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My Life as a “None”

Heather Greene — February 3, 2013 — 16 Comments

Before I started writing for The Wild Hunt, Jason suggested that I introduce myself. I never did and time scurried away. So today, I’m going to share with you a personal revelation – an admission, of sorts. I frequently write about my Jewish upbringing. But now I must confess that I was really only Jew-ish. In actuality, I was raised a “none.”

Photo courtesy of Flickr’s curtis4x5

As I child, I lived in a wholly secular family environment. We didn’t have a mezuzah. We didn’t belong to a temple. Religion had no place in our lives. Words like “prayer,” “faith” and “God” were foreign terms used by other people. Existence was explained through science and philosophy. Ethics were harvested from history, art and experience.

And so it was, my life as a “none.” Before I continue, let me be clear. We were not atheists, agnostics or humanists. We were nothing. We just lived in the world as it presented itself; which, as it turns out, was very religiously diverse. While that eclectic environment was fundamentally excellent, the diversity eventually became a problem.

Everyone around me had a religious identity linking them to a community filled with rich tradition and heritage. Through these identities, they had a defined relationship with spirit. Some kids went to CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) classes and others to Hebrew school. Some missed school for Yom Kippur and others fasted during Ramadan.

While I felt the presence of spirit, I had no means of accessing it. The few Jewish prayers that I knew were spoken in a foreign language; rendering them spiritually useless. I was left standing alone outside the religious speak-easy with no password to enter.

This void became my burden and my quest. I clung desperately to the small trickle of Jewish culture that was accessible. In doing so, I did find my cultural heritage but, unfortunately, I found no suitable relationship to spirit.

Astronomical Clock in Prague
Courtesy of Anthony Dodd

As the wheel turns, life changes. I am no longer nothing. My quest led me to Wicca and my burden was left at some doorstep long ago. Interestingly enough, I can also now say that I was never nothing. There is finally a label for what I was: “religiously unaffiliated.” I was a “none.” According to Pew Forum, the “unaffiliated” population has now grown from 5-10%, in the 1980s, to today’s 19.8% of the overall population. This growth warranted finally giving the group a name.

What has fuelled this growth? Harvard Professor, Robert Putnam told NPR, “this young generation has been distancing itself from community institutions…” Putnam goes on to relate this phenomenon to the heavily polarized socio-political landscape with regards to religion. While that may be so, I’d also suggest that this increase coincides with our transformation into an independent “do-it-yourself” society. (e.g. Home Depot, You Tube, TiVo, eTrade.) We now have “do-it-yourself” religion.

While that sounds as if I’m mocking the concept, I’m not. Remember, I was raised a “none.” As such, I’ve always participated in creative, off-beat religious expression. One year, we renamed our secular Christmas holiday to “Peacemas,” celebrated with Jewish friends, Kugel and Pictionary.

Additionally, secular culture is increasingly able to fill the void that plagued me as child – one of connectivity. Of course, the internet plays a big role, but outside of that, “nones” are connecting in the physical world. Just this month, the First Church of Atheism opened its doors in the U.K. Founder Sanderson Jones said, “We want all the things that are good about bringing a community together and make us better people, just without God being involved.”

Similarly, Calgary boasts the new Calgary Secular Church. Founder Korey Peters explained, “We are a small group of a-religious or atheist people who want the community and celebration we used to have in our Christian (or Mormon) churches.” These “nones” are searching, as I did, for the community connection that only comes through one’s relationship to spirit; whether that spirit be through humanity or other secular modalities.

Summer Reason Rally in WDC
Courtesy of CNN.com

Now there’s even a movement. I suppose someone stood up and said, “Hey, wait! There are a lot of us. What can we do with that?” Dale McGowan, director of Foundation Beyond Belief , told CNN:

Part of it is trying to consolidate … cultural presence. That has something to do with politics, but it is also more generally cultural…Much as churches and synagogues foster and nurture communities, Atheists can do the same to gain clout and broader acceptance

On January 26th in Atlanta, the eighth annual Heads Meeting took place. It was attended by leaders from various secular organizations such as; The American Humanist Association, Foundations Beyond Belief, The Center for Inquiry, and American Athiests. They met to discuss the socio-political future of the “non-affiliated.” Dale McGowan explains:

These groups operated separately from each other and sometimes at odds with each other. There was a realization that we should meet once a year and come together on the goals that we have in common.

What makes a “none?” How do they distill all that diversity into one single word? What is the defining point? Simply put, they all check “not affiliated.” That’s it. That’s what binds them. That’s what makes them “nones.”

I relate this to art. The “nones” are the negative space – the environment around the meticulously drawn picture. Good artists always carefully consider their negative space because in visual imagery, nothing is always something. As a child, I was defined as nothing. Now, the “nones,” are embracing that definition; being defined by what they are not. They are the negative space filling 20% of the collective social canvas. They are something.

Many years ago, I left the life of “nothing” and found a spiritual path, a deep connection to humanity through the language of Wicca. I went from being a “none” to being a Priestess; from the negative space to the positive. Why are the “nones” important to me now? Why should they be important to Pagans?

The “nones’” cultural evolution appears to be running almost parallel to the Pagan movement. Just as they did, many of us looked up one day and said, “Hey, wait! There are a lot of us. What can do with that?” We are asking similar questions. Do we need to organize? Should we build institutions? How can we foster community? Do we need leaders? And most importantly, how do we define “Pagan?” Where is the checkbox on the form? We have much to learn from the “nones.”

As for my personal journey, I can now better appreciate my childhood. My parents’ secular path allowed me the freedom to eventually build my own relationship to religion; to become a spiritual artist. Where once there was angst and frustration, there is now respect and gratitude.

To this day, my life as a “none” colors my Wiccan experience. I enjoy drawing the sacred out of the secular and finding the magick in the mainstream. While I have yet to do a full moon ritual with Broadway music, I can see the creative possibilities. For me, the lines between the secular and the sacred are blurred, colored by the language of Wicca. I do still check “unaffiliated” and will continue to do so until Wicca or Pagan has its own check box.

In Paganism atheism, Foundation Beyond Belief, Heads Meeting, humanist, Judaism, nones, Pagan, Pew Forum, religiously unaffiliated, Wicca

Global Religious Landscape: Will the Unaffiliated Change Everything?

Jason Pitzl-Waters — December 22, 2012 — 15 Comments

The Pew Forum has released a report on the size and distribution of the world’s religions, based on data collected in 2010, and according to their findings the religiously unaffiliated are the third largest group behind Christians and Muslims.

