{"id":2680,"date":"2014-08-05T17:29:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T23:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=2680"},"modified":"2014-08-05T17:29:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T23:29:37","slug":"pagan-priests-pagan-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2014\/08\/pagan-priests-pagan-ministers.html","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Priests, Pagan Ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sam Webster had an interesting essay on Saturday\u2019s Wild Hunt titled Ministry and Duty to Report<\/a>. In it, he used the legal mandate for clergy to report suspected abuse to call for Pagan educational and accreditation institutions. Sam said:<\/p>\n

A minster \u2026 has a legally-mandated duty to report sexual abuse of minors, abuse of elders, as well as reporting responsibilities with respect to harm to self (suicide) and harm to others (assault, murder). This is founded on the presumption that the minister is trained in the ability to recognize abuse and has been given the responsibility to observe, counsel, and correct the community they serve. Without that training, the identification of the problem may produce unacceptable numbers of false positives and negatives. Without the community\u2019s mandate, what right does the minister or person have to speak up?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Pompeii<\/a>Complying with the law is important, and doing so in a distinctively Pagan way helps insure our very young religions and cultures retain their essential Pagan nature. Building Pagan institutions is important. As Brendan Myers has shown<\/a>, Pagan ideas need Pagan institutions in order to flourish.<\/p>\n

But I fear Sam is putting the ends before the means.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t speak for all states, but here in Texas everyone<\/em> has a legal duty to report<\/a> suspected child abuse. Professionals have a stricter duty \u2013 they must report within 48 hours, and failure to do so carries criminal penalties. Certainly, those with formal training are better able to recognize abuse and will be able to make more useful reports to law enforcement. But is providing such training and accreditation the best use of the limited resources our wider Pagan community has at this time? Are these the institutions we need most?<\/p>\n

Sam briefly explained that there is a difference between priesthood and ministry. That\u2019s not always clear, because in our mainstream society \u2013 and especially within mainline Protestantism \u2013 the two roles are usually filled by the same person. And that person is almost always trained in a seminary \u2013 an accredited graduate school offering masters and sometimes doctoral degrees.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure \u2013 at several points in my life I seriously considered going to seminary. If money and time were no object, I\u2019d still like to do it \u2013 I think I\u2019d enjoy the experience and I know I\u2019d benefit from the learning, whether I attended Cherry Hill<\/a> (a Pagan seminary), Starr-King or Meadville Lombard (UU seminaries), or even one of the liberal Christian seminaries.<\/p>\n

But money and time are<\/em> objects. Seminaries are graduate schools and they\u2019re expensive. A Presbyterian or a Unitarian Universalist who graduates from seminary has a reasonable expectation of finding a ministerial position that will pay something resembling a living wage. A Pagan does not.<\/p>\n

Further, seminaries don\u2019t train priests \u2013 they train ministers. Read their degree requirements: they\u2019re heavy on the foundations of their traditions, pastoral counseling, and community activism.<\/p>\n

But priestcraft? Cherry Hill has two required courses on ritual (\u201cUnderstanding Ritual Experience\u201d and one elective course) and Meadville Lombard has one on preaching. Perkins School of Theology (a Methodist seminary) requires only one course in preaching and another titled \u201cWord and Worship.\u201d Considering a typical M.Div. requires about 72 credit hours, the importance seminaries place on leading worship is pretty clear \u2013 and pretty low.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if mainline Protestants put more emphasis on teaching good priestcraft they might not be in such perpetual decline, but that\u2019s another rant for another time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad Cherry Hill Seminary exists. I\u2019m thankful for those who contribute to its support, and I\u2019m happy for those who are studying there. Cherry Hill helps legitimize Paganism among mainstream institutions and within the interfaith community and while those are not critical things they are helpful things. There are Pagans whose calling and career goals are furthered by the education Cherry Hill provides. Cherry Hill represents an institutional investment in the future of Paganism.<\/p>\n

But neither Cherry Hill nor other seminaries are training priests, and seminaries are not the most effective way to deal with our legal and moral requirements to report suspected abuse.<\/p>\n

When I wrote about paying Pagan clergy<\/a>, I advocated growing organic structures: building priesthoods from the ground up:<\/p>\n

