On the Patheos Pagan FB page I posted a poll regarding discrimination after reading Patti Wigington’s post on racism in Paganism. It’s really awesome. You should read it.
I’m not going to pretend online polls are good science, but I still found the results interesting. And as with any “add your own option” poll, I love the amount of useless snark and confusion that accompanies the serious answers.
From what I can tell, everyone who answered that they had not experienced discrimination is a white, vaguely Wiccanate woman.
Some of the responses I expected to be popular were not: race, sexual orientation, gender, economic status.
People who responded with politics, lifestyle choice and education were in the middle, where I would have predicted they’d be.
In an opinionated community, of course having an unpopular opinion was a popular response.
But what completely blew me away was the number of people who say they have been discriminated against in the Pagan community over theology.
True, people may have misunderstood what discrimination actually is, but even so such a perception of having been wronged for a theological belief flies in the face of most Pagans insistence that orthodoxy is anathema.
Pagans have these ideas about our community that are idealistic, and that we like to think are true. But if the most common form of perceived discrimination is over theological matters, then that suggests we need to review our attitudes towards theology and orthodoxy.
So do you think this poll suggests an issue with theology in our communities that needs to be addressed?
Do you think Pagans are just misinformed about what discrimination actually entails?
Have you been discriminated against withing the Pagan community? Was it over theology?
Feel free to share your story in the comments.
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