“The “unaffiliated” category covers all those who profess no religion, from atheists and agnostics to people with spiritual beliefs but no link to any established faith. ”Many of the religiously unaffiliated do hold religious or spiritual beliefs,” the study stressed. [...] Among the 1.1 billion unaffiliated people around the world, over 700 million, or 62 percent of them, live in China alone, where they make up 52.2 percent of the Chinese population. Japan comes next with the second largest unaffiliated population in the world with 72 million, or 57 percent of the national population. After that comes the United States, 51 million people — 16.4 percent of all Americans — said they have no link to an established faith.”

This analysis comes in the wake of another Pew study that showed the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated, “nones,” on the rise in America, and making a definite impact on 2012 presidential elections here. Likewise, recently released 2011 census data from the UK shows nones making up 25% of that nation. Meanwhile, Hindus make up 15% of the global population, indigenous and folk religions are at around 6% with 405 million people, and “other” religions (our favorite category here at The Wild Hunt), which includes modern Pagan faiths, and makes up around 58 million (0.8%) of the world’s religious adherents.

The largest religious category in the world, Christianity, while still dominant at over 2 billion, has seen a shift towards becoming a truly global faith where “no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.” In addition, Pew noted in a separate look at global Christianity that Europe was rapidly becoming post-Christian in character.

“In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. Today, only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). A plurality – more than a third – now are in the Americas (37%). About one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one-in-eight is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%).”

So what’s the take-home of all this data? Well, for one, it’s obvious that news and policy centered on a Christian frame of reference is a distorted lens when you account for the fact that they only account for 31.5% of our planet’s religious adherents. More than 45% of this world view things outside of those confines, yet “religion news” in the West essentially acts as a play-by-play of internal Christian squabbles and their influence on politics. Hinduism, Buddhism, indigenous traditions, “other” religions and the unaffiliated have been treated as a side-note at best, and almost completely shut out of moral conversations that affect non-Christians. This situation, particularly in news dealing with Europe, Asia, and increasingly, the United States, is becoming untenable.

Secondly, it’s important to keep in mind the essential “pagan-ness” of our world today, despite the best efforts of Christianity and Islam to replace all beliefs with their forms of exclusive monotheism. Polytheism, pantheism, henotheism, post-theism, and other theological variants outside the Abrahamic conceptions of divinity continue to thrive and make an impact on our world. The growth of the “nones” provides the Hindus, Buddhists, folk-religionists, and “other” faiths a chance to change the narrative of belief in this world, that Christian and Muslim one-size-fits-all salvation are not guaranteed eternal dominance, and that we can find pluralistic alternatives to the status quo.

The religiously unaffiliated, the “nones,” aren’t exclusively atheistic or agnostic, many of them hold to religious and spiritual conceptions, often quite Christian in conception, but their collective reluctance to be put into a box, and their unprecedented growth, could change everything. Most importantly it could change the perception that we live in a Christian, or Muslim, world. It could give journalists covering religion a new remit to start covering stories outside the Abrahamic paradigm, and it could give increased impetus for politicians across the political spectrum to embrace a real pluralism in their policy and rhetoric.

In Paganism, Religion Christianity, Hinduism, indigenous, Islam, nones, Other, Pew Forum, Religion

Pagans and the AAR Annual Meeting: Chaplaincy, Sex, and Indigeneity

Jason Pitzl-Waters — November 20, 2012 — 43 Comments

[This is the second post on my trip to the American Academy of Religion's Annual Meeting in Chicago, for yesterday's post, click here.]

My first session on Sunday covered material that I was pretty familiar with, the Pew Forum’s Religion in Prisons survey, a groundbreaking work that gave some key data points concerning minority religions in prison that before we had only speculated on. You can read my initial analysis of that data, here, and Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum’s views on the survey, here. This special topics forum featured two researchers who worked on the Pew survey, and chaplains with direct experience either in prison chaplaincy, or working with minority religions.

Special Topics Forum: Pew Forum’s Survey on Religion in Prisons.

Patrick McCollum’s initial comments seemed to set the tone for much of the panel, and the questions that followed, when he talked about the “dominant religion lens” that Christians view minority religions, particularly in prison. Many working prison chaplains had some very critical things to say about how the data might be skewed by the opinions of a predominantly conservative and Christian chaplaincy body. From what I’ve heard, Pew is very interested in doing a follow-up study on religion in prisons, something I welcome. The role of a Pagan, McCollum, in shaping this discussion shows just how vital we’ve become in this process.

After that forum, I attended the second Contemporary Pagan Studies panel entitled “Sex, Metaphor, and Sacrifice in Contemporary Paganism,” which featured very diverse papers from Jone Salomonsen on the religious writings of Oslo mass-murderer Anders Breivik, which fused Christian and Pagan elements, Jefferson Calico, on how the Heathen mead hall operates as a central metaphor for interaction between the gods and humanity, and most interesting, Jason Winslade’s “When Pan Met Babalon: Challenging Sex Roles at a Thelemic/Pagan Festival.”

Jason Winslade presenting his paper.

“Concentrating on ritual performances around the bonfire at Babalon Rising, a yearly festival in Indiana whose attendees follow a mix of Paganism and Thelema, the teachings of Victorian magician Aleister Crowley, this paper will demonstrate how participants grapple with challenging sexual roles, manifested in their dances and their ritual play as deities from Crowley’s mythos. Chief among these is his version of the Pagan god Pan who, at Babalon Rising, engages with participants, intentionally pushing boundaries, and creating a setting for festival goers to more freely explore these issues. What results is a messy mix of progressive and regressive attitudes towards sexuality as a metaphor and a vehicle for transformation that potentially challenges essentialist notions of gender and sex in contemporary magickal practice.”

Winslade gave an engaging and interesting presentation, and while this panel seemed not a thematically cohesive as advertised, all the subjects covered were certainly important and fascinating.

The final Contemporary Pagan Studies session I attended was on Monday morning, and it was, by far, the most important and exciting of the weekend. Held as a joint session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group, “Contested Categories: Indigenous, Pagan, Authentic, and Legitimate” struck right at the heart of the some of the most vital questions modern Pagans face collectively. All the papers presented, from Koenraad Elst’s exploration of The Gathering of Elders in India, to Sabina Magliocco’s (author of “Witching Culture”) examination of authenticity within modern Paganism (read by Chas Clifton since Sabina couldn’t make it) pointed out the very real hurdles we’ll collectively face as we decide how we’ll define ourselves in the years to come. However, my two favorite paper presentations were Mary Hamner’s “Middle-Class Vodou: Spirit Possession and Marginality in the United States,” and Thad Horrell’s “Becoming Indigenous in a Reconstructed Ancestral Tradition.”

