{"id":11332,"date":"2016-08-05T12:49:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T17:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/allergicpagan\/?p=11332"},"modified":"2016-08-05T13:33:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T18:33:21","slug":"the-pagans-and-the-christians-or-whatever-happened-to-teo-bishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/allergicpagan\/2016\/08\/05\/the-pagans-and-the-christians-or-whatever-happened-to-teo-bishop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pagans and the Christians (or … whatever happened to Teo Bishop?)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"IMG_6214\"<\/p>\n

The best Pagan festival I went to this summer wasn\u2019t a Pagan festival at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I actually haven\u2019t gone to any Pagan festivals this summer, although we did attend other gatherings, like the\u00a0Unitarian Universalist General Assembly<\/a> in Columbus, OH. \u00a0(The highlight for me was probably confronting the Westboro Baptist Church protesters en masse<\/em>\u00a0while singing songs of love.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

But the best event we attended this summer was a more traditional outdoor festival called \u201cWild Goose\u201d<\/a>, which is held in Hot Springs, NC, just across the border from Tennessee, snuggled in a valley in the Smokey Mountains.\u00a0 There was cool music and interesting workshops.\u00a0 The location was gorgeous and we had a perfect campsite right on the French Broad River.\u00a0 And the people were awesome.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6206\"
\nBut Wild Goose isn\u2019t a Pagan festival.\u00a0 It\u2019s a Christian festival.\u00a0 But it was like no Christian gathering I have ever experienced.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now don\u2019t flip out on me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not re-converting to Christianity.\u00a0 But the experience did dispel some of the prejudices I have developed about Christians since I left my Christian faith of origin.<\/p>\n

I first heard about Wild Goose from other Pagan bloggers Alison Leigh Lily<\/a> and Teo Bishop<\/a> (who now goes by Matt Morris and has <\/em>re-converted to Christianity).\u00a0 I was impressed that Pagans felt welcome at a Christian festival and I was curious about this thing called the \u201cemerging church\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t decide I wanted to go to Wild Goose until I heard Krista Tippett of NPR\u2019s On Being <\/em>interview the Indigo Girls at the Wild Goose Festival in 201<\/a>3. \u00a0(They returned this year.) \u00a0 I decided that Wild Goose might be a perfect place for my multi-faith family, including my Mormon wife, my atheist son, my label-adverse daughter \u2026 and my Pagans self. \u00a0I was more right than I could have anticipated.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6110\"
Money stamped at the Wild Goose festival (NC-HB2 is North Carolina\u2019s anti-trans \u201cbathroom bill\u201d)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Social activism, not Bible bashing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wild Goose is like no other Christian community I have encountered.\u00a0 First of all, it\u2019s not just LGBT welcoming \u2014 which is kind of a weak stance when you think about it \u2014 but is LGBT affirming<\/em>.\u00a0 There were openly gay and trans- people, not just in attendance, but highlighted as speakers and leading workshops.\u00a0 The story of one trans-woman and former pastor stood out to me.\u00a0 She described her rejection by her Christian community\u00a0when she transitioned, in spite of a lifetime of service and leadership.\u00a0 I recall one speaker saying, \u201cBecause we\u2019re Christian, we honor your pronouns.\u201d\u00a0 Think about that for a second.\u00a0 \u201cBecause we\u2019re Christian <\/em>\u2026 we honor your pronouns.\u201d What a powerful statement in today\u2019s political climate!<\/p>\n

In addition, racial equality was very much on everyone\u2019s minds and tongues.\u00a0 People were reacting to the very recent shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.\u00a0 A call to a Christian minister in Minnesota was broadcast from the main stage.\u00a0 And several presenters, both white and people of color, spoke passionately in support of Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6109\"<\/a>And far from being climate change deniers, this community took the reality of climate change as a starting point for activism.<\/p>\n

While most of the talk was framed in one way or another by the Biblical narrative, I didn\u2019t feel like I was getting hit over the head with the Bible.\u00a0 I actually saw very few Bibles \u2014 I found one buried on a back table in the bookstore tent and another in the Episcopal tent \u2014 which was very surprising for gathering of 3,500 Christians.\u00a0 And the Jesus I heard talked about mostly was Jesus the social reformer and political radical.<\/p>\n

The Pagans and the Christians<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was a little surprised how much I enjoyed the Christian music.\u00a0 The best, for me, was Matt Maher<\/a>, Grammy nominated contemporary Christian musician.\u00a0 I don\u2019t share his\u00a0theology, and his religious language is\u00a0not my own, but I felt there was something universal about the emotions behind the lyrics \u2014 a hope for liberation and grace.<\/p>\n

Some of the other highlights for me included:<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    1. A workshop entitled \u201cMessing With Spiritual Traditions\u201d presented by a a lady with an affinity for Celtic Christianity.\u00a0 She was raised in Australia and always felt a disconnect between the Easter liturgy and the seasonal cycle of the southern hemisphere.\u00a0 (This should sound familiar to Pagans down under following a northern hemisphere Wheel of the Year.)\u00a0 She spoke about the spiritual practice of gardening, in which she saw the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, and the practice of connecting to the present through one\u2019s breath \u2014 both concepts that are familiar to Pagans.<\/li>\n
    2. A workshop called \u201cLife After Faith\u201d which included both agnostics and atheists.<\/li>\n
    3. A workshop about the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin.\u00a0 The presenter described how, in the Axial Age, human beings transitioned to a transcendent conception of the divine, and in so doing, we lost the divine feminine, we broke ties with the earth and with each other, and our concept of salvation devolved into escapism.\u00a0 He made the case that we are experiencing a second Axial Age, in which we are recovering what we lost in the first Axial Age, integrating matter and spirit, immanence and transcendence \u2014 again, ideas that many Pagans are familiar with.<\/li>\n
    4. A presentation and art exhibition called \u201cFaithMarks\u201d<\/a> about tattoos as a form of spirituality. \u00a0People told their stories of the spiritual significance of their tattoos.<\/li>\n
    5. A workshop and earth ritual presented by Matthew Fox \u2014 who was defrocked by the Catholic church, in part because of his association with the Pagan Starhawk.\u00a0 In the ritual, Fox called the quarters and led us in a spiral dance.\u00a0 He also spoke about angels, spirits, and \u201clittle gods\u201d interchangeably as \u201cdivine helpers.\u201d<\/li>\n
    6. On the way to another workshop, I overheard someone telling their friend in passing that they were going \u201cto a cleansing.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t hear the second person\u2019s response, but the first person responded, \u201cNo, with a shaman.\u201d<\/li>\n
    7. A workshop entitled \u201cHiking as a Spiritual Practice.\u201d\u00a0 We did a short solitary hike afterward and I discovered a monument of stacked stones on a rock in the river.<\/li>\n
    8. Singing \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d and \u201cThis Little Light of Mine\u201d in the dark during nightly \u201cBeer & Hymns\u201d after the musical performances.<\/li>\n
    9. I finally got to meet my internet friend Matt Morris \u2014 known to Pagans as Teo Bishop.\u00a0 Matt created quite a stir when he came out as himself a few years ago \u2014 the Pagan Teo Bishop and the popular musician Matt Morris<\/a> were one and the same \u2014 and then when he left Paganism for Christianity<\/a>.\u00a0 Matt and his partner facilitated the \u201cTroubling the Gospel\u201d<\/a> tent, which hosted a variety of social justice workshops, one of which I was fortunate\u00a0to attend.\u00a0 On the last night of the festival, Matt actually joined the Indigo Girls on the stage and sang \u201cCloser to Fine\u201d with\u00a0them.\u00a0 It was incredible!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n