| Where we're coming from |
[05 Aug 2008|10:13am] |
I'm currently reading a book called "Why Bother? Getting a Life in a Locked-Down Land", by Sam Smith. It's about the perceived loss of individualism and individual power in American society, which is deeply interesting stuff, but not particularly relevant to the topic of this post. The thing that is relevant to the topic of this post is that in one section of the book that deals with the place of religion in society, and particularly, the role of religion in creating positive change, Smith throws out a little side comment to the effect that he was grounded in the work of societal change and the movement towards freedom by his parents, who were involved in the Labor movement and several other cause-oriented movements. It seems to me that any time I read anybody on the subject of creating social change, they talk about how their parents were involved in the peace movement, the civil rights movement, and so on. It makes sense that people who grow up in an environment dedicated to creating change should take in some portion of that dedication to action, even if the issues the younger generation works for are not the causes of the older.
( Read more... )
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[29 May 2008|09:33am] |
Last night, I attended an interfaith church service for my city's Gay Pride festival. This year marks the 30th year that the Pride festival has happened in Kansas City. The service included a look back at the history of Pride and of the LGBT community over the last thirty years. We heard from gay men, lesbian women, and straight allies, everybody telling the stories of their life in the community and how events changed them, and how they changed the world.
A Unitarian Universalist woman talked about the first time she had her name in print associated with activism for gay rights, and how her association with the cause made her a target for bigotry and homophobia, even though she is straight. A young man from William Jewell, a private university that has received national awards for excellence, detailed his work in getting the Student Bill of Rights to include freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. He was optimistic, but acknowledged that the university had a long way to go: he reported that the psychology department uses a version of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) that lists homosexuality as a mental illness. (For those playing along at home, homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, though there is some concern based on the composition of the latest revision committee that it might return to the lists in future editions.)
At the end of the service, a young man who is a member of Passages, a LGBT youth organization, spoke. He talked about how the presence of a strong and supportive community helped him to climb out from the pit of repression and self-hate that he had learned from his Catholic family and the church schools he attended, and how he is now able to comfortably express himself as a gay man and has the support of his new church home. He shared a vision of the future in which LGBT youth would not have to go through the experience of bigotry, mistrust, and disapproval that he had as a young teen, and would be accepted and celebrated by friends, family, and church. The congregation cheered.
This morning, I read a newspaper article which said that hate crimes against LGBT people increased 142% in my town from last year. In some ways, I expected to see something like that. I recently spoke to Donna Ross, a board member of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, and she said that one of the great victories of that organization has been in training local police on dealing with the LGBT community, and the LGBT community in dealing with the local police. According to her, that means that fewer crimes are going unreported, which probably accounts for a good portion of the increase.
I imagine that some of the rest of it is attributable to the political and cultural climate. Huge gains are being made for civil rights all over the country, not just in California, and there's a certain amount of backlash to be expected from that. The whole gay rights issue is out there in the public eye, and there are enough hardcore haters to make people who are undecided on the question of whether gay people are in fact people feel comfortable showing their bigotry to the world.
So I have to ask: What can I do to help bring about the future that the gentleman from Passages is hoping for? What can I do to minimize violence and hate? How can I change the culture to reduce acceptance of bigotry? I do what I can.
This weekend, I'll be at Kansas City Gay Pride. At some point, I'll be sitting at a table for the Kansas City Coalition of Welcoming Ministries, an interfaith group dedicated to helping religious institutions welcome LGBT people, and to education about anti-LGBT bigotry and violence in religious contexts. If you're interested and local, come on by. The organization is new and small, but already doing a lot, and we could be doing a lot more with more folks involved.
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| The Druids and the Food Bank |
[14 May 2008|09:52am] |
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The druid grove I am affiliated with recently did a Beltane ritual in which the focus of the rite was growing the grove, producing visions for what we'd like to see the grove do and be over the next few years. The ritual was worked in an ADF style, which means that most of it was given over to the making of offerings to the various deities that the grove and its members honor. The visions, too, were given as offerings, and one of the visions produced was of the grove growing as a service organization, gaining visibility and sympathy, and perhaps even members who were more interested in being part of a community service organization based in paganism than in coming to rituals.
Towards the end of ADF ritual, the group seeks an omen, a response from the gods indicating that they are pleased or displeased with the work, or suggesting further action or offerings to be made. The omen in this case was taken by the seer by drawing ogham disks. She drew first the character that is usually a 'modifier', indicating that the next character drawn should be regarded as particularly relevant to the realm of the sea. She then drew a second character, which proved to be the 'modifier' indicating that the next draw should be regarded as relevant to the realm of the sky. The ADF cosmology includes three realms, the land, sea, and sky, and the seer interpreted the omen to mean that the work was incomplete, missing the 'earthy' part.
Consultation followed among the group. Visions had been shared, but no action had been promised to back them up. The entire work had taken place in the shining sky of inspiration and the shifting sea of imagination. It needed to be brought to earth, made manifest in the physical world. The chieftain in charge of the ritual promised to contact Harvesters, a local food bank with which the grove has worked before, to see about ongoing volunteer opportunities. The assembled people vowed to provide some of their time on a regular basis to the work.
The omen was drawn again. Was this the right thing to do, the proper next step? The ogham returned "Apple". The gods spoke, and the word they spoke was "Sweet!". The grove will donate time to the food bank, sorting and packaging food for distribution, at least one Saturday morning every three months for at least the next year.
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| 'Allo out there |
[12 May 2008|01:05pm] |
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This is my first post in my spankin' new Inksome journal. :) I thought I might use it as an introduction, not so much of myself, but of what I'm trying to accomplish here.
I'm a pagan magician living in the Midwest U.S. This journal is the outcome of a snide remark I heard once about pagans, which was basically to the effect that all pagans were self-centered jerks, and you never would hear "pagan charity" become a common phrase the way that, say "christian charity" is. To that, I say [insert something rude here]. Some of the most amazingly giving, involved human beings I've ever known have been pagan. We tend to fly under the radar of philanthropy though, for a couple of reasons. One is that we tend to join existing charitable or activist organizations rather than start our own. Another is that we often tend towards lives that lead us primarily to spiritual or social gain rather than monetary gain, so we tend to be donors of time rather than funds. And, of course, we are famously unwilling to stand in line and be counted for things - too much focus on us makes a lot of us nervous, and even if we can comfortably be looked at, we are often unwilling to be identified as pagan in the public eye.
But we're out there. We're doing the work (whatever we perceive the work to be). I believe that the next step for me is to temporarily abandon the Fourth Power of the Sphinx and start talking. I want to talk about what I'm doing. I want to talk about what you're doing. I want to share my ideas about things we could be doing. I want to be inspired and inspiring. I want to use the mighty connective power of the internet to drive change. Are you in?
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