Treating the Gods like Pokemon? Respect, Tolerance and Pagan Solidarity

This morning I found the most fabulous video in my Facebook feed. It was a young woman describing irresponsible eclecticism as “treating the Gods like Pokemon”.

What a brilliant way to describe this phenomenon. When people first discover Paganism they tend to delve into practices that can be considered unethical by the larger community. Generally it’s a combination of exuberance, ignorance and bad information that leads people to do rather silly things in the name of religious exploration. I blushingly admit to spending many hours trying to change my hair color by magic. It was part of my learning process, and it did get me to meditate and visualize!

One of the biggest issues in the Pagan community is where we define the limits of tolerance. While “newbies” will, and to some extent are expected to, make mistakes, there are writers, teachers and elders who promote the very ideas and practices for which we scold neophytes. How can we expect to have productive interfaith dialogue, when our ecumenical dialogue is so limited?

Stop and think for a second. Do you know the basic cosmology of 3 or more Pagan traditions? Is it more appropriate to offer Bona Dea wine or milk? Do you know the origins of the word “shaman”? Are you aware of an idea you may have, or had, that would be considered offensive by another Modern Pagan?

In Pagandom, there is such diversity that no matter what you say or do someone will take offense to it. I recently learned how offensive the very word “pagan” is to those who practice religio Romana and to Dodekatheists. Yet, for practical purposes, I continue to use it, because there is no more practical way to refer to our movement. We are not all polytheists, or nature-based, or indigenous, or ancestor worshipers.

We cannot please everyone, but we can be sensitive to each other’s practice by engaging in pan-Pagan dialogue and learning from each other. By our loose solidarity we give both thrust to our forward progression and we present a united face to the world. I should be able to explain and defend Asatru and Santeria as well as my own brand of Wicca. Why? Because, as Ben Franklin said: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

We are small. Even at one million Pagans in North America, a conservative estimate via recent polls, we still comprise less than one percent of the population. While acceptance and inclusion to the wider religious dialogue is greater than it was, it still comes slow and grudgingly. There are still a lot of people who would rather we didn’t exist. Young as I am, I vividly recall the SRA scares of the 80’s and 90’s. My parents pulled me out of public school for homeschooling because they genuinely believed the principal of our middle school was a Satanist who ran covens of Witches.

Yes, I know. The idea is medieval and silly, but my parents truly believed this and sought to save me from ever having contact with such “vile, demon-possessed” people. There are people who believe these things today with all of their hearts and souls. The abuses inflicted on the Witch-Children of Africa and India are not isolated to those continents, and the ideas that fueled them can still be found in North America.

Am I calling for panic? Not at all, but should a need arise we should be able to defend each others rights and ideas. As a Wiccan I should correct someone who makes a comment that all Heathen are racist. I should inform people that those who practice Santeria do not leave mangled animal corpses in parks. I should support the rights of Druids to have the awen symbol on the graves of their fallen servicemembers.

Our communities are reaching a significant point of maturity. We have children and grandchildren being raised in our traditions. We have a representative to the United Nations. We’ve had representatives at the Parliament of the World’s Religions. We’ve reached the crucial point where religion can become dogma, where intolerance and disrespect can replace love and where we can drift apart into our own isolated communities surround by people who think and act like we do.

I think it’s critical that we choose to reach out to each other, to learn from each other and to respect one another. To maintain diversity, respect, fluidity, and solidarity without succumbing to dogma, intolerance, rigidity and division. To reach the point where we defend each other from the greater world that does not understand us, rather than defend ourselves from each other in ignorance and insensitivity. History tells us this is critical.

In the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:

“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”