Thad Horrell and Mary Hamner at the Pagan Studies and Indigenous Religious Traditions joint session.

“This paper will investigate the contemporary Heathen project to create an indigenous identification accessible to White Americans, asking to what degree this project escapes the critiques leveled against other attempts to develop White indigenous identifications. Being rooted in European indigenousness rather than an appropriated American Indian indigenousness, does Heathenry escape the usual post/anti-colonial critiques commonly leveled at such projects? How are “indigenous Europeans” in the United States different from White “wannabe Indians?” What, if any, commonalities do they share? Are the differences sufficient to overcome the usual criticisms, to produce a more healthy and respectful cognitive relation between White Americans and American Indians? Or, do contemporary Heathen claims of indigenous identity continue to reify White racial conceptions of dominance over the racially-other Indian?”

I felt both of these papers were so compelling that I spoke with Mr. Horrell and Ms. Hamner after the session about presenting their research here at The Wild Hunt. Both seemed open to the idea, and I hope that this will not only expand the coverage of Contemporary Pagan Studies at the AAR Annual Meeting, but introduce productive dialog on issues that have provoked a lot of debate among modern Pagans. So stay tuned!

Once I get home later today I hope to start a longer rumination about the important conversations that happen between the panels and presentations, how the AAR Annual Meeting provides fertile soil for future collaboration and helps sustain Contemporary Pagan Studies. Conferences are often about who you meet, who you connect with, as much as the paper you present. As I said before, Pagan scholars are like a microcosm of the Pagan community as a whole: diverse thoughts, theories, and ideas debating, interacting, and spinning off into new directions. Interactions that could provide a road-map for the larger community to move forward. I feel lucky to have been a small part of these discussions, and to have attended these sessions.

–

I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the campaign to send me to AAR, including the underwriters who joined us during that time: A Modern Druid, Assembly of the Sacred Wheel,Brotherhood of the Phoenix, Egregores, Ix Chel Wellness, Mill Creek Seminary, Solar Cross Temple,Stone City Pagan Sanctuary, Teo Bishop, The Summerlands, Urania’s Well, and Wiccanwoman. Thank you. You make this possible.

In Paganism, Religion AAR, academia, American Academy of Religion, Chaplaincy, indigenous, Jason Winslade, Mary Hamner, Pagan Studies, Patrick McCollum, Pew Forum, Pew Forum: Religion in Prisons, Thad Horrell

“There’s Still Christianity in the Public Schools?”

Heather Greene — October 19, 2012 — 33 Comments

Heck Yea!

As a whole, we, Americans, live in a Christian-based culture. Our calendar alone demonstrates that fact. If this were a Jewish culture, we could shop at Wal-Mart on Dec 25th. If this were a Pagan culture, the 12,000 lb Times Square crystal ball would drop on Oct 31st – not Dec 31st. And the festivities would end with a mass scrying led by Ryan Seacrest himself. However, for better or worse, the framework of our culture is, at its very core, Christian.

While this Christian cultural-bias manifests differently in varying regions, it is most definitely pronounced in the South Eastern U.S. – the area studied in the Jews on First article that prompted the original question. It ain’t called the Bible Belt for nothing. Many of the most memorable evangelical icons are from the Southern U.S. such as Jerry Falwell, the Southern Baptist Convention, and Bible Man. But, if you need statistical proof, look no further than the Pew Forum demographics maps.

Until moving South, I had never felt the “otherness” that comes with being a religious minority – not Jewish or Pagan. I was raised in the relative comfort of New York’s cultural heterogeneity in which religion is a private family matter isolated from secular life. Even when God was mentioned in public school, nobody noticed. We could have been saying, “One Nation under Goats” and it would have had the same spiritual impact.

However, Southern culture is very different. The South has been marinating in evangelical Christianity for so long that it permeates all aspects of southern life, even the secular. As expressed by native Georgian, Amy Ray, of the Indigo Girls, “…once you get raised on Jesus, it is kind of always a part of you even if you are a pagan.” (WNYC, 2012) In other words, in the South, goats are never confused with Gods.

Why? Historically-speaking, the South was an agrarian-based society that was founded on small towns, city squares and Friday night football. At its very center was the Church acting as both the town’s religious and social foundation. This idea is summed up in the Southern Baptist Convention’s “faith and message” statement:

“All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society.”

And, this is how religious doctrine seeped into secular Christian culture. These small towns were, and still are, a living Venn diagram in which religion, culture and government merge at the walls of the Church.

If everyone in town is Christian, nobody minds – a scenario common to these rural areas. For example, in Alabama, the Jackson County School Board openly supported the on-campus preaching of Horace Turner, a.k.a Bible Man. Local State Senator Shradack McQuill remarked, “We need God in the public schools” adding that unhappy parents should just home-school. Clearly, this educational program is unconstitutional. However, when the Board voted, there was nobody to object. Therefore, today, Jackson County’s Bible Man continues to …do whatever a Bible Man does.

Even in the larger cities, this Church-centered mentality remains ingrained within the collective culture. In the South, you are not asked, “What is your religion?” You are asked, “What Church do you attend?” That alone speaks volumes. So, taking this Christian-infused secular tradition and adding it to the aggressive “outreach” policy of the dominant Southern Baptist church, you have a society in which Jesus sits on every street and attends every event.

To better illustrate, let me refer back to the Jews on First article that focused on children living in two adjacent suburbs of Atlanta: East Cobb and Roswell. Roughly, within a 5 mile radius, there are four synagogues and a Jewish Community Center. Within that area, you will also find a large representation of Christian sects, including Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Korean, Chinese, Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, Coptic, and more. There’s an Islamic Center and a New Age store. Moreover, East Cobb boasts the One World Spiritual Center – a Church that embraces alternative faiths such as New Thought Christians, Pagans, Hindus, and Baha’i.

Without a doubt, East Cobb is one of the most religiously diverse suburbs of Atlanta. The interfaith love is so strong there that the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection and Temple Etz Chaim, who share a parking lot, periodically use their marquis’ to offer holiday blessings to each other. “Shana Tova,” reads the Lutheran marquis. “Happy Easter,” reads the Temple’s. In December, it’s like a tennis match of marquis well-wishes.

Despite all of that diversity, local students’ are still faced with the frustrating experiences illustrated by Jews on First. Yes, Cobb County did put “creationism” stickers in the science texts. Yes, the student-run Fellowship of Christian Athletes is allowed to paper school walls with advertising. Yes, the Sojourn Church uses a public middle school for Sunday worship. And, yes, the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, a so-called megachurch, dominates East Cobb’s landscape, aggressively seeking to convert the “unchurched” with its youth and school outreach programs.

