A Response to Fox News’ Story on Wiccans

For a video and partial transcript of Fox News’ broadcast about the University of Missouri allowing Wiccan and Pagan holidays, click this link: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/17/fox-news-attacks-wiccans/192713

There is also a text article on the same subject, but which does not feature any quotes by the news anchors who broadcast the subject on Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/17/university-missouri-guide-asks-professors-to-accommodate-wiccan-pagan-holidays/

What follows is the letter I sent in to the show.  I don’t know if it will have any effect, but I figure it is better to speak up and not be heard than to not speak up at all.

UPDATE: The original link seems to no longer work. You can find a new posting of the video here: http://wiccanink.tumblr.com/post/43397679203/apparently-the-link-i-posted-up-earlier-doesnt

UPDATE 2/19: Well, Tucker Carlson sort of apologized.  Emphasize the “sort of”.  https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/303998789834903552
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Dear Fox News,

I have a few comments in response to the story about the University of Missouri including Wiccan and Pagan holidays in the school’s holiday list that aired on February 17, 2013:

From the very beginning of the segment, it is clear that the subject is only brought up in order to 1) boost ratings and viewership and 2) degrade and belittle a minority group.  The only one of the three anchors to treat the subject with a bare sliver of dignity is Clayton Morris, while Tucker Carlson and Anna Kooiman immediately begin cracking jokes and belittling the beliefs and traditions of a subset of the American people.  However, I say that with a grain of salt, as Morris also later treated the subject with as little respect or seriousness as the other two.

There are a number of inaccuracies and falsehoods in your telecast.  What follows is a list of what was incorrect and why.

1.) “Wiccanism” is not a word.

2.) The “bad side of Wiccanism is, obviously, that it’s a form of witchcraft.”  This is incorrect.  Wicca is a religion.  Witchcraft, sometimes known as magic among Pagans and Wiccans, is not a part of the religion unless the practitioner wishes to practice magic.  Witchcraft can be practiced by any number of people, including, but not limited to, Wiccans, Asatru, atheists, Christians, and Jews.  Wicca is the belief system while witchcraft (i.e., magic) is a practice or set of actions, such as casting spells.

3.) “But the upside is, you get a ton of holidays, 20% of all school holidays … are Wiccan holidays.”  So the anchor is saying the only upside to Wicca is the holidays, yes?  Not only is he incorrect in stating that 20% of the holidays are Wiccan holidays, but he is incorrect in stating that the holidays are the only upside.  Is the only upside to Christianity the holidays, which the federal government gives preferential treatment?  To my knowledge, every other religious group must take personal time off in order to take a religious holiday, unless they are lucky enough to live in a county that allows for those days.  Are you saying then that Christians are the only group to whom holidays off should be given?

4.) Morris states that Wiccans get 20 holidays because we have 20 holidays.  This is very incorrect.  Wiccans do not have twenty holidays, but a mere 8: the solstices, the equinoxes, and what are called the cross-quarter holidays of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain.  And some holidays are more important than others, just as some holy days are more important to Christians, Jews, and Muslims than other holy days.  It should also be noted that these eight holidays are not exclusive to Wicca, but to many other Pagan groups as well.  You see, Wicca is a subset of Paganism.  Not all Pagans are Wiccans. So, based on this, there could be more people than just Wiccans who may require these days off for their religious practices.

5.) “If you’re going to pick one, go with the one with the most holidays.”  Technically speaking, if a person is choosing a religion based on number of holidays (or holy days), then they should go with some version of orthodoxy, as orthodox faiths tend to keep more holy days than others.  This sentence also ignores the fact that people who follow Wicca and other Pagan paths have genuine religious feeling for their practices.  To say that we only belong to this religion because the perks are better than what other religions offer is ignorant and depreciating.

6.) The most sacred holiday is not Halloween.  Halloween is a secular holiday that grew out of the traditions of many religions that celebrate a holiday around this time, including the traditions of Day of the Dead, All Saints’ Day, and All Soul’s Day, as well as the Pagan holiday of Samhain.

