It's not their table


As if you needed it, reasons for putting your bare Pagan feet in the mashed potatoes

A few days ago, Wren from Witchvox linked to a prayer warrior piece at Wren's Nest.

I'm always torn on these.

To start with (and as Wren notes), most Christians are nothing like that. Given a choice, they want nothing to do with the hard core evangelists. They also know that sort of person thrives on attention, and confronting them would only feed the delusions of persecution.

It seems that there's always a group of Pagans who want the Christians to take care of their own trash and not splash any on the rest of us. Of course, we'd never have anyone like that (Jonathon Sharkey anyone?) and so we shouldn't get our robes dirty. And then there is a small but very vocal group that thinks Pagans should face the Enemy down, confront them where they live, and wrest victory after victory from the conflict. Righteous sword of fury, faith be my shield, my strength is the strength of thirteen because my heart is pure, and all that.

By nature, I'm a part of that last group. But I am not ruled (entirely) by my passions. I know from experience that conflict just feeds the fanatic expectations. Even if I were to "win," that would just drive more people into the militant arm of Christian evangelism because I would have proven their point. I may win the battle, but we'd lose the war even before it's declared. A heads-on no holds barred confrontation is the last thing I should be doing.

No matter how much I long for it.

So the idea is to work smart. And that's where I take inspiration from the the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, also known as www.religioustolerance.org (I've been giving to this group for years). Not only do they have one of THE best resources for information on just about every religion, they specifically focus on a civil rights perspective rather than advocating any one group.

Let me tell you why this is important. Right now, Wiccan chaplain Robert McCollum is fighting an exclusionary policy in California. Basically, he's trying to get the state prison system to admit that other faiths should be a part of the prison chaplains. At least one group is arguing against him saying that freedom of religion applies only to certain religions.

But let's step back. Rather than proving that (insert religion here) is a valid choice and offering proof, let's turn that around. Go from the human rights perspective, and make them prove that (insert religion here) isn't valid. Not because of what some holy book or priest says, but because we're human.

A couple of years ago, there was a part of the Libertarian Party that took the stand that only some religions were worthy. At my mainstream blog, I wrote this:

Paul himself is populist, not libertarian. When his positions coincide with liberty, it's more accident than commitment. Even then, he wants "his crowd" to be first in line. I've particular issues with his assumption that Christians are responsible for liberty and the rest of us only "get to sit at the big table" because of the tolerance of those selfsame and oh-so-humble Christians. We're supposed to do what we are told, be on our best behavior, and never, EVER put our bare feet in the mashed potatoes.

This is codswallop. The United States is not a Christian nation. "Christian" principles were only part of the founding. And don't get me started about the origin of those "Christian" ideas.

The point is, I have a place at the table no matter what Ron Paul deigns to grant me. It's not his table. He can't kick me out. If he doesn't like it, tough. I don't need his permission. Too much of what Paul says and writes reminds me of Orwell's Animal Farm. "All animals are equal, some are more equal than others."

I don't have rights because some Christians were kind enough to give them to me. I don't have rights because I am Pagan. I have rights because I am human and ONLY because I am human.

All I demand is my humanity.

Let the prayer warriors try to take that away and they will destroy themselves better than I ever could.

Posted: Tue - March 2, 2010 at 02:06 PM
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