{"id":46,"date":"2011-03-31T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themediawitches\/2011\/03\/is-harvard-anti-witch\/"},"modified":"2011-03-31T19:02:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:02:00","slug":"is-harvard-anti-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themediawitches\/2011\/03\/is-harvard-anti-witch\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Harvard Anti-Witch?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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You may have seen this story making the rounds on the internet: Harvard University is hosting a \u201cSocial Transformation\u201d conference<\/a> put on by a student leadership organization known for its right-wing Christianity and anti-pagan views. The group\u2019s website<\/a> doesn\u2019t present any obvious anti-pagan rhetoric, but stories on The Daily Kos<\/a> (which includes a video of a scheduled speaker engaged in a beatific invocation aimed at driving out witchcraft from the land) and elsewhere (the Harvard Crimson<\/a> calls the scheduled speakers \u201cincendiary\u201d) reiterate the group\u2019s known anti-witchcraft activism. <\/p>\n

A recent article<\/a> in Newsweek<\/i> (linked on Social Transformation\u2019s website) explores the ways in which Harvard, founded as a training ground for Christian ministers, has become increasingly secular and cannot even support its own \u201cdepartment of religion,\u201d instead relegating degrees in religion to the Divinity School located a half mile from the main campus. <\/p>\n

From the look of it, this conference may indeed have some anti-occult sentiment lurking beneath the neutral and oh-so-forward-thinking language on its website. The main thrust seems to be that secularism is the dominant mindset in the United States, and an institution like Harvard, founded on Christian doctrine, is in a unique position to address the loss of spiritual integrity in America. To drive out the darkness, as it were.<\/p>\n

Response from the pagan community has been predictably over-the-top, with many referring to the group as \u201cwitch hunters.\u201d Some are calling for protests. There are petitions<\/a> decrying Harvard\u2019s decision to host the conference. Laurie Cabot<\/a>\u2018s group has posted a rather long and byzantine Note on Facebook<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Are some of the scheduled conference speakers anti-pagan? Yes, it would seem so. Is Harvard at fault for allowing this group to use their campus for their conference? No.<\/p>\n

Harvard itself is not anti-pagan. I myself have taken courses in Witchcraft and Celtic Paganism there, in two different departments. I also co-organized two academic conferences, in 2006<\/a> and 2007<\/a>, focused on paganism in media. We received nothing but total cooperation and support from various departments at Harvard, including the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology, the Harvard Film Archive, and the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures. Our guest speakers included Fiona Horne, R. J. Stewart, and Ronald Hutton. Clearly the campus is interested in hosting a diverse cross-segment of the academic community. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: as offensive as this weekend\u2019s conference may seem to some of us, the conferences put on in 2006 and 2007 were very likely offensive to others. Granted, Harvard was not bombarded with protests at that time (that we know of), but they might easily have been. As an institution of higher learning, they are expected to remain open-minded and neutral, and be respectful supporters of free speech. <\/p>\n

Some might counter such statements by saying that hate speech isn\u2019t covered by the First Amendment. But what is and isn\u2019t hate speech is largely a matter of opinion. I have to say, given some of the anti-Christian invective I have seen spewed by the pagan community at times, I\u2019d be hard-pressed to say that the right-wing witch-haters are any worse when it comes to hate speech. I\u2019m not happy this conference is happening at Harvard, but I can\u2019t say they should be stopped from hosting it. And I think that protesting Harvard is a bit wrongheaded. They\u2019re not the ones who are anti-pagan; the \u201cSocial Transformation\u201d folks<\/a> are. And frankly, anyone who finds this kind of rhetoric compelling or reasonable is not likely to listen to a calm discussion of what does and doesn\u2019t constitute free speech.<\/p>\n

The only way to really shift anyone\u2019s mindset is to behave with integrity. Don\u2019t get angry or indignant. Don\u2019t point fingers or call names. It just fuels the fire and allows our detractors to feel justified in their views. There is a constantly rising and receding tide of fanatical Christianity in this country; it does seem to be rising slightly at the moment, and it will do so again. The fact that it\u2019s all tied up with our national politics makes for some interesting and frustrating times. But we can rise above the insanity.<\/p>\n

Just keep it in your pants, people: be respectful, listen, and disagree where you disagree. And educate where you can. And always, always, work towards understanding.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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