(An aside: I will omit my comments on the Boy Scouts’ and Girl Scouts’ presence within the elementary school classrooms. That particular subject would require a soap box, a microphone and sedative.)

Setting aside blatant proselytizing, the Southern tradition of a Church-based culture persists even within the diversity-rich suburbs of East Cobb and Roswell. The local churches run many of the community programs such as sports leagues, music conservatories, gymnastics programs, art classes, day-care centers and summer camps. Every church has a pumpkin patch in October and an evergreen forest in December.

“Why don’t you join the Church’s league? It’s just basketball. There isn’t any religious teaching.” But, it’s not just basketball. It means something more. Why? Because it means something here in this Southern environment. Because in that Church, even without a pre-game prayer, we, the non-Christians, are the aliens.

Fortunately, in the Southern cities, religious minorities do have the benefit of secular entertainment options. However, that’s not the case everywhere. Having worked on several Lady Liberty League cases, I have witnessed the pressures placed on Pagan families living in rural areas. There, in that small town, that Venn diagram, boundaries are still blurred. And, while problems often arise from direct attacks, they also flare up simply due to the town’s tradition, a.k.a. “the way it’s done.” In these rural battles, the stakes can be very high and the damage can be devastating.

With that said, the U.S. Constitution still reigns supreme. The First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..”

This includes public schools. If a government school supports the presence of one religion, it must do the same for every religion. If it disallows the presence of one religion, it must disallow all.

Unfortunately for religious minorities living in the Southern rural landscape, the battle is on-going; especially if the town is controlled by the evangelical Southern Baptist Church. This organization has a different interpretation of the First Amendment:

Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends.……. and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power. (The Baptist Faith & Message: Religious Liberty)

There are profound questions left open, only to be answered privately by every Southerner practicing a minority faith. When do you stay quiet and blend in? When do you re-locate? When do you fight back? The answers should be considered carefully. Just this morning, I saw a Must Ministries collection bin in a school lobby. Should I say something? Should I let it go? Or, should I ask to put a Pagan Assistance Fund bucket alongside it? Legally, the school would have to accept my collection bin or reject both.

Of course, I let the collection bin issue go. Must Ministries does positive community work. And, frankly, I don’t mind Christianity’s presence provided it is kept within the private sector where I have the choice to reject or absorb what is offered. For example, I can avoid the local karate school where a child, quite literally, earns a “Bible Belt.” And, I can choose to only visit the doctors who don’t hang Bible verses in their examination rooms. Just as private businesses have a right to promote, within their walls, their religious beliefs, I have a right not to purchase their products. As Pagans, we must choose our battles wisely because the fight for liberty, while worth it, can be very ugly.

In the end, the South is what it is – a place of phenomenal beauty and vibrant, unique cultural traditions. But with that comes its historical religious baggage. If you want to live here, you must get used to it. Just like in marriage, you enjoy the good, tolerate the bad… and laugh about the rest.

There Are Less of Us Than You Think

Jason Pitzl-Waters — September 17, 2012 — 60 Comments

According to Grey Matter Research, Americans think our country is far more religiously diverse than it actually is. In a survey of 747 adults the research and consulting firm found that most underestimated the size of Christianity and over-estimated the size of atheists, Muslims, and other religious minorities.

The Mount Soledad Cross.

“The typical American adult pegs religious affiliation in the U.S. as follows: 24% Catholic, 20% Protestant, 19% unaffiliated, 9% Jewish, 9% atheist or agnostic, 7% Muslim, 7% Mormon, and 5% from all other religious groups. In reality, according to the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Americans are right on target with the proportion of Catholics and the “all other” category, but way off target on the rest of the landscape. The typical American badly underestimates how many Protestants there are in the country, and way overestimates the presence of religious minorities such as Mormon, Muslim, and atheist/agnostic.”

In fact, if you check the Pew Forum data from 2008, you’ll see that Muslims in America only comprise 0.6% of the population. In contrast “Unitarians and other liberal faiths” comprise 0.7% and “New Age” faiths (ie Pagans) comprise around 0.4%. There are more Buddhists in the United States than there are Muslims. Likewise, respondents guessed large for atheists, agnostics, and the unaffiliated. Speaking with the Religion News Service, Grey Matter president Ron Sellers noted that media attention is a likely reason for the over-inflated guesses of non-Christian or non-religious populations.

Sellers also mentioned that with Mitt Romney running for president as a Mormon and the current emphasis on Islamic-American relations, “smaller faith groups also may be getting disproportionate media coverage.”

Likewise, younger Americans, who tend to have more friends who are atheists or religiously unaffiliated, guesses in favor of their own experience. Also unsurprising is the news that adherents of a particular tradition tend to guess high on their own numbers.

Not going to become the 3rd largest religious group any time soon.

“One thing that is clear from this research is that people tend to overestimate the proportion of their own faith group. Among people who identify with the Catholic Church, the average estimate is that 39% of the country is Catholic. Not only is this estimate much higher than it is among non-Catholics, it is far higher than the reality of 24%. Similarly, among people who identify with a Protestant faith perspective, the average estimate is that 27% of the population is Protestant. While this is far higher than the numbers among non-Protestants, it is still almost half the correct figure. Among people who identify as atheists or agnostics, the average estimate is that 16% of the American population is atheist or agnostic. As with Catholics, not only is this estimate far higher than among any other group, but it is much higher than the reality. Finally, among people who express no particular faith identification, the average perception is that 35% of Americans believe in God but have no actual religious preference. Again, this is nearly double the average American’s perception, and far higher than the real figure in the U.S.”

So what’s the take-home message of this data? Sellers says that “this skewed perception of religion in America may benefit smaller faith groups and be detrimental to Protestants.” In other words we are over-estimating the influence of religious minorities, and under-estimating the influence of Protestant Christians. This may seem like a good thing, a hastening of the demographic shifts many of us existing in religious minorities have been waiting for, but it could also feed into the fears of certain Christians who are increasingly uneasy with our mere existence. Then again, maybe feeling like a religious minority could teach a valuable lesson to those willing to encounter it.

Being a minority tests the temper of a faith, its resilience and fiber [...] Being a member of a minority entails the ability to bend and to negotiate. This, in turn, demands a deep understanding of the majority and local conditions, deeper than the majority may have about the minority; respect for them whenever possible; diplomacy; patience; and the building of relationships, infinitesimal gesture after infinitesimal gesture.”

