Meical ab Awen and then some others as well ask a legitimate question over my recent posts dealing with Christianity – why have I recently focused on the crimes and shortcomings of some Christians?  Would I be better off and serve my readers better if I focused more on strictly Pagan issues?  (Oddly, I am getting the mirror image of comments a week or so ago accusing me of seeking a Christian/Pagan ‘alliance’ or some such silliness.  But these more recent queries are much more polite and reasonable.)

I sympathize with this question much more than the ‘alliance’ fantasies.  I have seven partial answers (the first are the longest!) that I hope collectively add up to a reasonable reply.  But I do ask that folks making broad generalizations about what this blog is doing look at it for a month or two – either because you’ve read for a while, or look in the archives.

I.

I don’t go about just knocking Christianity, I go around knocking a certain kind of Christian – those who claim to have the sole truth, and support repressive actions against us either through the law or outside it.   That usually means a certain kind of Fundamentalist, some conservative Evangelicals, conservative Mormons, and conservative Catholics.

As a community we have been under sustained attack by the Christian right for many years, and they have been willing to use political power against us. They also attack a great many of our core values when they are not attacking us: they seek to limit the power and independence of women and feminine values, dominate or destroy nature, deny the legitimacy of any but their narrow conception of appropriate sexual and gender roles, and undermine religious tolerance.  This is serious stuff.

In addition, in the mind of many in the public, and especially many idiots in the mainstream media,  they have captured the ‘moral high ground’ in their attacks on people they do not like.  One example is their successful adoption of terms like “pro-life,” which implies their opponents are not.  We see the same tactic in their use of “family” and “values” as if we do not have values or love our families.  So long as they can claim the moral high ground, they have an advantage they do not deserve and remain deeply dangerous to us.  

I will do all I reasonably can to give others the information we who engage with them need to lay these moral monsters low.  For their leaders are moral monsters, and their followers either also are, or they are passive players because they have given their leaders authority to make moral decisions about people they do not know.  These latter can possibly be reached by accounts of atrocities done in their name.

There is an international dimension to defending the Pagan community as well.

In Brazil and Africa conservative evangelicals have been hyper active in attacking indigenous and African diasporic religions, fellow Pagans who address the Gods in their own way.  Their religious enemies are also our enemies.  I believe what they do there they would do here if they had the power. Publicizing the evils they commit and the organizations that cover for them is the best spiritual disinfectant.

The Christian right has also been loyal and ruthless allies of others who have attacked our constitution, subverted our laws, and defiled our country.  At the moment these people have been dealt a political blow, but political fortunes are volatile these days.   So long as they dominate one of only two viable parties, we are not insulated from the catastrophic consequences of Democratic stupidity or simple bad luck.  There is plenty of the first and the second can always happen.  I am a citizen of this country and will use my forum accordingly.

It would be nice if mainstream Christians were as critical of them as I think they should be, but for whatever reasons, they are not. It’s a dirty job but it needs to be done on a massive scale.

THEREFORE I see one important aspect of this blog as providing ammunition to Pagans who are on the ‘front lines’ in addressing and dealing with the wider world.  I have the time and experience to offer information many may not have the time to find for themselves, but find useful. That is why I always give background links – and not just my opinion.  Some readers are as well informed as I am, and much of this sort of thing will not be new to them.   But others are less informed because of other demands on their time, and I hope they find my efforts of value.

Believe it or not I do not enjoy doing this.  My personal interests do not include theological and political struggle.  I do not see any religion in black and white terms, including my own.  But I see attending to this task as a responsibility.  I do not want at some time in the future, if things truly go to hell, to think that only if I had worked a little harder, these things would not have come to pass.

II.
In reality, how “anti-Christian” are my posts?

Let’s consider the one on them, us, and atheists.  When I wrote it I was hoping the discussion might take off from my substantial positive comments about Pagan contributions to the world.  I hope some readers would add their insights. I tried to put it in a broader context and was rewarded with a dose of hyper paranoia that I dared say something positive about Christianity.  The discussions emerging from that post COULD have been a almost entirely about central features of Paganism, I had INTENDED it to be one, and then commentators took it in a completely unexpected direction and some began making pretty scurrilous personal attacks about my pro-Christian (and even anti-Pagan!) bias along the way.

I continued to argue that neither Christianity nor Paganism could be understood as completely good or completely bad.  

Regarding genuine spirituality, I do not think one’s religion or theology/theaology matters much if at all.  I consider religion as how we integrate our spirituality into a community of practice.  Some communities that call themselves religious don’t seem to me to have much spirituality – but that’s their problem so long as they mind their own business.

Ditto around moral worth.  Spirituality can be free from any particular theology and moral behavior seems to be even free from spirituality, except in the most general sense.  The Americans who tested lowest on willingness to use torture were the secularists according to the PEW poll.  I think the quality of one’s heart matters and secondarily, the clarity of one’s thinking.  So there are some Christians who I think are more genuinely moral and ethical than some Pagans.  And vice versa.  I also think there are some atheists who are more moral and ethical than some religious people.  I think my blog reflects that belief.

