably correct. But how can tribes with such extreme differences of opinion and theology as these renew America together? Barna has identified twenty values that all the “tribes” share, which they can use to form a new moral leadership that will help America thrive.

“In The Seven Faith Tribes, I examined interviews we have conducted with more than 30,000 Americans to better understand our worldviews, moral perspectives, spiritual foundations, lifestyle expectations, family behaviors and core values. The result is an understanding that the United States is home to seven dominant faith tribes, each of which has a divergent worldview – but all of which embrace twenty shared values that help to define their heart, mind and soul and have historically permitted the U.S. to thrive. It is my belief that if we were to refocus on the central values that made America great – and on which a formidable culture can truly be based – then our country can get back on the path of unity and progress. If we continue to focus on the attitudes, expectations and customs that divide us, then we are doomed to self-destruct, leaving behind a legacy as perhaps the most intriguing, longest-running experiments in democracy in world history.”

If I didn’t know better, I would almost think that Barna is proposing an end to the culture wars, a “cease-fire” agreement between faith groups so that an interfaith coalition can re-ground the country for the common good. It sounds, almost, well, progressive in tone. I’m almost tempted to get a copy and read this tribal manifesto, could a prominent conservative Christian be calling for a new attitude in Christian-Pagan relations?

“…an underlying theme of much specifically Christian-Pagan dialogue is a general Christian desire to spread the faith. I know a lot of Christians and they’re good folks and they don’t give me any trouble about being Pagan nor do they try to convert me. But the fact remains that motives in Christian interfaith dialogue often tend to boil down to learning about other faiths so that arguments can be prepared for use in attempts at conversion … Given this attitude, I think it’s only natural and right that Pagans should approach such dialogue with a certain amount of skepticism and even cynicism. I am by no means saying that we should not have these discussions. I do think they’re vitally necessary in reducing inter-religious tensions and fostering understandings between communities. Yet I believe we need to go into these discussions with our eyes open, understanding that there are some very likely ulterior motives in many who would engage with us.”

Meanwhile John Morehead, editor of the book “Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue”, weighs in with his own thoughts on the issue and disagrees with the notion that Christians don’t “get” modern Paganism.

“I respectfully disagree with the sentiments expressed by Chas Clifton in his comments on Strange Onion Peeling. There are Christians who are making a good effort at understanding Paganism, including the aspects he specifically mentions. Therefore, we do “get it,” even though we have a long way to go in our understanding. And we are not attempting to understand just enough of Paganism to combine it with a nicer approach in order to convert people. Yes, we feel an obligation to be obedient to Jesus’ command to “make disciples,” and in so doing share the pathway of Jesus when it is appropriate and desired, but we do not view people as mere objects for evangelism. There is a far broader agenda at work here. To assume otherwise perpetuates the stereotypes we desperately need to move beyond.”

Morehead has suggested holding a “public Pagan-Christian dialogue at an educational institution in the near future” in order to discuss some of these issues and ideally move beyond some of the inherent skepticism found in these dialogues. I think such a move could be a good step forward, depending on the participants involved. For more conversation on this issue, check out the comments section of my original post, and the comments on the Strange Onion Peelings blog.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/12/update-christian-pagan-dialogue-and.html/feed 24 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/12/christian-pagan-dialogue-and-pessimism.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/12/christian-pagan-dialogue-and-pessimism.html#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:27:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/12/christian-pagan-dialogue-and-pessimism.html I’ve positively mentioned the book “Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue” before on this blog, and have actively engaged with Christians involved with the project. While I think that creating better relations between Christianity and the modern Pagan religions is important work, I can also deeply relate to the skepticism and pessimism conveyed by fellow Pagan blogger James R. French concerning the project (and others like it).

“It boils down to the question of what “religious pluralism” really means. From where I sit, it should mean that we acknowledge that many systems of belief are valid. Not that they “contain truth” as [Beyond the Burning Times reviewer Gerald R.] McDermott says. That is a dodge. It sounds something like “well, they’re heathen, but they have some good points.” True pluralism means that each system is valid on its own terms. This is something that Pagans can accord Evangelicals that Evangelicals cannot accord Pagans. It is almost a tautology to say that the only way to gain the soteriological benefit of Christianity is through Christ. A Pagan simply does not wish to gain this benefit. She has no reason to object to others doing so. It’s simply not her Path. An Evangelical cannot, by the very nature of their beliefs, have such an attitude toward Pagans. To do so would redefine what it means to “witness” so drastically that it would not be accepted among most adherents. Hence my pessimism. While part of me is hopeful when I see at least a few Evangelical Christians recognizing that Pagans are humans and not either devil worshippers or morons, I find the prospect that much will come of this fairly slim. The “softer” approach appears too elitist to appeal to most mainstream Evangelical Conservatives. Too “liberal.” Especially in America, where Dominionist eliminationism gets most of the airtime.”

