{"id":2834,"date":"2014-09-21T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=2834"},"modified":"2014-09-15T19:33:14","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T01:33:14","slug":"nine-things-i-think-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2014\/09\/nine-things-i-think-12.html","title":{"rendered":"Nine Things I Think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Nine Things I Think is an irregular feature whenever I have a list of things I want to talk about that aren\u2019t long enough for their own individual posts. There\u2019s no theme, just nine things I want to bring to your attention. Feel free to expand on any of these topics in the comments section.<\/p>\n

\"DFW<\/a>
DFW Pagan Pride Day 2013<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1) Pagan Pride season is in full swing. Whether you call yourself Pagan, polytheist, reconstructionist, occultist, witch, or whatever term you prefer, I encourage you to participate in your local Pagan Pride Day<\/a>. There are rituals, classes, music and vendors, but most importantly, there\u2019s the opportunity to meet like-minded people and connect with like-minded groups in your area.<\/p>\n

The Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth Pagan Pride Day will be Saturday, September 27, from 9 to 5 at Arlington UU Church<\/a>. This will be the first time DFW Pagan Pride Day has been held in Tarrant County \u2013 and that\u2019s a big deal for those who live on the Fort Worth side of this huge region!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be teaching Daily Spiritual Practice For Pagans at 2:00. Come out and say hello.<\/p>\n

2) We\u2019ve had a very good initial response to the CUUPS Revisioning Survey<\/a>. If you haven\u2019t participated yet, please do. Whether you\u2019re a CUUPS member or not, if you have an opinion on what CUUPS is and what it should be, we want to hear from you. Our first survey will be up for another week at:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/s\/CUUPS_Revisioning_1<\/a><\/p>\n

Other surveys will follow over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

A detailed description of the goals and methods of the Revisioning process<\/a> can be found on the CUUPS website.<\/p>\n

3) Polytheist.com<\/a> has added more writers to its already-diverse lineup of polytheists. They present a nice variety of viewpoints, but perhaps more importantly, they\u2019re accessible. None of them are so academic or so deep that anyone with a budding interest in many Gods can\u2019t understand them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche I got from Brendan Myers<\/a>: \u201cThose who know they are deep strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem deep to the crowd strive for obscurity.\u201d The writers on Polytheist.com know they\u2019re deep.<\/p>\n

4) I usually find the phrase \u201cfollow the money\u201d to be unhelpful and distracting. It ignores the fact that many people do horrible things because they think they\u2019re good, not just because they can profit from them personally.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to the NFL\u2019s response to domestic violence and child abuse by its players, there seems to be no other explanation. Mediocre players get cut at the first sign of controversy. Good players get a pass when they do horrible things\u2026 unless they start generating bad publicity, in which case they\u2019re suspended indefinitely. When the outrage dies down, they\u2019ll be back \u2013 even if they killed a teammate driving drunk.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m uncomfortable with people losing jobs for things that aren\u2019t job-related. But professional athletes aren\u2019t accountants or assembly line workers. They\u2019re role models for millions of people (they shouldn\u2019t be, but they are) and what the NFL decides is acceptable conduct will be deemed acceptable conduct by many in the wider society.<\/p>\n

Domestic violence and child abuse are never acceptable.<\/p>\n

5) I\u2019ve heard some say we should forgive Ray Rice because his then-finance, now-wife Janay Palmer married him despite him knocking her cold, and asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell not to suspend him. Obviously, if he\u2019s suspended he\u2019s not getting paid and that affects her too.<\/p>\n

I know victims of domestic violence often stay in abusive relationships for reasons that seem incomprehensible to me. Sometimes victims stay because they feel they have no other choice. Our obligation to Janay Palmer and to every other victim of domestic violence is to make sure they have a viable option to leave: that they have someplace safe to go and help getting out of a bad situation.<\/p>\n

If Janay Palmer really and truly wants to stay with the man who knocked her out cold, I can\u2019t do anything about that. But her decision has no impact on my belief that what Ray Rice did was wrong, criminal, and deserving of sanction by society.<\/p>\n

6) Last year I attended the Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes<\/a> conference in South Carolina, coordinated by Holli Emore. Fellow Patheos Pagan bloggers Sara Amis, Elinor Pr\u0119dota, and Byron Ballard were presenters. Now the conference presentations have been combined into a book and published by ADF Publishing. It\u2019s not quite the same as being there, but if you weren\u2019t able to attend, here\u2019s your chance to read all the presentations<\/a>, plus an introduction by Ronald Hutton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"woods,<\/a>
woods, a creek, a train \u2013 yep, it\u2019s North Georgia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My favorite is Sara Amis\u2019<\/a>s \u201cSong of the Chattahoochee,\u201d subtitled \u201cOn Being a Southern (Pagan) Witch in Atlanta\u2019s Urban Landscape.\u201d When I met her, I found out Sara grew up about 10 miles south of my home, though considerably later. And like Sara, I spent several years living in Atlanta. When I heard her presentation I found myself smiling in recognition of common places and common experiences, and when I read the chapter in the book I was again reminded that there\u2019s a lot more magic in Southern culture than most people \u2013 including many Southerners \u2013 recognize.<\/p>\n

7) I\u2019ll be speaking at First Jefferson UU Church<\/a> in Fort Worth on Sunday, October 19 at 11:00 AM on \u201cThe Art of Wild Wisdom.\u201d As with Pagan Pride Day, if you\u2019re in the area, stop in and say hello. This will be my fourth time in the pulpit at First Jefferson \u2013 they\u2019re some great people and a nice UU church.<\/p>\n

8) As this is being posted, I\u2019m on my way home from the 2014 OBOD East Coast Gathering<\/a>. This year was the fifth anniversary for the ECG and my fourth year attending. There is simply no substitute for spending a long weekend immersed in Druidry\u2026 and for spending a few days at home in the woods with my tribe. I\u2019ll have a more detailed write-up on the camp sometime next week.<\/p>\n

If you have the chance to attend a spiritual retreat, I strongly encourage it.<\/p>\n

9) Remember that Facebook is throttling all posts and only showing about 5% of posts from pages. A simple way to make sure you get all the posts from Under the Ancient Oaks (and the other blogs on Patheos) is to subscribe by e-mail. Simply enter your address in the box on the right of the screen. You\u2019ll get e-mail notifications when new posts go up, and you won\u2019t be signing up for a boatload of spam.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking \u2013 what about you?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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