Pointedly Pagan
I was asked to contribute to a public square discussion on faith and politics over at Patheos’ Public Square. It is now up. Read more
I was asked to contribute to a public square discussion on faith and politics over at Patheos’ Public Square. It is now up. Read more
(updated 6/7/2016) Part II picks up where my earlier post on how strong belief can put us in a trance state of which we are unaware, turning us into servants of a belief, usually to our and other people’s detriment. Exploring how to break trances we have unknowingly entered into requires moving from my preferred intellectual style of analysis to something more concrete. This is because living in the realm of intellect alone is itself a kind of trance Breaking... Read more
Global warming Most of the otherwise reasonably competent people we know who are global warming deniers will say science is a great force for good, but in this case scientists are in thrall to those seeking to enlarge government’s power over us. Most deniers are sincere in saying this. They are blind to the irrationality they demonstrate. Let me demonstrate this with an analogy. A friend warns you worrisome symptoms indicate you might have something serious. You visit a physician... Read more
Last week I gave a keynote talk at the Conference of Current Pagan Studies on viewing social justice from a Pagan perspective. It went well and while the paper it was based on is much too long for a normal blog post, I have made it available. After a discussion of social justice at a more abstract level, I end with exploring issues of Nature and race. Read more
I had the good fortune to just come across a two-part article in Patheos by John Halstead in The Allergic Pagan. He explores whether there would be NeoPaganism in the US had Gerald Gardner never existed. He answers a resounding “yes,” and then makes a fascinating exploration of the similarities and differences that would exist today were that so. To my mind Halstead makes a compelling case that a Non-Wiccan NeoPaganism would arise and that it would (initially) be different... Read more
The Maine coast and its adjacent islands result from the spectacular meeting of ancient granite, Pleistocene ice, and the wild waters of the North Atlantic. When the glaciers departed they left behind the most complex meeting of land, ocean, and sky in the US. Much of that glacier polished rock is now covered with dense forests of spruce accented by birch, their floors embraced within soft emerald green moss and grey lichen. These quiet woods then open out onto... Read more
The Parliament of the World’s Religions, held from October 15-19, in Salt Lake City, was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences of my life. Read more
( This column recapitulates the basic points about the swastika and Confederate flag made in my most recent Witches & Pagans piece, but with a different focus, some different information, and a complementary but distinct conclusion. ) _______ After the Charleston murders right wing media and politicians attempted to seize control of its interpretation. In response I wrote moral revulsion was the ultimate corrective to the totalitarian mindset. It and not intellectual argument could break the ideological trance... Read more
The racist terrorism that killed so many in Charleston this past Wednesday was followed almost immediately by the extraordinary efforts of leading American ‘conservatives’’ to redefine what had just so clearly happened. As they did, they revealed the inner soul of their movement and, as I hope to show, demonstrate how people can ultimately degenerate into defenders of evil in the name of virtue. Read more
Caitlin Jenner and the ‘Quiverfull’ of Duggars are perfect symbols for the profound cultural changes tearing this country apart. In their very different ways they represent an epochal shift from a culture predicated on firm, inviolable and hierarchical boundaries to the birth of one where national, racial, sexual, religious, economic, and ecological boundaries are increasingly open and ill defined and hierarchies relatively flat. Read more
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