The progressive and open-minded missiology of folks like Matt Stone, John Morehead, John Smulo, Lainie Petersen, and others, while refreshingly different from the hellfire-throwers, are an admittedly tiny minority of the larger global Christian mission. They, sadly, cannot be typified as representing the mainstream of typical Pagan-Christian dialogues. A far larger contingent are still stuck in the same ruts of filtered and impaired communication or outright hostility. In this environment it is all too easy to become cynical and pessimistic concerning truly better relations.

Which isn’t to say that books like “Beyond the Burning Times” aren’t important, they are, but both sides must acknowledge the large hurdles to overcome before we reach something that resembles mutual respect and trust. We need to get to a point where Pagans don’t feel that efforts at dialogue from missional Christians aren’t “an attempt at domination”, and Christians don’t think Pagans are asking them to “give up the centrality of Christ”. Monotheism and polytheism have had throughout history at best an uneasy truce, and at worst, attempts to eradicate the other. It may take decades of “baby steps” before we reach a point of mutual understanding and a general sense of improved relations.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/12/christian-pagan-dialogue-and-pessimism.html/feed 26 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/interview-with-gus-dizerega.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/interview-with-gus-dizerega.html#comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:30:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/interview-with-gus-dizerega.html Author and academic Gus diZerega is one of the strongest Pagan voices on the importance of Christian-Pagan dialog. His 2001 book “Pagans & Christians: The Personal Spiritual Experience” was a bridge-building work that sought to begin a reconciliation between Pagans and Christians, and emphasized a need for more communication. Now, the journey that started with “Pagans & Christians” continues with “Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue”, a truly open conversation with Australian theologian Philip Johnson that explores our differences and similarities. I was lucky enough to conduct an e-mail interview with Gus diZerega concerning this book, what he learned from the experience, and why Christians seem to worry so much about the Pagan resurgence.

Gus diZerega

I think there are a number of reasons. It’s a complex matter. First, we have arisen within a Christian culture, a very self confident one, and we explicitly reject its Abrahamic spiritual tradition as being good for us. Not only that, we look to the pre-Christian past for inspiration and grounding. We represent the rise of something Christian leaders thought they had vanquished long ago, and we should never forget that initial vanquishing involved the sword far more than persuasion. Add religious liberty and the outcome would have been far different. For the most rabid of our attackers, our reappearance also seems evidence that we are in the end times, a time of religious war, at least for the likes of Dispenastionalists.

It matters that many of us have ‘fallen away’ from our childhood Christianity. In my experience, strong believers of secular ideologies are least tolerant of those who once shared their views, and now differ. I suspect it is no different here. We saw the ‘truth’ and rejected it, which from a believers’ need for certainty, is worse than being ignorant.

In addition, modern Paganism locates the sacred in the world as well as above it, fundamentally challenging Christianity as it has usually presented itself. Many lay Christians are potentially sympathetic to our position because it is in accord with their own experience of the sacred. We didn’t come up with terms like “God’s country,” after all. Experience has often been at war with dogma in Christian history and our emphasis on almost anything but dogma is very hard for dogma to rebut or dogmatics to tolerate.

Our emphasis on divine immanence also undermines many dimensions of conservative and Fundamentalist Christian theology. Most of the world’s major religions emphasize a salvational or similar purpose for us in this vale of tears. We reject this spiritual problem as relevant for us, and so our challenge is deeper than our rather small numbers suggest. We open a very threatening door that others might pass through.

For example, we honor the Divine Feminine as first among equals. That portion of the Christian community that most viciously attacks Pagans also has also most thoroughly eliminated the feminine from their image of the sacred. They have almost nothing to offer women spiritually beyond preserving their ignorance that alternatives exist to their psychological and spiritual misogyny.

More liberal Christians are now seeking to inject or rediscover the feminine into their conception of deity. Our existence has encouraged many within the Christian community to recognize the feminine face of deity. But doing so strikes at the core of fundamentalist theology which privileges divine power over divine love. So we are a double threat, first by our example, second, by others encouraged by our example to recognize a stronger feminine role in their own tradition.