7.) A Wiccan or Pagan certainly has the capacity to name all eight holidays.

8.) Tammy Bruce is incorrect as well, as there are schools in the United Kingdom that have allowed for Wiccan and Pagan holidays.

9.) And, finally, the final statement that puts the icing on the cake: “Every Wiccan I’ve ever known is either a compulsive Dungeons & Dragons player or is a middle-aged, twice-divorced older woman living in a rural area who works as a midwife. And likes a lot of incense.”  Clearly, these people have met very few Pagans and Wiccans.  We come in all shapes and sizes, just like in any other religious path.  If you want a better idea of what an average Wiccan is, I’ll list myself as an example.  I am an average Wiccan, although I better identify as just Pagan.  I graduated from high school with honors and among the top of my class.  I was active in my school’s orchestra, SADD club, Natural Helpers, and Key club, I rode horses for years, and was a Girl Scout for ten years.  I also earned my Girl Scout Silver Award.  I have never played Dungeons and Dragons, although I do play video games sometimes.  I graduated from the University of Maryland with two degrees and now work as an editor and project manager for a respected institution—you’ll understand, I’m sure, if I decline to name where I work.  I am in my mid-twenties, have never been married, and live in an urban area.  I have never worked as a midwife.  In fact, I wouldn’t know the first thing about that respected job.   I burn candles, but usually not incense because of my allergies.  I wear jeans and t-shirts most of the time, or business casual when at work.  I drive a truck.  I do have a cat, but she’s not black.  I am an average Pagan and an average Wiccan.  The only time I might dress up in what is now considered stereotypical dress for a Pagan is if I were attending a festival, or if I wanted to.  But it’s certainly not how I dress every day, or even frequently, as it’s entirely impractical.

I hope this clears up the gross factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations of your broadcast.  I also hope the anchors will take the time to read this response to their highly bigoted and prejudicial remarks.

It would also behoove the station to issue an apology.  A sincere apology.  This “news report”, in my mind, was clearly aired in order to stir up a segment of the population and to incite outrage, which it certainly has.  However, this is not news at its finest, nor would I even call it news, and all persons involved should be ashamed of mocking peoples’ beliefs in order to boost their ratings.  It is despicable behavior not suited for any true journalist or news outlet.

Sincerely,

Sita

Out of the Broom Closet?

As I browsed through Tumblr tonight (as is fairly usual), I decided to browse through the Pagan tags for once.  I only do this in a very great while, because more often than not, I find more ignorance and fluffy bunny content than I do posts with real thought to them.  And on occasion the Pagan Tumblr community gets someone who decides to attack Wicca and Paganism and starts spamming everyone with hate mail.  So I tend to stay out of there.  But tonight, I thought I’d give it another shot.

I found a post from one user that expressed her frustration with our use of the phrase “coming out of the broom closet”.  According to her, this expression is irksome because being a Pagan does not equate to being LGBT, and by our tweaking of the “coming out of the closet” expression, we have somehow equated the one with the other.  In her words: “Do not compare, being a witch, to being LGBT. Just don’t.”

To be forthcoming: I am a straight, white female.  I am not a lesbian.  I’m as straight as they come.  However, having many close friends and a family member who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, I do have a very frequent look into and interaction with the LGBT community and LGBT issues.

I agree, in part, with what this person says.  She states that being a lesbian is not a choice, but being a Pagan is.  I agree that being LGBT is not a choice, that people are born that way.  But I do not believe that my being Pagan is a choice.  I fully believe that I was born a Pagan.  Just as this person knows she is a lesbian, I know I am a Pagan.

