Discussing an interfaith celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, M. Macha Nightmare raises an issue that I've struggled with in other contexts.
One of the speakers preached, and as preaching goes she was good, but I don't want to be preached to no matter how skilled the preacher. I feel that preaching is inappropriate in interfaith contexts, even ones that celebrate the life of another African-American preacher.
I must admit that when one man sang a song he'd written about 'the Lord,' I just had to walk out for a while. He was a fine singer with a good strong voice, but the song made me so uncomfortable. Daresay it offended me. I know it was meaningful to him. But was it appropriate to all present? I don't think so. Not to me anyway. I returned after he finished.
What should a nice Pagan woman do in such a situation? I felt the only option I had to address my own discomfort was to absent myself for the duration. I did mention to the Director of MIC, who was one of the main organizers, how I'd been put off by such overt religiosity of a particular stripe. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of work. I don't seek it out. It comes to me -- not this particular event, but in general I participate in interfaith activities because someone asks me to. I pass such opportunities to others when I can, and generally I feel I do a credible job, but still -- I'm never sure I'm the best person to be doing it.
We share many values -- peace activism, concern for the poor and homeless, opposition to capital punishment, green concerns -- and when we work together on those problems, I'm just fine. But still I find that the majority Abrahamics tend to slip into their assumption that all the world's population is monotheistic. It bugs me. I feel I should try to bring it up in as constructive a way as I can. How do others deal with it?
I'm on several listserves that purport to be for members of all faiths devoted to liberal causes. Yet, when they need a quotation to illustrate a point, I note that it will either come from the bible or, when they feel very "inclusive," the quoran. Both of those exclude and offend me. It does get tiring to always be the one who emails the author to point out that we don't all worship "God" and that "his Son" is not a major prophet for some of us.
But I think that "nice Pagan ladies," and, Goddess knows, that's how I present, (at least initially!), in my grograin-ribbon Ferragamos, sensible ear-rings, ear-length bob, and Hermes scarves, have to speak up.
I'm on an email list for the local farmer's market and the woman who runs it always posts lovely poetry with her weekly emails. But one week, she made some point about how so many different faiths celebrate around the Spring Equinox, noting that some farmers were coming back to the market after being gone for the winter. She listed lots of faiths, but no Pagan ones. I had to email her back and point out that many of us don't celebrate a religious holiday around the Spring Equinox. We celebrate the Spring Equinox. She emailed back a nice response, but I swear, it was the FIRST time that it occurred to her that some xian, moslem, jewish, buddhist didn't completely cover everyone who came to the market.
Interfaith is supposed to mean interfaith. If we can't be, as I noted below, a religion that's under the radar, then I'm going to insist on our place ON the radar.
4 comments:
Not to be a pest, but is there a reason this is posted five times on your site. I do agree.
Huh. I'm an atheist, and so run up against this all the time. The worse, the absolute worse, is the invocations-- prayers-- said before public governmental meetings. I was surprised to find that this is even more of a practice here in Canada than in the states, but they're common down there, too. It's exclusion, simply put.
To my mind, the problem is less that xians were overtly referencing their god and more that there seemed to be no place for overt pagan references. An interfaith action should certainly allow for religiosity - that's its very nature - but ALL faiths present should be represented.
The problem with monotheiests is that they believe, not assume, that believing in One god is superior a and the apex of spiritual evolution even new agers, urantia and alike belief this. To reformed agnostics like my father-in-law who think Pagans are slighting the one God and spiritualy retarded, thus every problem we have in life stems from our religious belief. Well the reason they ensalved Africans and massacred indian nations was to raise these cultures to a higher spiritual level. This belief is concrete and shows up in them even in the most liberal and ecumenical of them.
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