On Intolerance and Peaceful Co-existence

The past few days have been agonizing for me, as they have been for everyone following the news. I tried to stay out of it, to stay off of social media, to stay silent. I failed. I cannot stay silent in a world gone mad. 

People I thought I knew have been spewing hatred and intolerance. Many are calling for more war, more bombings, closing our borders, refusing to help refugees. I simply cannot stand by and do nothing. I'm reminded of a quote from a favorite film. Sure, it's a pop culture piece of entertainment, and sure, it in itself promotes violence. But this quote states it eloquently:

"And I am reminded on this holy day of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, long time ago almost 30 years ago. This poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But, there is another kind of evil which we must fear most … and that is the indifference of good men!"

I was horrified when I learned the story of Kitty Genovese in college. I am horrified today by recent events, and by people's reactions to them. So this morning, when I ought to have been getting ready for work, this is what I wrote:

I don’t normally post about current events or politics. Recent events have made this reserve impossible. In the last few days, I have seen and read about horrific crimes against humanity in Tunisia, Beirut, and Paris. Here on FB, the response has been both compassionate and hate-filled. As an empath, this is intensely painful for me. No, it’s not about me. It’s a global problem, this use of violence to further ostensibly religious agendas. It’s not just overseas – it’s here in the USA as well. Let us not forget McVeigh and all the others like him – AMERICANS who have perpetuated terrorism.

But I will tell you this. As a medical professional, I see people of all nationalities, all faiths, all genders, and all sexual orientations EVERY DAY. Each and every day, I treat people with compassion regardless of these labels. I see it as my sacred duty to see people as human beings in need first, before any of these things. 

And guess what? We are all the same when we’re in pain. Everyone’s lower back aches the same. Everyone scrunches their shoulders up to their ears when they are stressed. Everyone looks the same when they finally let go and relax.

People often talk during massage therapy sessions. Some do it because they can’t bear silence. Others, to distract themselves from the sensations in their body. Others talk to me because no one else listens to them. And let me tell you something else. Yesterday, I treated a patient who spewed hatred for the entire hour. This person hates Muslims, gays, anybody who disagrees with their church, Democrats, women in general, terrorists, and liberals. The things this client said broke my heart and caused me to sit down and question everything I am, everything I know and everything I believe in.

A friend of mine asked me how I handled the situation and said I must have the patience of a saint. I simply let the client speak. I healed this person to the best of my ability. This patient needs healing most of all. This person says these things because of deep pain within. I don’t claim to be a saint. I tell you this story not out of self-aggrandizement, but in hopes that folks will realize the same thing that I did:

Hate only fuels more hate. Violence only fuels more violence. Divisions among humanity serve only the people who seek power. Like it or not, we are all in this together. 

It’s the 21st century, and it’s high time that we all start working together. Call me an idealist if you will. Un-friend me if this angers you, truly. 

I refuse to believe that Islam or Christianity are faiths that are fundamentally incompatible with peaceful co-existence. I refuse to believe that failures in the past mean that trying again to build tolerance and peace will fail. 

We must overcome. After all, what is the alternative? A World War in which we wipe every Muslim from the face of the Earth? A global ban on religion? More years of mass killings, until no one is left? 

No. These apocalyptic visions will not happen. We will find a way through. Humanity has a tendency to shine and find solutions at the very last moment.

I will not give up. I will not give in to fear and hatred. I will continue to resist peacefully. I will continue to speak up, speak out and to take whatever actions I can to create cultural change.

Currently, I have an idea to create a global peace accord in which we all agree to the following:

1.  Everyone has the right to live as they wish so long as it doesn't harm others.
2. The right of sovereignty of all nations must be respected - no more conquering others by force.
3. Diligently work to solve problems without violence.

My idea is to write this up with a cover letter and start sending it to local churches. Since religion is used as an excuse for many of the violent acts recently committed by terrorists, mass murderers, school shooters and what have you, we should start with faith leaders. We must start in churches, and in homes, to teach our young people to respect and tolerate diversity. This is the foundation of peace. Peace doesn't just happen. Peace is more accurately termed peaceful co-existence. Peaceful co-existence can only happen when we reject the use of force and embrace our beautiful diversity as a species.

