Alas, All Barrels Have Their Bad Apples

Alas, All Barrels Have Their Bad Apples

by Ginger Strivelli

It is sad but true; all barrels have their bad apples hidden within.

The Pagan community is not immune to ignorant and/or immoral idiots who call themselves one of us, and then go on to be the worse kind of bad example, spewing bad PR and worse damage in the wake of their stupid if not outright evil behavior.

The problem is, most people do not judge all Muslims by the “bad example” of Osama Bin Laden, or all Christians by the bad example of David Koresh, nor all New Agers by the bad example of the Heaven’s Gate cult. Nonetheless, it seems painfully clear that too often too many people still judge all Pagans and Witches and Wiccans and Druids and other Earth Religionists by the crimes of our few bad apples. Admittedly we’ve had some real rotten-to-the-core ones…and will sadly continue to in the future, most likely. We are open and accepting and loving people and we tend to embrace everyone, even those we shouldn’t. In our inclusive accepting ways we sadly include and accept those who we should not to start with. However, once those bad apples have been pointed out to us, we should stop including and accepting them! That seems simple, but often it is not so clear to Pagan leaders, clergy and communities when faced with a situation where one within their circle surprisingly turns out to be a bad apple.

How can we as a community distance ourselves from these types of bad examples? It is a question we ask each other often. A question we are forced to address way too often when such situations arise where someone within our local Pagan Circles turns out to be an idiot, mentally ill, or actually evil. Woefully, we tend to have some people who call themselves “Pagan” who fit all three categories. Perplexingly, some of our fellow Pagans will balk at denouncing these people…they will urge us to be “understanding” or “forgiving” or “tolerant.” The fact is some things, some people, some behaviors and some crimes are just wrong and not understandable, forgivable, or tolerable. That is a hard lesson: For some of us who have fought long and hard for tolerance and acceptance to realize that everything is not tolerable and acceptable! Some things are just wrong. There is still a line between right and wrong. Just because you are trying to be progressive and open-minded and tolerant doesn’t mean you can just not draw that line between right and wrong…you must draw it somewhere. Even if you draw that line at a different place than the (in your view) narrow-minded greater community, you still must draw the line somewhere!

We in the Pagan community try so hard to be open-minded, we often get so open-minded our brains start to fall out. It is a hard lesson for us to face that we can’t and shouldn’t blindly accept everything and anything, just because we preach acceptance and tolerance of our faith.

An ancient and honorable faith like Witchcraft, Paganism, Druidism, Shamanism, or modern variations thereof, like Wiccans and such, should naturally be accepted; a religion is not intolerable. However, some things, some behaviors, some people are intolerable, and we should stop preaching acceptance when we are faced with such stupidity and/or evilness. Those things do not deserve acceptance. People who practice such behaviors should not be “accepted” or “understood.” They should not be excused with the wand of “tolerance.” They should be exposed, exiled, and executed in some extreme cases with the Athame of Lady Justice and Lady Karma instead. We real Pagans should not feel obligated to explain or excuse or expunge such behaviors and crimes. We should stand up and loudly and proudly be intolerant in such cases!

The Pagan community’s bad apples range from just the misguided and stupid bruised-apple types to those who are evil mutations of nature and are rotten-to-the-core types… and none of them should be protected or covered up for by the legitimate Pagan community, just because they call themselves one of “us.” That does not make them one of us; it does not make them representative of our religion or our community. However if we stand behind these bad apple bad examples, and “accept” them and embrace them and forgive them, then we should not be surprised when our whole community gets judged by their bad example. What is the greater community to think if we ourselves allow and foster such fools and monsters amongst us? Naturally they will think us all as ignorant and immoral as our fosterlings.

The phrase goes, “One bad apple spoils the barrel;” that is why a good farmer doesn’t let any bad apples stay in any barrel. We as Pagan clergy and leaders need to listen to the wisdom of that farmer. We need to kick such bad apples out of our barrels as soon as we know they are bad. That doesn’t make us “intolerant” or not “accepting;” that makes us a religious group with a code of honor and morals that we hold ourselves to. It is shocking that many of our Pagan clergy and Pagan group leaders hesitate to show this bit of wise leadership. In their defense, often they are trying to be all-accepting and all-inclusive, for they fear being seen as un-PC. Or perhaps they have just become so open-minded their brains are falling out.