We also recognize the sacred as it manifests within the forces of nature, and our holy days explicitly honor natural cycles and seasons. As I explained in Pagans and Christians, even the Old Testament shows a powerful ecological ethic. It does not find nature to be sacred, as we do, because the tradition generally sees nature as God’s artifact, but most certainly the sacred is seen to manifest through nature. This aspect of Christianity has been largely ignored until recently, excepting small but important examples like Saint Francis.

But modern right-wing Christianity is deeply committed to dominating nature, subjugating it, and in its most pathological forms, using it up since we are supposed to get a new earth after Armageddon. Their God is a God of will and domination, and they seek to replicate these characteristics in their relations to the land and towards people who differ from them. Our very existence helps expose the poverty, narcissism, and arbitrariness of their view of the sacred, and for many people we provide an attractive alternative to such stuff. This kind of Christian will always be threatened by us.

But this implacable hostility is not true for all Christians. Philip Johnson certainly is not guilty. We Pagans need to remember that Christianity is incredibly diverse. I myself have come to think of Christianity as a umbrella term for a variety of competing monotheisms, a kind of closet polytheism: pick the God you want so long as it is male, and worship only it. Catholics, Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and Methodists worship very different Gods. Their Jesus figures differ as well. That is why Pentecostalist Pat Robertson could describe Methodists as being in the spirit of the Antichrist. It is why whenever I offer a criticism of Christianity, I seem always to be told that that is not true for all Christians. Probably nothing is true for all Christians except their use of the name.

Now many Christians are innocent of the problems I outlined above, other than the polytheism issue, but these are not the ones you asked me about.

Your book, “Pagans & Christians: The Personal Spiritual Experience”, which came out in 2001, sought to “reconcile” Paganism and Christianity. Now, with the publication of this dialog in 2008, do you think we are any closer? Is there more understanding and trust between our faith communities?

Let me dispel a possible misunderstanding. The term “reconcile” was not mine. I will be very happy with mutual toleration. A great many Christians believe their old claim that they are the only way by which people can be saved from Hell, and as Christians they have a duty to ‘witness’ in order to save us. Pagans by contrast do not believe we are the only spiritually valid path, nor do we believe we have any duty to bring the truths of Paganism to others. If others are interested, we are happy to invite their participation, and unlike earlier times, we can now be public. We do not go door to door, we do not stand on street corners with literature or megaphones, we do not finance missionaries, we do not attack other spiritual paths if they leave us alone.

I did offer a pretty straightforward Biblical interpretation that pointed directly towards spiritual pluralism. If that or something like it were accepted, reconciliation would follow as they recognized the legitimacy of multiple paths. But that choice is theirs.

So the real task of reconciliation is on the part of Christians, not Pagans, because we have no problem with Christianity so long as it respects our own religious freedom. Christians need to recognize they are one (well, many) spiritual path among many others, of which Pagans are only one.

In fact a great many Christians are coming to this recognition. Christians getting involved in interfaith work discover their path is far from the only one speaking to sincere people in spiritually valid ways. They take their discoveries back to their own faith communities. The fundamentalists who attack interfaith claim it is part of a plot to create one world religion, but anyone actually involved knows this is delusional or dishonest. We are all learning to respect one another, and when that happens, no reconciliation is needed.

As a result of many Pagans getting involved in interfaith dialogue, today we can see we have made incredible strides in dispelling false beliefs about who we are and what we do, and among the more liberal Christian community We have also forged many strong personal ties of affection, regard and respect. There we have seen enormous progress.

On the other hand, and here I speak of the United States only because I do not know whether this madness strongly afflicts other cultures, the eruption of an aggressive fundamentalist, authoritarian, politicized Christianity has increased the level of nasty rhetoric and potentially also of nasty actions against us. Christianity is bifurcating between traditions who recognize they are part of an irreducibly religiously plural world, and those who see themselves in a life and death struggle with beliefs different from their own. This latter group is powerful, but I think they have over played their hand, and so I am optimistic that the positive changes will ultimately count for more than their hatred, and that the needed reconciliation will mostly take place.

In the section on interfaith work, you said that Pagans can be of great service to the larger spiritual community. Could you elaborate on what qualities make Pagans so well-suited for interfaith activities?

As a religious community, we are relatively unusual in being free from that orientation, thoroughly conversant with modern values, and unusually well represented in the computer and internet technologies so useful in building interfaith networks. I know these traits have helped interfaith work in California and even more droadly, and I would imagine they would be equally helpful elsewhere.

