I’ll Take Liberal Christians/Jews over Conservative Pagans
October 2, 2014 at 12:37 am 5 comments
One aspect of the “We’re all one Big Happy Pagan Umbrella Community” mentality is that somehow, I’m supposed to feel like I have more in common with conservative-minded Pagans/Heathens/polytheists than with people who share my values but follow other religions. Here and there I’ve heard of Pagans running for office, and everyone gets all excited. But oh, wait they share none of my values. There was a Pagan in the Tea Party movement who was interviewed a while back. *Shudder* So then why should I support them? I’m sure the fact that they have minority religious views will all get swept under the rug when its convenient anyway. Pagans of all socio-political stripes have to keep their religion quiet sometimes, but I notice the people who push back the most about promoting “coming out of the broom closet” often make a big deal about how its private, the personal is most certainly not political, and ewww I don’t want to be publicly associated with all those deviant hippie polyamorous Ren-fest dorks! They remind me so much of Andrew Sullivan and other gay conservatives. Be quiet, be discreet, be personal. Don’t scare the straights!
I do try to make friends with or at least be friendly and civil with people whose politics differ from mine. But it seems increasingly difficult as I can’t quite squelch the feeling some people give me that, while they act all nice and polite, it’s nothing personal but yeah, people like me deserve “what we get”, we’re not working hard enough, or acting normal enough, and asking for more is just class warfare, or a way of inconveniencing business owners/employers by demanding “unreasonable” accommodations. Now I appear white, cisgendered and heterosexual and at least culturally middle class, so they can show me all their true colors while talking about Those Other Scary Poor Brown Queer People/Crazy Feminists/Communists etc.
So yeah serve the gods of capitalism, Ronald Reagan, the Patron Saint of trickle-down economics, the Goddess Ayn Rand and so forth and so on. But when it comes to pick teams, I’m joining up with the people of Sojourners and Tikkun and such. Sadly liberal Christianity and Judaism are in decline- at least institutionally. I’m concerned that non-affiliated liberals may be harder to organize. Pagans sure as hell are!
Entry filed under: Pagan Communities, Politics/Culture. Tags: assumptions, classism, conservatism, conservative pagans, conservatives, fear of the other, identity politics, pagan community, political conservatives, political strategy, rants, Republicans, shared values, sociology, stigma, Tea Party.
The Lefthander's Path 
1.
Heather Freysdottir | October 2, 2014 at 6:46 pm
Indeed. I cannot understand conservatives in Paganism, considering how incredibly fundamentalist Christian the right has become. It seems like an incredible lack of self-preservation.
Then again, fundamentalist Christianity seems to have little in common with its original form – at least progressive Christians seem to have the social justice component of what made the faith prominent to begin with intact.
2.
caelesti | October 3, 2014 at 1:02 am
To be fair, liberals and conservatives are too very broad terms, politics is far more complex. The compass model of 2 axes- social & economic, tends to be helpful I find. I generally notice that politically conservative Pagans tend to be more libertarian than Fox-News parroting neo-con. I can tolerate the libertarians more, but when they are of a 100% “bootstrap” economic mentality I find discussion with them rather pointlessly frustrating. Being “socially conservative” in a Pagan subcultural context could mean things like not being ok with ritual/festival nudity, entheogens and polyamory. It’s all relative!
3.
Harrison K. Hall | October 3, 2014 at 4:29 am
You had me at the title…well said.
4.
Alley Valkyrie | October 7, 2014 at 1:17 am
“Now I appear white, cisgendered and heterosexual and at least culturally middle class, so they can show me all their true colors while talking about Those Other Scary Poor Brown Queer People/Crazy Feminists/Communists etc.”
This. So this. I experience this ALL THE TIME, not just with conservative pagans but with conservative/affluent folks in general. The true colors are terrifying, as is the way they’ll go out of their way to make me the exception to their prejudice…. “I’m not talking about YOU, of course, you’re not really like one of THEM…”
Thank you for writing this. Spot-on.
5.
caelesti | October 7, 2014 at 2:22 am
white middle/upper class liberals can be almost as bad, especially since they are often patting themselves on the back for how progressive they are- hits closer to home, since I’m trying to unlearn a lot of those attitudes myself.