Balderdash of pagan rights
You kinda have to love that word, "balderdash." It is, in fact, the perfect word to use to describe what many believe Wiccan and Paganism is all about. It is discriminatory, hurtful,and ignorant but alas, it is a common misperception of "alternative religions."
To quote just a few example, one person on a message board proclaimed that Wiccans perform human and animal sacrifices. A Wiccan on the board responded in the negative, explaining that Wiccans revere life in all its forms, and therefore would not deliberately harm an animal or human. The response was that once you get into the higher levels, then the secret true nature of Wicca comes out and these sacrifices are revealed. Well gee, I'm a high priestess and a tradition co-head and I haven't yet been told this secret true nature. Sheesh.
Another example is of a co-worker who, despite having an advanced technical degree, was convinced that Wicca is akin to Satanism, likely because his pastor told him so. Despite denials, people who have placed all of their religious trust in a pastor or other such leader will not believe the truth about Wicca regardless of what proof is offered. This, despite the actual fact that in order to believe in "Satan" as an evil entity, one MUST believe and buy the entire Christian package of heaven and hell, good and evil, and the biblical story of casting down the naughty Lucifer. The fact that we don't believe in the Christian paradigm is completely lost on those who "know" that we're really a front for all evil that they can imagine.
The fact that a University Administration, supposedly made up of learned individuals, would buy into the comic book and chick tract fiction should not be terribly surprising, however it underscores the need for education, provided by the "normal people" who are members of the Wiccan community, who do not arrive dressed like Stevie Nicks, throwing flower pedals as they walk, smelling of stale nag champa (or worse) and wearing 20 different silver pendants while invoking unicorns and dragons.
Scotland on Sunday - Opinion - Letters - Balderdash of pagan rights:
I am a proud member of the Pagan Society at St Andrews University, in my opinion the most friendly and unique society on campus. Please believe me when I say the article 'Pagans get equal rights at St Andrews' (June 18), failed to adequately portray either the situation or the society.
Firstly, the "equal rights" we have just been afforded are no more than a rarely used and hidden grassy space for outdoor rituals, lobbied for by our hard-working committee.
Secondly, I feel the ridiculous university prohibitions against us ought to be denounced as the stereotype-encouraging balderdash that they are. (Should we be so inclined, they stipulate, we may not raise the dead, invoke Satan, use a Ouija board, or dance naked.)
Had anyone bothered to do research, they might have realised that necromancy, parlour games and satanism are not aspects of our religious practice. You might as well tell the numerous Christian societies that they aren't allowed to burn anyone at the stake; and at least that has some basis in the town's history.
Julie Thomson,
Pittenweem