People are over-estimating religious minorities, and those with no religion at all, but maybe this misconception will instill a willingness to embrace secularism once more, to re-enforce those church-state separations so that the “others” don’t exert undue influence. In which case, beware Christians, Pagans are growing at an alarming rate! Quick! Everyone join Americans United for The Separation of Church and State, it’s your only hope!

In Paganism, Religion Christianity, Grey Matter Research, Pew Forum, Religion News Service, religious minorities, Separation of Church and State, survey

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — July 21, 2012 — 13 Comments

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.

Design by Jeff Leiboff.

I’d like to start by saying that my thoughts and prayers go out to those injured, and the families of those killed, in a senseless theater murder-spree that occurred in Aurora, Colorado on July 20th at a Midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. I’d like to appeal to the divine within us all, that we avoid conspiracy theories, or using this tragedy to win an argument, and instead focus, at least for now, on those who are existing in a world of pain, fear, doubt, and uncertainty. As someone who believes in magick, I believe in the power of symbols, and Batman is a powerful symbol of overcoming great personal tragedy to become a force for peace and justice. Let this moment sow the seeds of justice, strength, and a resolution to build something better from the wreckage this one man has created.
American Jails magazine has just released its most recent issue, featuring an article by Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum on accommodating religious diversity in prisons. Quote: “The most common bias to overcome is the dominant religious lens factor or DRLF, a process whereby observers compare other religions to their own. If it looks like one’s own faith, then it is assumed to be good and likely legitimate; if it does not, then it is suspect or wrong.” Check it out!
Attorneys for the deadly power-tripping “Secret” teacher James Arthur Ray, currently in prison following his conviction for negligent homicide after leading a fatal sweat lodge ceremony in 2009, are asking for a new trial or an overturning of the conviction with prejudice. Amazingly, they are trying to shift blame from Ray himself, to his corporation. How’s that for ethics folks! We’ll keep you posted on further developments.
An update to my Rick Warren faith/morality forum-centered post yesterday, the Obama campaign has released a statement saying there will be no joint pre-debate appearances, including Warren’s proposed event. I suppose this could change depending on various factors, but this is a positive development. Perhaps Obama agrees with the sentiment expressed by Jacques Berlinerblau at The Chronicle of Higher Education, that Warren has “done enough”.
The Pew Forum has released a comprehensive break-down of data from a survey of Asian-American’s religious lives and experiences. PRRI notes that “Asian-Americans have been largely responsible for the growth of non-Abrahamic religions (especially Buddhism and Hinduism) in the United States.” A majority (63%) of Asian Americans believe that many religions can lead to eternal life, and only 29% say that there is one true faith. 41% believe in ancestral spirits, that jumps to 67% among Buddhists.

Actors portraying Angela Sanford and Joel Levya.

Angela Sanford, a Wiccan who killed Joel Leyva in what some media described as a ritualistic sacrifice, has had a request for a reduced sentence denied. Sanford has been sentenced to 20 years under a plea agreement, her story was recently dramatized on the show Fatal Encounters.
The Pagan community has been in the process of having a debate/discussion over the issue of obesity. It started with a post by Peter Dybing, and has been raging ever since. Notable responses have come from Star Foster, Iris Firemoon, and Kitsune Yokai at the Fat Pagan blog, with Margot Adler, Crystal Blanton, and Shauna Aura adding their voices in the comments of Peter’s blog. The most recent commentary on the question of health and obesity comes from T. Thorn Coyle: “There is some real dialogue, some hurt feelings, some anger, and some derision. Bottom line is this: we all have ways in which we do not walk our talk. Bottom line is this: we cannot know what another’s life looks like on the inside, by observing it from the outside.” As this conversation no doubt continues, I hope we can steer clear of judging bodies, and instead focus on building a more supportive community for everyone.
At The Revealer, Alex Thurston writes about syncretism in Islam within the context of Mali and the destruction of Sufi shrines. Quote: “The alternative – and the greatest challenge to Ansar al Din’s program – is not to assert Islamists’ hidden love for the things they say they hate, but to assert the reality, the desirability, and the possibility that there is more than one way to be a real Muslim. Timbuktu in 2012 is not Mecca in 630. African Muslims are Muslims, full stop. And the loss of shrines in Timbuktu is a loss not only for world civilization and for locals, but also for Islam.”
PNC-Minnesota recently published two interviews, one with M. Macha NightMare, and one with Lady Yeshe Rabbit, who will be appearing at Sacred Harvest Fest. Quote: “I am bringing an open mind. I am interested in learning and sampling from you all the regional flavors of your community. I am bringing my own classes and rituals that I will be leading. One is a project that has been dear to my consciousness, called American Sabbats. It is looking at the secular, bank holidays of this country and their history, and the amount of energy that is generated within them. How the energy of those holidays, which many of us celebrate in addition to our Pagan holidays, might be channeled toward the greater good of our country. There are many changes needed in our country in order to be healthy. I am curious to go and sample what the opinions and thoughts are of all of you who have a unique experience of America from your vantage point in the Midwest.”
The US Dept. of Justice is supporting Native American inmates in their quest to have a South Dakota ban on using tobacco in religious ceremonies lifted. You can read the DOJ’s supporting brief, here.
Nicholas Campion, author of “Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions,” shares an excerpt of his book at HuffPo’s religion section. Quote: “The ancient zodiac signs survive in the modern West because, uniquely, in an age of aggressive consumerism, media-overload and scientific materialism, they encourage people to reflect on themselves and their inner worlds; their hopes, fears and secret motivations. In mass culture, astrology replaces the remote scientific language of relativity and light-years with stories of love and luck. In an era when we are now aware that we live on an insignificant planet on the edge of a minor galaxy, astrology restores each individual to the center of their own cosmos. According to its practitioners it provides a sense of personal meaning and purpose and, sometimes, a guide to action. Both astrology’s advocates and its critics find rare agreement on this point. This has nothing to do with the truth of astrology’s claims, but it does explain its survival in the 21st century.”

