Word from the Bible Belt: Still Not Being Persecuted

The Pagan community most often singles out the Midwest and the South as inhospitable areas for Pagans.  Living in the Midwest my entire life, I've yet to understand why that area is so frequently targetted.  After spending three weeks in the South, part of it deep within the Bible Belt, my count of harassment or persecution remains, well, non-existant.  This is not to say problems never happen.  They do.  I'm just continuing to say that it doesn't happen as often as some would like you to think, and that I continue to strongly suspect that it has more to do with the disposition of the individual Pagan than that of the would-be persecutors.

My fingers swell in the heat, so before I left with the Red Cross I removed all my rings, including my wedding ring.  After much debate, I decided to bring along a single piece of jewelry: a pentagram pendant about an inch wide.  I don't want to ever wear it as an exercise of advertising my religion, much less looking for trouble, but it also was my one link to my regular life, and I likewise don't like tempering my choices of apparel based on what someone else might think.  Nevertheless, I will confess a little curiousness as to how it might be received, and if it caused trouble I would have tucked it under my shirt.  (My purpose for being there, after all, was to comfort the clients, not start a debate in religious toleration.)

I will say that I ended up having very little contact with clients.  However, I did exist within the cities of Montgomery Alabama and Beaumont Texas for three weeks.  People saw me on the street, in resturants, and at hotels.  I'm sure many did not even notice my pendant.  But unless Southerners are somehow less aware of their surroundings than other people, it stands to reasons that many people did notice it - and yet they said nothing.

Only twice was I recognised for what I was: once as a Pagan and once a Wiccan.  Neither person expressed a problem with the revelation.  Several times I was asked if the pendant meant anything, and I would explain it symbolized the unity of the four elements with Spirit.  A couple times this conversation turned into something deeper, but the rest of the time it did not.  Twice I was asked if I was Jewish.  ("Nope, one point short of a Jew," I'd respond.)

No one expressed a concern that the symbol was Satanic.  One person asked if it was Satanic if it was "upside down" (quotes used here because there really is no such thing as an upside down pentagram anymore than there can be an upside down triangle.)  A former Catholic, now non-denominational Christian, started a long conversation about what I believed in, as did a born-again (not Twilight, described in my previous post).  The only vaguely negative reactive I got the entire time was from the born-again, who, after I explained that I had left the church and that I was polytheist, asked me how I thought I was following the commandment to "worship no god before me."  And that simply left me baffled, not insulted.  That came from ignorance, not spite.  (Hello, not a Christian, not a Jew, not even a Muslim, not interested in your commandments, along with half the world's population!)

Comments

[Daniel]

Welcome back from your tour and thanks for everything you did, or tried to do.

I would imagine that your born-again simply heard "left the church/polytheist" as "lapsed Christian trying to rationalize something less than orthodoxy." We can't see what we can't imagine, and for some people, that's about the limit. But, as you said, that's not spite -- such comments can often come from sincere, if misplaced, concern.

Regarding persecution: Here in South Carolina we have one of the better-publicized town vs. witch stories, Darla Kaye Wynne vs. Great Falls. What they've done to Darla is pretty horrible (she went to court over the town council opening its sessions with prayers to Jesus Christ and won; townspeople struck back by harrassing her and killing/kidnapping some of her pets), so I rode up and met with her one summer day in 2004.

Let me qualify this so there's no misunderstanding: I think that Darla is right and the town is wrong and it's time for them to get over themselves and pay her legal costs and be done with this thing. But having met Darla, I think it is equally true that (at this point, at least) Darla is provoking confrontation. The death of her parrot really pissed her off, so I can sympathize -- but on the day I was there she was so clearly trying to generate a hostile reaction at the local hardware store that I wanted to crawl under a rock.

Is it as simple as that? No. The people at the hardware store had done something to deny her a permit of some kind, and it was clearly discrimination. And I recognize that sometimes it takes people like Darla to push the system and generate the kinds of change that benefit everyone.

What I'm saying is that any pagan should understand that we get back -- in spades -- whatever we put out. I think Darla is winning her point at the cost of her happiness, and I just find the whole thing tragic and sad.

[Nightwind]

What I'm saying is that any pagan should understand that we get back -- in spades -- whatever we put out.

Ironically, as a Wiccan Darla should already know that, as it's a basic understanding in our worldview.

[Jean McGreggor]

I personally catch very little grief myself,and I am way out of the broom closet. An occasional rude comment or a snarky remark. I caught more crap when I had NOW or Pro Choice stickers on my car. I am discreet when I visit family in North Carolina but I don't take off my pent. Besides,there are so many things about my life that would garner disapproval in that part of the world I tend to keep my head down anyway.

[Janet Edens]

amen, sister. It's funny how you get comfortable with yourself. At first, I was so self-conscious of my goddess pendant. I felt so brave, ready to take on all comers. Now, I don't think about it much. I don't need to hide it or flaunt it.

Generally, people as individuals are not unkind. It's when the "rightness" of their group identity is threatened that things get ugly. Everybody so wants to be right.

Even the Left.

[benbrazil]

You guys really think we "get back in spades what we put out?"

That's way more faith in the inherit justice of the universe than I have. To throw my Christian viewpoint in there, I ask with the Pslamist "Why do righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?"

Three thousand years later, our best answer remains (in my view), "It's a mystery."

[Daniel]

You know, ben, I'm really not sure why that is, but I highly suspect that karl rove had SOMETHING to do with it.

[benbrazil]

Dan,

Congratulations: You've solved the problem of evil.

It's taken a while, so you may get some sort of recognition. How does "St. Dan of Brown Summit" sound to you? I mean, apart from sounding like rank heresy.