She states: “See…you can choose to stop being a witch. If your terrified your family will leave you, if your convinced being a witch will damn you to hell, you can stop.”  Yes, I could stop being a Pagan.  But only by lying to myself and everyone else and denying my very essence.  And I can’t do that.  Denying my being Pagan is denying a fundamental part of who I am.  I can no more change that aspect of my soul than I can change the weather.  I could never become a Christian, or Jewish, or Muslim, or anything else.  This is the way I am.  For some Pagans out there, this may not be true.  I don’t know, and that is for each to discover for him- or herself.  Now, some people hide their religious beliefs in order to keep themselves or their families safe from harassment and assault.  I may get be opening a can of worms for asking this, and please know I don’t mean any offense– but how is that scenario different from an LGBT person staying in the closet in order to avoid harassment and assault?  Both are hiding who they fundamentally are for protection.

I understand, to a point, the frustration this person expresses with the “broom closet” expression.  But I also think she is neglecting the fact that many Pagans are on this path for life.  Once we find the path, generally speaking, we stay on it.  Not because we choose to, but because something inside of us calls us to do so; something inside tells us that this is right, that this is who we are, that this aspect of ourselves can no longer be denied.  It’s more than just a religious or spiritual conviction; it’s a way of life, a fact of life, and one that can’t simply be undone because of fear or a desire to make grandma like us more.  Trust me, if I wanted to make my grandmothers like me more and be more proud of me, I’d be in that church in a heartbeat and singing gospel.  But I can’t, and I won’t, because it’s not who I am and is, in fact, fundamentally opposite of who I am.

I am not trying to say that an LGBT person’s hardship is any less than a Pagan person’s, or vice versa.  I’m not trying to say that one is better or worse than the other.  I am saying that LGBT people and Pagan people have gone through an awful lot of similar issues over the years, including harassment, assault, abuse, torture, bullying, and so forth for simply being who they are.  In my view, the use of an expression does not diminish one group’s suffering over another’s.  I believe that by using the “broom closet” statement, we say “Our experiences are similar to yours, and we understand how this feels,” rather than “Our experiences are exactly the same and we’re hiding in the same closet.”  Because they aren’t exactly the same–but they are similar if you take a closer look.

It’s possible that I can’t understand her frustration, and so this entire post may be very off-base.  After all, I am not LGBT.  I have not experienced negative attention because of my sexual orientation or choice in partners, etc.  I have only my own experiences and thoughts to guide me on this.  But I have experienced negative attention, even among my own family, for being anything other than Christian.

(The Wild Hunt) Age-Appropriate Choices in Faith

So a few days ago, The Wild Hunt published a post called “Question: When Do You Get to Choose Your Faith?“  Intrigued, I read through my email version of the post and I have to say, it got me thinking.  So I thought before I read the comments and had my opinion potentially influenced, I would leap frog off his post with a reply here.

If you have yet to read the post, Jason Pitzl-Waters is essentially asking when a child is old enough to choose a religion or make religious decision.

My thought is that it really depends on the child, but perhaps a general age range can be narrowed down.  I think if a child happens to be wiser beyond their years and/or mature for their age, then let him or her make their own religious choices.

Now, that doesn’t mean the parent abandons all influence or supervision.  It means the parent should educate themselves on what the child desires and then participate with the child, regardless of their own faith.  A parent should be aware of who the child interacts with in a spiritual setting and who he or she is getting advice from.  A parent would need to be alert for the potential–the potential, not the certainty–for harmful influences in the guise of religious personnel.  All religions and faiths have them: the spiritual leaders that just don’t give you a good feeling, or who blatantly try to subvert their followers for their own ends.

But done well, I think a child could make his or her own religious choices at a fairly young age.  In my own case, I knew when I was about ten or eleven years old that Christianity was not working for me.  In fact, I kind of hated it.  I had liked Sunday School, but when I “graduated” and started sitting in the pews with the adults, there was no way I was going to make that work for me.  And I knew it.  My mother allowed this to take place, allowed me to make that choice.  I was, and always have been, mature for my age.  For me, it made sense.  And a few years later when I found Pagagnism and began researching that, this was also allowed.  I was only 13.  Some teenagers can make that kind of choice and be steady in it; others cannot because they haven’t reached a level of maturity to do so.  Again, this doesn’t mean the parents can step back and give all the reins to the child.  There needs to be some kind of supervision to make sure the child isn’t being sucked into a mind-control cult or being unduly influenced by a priest or spiritual adviser that does not have their best interests at heart.