Because of our openness to the validity of other spiritual paths, Pagans are well suited to be “honest brokers” in interfaith discussions. In addition, we have already played a significant role in empowering many aboriginal and indigenous spiritual communities in part, at least, because we do not look down on them as primitive or ignorant. After all, much of what they do, we do. In general, the stronger the interfaith community; the safer the Pagan community.

In your conclusion, you say that Paganism “decenters” religion, just as spirituality “decenters” the self. Could explain to my audience what that means, and how this phenomenon within Paganism differentiates us from Christian religion?

When I said spirituality decenters the self I meant it puts our personal concerns in a larger and deeper context, the largest and deepest we two leggeds can encompass. When I am focused on my own self as separate from everyone else, I can end up obsessing over even very tiny slights or misunderstandings, growing them into mountains of resentment and anger. We probably have all had the experience of focusing on some problem, making it a Big Deal, and we then see someone in a wheelchair. What seemed so big suddenly becomes very small. Spirituality puts everything we experience not only into a bigger context, it is a context characterized by meaning, compassion, beauty, and love. Such has been my experience anyway. So the self ceases to be the center of our universe once we begin to grasp this larger context.

Paganism does the same for religion by demonstrating one can be genuinely and deeply religious without saying my or any other path is best, and that every religion as we practice it illuminates only a portion of the whole divine picture. We free ourselves from equating genuine spirituality with a particular path or expression of the sacred. Instead, it is a quality of engagement found within many paths.

Think of your family. You are likely very devoted to your family without thereby thinking all other families are inferior. They are simply not your family. Same with religion. Now think back how grim the world was when people honored and trusted only their families. Where such attitudes survive, as in Southern Italy, they contribute to suspicion, violence, and oppression.

Religions are different recognitions and celebrations of humankind’s encounter with that which is superhuman. They are perhaps the most fulfilling expressions of human creativity in this world, bringing together all of our arts, our philosophies and theologies, our hearts and our minds, all in a recognition and honoring of the sacred that underlies and manifests in our reality.

To pick another mundane example, each religion is akin to a composer of beautiful music. It is as silly to confuse a composer with music as it is to confuse a religion with spirituality.

Now that you have engaged in this dialog with Philip Johnson, in what ways do you feel you have deepened your understanding of Christianity? Has it altered how you envision them in any way?

I was quite taken by his evident sincerity and with the good will underlying this sincerity. Philip Johnson challenged in a happy way the impression I had formed that most evangelicals were arrogant, regarding others’ spiritual and religious practices as Satanic errors or a sign of deep and catastrophic ignorance. The best of them were good people but very narrow in their appreciation for others.

Before working with Philip the only significant exception to my unhappy conclusion were a very few people I had had the pleasure of meeting who were associated with the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. Philip Johnson and Lion Hudson Press have sensitized me further to the great complexity of the evangelical community.

We will probably never agree on the ultimate nature of spiritual reality, but we don’t have to. Philip may still think I am destined for hell, I don’t know. But I am convinced he is willing to leave that issue and its outcome up to me and God.

His example makes me more optimistic than ever before that we will be able to live together with mutual good will and respect.

In the book’s “responsive thoughts”, Lainie Petersen criticizes you for “raising the specters” of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in the section on culture wars. Do you think Pagans overestimate the influence and power of these men (and men like them)? Is it “unfair” to name-check the most “bombastic” of fundamentalists when engaging in a dialog?

I do not think it is unfair at all. If I did not mention them, they would be the 500 pound gorilla in the closet. Why did I not address them? They have largely defined what Christianity is in the American media for many years. It is a false picture, promoted by the corporate press for political reasons, as well as lazy and craven reporters who have lost all competence in doing their job, and right wing politicians using them to split the public so they would get what Pat Buchanan described as the ‘bigger half.’ But it has been the dominant picture nonetheless.

Second, so long as a religion claims to be fundamentally more true than any others, it will encourage a certain kind of narcissistic believer to lord it over everyone else. Give those people access to political power and you have the possibility of their creating Hell on earth. In terms of how they would want to treat others the only major difference between people like that and the Taliban and Al Qaeda is lack of sufficient power.

Third, the culture war is basically an assault on the feminine in the name of a pathological masculinity, a masculinity that is not only out of balance, it denies that balance is even an issue because the feminine can be ignored. At its core modern NeoPaganism is a recognition of the feminine as equal to the masculine in ALL things. And so the culture war waged by so-called ‘Christians” and their secular right wing allies is at its core an assault on what is must central to our spirituality.