Will you take the pledge? Do you know of someone already doing this? Drop me a line or a comment!

Call to Action: Separation of Church and State

In the US, the news has been full of stories about a Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She has cited her religious beliefs, which forbid homosexuality, and she has been jailed for failing to fulfill her legal oath of office. Here is that oath:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of ——————— according to law; and I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen of this State, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God."

All elected officials have to take similar oaths. Their job is to uphold the laws of our nation. That means that public officials must put aside their personal beliefs and opinions, and carry out their duties with impartiality. This being a free country, we all have a choice of profession. Those not willing to serve the entire public with impartiality are free to choose work other than public service.

Our government was designed to be secular, and it must be so. We are too big, and too diverse, for it to be otherwise. This nation, like it or not, is full of different religions. None want to live under the rules of another, not even within a "genre", so to speak. For example, Catholics differ from Baptists, who differ from Presbyterians. In the Pagan world, Heathens differ from Wiccans, who differ from Eclectics. How can we ensure that the religious freedom of all is preserved? By the rule of secular law.

But let's talk about religious freedom for a moment. What is it? The first amendment to the US Constitution says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.^[1]"

What this means is that each citizen is free to practice the religion of their choice, or no religion. Notice what is NOT guaranteed? Your "right" to change the laws of the nation to suit your beliefs while acting as a representative of our government. Your "right" to force others to live by the rules of your religion. No one has those "rights". We must all live under the same secular laws.

As I've discussed in previous activism-themed posts, freedom is simple. Freedom means you can do whatever you like, so long as you do not harm or infringe upon the rights of others. So, religious freedom is the right to practice or not practice a faith or your choice. It does not include forcing others to practice that faith, or forcing them to live by its rules.

The reality is that the majority religion of the United States has enjoyed a position of unfair privilege for many years. The fact that this story from Kentucky is newsworthy shows that we are beginning to make progress, but still have much work to do. Take this very oath, for example. It ends with "so help me God". Which god? A secular government does not take oaths to a deity. I saw it suggested recently that we ought to swear our oaths on our Constitution. This makes a great deal of sense. It is the foundational document of this nation.

These references to God were inserted into our government in the 1950's. The country was going through a dark period. The Cold War was at its height, and people were paranoid about Communism. Neighbors were turning in neighbors for the slightest whiff of disloyalty or deviant behavior. It was, in short, a national witch hunt in which many innocent people were harmed by malicious gossip. Naturally, our fear was exploited to add "under God" to our Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" to our currency (and also our national motto). This law was not Constitutional. It clearly violates the First Amendment. It should be repealed.

But there's more - what about national holidays? Most of them are secular in nature - we honor our veterans, the labor rights movement, the civil rights movement, our birth as a nation and so on. But there is also Christmas. While it's true that many faiths celebrate a holiday at that time of year, only one religion has a national holiday. This should not be. I don't have the answer on this - what's the fair way to handle winter holidays? I suspect the answer is that religious holidays should not be federal or national holidays. 

While employers are not required to give employees national holidays off, many do, at least four of them. Usually, a company gives Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day and Christmas Day as holidays. Three are secular, which is great. One is not. What about all the non-Christians? Why should everyone else have to take personal time or go without pay to celebrate their personal religious holidays? Why should one religion enjoy a privileged position over the rest?

Personally, I'd love to have the Sabbats off from work. Generally, I do try to take them off. Paying for that, of course, is my own affair. In my industry, I don't get paid time off anyway. I wish I could take Full Moons off as well, but even a priestess has to pay bills. We also have a goodly number of holidays in our faith. If I took Sabbats and Full Moons off, that would be around 21 days a year. Of course, in any given year, at least a few of those would fall on a weekend. Still, it's a significant amount of time. Even if I had paid time off, it would likely be more than my allotted amount, and that's not counting any vacations! Balancing obligations with spiritual life...a topic for another post.