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup + Crowdfunding Update)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — March 27, 2012 — 20 Comments

Welcome to the latest installment of Unleash the Hounds, in which I round up articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans. Before we get started I wanted to give an update on the Pagan journalism crowdfunding experiment I launched on March 21st. The very excellent news is that not only have I reached my fundraising goal of $1850 dollars to send The Wild Hunt to Chicago in November so that I can cover the American Academy of Religion’s 2012 Annual Meeting, but I’ve surpassed that goal by hundreds of dollars. All in less than a week! Thank you! Your enthusiastic response not only means I’ll be covering the AAR’s Annual Meeting, but that we have a head start on the next crowdfunding assignment (all monies raised beyond the goal will be rolled over into the next campaign).

http://www.indiegogo.com/thewildhunt-AAR

Once the month-long campaign officially ends I’ll update my affiliates page with all those who chose to become underwriters, and update all who’ve donated on other promised perks. Considering the success of this initial go, I think it’s fair to say that I’ll be using this model to fund other assignments. The big question now is, where would you like me to go, and how often do you think I should hold a crowdfunding assignment campaign? I welcome your feedback, and once we have some solid ideas for events you’d like to see me at, we can even hold a poll to gauge reader interest. Some initial ideas for future assignments include the Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle, and Paganicon in Minnesota. Make your voices heard, and if there’s enough demand, we’ll try to fund them one at a time. Ultimately, I would like to build this up and work towards funding a trip to the 2014 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Belgium.

So again, thank you to my generous supporters. You made this happen. Now then, let’s unleash the hounds, shall we?

PNC Managing Editor, Cara Schulz with Presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson

Pagan Newswire Collective Managing Editor Cara Schulz got to spend the day with presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who is likely to run as the Libertarian Party candidate in November. Johnson famously did a virtual “town hall” session with representatives from Pagan and Hindu media and advocacy outlets back in October, and Schulz got a chance to follow up with the candidate to see if he regretted courting our community’s vote. Quote: “There was no consternation within my campaign about any of the feedback that we got on that event. No consternation.” I recommend reading the entire piece, especially if you’re a Pagan who leans libertarian. You can read all of my coverage of Johnson, here.
Politicker covers Monday’s official announcement of Dan Halloran’s congressional run, including a video clip of the event. Halloran’s prospective Democratic opponents have already started criticizing Halloran’s claims to being an “independent” Republican, but not, thankfully, his religious beliefs. For more on Halloran’s candidacy, check out yesterday’s post.
The Catholic magazine America takes a quick look at the Occupy Faith National Gathering, which was coordinated by the Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland. Tom Beaudoin, who is part of Occupy Faith NYC/Occupy Wall Street, mentions that there were “Wiccan-identified participants” and “multiply-identified persons” in attendance. Beaudoin notes that he is “most interested in what actually happens to people’s faith/religion/spirituality when we meet and work with other people of different faiths/religions/spiritualities, in their integrity, working for the common good.”
Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church, is currently in Cuba. I’ve already mentioned the pontiff’s unwillingness to meet with “non-institutional” religions, even though Santeria is a dominant faith in the Communist country. The Havana Times looks at Cuba as religious melting pot, interviewing Babalao Lazaro Cuesta who says “it’s an error for the Catholic Church to consider us deviants. We simply have our own religion: the Yoruba religion.” CBS says the Pope as a “tough fight” against the ubiquity of Santeria in Cuba. Meanwhile, Luis Perez-Simon looks the “Vatican two-step” regarding Cuba and notes that “as successor to St. Peter — the Guardian of the Keys of Heaven — the pope is also a representative ofOggún for the Regla de osha and of Zarabanda for the Palo mayombe Santería religions.”
John Gray at the New Statesman engages in the time-old tradition of blaming pagans for flaws in Christianity. In a review of “Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion” Gray sniffs that the “fixation on belief” in Western Christianity “results mainly from the distorting influence of Greek philosophy.” Greek philosophy, to paraphrase a famous meme, is in your religion, distorting your theology. Perhaps John Gray should look a bit deeper, because Greek philosophy never diminished the value of praxis in pre-Christian religion.
Lawyers for Christopher Vaughn, accused of murdering his wife and three children, are trying to block any mention of his Druid religion from court proceedings. Public Defender Jaya Varghese said that “The word ‘Druid’ alone is prejudicial,” and would “significantly impact” his right to a fair trial. At issue are posts Vaughn made to a Druid listserv in 2007 that prosecutors say point towards motivation for the killings. A ruling on the matter is scheduled for this Friday.
The New York City Department of Education is looking to have around 50 words/subjects removed from standardized tests given in the state, saying certain words can make children feel “unpleasant.” Among the words? “Halloween,” “Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling),” “Parapsychology,” and “Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.” Apparently “Halloween” was targeted because it “suggests paganism.” I now have to wonder if standardized tests in New York had word-problems involving Witches celebrating Halloween or something. Could tests have truly been that awesome? I never got anything like that growing up in Nebraska.
Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance, lets us know that the “war on religion does not exist.” Quote: “Let’s move past the idea that opposing the imposition of one set of religious doctrines on the rest of society is a war on religion. Let’s move past the idea that asking people to follow the laws of our democratically elected government is somehow a challenge to religious freedom. Let’s move past the idea that the fact that a majority of Americans are Christians somehow makes this a Christian nation. Instead, let’s celebrate the diverse nature of faith in this country that has thrived in large part because of the religious freedom guarantees in the First Amendment.”
Unitarian Universalist Association President Rev. Peter Morales writes about his trip to Japan, and participating in a Shinto ceremony. Quote: “As I reflect on all the ceremonies I attended as the ambassador of our faith, the role of ritual in religion is very much on my mind. An ancient faith has rituals with centuries of tradition. These rituals connect people over time and, with repetition, induce a state of reflection and centering.” Rev. Morales then talks about the importance of having ritual in ones religious life, even in the “heretical” UUA.
The Pew Research Center says that a growing number of Americans are uncomfortable with the amount of religious talk that is being inserted into modern Politics. Well, except for supporters of Rick Santorum.

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of them I may expand into longer posts as needed.

Pagan Chaplain Patrick McCollum on the Pew Forum Religion in Prisons Survey

Jason Pitzl-Waters — March 24, 2012 — 13 Comments

[Yesterday, I posted some initial analysis and reaction to the new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's 50-state survey of prison chaplains. Today, I'd like to share with you the thoughts of Patrick McCollum. Patrick has been working as a Pagan chaplain and activist for well over twenty years. He was one of the founding members of the Lady Liberty League, and has been involved in numerous legal struggles involving modern Pagans. In 2008, he testified before the US Commission on Civil Rights on prisoner’s religious rights, saying he “found discrimination against minority faiths everywhere”and that the problem was “endemic.”]

First, I’d like to start by saying that I am pleased that we are having this discussion about the Pew Survey. I believe that there are many important issues tied up in this topic, and that the more we toss them around, the better our community can address them. I’d like to begin by sharing what I am pleased about, about the survey and a little history of its development. Then later, I’d like to comment on the portions that concern me.