Paid Pagan clergy is a means, not an end. The ends, the goals of Pagan priesthood, are to serve the Gods, to mediate for the Gods, and to serve the community. Let\u2019s focus on the ends and let the means sort themselves out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It will be decades if not centuries before Paganism is big enough and established enough to make paid Pagan clergy a common thing, and that\u2019s assuming we decide to have paid clergy in the first place. Let\u2019s let our priesthoods start small and grow on their own. Those that do a good job of serving the Gods, mediating for the Gods, and serving their communities will grow. Those that don\u2019t, won\u2019t. That much I\u2019m sure of. What I\u2019m not sure of is what those successful priesthoods will look like and how they\u2019ll be organized.<\/p>\n

Will those priests do the kind of officiating, counseling and advocacy work that Protestant ministers do today? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the polytheistic priesthoods of the Pagan future will split the roles of celebrant and sacrificer. Maybe advocacy and activism will be seen as a lay function rather than a priestly one. Maybe the priests and priestesses of 2114 will resemble Buddhist<\/a> monks more than Methodist ministers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right now if you want to learn to be a good Pagan priest your best approach is to apprentice with someone who\u2019s already doing it and doing it well. Your second-best approach is to figure it out yourself through reading, study, practice, and personal experience of the Gods.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t discount the second approach. Our wider culture has the idea that if you want to do and be anything, you have to start by going to school for it. While I\u2019m a strong proponent of formal education and it\u2019s helped me greatly in both my paying career and my spiritual life, it\u2019s not the only way to learn. Sometimes if you want to do or be something you just have to dive in and figure it out as you go.<\/p>\n

The main downside is that this requires the ability and willingness for honest self-criticism. Those who think they never do anything wrong and those who need constant outside reinforcement are both unsuited for this approach.<\/p>\n

Whenever the subject of Pagan priesthood comes up there are always those who scream \u201cwe don\u2019t need clergy \u2013 every Pagan is a priest!\u201d Certainly every Pagan can approach the Gods for themselves, but those with greater experience and closer relationships with the deities they serve can do it better and more reliably than ordinary folks.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d like to see our wider community adopt the idea that every Pagan is a minister. It isn\u2019t the minister\u2019s responsibility to report suspected abuse \u2013 or the high priestess\u2019s or the chief Druid\u2019s \u2013 it\u2019s everyone\u2019s responsibility. You see signs of abuse, you report it. The law requires it, but more importantly it\u2019s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t the minister\u2019s responsibility to work for social justice \u2013 however you define it \u2013 it\u2019s everyone\u2019s. It isn\u2019t the minister\u2019s responsibility to pick up trash on the side of the road, or to make sure our elders have transportation, or to demonstrate and advocate for green living, it\u2019s yours. And mine. If we run into a situation that exceeds our capabilities we can refer people to secular professionals, just as UUs and Methodists and other ministers do today when someone\u2019s need for counseling or other social services exceeds the ministers\u2019 capacities.<\/p>\n

Will we do these things as well as seminary-trained ministers? Probably not. But until we have an infrastructure that supports professional Pagan ministers, the vast majority of us will never have such a minister in our communities anyway. Better to accept that ministry is the responsibility of those of us who are here.<\/p>\n

There is an old saying that if something is everyone\u2019s responsibility then everyone will assume someone else will do it and it won\u2019t get done. There is a sad truth to that. But there\u2019s an equally sad truth that many religious folks in our mainstream society prefer to outsource their community service. They want to be a part of a church that does great things in the community, not so they have the opportunity to contribute, but so they can claim credit by association: \u201csee the great stuff my church is doing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not copy this as we develop our own religious institutions.<\/p>\n

While I respect those whose idea of Paganism is a witch living by herself in a cottage deep in a forest, we need Pagan institutions. Institutions enable multi-generational continuity. They provide support for individuals, for groups, and perhaps most importantly, for ideas.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s grow our institutions organically, supporting those that prove to be most suitable for promoting Pagan ideas and practices.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think we need institutions to train ministers. I think we need to institutionalize the idea that all Pagans are ministers.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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