The Broom Closet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt blog has this piece on two Pagan politicians who\u2019ve been \u201couted\u201d by their opponents and seen their chances of getting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Broom Closet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt blog has this piece on two Pagan politicians who\u2019ve been \u201couted\u201d by their opponents and seen their chances of getting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-26T11:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/Sr49DRsjVKI\/AAAAAAAAATw\/FBCm84MPEZU\/s320\/closet8.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html\",\"name\":\"The Broom Closet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-26T11:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-09-26T11:08:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt blog has this piece on two Pagan politicians who\u2019ve been \u201couted\u201d by their opponents and seen their chances of getting\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Broom Closet\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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{"id":491,"date":"2009-09-26T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-26T11:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet\/"},"modified":"2009-09-26T11:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T11:08:00","slug":"the-broom-closet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/the-broom-closet.html","title":{"rendered":"The Broom Closet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt<\/a> blog has this piece on two Pagan politicians<\/a> who\u2019ve been \u201couted\u201d by their opponents and seen their chances of getting elected drop dramatically. Jason reminds us \u201cIn the age of the Internet there is no \u201cbroom closet\u201d secure enough to keep your secret.\u201d He closes with an exhortation to \u201ccome out, come out, wherever we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not in the broom closet, but I\u2019m not exactly out either. I don\u2019t lie to people, but if a casual acquaintance asks about my religion, I tell them I\u2019m a Unitarian Universalist (and that in itself usually takes some explaining). I\u2019m practicing Paganism in a Unitarian Universalist setting. CUUPS<\/a> (national and local) has developed its own particular flavor of Neopagan practice. I\u2019m as active in the church as I am in CUUPS (most weeks I\u2019m more active in the church). Identifying as a Unitarian Universalist is absolutely the truth.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not the whole truth. And that bothers me.<\/p>\n

When I was a teenager, my mother and I came to an unspoken agreement. She didn\u2019t ask questions she didn\u2019t want answered, and I didn\u2019t talk about things she didn\u2019t want to hear: don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell. My mother has (or had) psychic skills I can only hope to approach \u2013 I have no doubt she knew every bit of risky teenage behavior I engaged in (which even for the time wasn\u2019t all that risky, although there are a couple of incidents I look back on and thank all the gods things worked out the way they did), but the arrangement allowed us both to avoid what would have been some unpleasant confrontations.<\/p>\n

It also taught me to compartmentalize my life. In doing so, I\u2019ve avoided confrontation, but I\u2019ve also not been completely honest. In the case of religion, I rationalize it by saying I don\u2019t like it when other people are vocal about their religion in secular settings, so I shouldn\u2019t do that either. Which is true, but when a friendly co-worker asks \u201cwhat are you doing this weekend?\u201d and I answer \u201cI\u2019ve got a thing at church\u201d instead of \u201cI\u2019ll be leading a celebration of the Autumn Equinox in honor of Danu and Cernunnos\u201d it just doesn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n

I have no desire to run for office. I work for a company that judges people by their performance, and I have a long track record of good results \u2013 plus they aren\u2019t going to expose themselves to charges of religious discrimination. I suppose being identified as Pagan could work against me if I\u2019m ever job-hunting again (since when you\u2019re not hired they don\u2019t have to tell you why), but if a company wouldn\u2019t hire me because of my religion I probably wouldn\u2019t want to work for them anyway. I don\u2019t have much to fear from being completely honest\u2026 except some of those unpleasant confrontations.<\/p>\n

Sooner or later, everything comes out in the open, and so will all of this. Either I\u2019ll finally start telling the whole truth or someone will follow the trail of magical breadcrumbs I\u2019ve left all over cyberspace. I think subconsciously I\u2019m hoping someone does.<\/p>\n

For now, though, I\u2019m officially a Unitarian Universalist, and nothing more.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"