Fourth, the rest of the Christian community seems for the most part to have not denounced what is done and advocated in its name. They should not be surprised that we treat these people as Christians. They themselves do.

Christians cannot have it both ways. If the ‘Christian’ right, including certain conservative Catholics, are considered legitimate Christians, and they spread hatred and lies about us, and have access to political power, in self-defense we will focus on them and the threat they poses. If other Christians strongly denounce these people publicly, and reject what they do as Christian, then on matter of dialogue we can spend much more time on more interesting topics.

From excommunication to shunning, Christians have a variety of ways of demonstrating someone is no longer a member of their community. It is past time they did so with these people.

If you could transmit just one idea or fact about modern Paganism to Christians, what would it be?

We are not trying to proselytize. We certainly are personally committed to our own path as a good one for us and are happy to share it. But it is of small moment to us whether you join us or not. If you do – welcome! If you do not, we wish you fulfillment wherever Spirit may lead you. Get your house in order and then, if you want, visit ours as a guest.

Now that this book is out, what is the “next step”. What advice would you give Christians and Pagans wanting to continue the work begun in this book?

Get involved in interfaith work in your local communities. False beliefs about us are best dispelled through personal contact. It is easy to believe falsehoods about people we do not know. And of course that cuts both ways. The Christians you meet in interfaith work will be among the most committed and caring in their community. So it is a win-win situation for us all.

One of my fondest memories is organizing an interfaith tree planting in Berkeley, California. Each religious group conducted their own planting in their own way. But we planted them together. The dark forces unleashed by those worshipping power and domination are best undermined when we do not divide ourselves into exclusive communities looking distrustfully out on everyone else. That is why those forces seek to sow distrust. We all have our own communities, and that is as it should be. But we can leave our doors open to the neighbors.

[Stay tuned for "part two" of my "Beyond the Burning Times"-themed interviews. In the next installment, I'll be interviewing Christian theologian Philip Johnson.]

Previous Wild Hunt interviews: Jeff Sharlet, Brendan Cathbad Myers, Rita Moran, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, Phyllis Curott, Tim Ward, Lupa, J.C. Hallman, Margot Adler.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/interview-with-gus-dizerega.html/feed 2 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/joel-hunter-clarifies-his-benediction.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/joel-hunter-clarifies-his-benediction.html#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:40:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/joel-hunter-clarifies-his-benediction.html Quite a bit of attention has been paid to the closing Democratic National Convention benediction made by evangelical pastor Dr. Joel C. Hunter of Northland Church in Florida. Specifically the closing instruction made by Hunter.

“Now I interrupt this prayer for a closing instruction. I want to personalize this. I want this to be a participatory prayer. And so therefore, because we are in a country that is still welcoming all faiths, I would like all of us to close this prayer in the way your faith tradition would close your prayer.”

“At the end of a wonderful, joyful night, complete with fireworks and confetti (including a cascade of white stars), came an invocation. Until the last, there was no hint of how it would close, but then it came: the minister said he would pause before the end of the prayer and encouraged everyone in Invesco Field to finish it as they would in their own faith tradition. And so the Gods came to that venue, as I completed the invocation with ‘by the Gods of my people, so mote it be!’”

But apparently not everyone was ecstatic about Republican Hunter’s careful prayer for the Democrats. Religion reporter and columnist Terry Mattingly points out that Hunter has posted an “open letter” explaining his prayer to those confused or upset at his unique closing instruction.

“I did not ask people to pray to another god; I asked them to finish a prayer according to their faith tradition. This may be a small point linguistically, but it is a huge point theologically.”

In other words, he meant you should pray to the Abrahamic God in any manner you please, but that shouldn’t be misconstrued as encouraging polytheism (or prayers to any other non-Abrahamic power). So it looks like a truly interfaith prayer has been “clarified” to exclude anyone Hunter’s congregation and co-religionists might find too far outside the “norm” to be acceptable. After all, we wouldn’t want to be caught praying with Pagans would we?
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/joel-hunter-clarifies-his-benediction.html/feed 0 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/08/pagan-news-of-note_18.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/08/pagan-news-of-note_18.html#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:49:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/08/pagan-news-of-note-68.html My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

West African Vodun is taking an important step towards modernization as Togo passes new laws (with the blessing of the Vodun divinities) that forbids pressing young girls into the service of the priesthood after their initiation as adepts.