But back to the point. This nation was founded with a secular government. Influences of the majority religion have crept in. As part of our ongoing cultural war, extremists are trying to polarize public opinion in a bid to create some sort of theocracy. The idea of that is absurd - even if Christianity became our state religion, which would be terrible news for everyone else, it wouldn't lessen controversy among Christians. In this country, we have hundreds of Christian denominations. What version would be our state religion? How would it be chosen? Ironically, these same extremists decry their Islamic counterparts and their bid for sharia law. Same story, different characters.

As members of a tiny minority religion, Pagans need to advocate for our secular government, but really, it's the responsibility of all thinking persons in this country. A friend told me recently that "good secular fences make good religious neighbors". Blessed be to that. Everyone of every faith, as well as agnostics and atheists should be equally represented and served by our government and its representatives.  Until the day comes that people willingly tolerate and respect those different than themselves, we need laws to protect us. We need to do more than pray for peace and harmony. We need to lobby for it, petition for it, and vote for it with wallets and ballots.

Know any good organizations working toward this goal? Comment or email me!

A Come to the Goddess Talk

The Pagan Experience - Wk 4- Apr. 29 – Any writing for the letters G or H - I am keeping this familiar format on week 4 for those who have joined me from the Pagan Blog Project.

US citizens are probably familiar with the expression "come to Jesus". For example, if you know a young person who is acting up, you might say "Come here, you and I need to have a come to Jesus". As Pagans, I think we need to have a come to the Goddess chat.

As many of you know, I am both the High Priestess of a shamanistic witchcraft tradition, as well as an interfaith priestess with an interfaith and secular spiritual community. This week, I'm mad as Hades. Not into rants? Don't want to hear a truth? Leave now.

I see the USA becoming a battleground for large corporations, many of whom who are using religion as a polarizing force in their ongoing mission to strip the world of resources and crush the masses beneath their gilded heels.

I see our government, which began in response to religious and political tyranny, teetering between positive cultural change and regressive faith-based policy. We were specifically chartered as a secular government, yet we are still seeing debates about religious laws.

As a nation, we are actively fighting Islamic extremists, and supporters of this war decry their sharia law. Yet they want to institute the same thing here. Legislators and judges are trying to pass laws that say they don't have to do their job if it contradicts their religious beliefs. Their job is to serve the public - ALL OF THE PUBLIC. Any legislation that interferes with this mission is directly and starkly unconstitutional.

Iowa recently did a brave thing in having in having a Wiccan priestess give the invocation to begin a day of legislative work. Rep. Liz Bennett invited the speaker, and she has this to say about religious freedom and our government:

"When we say we believe in religious freedom and we believe in religious liberty, that means that we don't endorse one religion over another as a government," Bennett said. "And in fact, when you look at other countries who do show preference or endorsement for one religion over another, you can see it's not a very good situation. That's something the founders of our nation knew."

The fact that this occurred is a beautiful step forward. It was received respectfully by some, but others chose to turn their back or absent themselves from the proceedings. Others even organized prayer protests at the Capitol building in response. As if the very hearing of words from another faith would somehow besmirch them. As if their religion, which happens to be the majority religion in this case, holds the only truth in the world, and only they have the right to speak in public. I have so many problems with this, but that is truly another post unto itself.

In the midst of all this, we Pagans continue to bicker, exclude and bully. I chatted with a friend this week. It turned into a mutual venting session, which I think that we both really needed at the time. We both are community leaders, and we both are passionate about our need to unite as a community. She shared with me her frustrations about lack of support, gossiping, apathy, and exclusion. I was shocked and saddened. It seems to me that this conflict was about ego and pettiness. It seems that some people would rather be in the limelight and in control, rather than supporting my friend's sincere and altruistic goals for our community as a whole.

Look here, people: we cannot afford the infighting right now. There is no room for your ego here, in this tumultuous age of environmental crisis, political instability and war. We do not have the luxury of wasting our energy on gossip. Our apathy and cynicism is killing almost every attempt to unite and elevate us as a community.

I don't care what path you follow. I don't care what tradition to which you belong. I don't care how much training you have. I don't care how many degrees you have, what garter you wear. I don't care about your pins, your crowns, or your special robes. I don't care what you call yourself.