Pagans need to encourage their leaders to set limits on what is acceptable and tolerable and what is not. We need to start drawing that line between right and wrong somewhere, instead of just arguing that everyone else has it drawn too conservatively so we are going to erase it altogether. The line is there for a good reason, so when people go over it, we know to stop associating with them and to punish them or see that the greater community punishes them before they cause any more harm to others around them.

We preach, “And ye harm none.” But perhaps we should add, “And ye let no one else do harm either.”

Wow! Progress!

New Marshall policy lets pagan students miss class on holidays

By TOM BREEN
Associated Press Writer

http://dailymail.com/static/apnews/?story=ap0021r.php

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- When George Fain visits a grave on Thursday to mark a pagan holiday, she won't have to worry about the work she's missing in her classes at Marshall University in Huntington.

That's because her absence on the Samhain holiday has been approved by the school, which for the first time is recognizing pagan students' desire to be excused from class for religious holidays and festivals.

The university with an enrollment of about 14,000 may be the only school in the country to formally protect pagan students from being penalized by missing work that falls on religious holidays, although other schools have catchall policies they say protect students from every religious faith.

But as members of the eclectic group of faiths gathered under the term "pagan'' become more willing to publicly assert their beliefs, Fain suggests other schools may follow Marshall's example.

"I think we may have opened a door,'' Fain said. "Now that we know we can be protected, that the government will stand behind us and we feel safe, it's going to be more prevalent.''

The state's largest university, West Virginia University, does not have a policy specifically addressing pagan holidays.

The decision to allow pagan students to make up missed work from classes on holidays was simply an extension of existing university policy toward members of other religious groups, according to Marshall's Dean of Student Affairs Steve Hensley.

"I don't think there are a lot of students here who have those beliefs, but we want to respect them,'' Hensley said. "It was really just a matter of looking into it, and deciding what was the right thing.''

Although the university had considered adopting a calendar of specific pagan holidays on which excuses for absence would be granted, Hensley said he ultimately decided to adopt a case-by-case policy.

Students are responsible for establishing that they are religious believers and that the holiday in question is important to their respective tradition by filing a written request with Hensley. The university is aware of the potential for some students to falsely claim to be pagan in a bid to skip a midterm they haven't studied for.

"What we're trying to do is get at what students' core beliefs are,'' he said.

It's not easy to say whether Marshall is the only university with such a policy. Experts on paganism contacted for this story say they aren't aware of others. A call to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Some schools have catchall policies that allow students to be excused for any religious holiday. Such a policy has been formally in place at LeHigh University in Pennsylvania for about eight years, according to Lloyd Steffen, a professor of religion and the university's chaplain.

Such an accommodation for pagans is also rare in Britain, the birthplace of modern paganism.

"Nobody yet gets any holiday for pagan festivals in the United Kingdom. It seems to be an American original,'' said Ronald Hutton, a history professor at the University of Bristol in England.

By specifically including pagans, Marshall is taking an important step toward recognizing the validity of their beliefs, said Jason Pitzl-Waters, an authority on paganism who edits the Wild Hunt Web site from Milwaukee.

"That's part of the struggle for modern pagans,'' said Pitzl-Waters, a pagan. "Even though modern paganism has been in public since the 1950s, a lot of people still see it as a rebellious teenage activity, not necessarily something you do as a religious observance.''

That's starting to change, according to Helen Berger, a sociology professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

In particular, she cited the recent decision by the Department of Defense to agree to pagan requests that the five-pointed star -- sometimes called the pentacle -- be allowed on the gravestones of veterans in national cemeteries.

"That was a major win, and it's encouraged them to start looking for areas where they can gain the rights and recognition that other religions have,'' Berger said.

The term "pagan'' encompasses a diverse array of faiths who can include those seeking to reconstruct the forms of pre-Christian religious worship in Northern Europe to the better-known Wiccans, who draw largely on more recent sources.

"What binds us together isn't our theology, necessarily,'' Pitzl-Waters said. "What binds us together is a sense of communal practice and togetherness.''

Putting a number on pagan believers in the United States can be difficult. Estimates range from 400,000 to 1 million. Part of the problem is that many believers may feel uncomfortable acknowledging a faith that is still regarded with suspicion.

Marty Laubach, a sociology professor at Marshall and adviser to a group of pagan students, said he's seen flyers advertising pagan meetings ripped down by others.

But actions like the university's decision on absences encourage pagans to be more vocal, he said.

"You'll have more people now who are willing to say, 'These are my beliefs,''' he said. "The American neopagan movement is a lot stronger than you think.''

AP-ES-10-31-07 1532EDT