My community has a sickness.
June 2, 2008 – 3:33 pmAs a comment in this blog, a guest by the name of Sigrun Grimnirsdottir said:
“Stop looking for boogeymen in other religions, and take care of the pedophile priests and money-launderers in your own midst first.”
http://ajdrew.blogs.pagannation.com/2008/03/18/hellstorm-coven-convicted-of-murder/
If the article had been written by Catholics who had ignored the scandal in their own church, I might not think it out of place. However, this was an article written by a member of the pagan community and responded to by members of the pagan community concerning issues within the pagan community.
I believe the comments by Sigrum Grimnirdotir accurately reflect the problem. Instead of recognizing that the conversation is pagan folk talking about problems within the pagan community, he assumes that it was Christian folk addressing a problem within the pagan community. Why? Because for the most part, pagans are simply unwilling to recognize that we have a problem.
Instead, they spend their time pointing fingers at other religious communities and point out their problems. Sigrun Grimnirsdottir is right, Catholics should first be concerned with the problem within their own community. Thankfully, many are. The number of times I have heard Bill O’Reiley (a devout Catholic) address the problem on national Television is just one example. Pagan folk, well as Sigrum Grimnirdotir has just demonstrated, not so much.
I have yet to hear Catholics coming out against Bill O’Reiley for speaking out against the pedophilic scandal within the Catholic Church. More so than not, what I hear from Catholics is that they want the problem addressed, the priests defrocked, the children protected. I have yet to hear that Bill O’Reiley has received death threats from Catholics who do not like him saying there is a problem.
Wiccans and Pagans, well they are a bit different. When I speak out against what I find to be pedophilic instructions written by Gavin and Yvonne Frost in the name of Wicca, well the death threats from Wiccans and Pagans roll in.
But the difference is much greater than just that. Read what Sigrum Grimnirdotir responded to and read his response. Many Wiccans and Pagans have even become so blind to the problem that they do not recognize when fellow Wiccans and Pagans discuss the problems within their own community. Instead, they leap to the conclusion that it is Catholics talking about Wiccans and Pagans.
A community has a sickness when talking about a sickness within that community causes the person to be excluded from the community. My community has a sickness.
2 Responses to “My community has a sickness.”
I agree. I was effectively ostracized from a community when I tried to alert them to serious problems with its leaders, as well as letting them know that I was being ripped off by them financially. People would rather not hear the truth and just chose to believe instead that everything is glowy and the fairies are playing.
Wicca effectively has no checks and balances, and the most deluded and likely to abuse gain power through stepping on the doormats that populate it. The Frosts are but one example of this sickness, as you call it. I call it a completely non-valid religion that extorts and takes advantage of the unwary. Oh, and I’m not Christian, or from another religion. I was Wiccan for 17 of my 33 years, so I can honestly say that I gave it a good run. I also was not an “Eclectic” or “Solitary” Wiccan; I hold a valid Traditional degree from a strong Alexandrian line.
Bottom line is that Wicca peaked in the 1970’s, when its founders and Old Guard followers just used it as an excuse to get together and have a good time. It became redundant, cultish, and dangerous in the late 1980’s when it started taking itself too seriously. Now, these children of the 80’s have “grown up” into the Elders of today and have none of the old Nick left in them that made Wicca such fun. If anything, they are beginning to resemble the Roman Catholic clergy that they claimed persecuted them for so long. *Yawn*.
I hope that the ones left behind at least cleanse the community of its worst elements before it goes up in a glorious puff of smoke, which I look forward to watching with some popcorn and a very big smile.
By Angela West on Jun 2, 2008
Keep in mind….it took hundreds of years before the Catholic church took a stance on paedophiles. And even though we are a modern, foreward thinking (for the most part) community, the boundaries will still have to pushed for The Truth to be recognisable to all. I know plenty of British Catholics that still think the paedophilic priest thing to be mostly and American “condition”. Need to look those statistics up on where it is more prevalent…….at but statistics can prove and disprove anything…..85% of adults know that.:D
By MajorTal on Jun 3, 2008