Ask yourself this one question: am I inside the Big Tent of Paganism? Before you say no, read the article. John Beckett has done a great job of describing what this blanket term means and how it is valuable to all of us: "Druids and Wiccans, Heathens and Hellenists, Thelemites and chaos magicians, shamans and seers, kitchen witches and tree huggers – there’s room for everyone."

So you're in the tent? Congratulations. That makes you part of a controversial minority faith, which honestly, is a dangerous place to be in some parts of the world, including mine. It should not be dangerous to you within the community. I myself have experienced the exclusion, the lack of welcome, the cliques, the judgments, the back-door deals. I've heard stories from so many Pagans over the years, both from newbies and experienced practitioners alike.

Why do we decry the poor behavior of other faiths, yet treat our own community with scorn and derision? Why do we hate being judged, but we ourselves judge our brothers and sisters? Why do we whine about the lack of gathering spaces, but refuse to support those trying to create them? Why do we kvetch about the difficulty of finding groups and resources, but hamstring the attempts of those who wish to unite us?

It has to stop. Right here, right now, with each of us. I wrote a blog post last year about suggestions for good Pagan citizenship. Check it out. Have suggestions of your own? Comment on this post. I truly welcome your feedback and input.

To summarize: be good to each other. Stop the drama, the gossip and the infighting. Show up, speak up and DO SOMETHING NOW. Join your local Pagan Alliance. Go to a local festival or retreat. Fight the apathy and let's make some magic happen!

Remember, we are all in this together, and we are stronger together. I believe in this community. I know we can do this!

With perfect love and perfect trust,

Tanaria

Be a Good Pagan Citizen

We want to be accepted and respected as a faith, so let’s show the world that we are just regular people (albeit probably quirky, colorful people). We have jobs, we fulfill our civic duties, we raise families and we want our communities to be pleasant and crime-free just like everyone else.

Here are some ideas for how we can learn from the mistakes of the past and model the behavior we would like to experience from other faiths:

1. Calmly, compassionately educate people about Paganism and its broad spectrum of traditions and beliefs when the opportunity arises. Emphasize the similarities that all faiths share – connection with Spirit, morality, beliefs about the afterlife and a sense of belonging.
2. Listen. This may seem elementary, but all too often we focus on our need to be heard and forget to listen to others. Listen. Hear what they are really saying and acknowledge the fact that their truth is true for them, whether you agree or not.
3. Stop the infighting. Period. It’s not productive, and it holds us back as a group.
4. Show tolerance. Don't perpetuate the "my religion is better than yours" game. Also, don't play the victim. None of us lived through the Burning Times in this lifetime! Let's move past it - assume that people will accept and respect you. If you walk into a room with a chip on your shoulder, that sets the stage for conflict.
5. Vote in governmental elections for candidates who support equal rights for all.
6. Consider mentoring someone who is new to the faith. If you are not able to do so, refer them to someone reputable and ethical.
7. Volunteer, participate and donate to charities, relief funds and interfaith projects in your community. If you’re out of the broom closet, so much the better!
8. If you’re a business owner, create a safe space for all – Pagan, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, straight, gay, trans, bi, queer – everyone!
9. Speak up and take action if you see injustice occurring toward people of any faith. Even if that person is a Fred Phelps-esque Christian. Remember that no one deserves to be harmed - even nasty, hateful people.
10. Band together with other Pagans, present a united front and work together toward common goals. We are a minority, and most of our groups are small. We can achieve so much more together!
11. Live your life in as environmentally friendly a fashion as possible. If you are called to it, participate in environmental conservation or justice efforts. Do your research and be sure the group you are supporting is really helping the environment and not just making themselves feel better.
12. If you don’t see the group or project that you are looking for in your area, step up and start it! Ask for help, collaborate and if appropriate, file for legal nonprofit status.
13. Participate. Fight the apathy. We’re all busy, but ultimately things will only change if we change them. Get out there and get involved! 

I think that things are changing for the better, but we are still at a delicate phase in history. Now is the time for us to show the world how it's done. Now is the time for us to work towards a world in which our children and Pagans yet to come to the faith can live happy, productive lives in which they are not afraid to be who they are. A world where we can all be open about our faith and not worry that we will lose our jobs, friends or homes. A world where this discussion will be, once and for all, irrelevant.

So mote it be!