This also means that if a child chooses not to participate in any religion, the decision should be respected.  If a parent believes the child has reached a level of maturity to realize that a certain system is not working and needs to leave it, even if it means not finding another religious system, then the child should be allowed to do so.

For three years, I didn’t claim any religion or faith.  I didn’t have one because in those three years, I didn’t particularly need or want one.  I had outgrown Sunday School, but I had yet to find my path.  I knew I wanted something, needed something, but what that was, I didn’t know at the time.  So I was a “nothing” on the religious spectrum.  And there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t think I would classify myself as a full atheist, I just wasn’t a part of any system.  But if a child were to choose atheism at a relatively young age, and they seemed to have the maturity to back up the decision, then by all means, allow the child to walk his or her own path.

In my opinion, it really does come down to the maturity level of the child.  I absolutely think a child of nine or ten is capable of making these kinds of decisions.  Yet I also know some young adults who don’t necessarily have the maturity to make their own decisions without falling flat on their face (also known as lesson learning).  So really, if a child has the maturity to back up the choice, then why not let them make the decision?  It’s not as if it’s an irreversible one.

The Cost of Inaction

Today I read about the Winnemem Wintu and other tribes who gathered together for a practice run of a protest they will hold in the near future to protect their sacred ground and coming of age ceremony from the encroachment of heckling tourists and residents.  I was all fired up to write a scathing post and maybe a letter or two about how shameful it is that this kind of discrimination still takes place.  I was all ready and set to write about how ashamed and disgusted I am of being an American when I am reminded that our Native tribed are still abused, downtrodden, and essentially treated as second-class citizens in this country, even now in 2012.  I was just about to put pen to paper to write that it’s disgraceful that no one does anything about this issue to the point that the tribe is forced to civil disobedience just to be heard.

And then it hit me.

I, with all my fine words, all my well-meaning rage and disgrace, am really no better than the ignorant government.  Because, you see, my fine words and I are sitting in an office, or at home behind a computer.

Doing nothing.

There are plenty of people who pay lip-service to an ideal, plenty who will bemoan the state of the world without doing anything to actually fix it.  They do nothing.  And today, it hit me so hard that I paused in my work, leaned back in my cushy office chair, and actually thought about it.  With utmost surprise and shame, I realized that although my intentions were of the best, I have in fact become one of those people.

I have done nothing.

Where are the movers and shakers of today?  Where are the protesters, the leaders, the American system-breakers of this new era?  Where are the Susan B. Anthonys, the Martin Luther Kings, the Gandhis?

They’re sitting behind a computer, wrapped up in Facebook or Twitter or Angry Birds, frustrated by the world if they have any feeling or awareness left at all but still choosing to do nothing–either because they choose to or because they simply don’t know how.

I love technology.  I really do.  I’m good at it, and I’m old enough to remember a time when there was no cell phone, no personal computer, even no Internet (gasp!).  I think technology is a wonderful tool.  But we have become so focused on the next status update, the next text message, the number of Likes and friends, the next YouTube viral video, that I believe we have forgotten how to truly function with each other as human beings.  We have now been told and taught for many years that technology is the way to go, the way of the future.  And we follow blindly as sheep, herded to the next “amazing” gadget that’s really not much different from the previously amazing gadget released six months ago.  We allow technology to consume our attention and become an excuse to do nothing.

Yes, I realize the irony of using a blog and Facebook page to get this message out when I have just briefly expounded on the “evils” of technology.  But both blog and Facebook are tools.  We must learn to use them properly.