I am in a unique position here, because I had the opportunity as a Pagan Elder, to help shape some of the survey’s questions, and to also help shift the perspective of the main researcher’s goals in ways that I feel benefited our community and minority faiths in general.

Patrick McCollum

As some of you know, I became the first government-recognized Pagan chaplain in the United States, and have been on the front lines for both Pagan rights and Pagan chaplaincy for nearly twenty years in over twenty states. It has been a tough road for sure, but looking back, even with all the road blocks, it has been a successful one. I could see right from the beginning that the accommodation of Pagans in prison and Pagan chaplaincy would become an important part of the fight for religious equality in America, and it has!

As a result, I decided to take the system on, first as a Pagan chaplain, then as a religion advisor for State and Federal correctional systems nationwide, then as the Chaplaincy Liaison for the American Academy of Religion, then as the Director of the National Correctional Chaplaincy Directors Association, and finally as a member of the Executive Committee for the American Correctional Chaplains Association. It was in these last three capacities, that I had the opportunity to meet multiple times with Dr. Stephanie Boddie, the key researcher for the Pew Prison Chaplaincy Survey.

In the beginning when the survey was first being formulated, the terms “Pagan & Earth Based religions” seemed unlikely to have been included. Instead, as in the past, the survey was leaning toward listing us as “Other,” which has been a common, albeit often unintentional way of negating our presence. By having a Pagan voice in the conversation, and by the Pew Foundation agreeing to create a solid category for us in the survey, we are now undeniably and permanently present in the mainstream religious landscape from this day forward.

The inclusion of Pagan & Earth Based religions as a category in the survey carries several huge benefits for us as a community. First, for many years, correctional systems, courts, and other governmental agencies have been able to deny us our rights, by simply making the argument that we either don’t really exist, or that if we do, we are so insignificant in numbers that there is no need to legislate or accommodate in our favor. Now with the survey, that argument is irrefutably null and void.

Secondly, a point that is clearly identified in the survey for the first time, and one which I think is critical to be brought to light if we want to see the advancement of pluralism both in the prisons and in the mainstream, is that almost all of the chaplains in government institutions are conservative evangelical Christians, but those being served by them are not. And that even those conservative chaplains say that there are way too many Christian volunteers in the system, and almost no volunteers or chaplains of other faiths. At one institution I serve, I am the one Pagan chaplain for 120 Pagan inmates, yet my Christian counterpart at the same institution has 120 full time Christian volunteers to serve his 220 inmates. That institution’s chaplain testified in court that the Pagans in my circle are being served equally to the Christians. It’s not that there aren’t Pagan volunteers available to serve, it’s that the institution goes out of its way to accommodate the Christians, but does everything it can to discourage the Pagans.
What I hope will come of this as scholars parse this data and succeeding surveys are instigated, is that the truth will come to light. And that truth is: That the reasons there are few chaplains and volunteers of minority faiths, is because the system itself is intentionally discriminatory and self-perpetuating.

“At one institution I serve, I am the one Pagan chaplain for 120 Pagan inmates, yet my Christian counterpart at the same institution has 120 full time Christian volunteers to serve his 220 inmates. That institution’s chaplain testified in court that the Pagans in my circle are being served equally to the Christians. It’s not that there aren’t Pagan volunteers available to serve, it’s that the institution goes out of its way to accommodate the Christians, but does everything it can to discourage the Pagans.”

One other positive aspect of the survey, is that while it originally intended to include the predominantly Christian chaplain’s assessments as to both the needs and the numbers of the minority faiths in the prisons as hard data (which is obviously biased), after several conversations with Dr. Boddie, she decided to include multiple disclaimers making it clear that the survey is only an opinion survey of the chaplains, and does not represent fact-based needs and numbers which could later be used to negate the accommodation of minority faiths in court.

As to the portion of the survey which included Pagan & Earth Based religions as being at least in part, extremist, I am obviously dismayed and frustrated. But as Jason so eloquently pointed out, look who’s making that assessment, conservative evangelical Christian ministers. But that was not the only problem with the determination. One of the factors used as a determiner of what should be considered extremist was religious groups that push for equal accommodation, or who ask for religious items or services considered unusual or non-mainstream. Obviously, this is slanted against minorities in general and needs to be addressed in future surveys.

On the other hand, there is some truth to a portion of the extremist profile. Some of the Odinist/Asatru groups in prison are in fact extremists and White Separatists, yet many are not. One of the factors that has contributed to the growth of this scenario, has been the reluctance of many Heathen elders to come into the prisons, because they see inmates as outside of the law and consequently according to some Heathen lore, unable to be served. This leaves these prison kindreds very vulnerable to take overs by other factions. For the most part however, those prison kindreds which are served by outside groups do not have these problems. To be fair, the same chaplains who deemed that some of the Pagan groups were extremists, also held that many fundamentalist Christian groups were also.

I’d like to offer a special thanks to Tom O’Connor who was one of the consultants who spoke at the survey’s press conference. He addressed the extremist portion of the survey by pointing out that in all his years in corrections, he has never seen a Wiccan extremist. He pointed out that Wiccans might be likely to talk to trees or be prone to be against pollution and for animal rights, but extremist … Not!

So, what does this survey say to us as a community? It tells us that Paganism is growing in the prison population, and from my experience and perspective that is a good thing. It is important to note that most Pagans in prison were not Pagan when they were incarcerated, rather the majority of Pagans in prison converted to Paganism while in prison. Inmates participating in Pagan ritual, tend to form supportive communities and focus on exactly the kinds of issues and behavior that society in the greater sense would like to see. What we need now is for Pagans from the outside to go in and serve as role models and mentors for these people. We need qualified volunteers and professional chaplains. And the emphases should be on the words, qualified, and professional!

We now have several Pagan organizations training volunteers and chaplains and we need more. We need to have conversations as a community about what a Pagan chaplain’s role should be. We also need to constantly challenge the system to make it more representative of the pluralistic nature of our country. The survey points out that we are a growing community, with all of the attached social benefits and problems associated with that. Let’s step up to meet the challenge.

And if you are unhappy with some of the results of the survey, don’t just complain, do something about it. Get involved, become educated about how to participate and change the status quo. We as a community are a powerful force; we just need to learn how to exert that force in a positive way to effect change.

The Pew Foundation has taken a first step, and there’s still a long way to go. There are already discussions about further, more detailed, surveys to follow, perhaps with more input and critique from our and other minority faith communities. I congratulate the Pew Foundation for having the courage to break ground in this important area and look forward to better articulated and more detailed research in the future.