III.
The issues involving the torture and abuse of children emerged in the news over the past few days.  I obviously do not control when stories appear, but if I want my views to matter much on current issues it’s best to make them timely if possible.  

Given that we have been repeatedly accused by Fundamentalists and the like of child abuse and worse, that the poor African kids are being accused of Witchcraft by Evangelicals (a subject of some relevance to us given historical context if nothing else) and that I was explicitly asked to blog on this particular post (not that I needed much persuading) I think it is completely appropriate to focus on these crimes.  

It then seemed both balanced and appropriate to give the Irish example which had also just emerged in the news.  The point is not that Christians did these things.  Some did.  Some didn’t.  The point is that there is something about organize hierarchical churches and those who know they have all the answers that matter that predisposes them to commit such crimes when they think it advantageous to do so.  Those who have read me for some time know this is a issue I have with religious organizations as such.

The person who brought the Evangelical torture of kids to my attention also brought the one I posted yesterday on Gambia.  No Christians were involved (Gambia is mostly Muslim), but again, the story is of considerable relevance to Pagans.  

The issu
e here is Pagan at its core, unlike in the Evangelical case.  Gambia’s belief in sorcery is pre-Muslim in its origins.  The dark side of societies with a widespread belief in magic and sorcery is that they can be distorted into this kind of thing.  That would make a great discussion thread if anyone desires to pick it up.  It could go in a Pagan direction – though in many ways a very sensitive one.  Remember – as I have written before, “witch” has a lot of different meanings because of how the English word has been applied.  There are those who use magick to hurt others for their own benefit.

IV.
Paganism for me is primarily a matter of community practice and personal encounter, not belief, doctrine, or some such head tripping.  Whether the Gods come when invoked is much more interesting to me than a theological treatise on the nature of deity.   My personal approach is shamanic – close encounters of the third kind.  

But these issues are not easily put into blog snippets.  I post on these issues, but I have not yet found a way that I feel appropriately opens up the subject in depth.  My conclusion so far is to explore many of these areas through book discussions, and mini essays.  For example, I mentioned that what most impressed me bout the Higgenbotham’s book were the personal experiences “ChristoPagans” had reported, that led them to their position.  While at the level of doctrine I think ChristoPaganism is a wash, that people have had valuable and transformative spiritual encounters from both broad traditions counts for more on the scale of personal value than the fact that I have never read or heard a coherent fusion of the two.

 I think this is a very important point regarding the value of theology, by the way.

I am resistant to writing about the more ‘hands on’ shamanic aspects of my practice.  Do people want to hear about a healing ritual I did?  Maybe so, but seems to me like bragging to write about it.  I am planning a post later this month on how stuff I did helped me recover from a stroke that happened almost exactly a year ago – but only because I can do it in a way that gives other people possible guidance.  If I can’t make a post on Pagan practices at least potentially empowering to a reader, I see no reason to make it.

In that vein I plan do a post on energetic house cleansing, as I have recently done ones on seeing and feeling energy. Those attracted no comments – but they did not have to. They passed on useful skills to people willing to learn them.

V.
I am part of a relatively small community that mostly meets privately.  This is true both locally and of us as a national phenomenon.  Many people remain in the closet (and with good reason – I once lost a teaching position because I was not).  Therefore material that is explicitly and narrowly Pagan can be pretty hard to collect when you’re expected to make five posts a week.  And that’s what Beliefnet wants because it keeps readership up and they make their money off advertising.  No advertising, no Beliefnet.  When people help me out by sending me stuff, I often use it, and always give them credit unless I think it is inappropriate or they ask me not to.  

But I have a life, and trying to live it while finishing a book and putting together a minimum of 5 blog posts a week can be a grind some times.  So…  when nothing comes readily to mind I will often write on areas where I already have some personal knowledge and interest – and that certainly includes politics.  Consequently this post covers politics more than a non-political scientist would be likely to do.  Just as a Pagan organic farmer would likely cover organic farming more than I do, much as I enthusiastically support it.  I think any of you’d do the same with whatever your area of specialty might be.

VI.
While this is A Pagan’s blog, and not THE Pagans’ blog, I a well aware that I am the first on Beliefnet – and we may or may not have the numbers to lead to more.  I will be taking a trip towards the end of the month or right thereafter to celebrate completion of a book manuscript and see friends in the Northwest.  I have asked some other Pagans to contribute some posts to lighten my load while I am on the road.  If it works and Beliefnet has no problems with it, I will invite more bloggers with different perspectives to provide greater variety here.

VII.
I have also decided once a week simply to make a thread available to people to initiate any discussion they want. This will allow the larger community of my readers to take a more active role in Blog contents, if they choose.  Will you guys so choose?  I dunno.  I hope so.  If not, then no complaining about what I choose to write!

So there really is not a single answer to this question, but I hope this multiplex approach does the job..