“After a three-year campaign, rights groups claimed victory over a way of life that they said cut the girls off from their own families, sometimes involved ritual scarring — and occasionally led to sexual abuse. But it took some intense lobbying of political and religious authorities in this small west African state — and, it would seem, the voodoo divinities — to get there … Voodoo priests say that several hundred young girls are baptised every year as voodoo adepts, or voodoosi, after lengthy initiation rites of between three months and two years. Under the old system, instead of rejoining their families after these ceremonies, they had to stay at voodoo convents to serve the gods.”

Under the new laws, it is a five-year prison sentence for anyone to take a child away from their family environment. This is a major shift in attitudes in one of the few countries where Vodun is still a major social and political power (60% of Togolese people are adherents of Vodun).

Speaking of Vodun, Speaking of Faith’s blog takes you behind the scenes of their recent episode on Vodou.

“About two years ago, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith wrote us a brief e-mail asking if we had produced shows on “African and African-derived traditional religions” and recommended several volumes that he’d edited on Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santeria, Brazilian Candomble, and Umbanda. Our former associate producer Jessica Nordell called him asking for suggestions for people that he thought could speak about Vodou intimately. He was forthcoming and recommended many voices, including Claudine Michel. But we quickly realized that he was that voice — a Haitian aristocrat who was not only a scholar of the tradition but a practitioner who discovered Vodou in his early adulthood. We found his personal story about rediscovering his heritage and the spirit of the people of his country utterly captivating.”

Check out SOF’s archive of programs for a wealth of programming of interest to our faith communities.

In a town like Salem, even the cops are psychic!

“A retired Salem cop who swapped his badge for a crystal ball is still sleuthing – with backup from his friends from beyond the grave. Professional psychic medium Chuck Bergman, 57, spent 32 years pounding the beat in the Witch City, but says that since retiring five years ago he is finding old habits die hard. Initially skeptical of his “gift,” Bergman says he is now channeling the spirits to help police and desperate families find missing loved ones from coast to coast.”

Forget “Medium”, I want to see a police procedural set in Salem with a psychic cop! Maybe CSI: Salem? Forensics and Witchcraft, I’d watch it.

The Modesto Bee interviews a group of atheists about their struggles for tolerance and respect, including a self-described Pagan atheist.

“Shawna Amaral, a 22-year-old Modesto caregiver, said her parents and grandparents were Christians who never went to church or read the Bible when she was growing up. “They were too busy,” she said. “Since nobody was there to teach me basic religion, I just came to believe that I can’t believe in a god or a higher power or anything. “When I was 16 or 17, I discovered paganism, an earth-based religion. You don’t have to believe in in a god or goddess, so I still consider myself an atheist in that way.” Amaral said she lived in Alabama for a couple of years. When she told people she was an atheist, ‘they’d call me a devil worshipper and said I’d go to hell. I’d laugh at them and ask how I could go to hell if I didn’t believe in it to begin with.’”

I wonder if she has read Frederick Lamond’s “Religion without Beliefs”?

While an American Indian spiritual leader hasn’t been invited to the opening interfaith service at the Democratic National Convention, a gathering of Ute tribal leaders will be on hand for a “grand welcoming” ceremony.

“Colorado’s first residents will offer the first official welcome to the Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 23, when Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Northern Ute tribal leaders and other Indian notables in full regalia will lead the pageantry of a grand entry before officials address some 13,000 media representatives. “It’s the right thing to do, since they were the first people in the state of Colorado,” said Holly Arnold Kinney, co-chair of the entertainment committee for the media event at Elitch Gardens near the Pepsi Center. The Ute Mountain and Southern Ute tribes are the only sovereign nations currently in Colorado, once considered home by the Northern Utes and many other tribes.”

Interesting that Native Americans performing dances and songs tied to their indigenous faith traditions will be handled by the entertainment committee, while representatives from “mainstream” religions are organized by the head of the Democratic Party’s Faith in Action initiative.

In a final note, the News Virginian reminds us that homeschooling comes in more flavors than right-wing Christian.

“For some reason, it’s gotten into the mindset of the public that homeschoolers are right-wing Christians,” said Ann Cameron Siegal, a homeschool mother and a volunteer for The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers. “Obviously, there are people under that label, but there are also Jewish homeschoolers, Muslim homeschoolers and pagan homeschoolers; it ranges from far left to far right. If there is any unifying thing, it is the idea of freedom – freedom to pursue education, much like people did in the Colonial period, to the depth and breadth of what you want to do.”

My wife’s youngest daughter was homeschooled, and is entering college this year as a sophomore. I’m proud to say I had a hand in her homeschooling, and there was nothing particularly Christian about it.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!
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