We cannot continue to do nothing.  There are too many important issues that need addressing in this world.  The rights of Native Americans in the US is only the tip of the iceberg.  What about the rights of women and children in third-world countries, protection of animals and the environgment, governmental abuses, corporate abuses, pollution, cartels, violence, and prostitution rings and slave trade?  Hiding behind computers, using the “anonymity” of the Internet, all of it must end–or be used properly–if we are to make real improvements.

I have done nothing.  Even these words will do very little because they are exactly that–just little words.  To fix the world, to make it better, more than words is needed.  Action is needed.  Solidarity and a sense of right are needed.  A reminder of humanity is needed.  We are all connected.

I will no longer be a sheep and do nothing.

Will you?

Do Pagans/Wiccans Have a Concept of Evil?

I found myself the other week trying to explain a Pagan view of good and bad and evil to a group of non-Pagans. It was a question I hadn’t really even thought of very much myself.  Do Pagans, and more specifically, Wiccans, believe in evil?

I said no.  I don’t think we do.  I’m speaking more in the terms of a Wiccan point of view and manner of belief, but parts of this may apply to the broader Pagan community–forgive me if I happen to generalize at times.  Also, this concept isn’t even fully formed in my own mind, so pardon if I backtrack or even contradict myself in my musings–I’ll try not to, but no guarantees.

I don’t think we believe in evil.  That doesn’t mean we don’t understand the concept, or that we don’t have a concept of evil, but I don’t think we believe in it as a part of our spirituality.  “Evil” here has the meaning of an act that is so far beyond reprehensible that it can barely be conceived.  Evil is an act or a person that causes unimaginable levels of pain or harm to a person, a group, or another living being.  Hitler, for example, is considered evil by a great many people.

The problem (as I see it) with relation to the concept of evil is that many Pagans believe in a natural order.  Death is not evil, but natural.  Harm is not evil, but merely something to be avoided because it’s bad, and it happens.  It’s an accepted fact that we will all be hurt at some point in our lives–the only unknown is how badly we’ll be hurt.  But that doesn’t necessarily equate to evil.  This part seems to be a matter of degree.  A little pain, a little hurt, all falls within the natural order, but great pain and great harm that goes beyond what one person should in theory be able to accomplish falls under “evil.”

As a moral person, I can see that.  But it’s not a part of my spirituality, it’s outside of it.  The concept of evil, to me, doesn’t enter into or come from my beliefs.  The greatest concept of evil that most people either believe in or can understand is the concept of Satan and the Devil.  Many people say that evil comes from Satan.  This understanding of evil comes from the religious beliefs of that person and tends to mean that what is evil is unnatural, created by the Devil, sinful, and/or morally reprehensible.  This idea is directly related to the spirituality in the fact that believers have a model held in front of them saying that if X, Y, or Z is done, then you can’t get into Heaven or be a good person or be a moral person, etc.

Pagans don’t have that.  We believe that everything has its natural place, and you can do pretty much whatever you want to if you’re willing to accept the legal, moral, and/or karmic consequences of the action.  Doesn’t mean the community will like you, or condone what you do if it’s found you are actually causing harm, or tell you you’re wrong.  It just means that spiritually, from a faith standpoint, there is nothing in the belief system that says what action is wrong or evil and what action is not.  From a moral standpoint, I think most of us would agree that murder is wrong.  But from a spiritual standpoint and a Pagan worldview, murder is acceptable if you, the perpetrator, are willing to accept the consequences of your actions knowing that this carries heavy karmic implications (if you believe in karma) and heavy legal and moral implications.  Mind, I’m not saying we advocate murder or anything like that, because we don’t–what I am saying is that the emphasis is placed on making the choice.  If I were in a situation where I had to murder someone because it was the only way I could protect myself or my family, I’d probably do it, and accept the consequences.  Would I go and commit outright murder?  No, because I know that’s wrong.  But nothing in my spiritual beliefs says that it’s wrong or evil to do so–that is coming from a moral standpoint, not a religious one.

What do other Pagans and Wiccans think?  Do you think we have a religious or spiritual basis for the concept of evil, or do we not?  I’m interested in what others think on this subject, so please, weigh in!