In Paganism, Religion Chaplaincy, Patrick McCollum, Pew Forum, Pew Forum: Religion in Prisons, Prison

What the New Pew Forum Survey Tells Us About Pagan Religions in U.S. Prisons

Jason Pitzl-Waters — March 23, 2012 — 19 Comments

Yesterday the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released the findings of a 50-state survey of prison chaplains. The survey, which was endorsed by the American Correctional Chaplains Association, interviewed 730 prison chaplains, and has a lot of interesting things to say about religion in the American prison system. At first glance, there are no major bombshell revelations to drive the news cycle, leading to initial headlines like “a lot of religion goes on behind bars.” However, if you start digging into the data, especially the section on what chaplains think about the inmate’s religious lives‘, there’s a lot there that should be of concern to modern Pagans, particularly Pagans engaged in prison outreach and chaplaincy work.

First, we find out that around 1.7% of the national prison population are adherents to a Pagan or earth-based/nature religion. If you extrapolate that to the currently incarcerated population of the United States (around 2.3 – 2.4 million people) it means there’s close to 40 thousand incarcerated Pagans (Native American spirituality averages around 2.7%, or over 62 thousand incarcerated adherents). In addition, 34% percent of prison chaplains say that their Pagan populations are growing, with another 49% saying the population has remained stable. Only 8% of chaplains noted a decline in Pagan inmates.

Which brings us to the most contentious section on the religious lives of inmates, extremism. A sizable minority of chaplains (39%) say that extremism is “very” or “somewhat” common within Pagan religions.

No one is going to deny that some Pagan groups in prison are extremist in nature, but I want to push back a bit and contextualize this finding. First, we need to note that the vast majority of prison chaplains are Christian. Of that number, an impressive 44% of prison chaplains are Evangelical Christians. I’m not saying that Evangelical Christians can’t be impartial in making judgments about what is and isn’t extremism in non-Christian religions, but I do think that most of them start out with a severe deficit in practical, unbiased, knowledge of our faiths and traditions. Also, as the Christian Post points out, “extremism” isn’t just about race or intolerance towards other groups, it’s also about “exclusivity” and “unreasonable” requests for accommodation. Both of those factors are highly subjective, and could be skewing the number higher than it may actually be. Still, even without those caveats, it should be noted that most chaplains (61%) don’t think there’s a major Pagan extremism problem.

“I agree that there can be extremism, depending upon your definition. Very, very few offenders were raised Pagan; almost all converted while inside. Now, converts in general are more fervent than cradle raised believers, but there is an extra issue for Pagans; many converted to a Pagan faith because they felt the church of their childhood failed them. This can result in some rigid attitudes. But extremism does not automatically mean a security threat. A hard nosed, rigid member of a pacifist faith is only a threat as a speed bump, for example. Yes, there have been problems in some places, some times- but a lot of that is caused by two factors: first, we ARE talking not only about fallible humans, but fallen ones as well; prisons aren’t the place to go for demonstrations of wise decision making.” – Joel Monka, volunteer with Indianapolis Pagan Prison Ministry

For Pagan clergy, volunteers, and organizations trying to provide chaplaincy services to incarcerated Pagans, these statistics simply underscore the many challenges inherent in providing guidance to an often misunderstood religious movement. In 2008, Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum testified before the US Commission on Civil Rights on prisoner’s religious rights, saying he “found discrimination against minority faiths everywhere” and that the problem was “endemic.” Noted Pagan leaders like Starhawk have personally experienced the poor treatment and lack of respect our religions often receive from prison officials. However, when Pagan clergy are allowed in, and Pagan inmates are given the same consideration as other inmates, truly healing moments of fellowship can happen.

“The Pew Center study on the opinions of prison chaplains was a fascinating read. I found it interesting that Earth-based religions were listed by some of them as being extremist. I volunteer with the Druids in a minimum/medium security prison in Washington State, and I can state categorically that none of my men have ever expressed extremist views in my hearing. I can’t speak for the Wiccan or Asatru inmates, but based on discussions with my fellow volunteers from the Paganfest we held in the prison last summer, these other groups in this prison aren’t particularly extremist, either.” – Rev. Kirk Thomas, Archdruid of Ár nDríaocht Féin (ADF)

Robert Keefer, High Priest of Crossroads Tabernacle Church – ATC, who’s on the Advisory Council for the State of Michigan’s corrections department, noted that relations with the local prison chaplain have been “friendly and helpful,” though he points out that ritual meetings are “limited to the 8 Sabbats currently,” and that expanding that to include Full Moon rituals and educational services have been “slow going.” Aside from bureaucratic hassles, and dealing with hostile or simply misinformed chaplains, the biggest problem we face is finding enough volunteers to deal with the large and growing number of incarcerated Pagans who want or need religious services. Rev. Kirk Thomas, Archdruid of Ár nDríaocht Féin (ADF), pointed out that “in the prison I volunteer at, if there is no volunteer, the men of that religion are not allowed to meet. This can truly be a hardship.” Thomas says that he “can only pray that our Gods will inspire the hearts of my Pagan brothers and sisters to step up and volunteer to help our incarcerated men and women lead valid and fulfilling spiritual lives.”

This report is a first foray into the many issues and concerns raised by this data, and I’m committed to continuing this conversation for as long as it needs to happen. I’m already in communication with several other voices from within the Pagan community on the issue of prison chaplaincy and the topics raised by this survey, and hope to spotlight them in the coming weeks and months.

[REMINDER: I am currently raising funds so I can go on assignment to the American Academy of Religion's Annual Meeting in Chicago this November. Three days into the campaign and I'm less than $150 dollars from reaching my goal! To everyone who has donated so far, THANK YOU, you are making robust and responsive Pagan journalism possible. If you haven't pledged yet, please consider doing so today, the quicker we reach the goal, the faster we can move forward on building new funding models for Pagan media.]

In Paganism, Religion Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Ar nDraiocht Fein, Archdruid, Chaplaincy, Christianity, Joel Monka, Paganism, Patrick McCollum, Pew Forum, Pew Forum: Religion in Prisons, Prison, Religion, Rev. Kirk S. Thomas, Robert Keefer

Archives For Pew Forum

My Life as a “None”

Top Ten Pagan Stories of 2012 (Part Two)

Global Religious Landscape: Will the Unaffiliated Change Everything?

Pagans and the AAR Annual Meeting: Chaplaincy, Sex, and Indigeneity

“There’s Still Christianity in the Public Schools?”

There Are Less of Us Than You Think

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup + Crowdfunding Update)

Pagan Chaplain Patrick McCollum on the Pew Forum Religion in Prisons Survey

What the New Pew Forum Survey Tells Us About Pagan Religions in U.S. Prisons

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