The Editorial
By Scot Rhoads
A Thousand Pardons
Since I have had a spate of helpful people pointing out the many editing flaws in the magazine, I feel it's time for another apology and a word of explanation. We are still just starting out with this magazine. Since we are still on a shoestring, it's just me here struggling to meet deadlines. We can't afford to hire a proofreader and deadlines even make it difficult to accept the kind offers of free help. As things improve (and it looks like they may be doing so much faster now), so will our magazine. We will get on a better schedule (which I think is already (one of the best in this genre) and generally spiff it up as much as resources allow. In the mean time, I thank you all for patiently putting up with the errors that slip by my software and me.
A Thousand Thanks
On a brighter note, we have been receiving many compliments. I thank you all for you kind words. I especially want to again thank all the authors who have justifiably received many accolades.
The Great Thing About Fundies
My favorite thing about the Editorial section is that I can get introspective and experimental and just generally weird. This time I'm indulging my habit of trying to find something to like in people that present an unusual challenge.
I sometimes find myself envying those Fundamentalists and other narrow-minded religious fanatics who seem eager to force their ideas down everyone's throats. (I often call them Fundies to distinguish them from those Fundamentalists—seemingly a silent majority—who are not obnoxious about their faith.) There is an attraction to having your life, behavior and world mapped out simply and explicitly, but that is not what I am talking about. Such people are also living the dream.
The dream, in this case, is a religious metaphor of certain transcendent spiritual aspects of the psyche. Joseph Campbell describes many such metaphors and their manifestations throughout the world and history in his books. Though I am not particularly fond of the metaphors that most Christians choose (I'm looking some less hackneyed), I am intrigued by the idea of being able to live a metaphor the way some religious nuts do.
There is an attraction to forgetting yourself and being able to get into a particularly desirable role, as in a play or a role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons. The problem is, if you do so, you run a risk of being locked up (probably justifiably). This is not the same as what I mean by living a religious archetype (which only rarely leads to reality problems), but it is similar.
To understand the style of reality that Fundies perceive, look at their claim that Witches who think they are worshipping the Goddess are really worshipping the Devil. To me, this is absurd. One cannot be really worshipping anything other than what you intend. Intent is what defines your actions in this case. All these things—Gods, myths (a.k.a. history), symbols, etc.—are metaphors for things on incomprehensible levels. They are like using pool balls to demonstrate sub-atomic physics. The tools are not the reality.
Well, where's the fun in that? This is like learning that there is no Santa Claus, or that electrons are not really particles. Sure, you can say that there is an Elemental spirit (or some such thing empowered by the force of children's belief) that fills Santa's role on non-material levels (or whatever)—but that is hardly the same thing as a guy who eats the cookies you left him on December 24th. Similarly, it would be more fun (and more fulfilling) to see the High Priest dressed up as the Horned God to be more than just (at best) a mere vehicle for the Real Thing.
It seems to me that Fundies (of any religion!) as so caught up in their archetypes that they are completely unaware of their unreal aspects. This is cool! I would love to be able to do this. This is what I picture as an aspect of certain ecstatic or drugged states. (I don't know, though. If I find out I'll let you know.) This is what I call living the dream. It is like the difference between being an actor in an adventure movie, and actually living it.
There are obvious problems with this. These metaphors are not reality—otherwise, believers would not feel threatened and attack when others do not share them. [I would suggest that when believers do not feel threatened, their beliefs are reality, at least in a practical sense, for the believers.] This fear (which seems actually built-into many sects) has played a role in countless unpleasantness throughout history. This is certainly undesirable, but is a clinical awareness of a non-literal reality behind the archetypes the only way to circumvent this? Perhaps. In any case, it has been the only alternative I have experienced.
But I know I'm missing something. I am looking for that religious experience. That is what I envy in Fundies (though I don't envy the socially crippling form it takes). Where is this ecstasy? You won't find it in these pages, or any others, for no one can write it down. It is gone from our society as a whole. In a way, this is a good loss, for it frees us from the constraints imposed by a homogeneous belief system (imagine the drab narrowness of minds if everyone were Fundies of the same faith). The open-minded majority that do not have a solid theology cannot experience that kind of complete contact with these archetypes. There is an intellectual contact that one can get by reading Joseph Campbell, for instance. And there is an aesthetic contact that can come through ritual. But how many Pagans in our society have had the experience of believing that the God and Goddess were real individuals looking down (or up) at them?* (I believe this is what Campbell would call a personal God and Goddess.) [I have heard at least a couple comments suggesting that, though this is not the case now, it is what our world is evolving toward. I am unsure how to take this. It doesn't help now, but perhaps it means that I will eventually get my wish.]
What does all this stuff mean? Usually, I have some sort of conclusion to draw from my comments, but this time I have mostly questions. Is this sense of Real archetypes/deities/mythology something that we should be growing out of, or are we missing an important aspect of life? Is it possible to hold such beliefs and function responsibly in a world of diversity? Would holding such beliefs mean giving up open-mindedness or rationality, and are these bad things to lose? How can one possibly experience living the archetypes once one has seen them objectively? Are they lost forever then? And (the big one) what's it like?
I have answered a couple of these questions for myself, but most are on hold. I cannot begin to answer them. Instead, I will continue to search for the religious experience that impels me from somewhere in my racial memory. I don't know if I will find it (though I am hopeful), and I have no idea if it will include aspects of what I've been talking about, but the search satisfies the aspects of my psyche that are functioning adequately, so I have no reason to quit.
I do get something of a moral out of this (good thing, too, otherwise I'd feel sort of cheated after all this work). I have a tendency to think ill of the Fundies I see and to look down on them. While I will never support bombing abortion clinics (or even picketing them), and I hope never to share what I perceive as a narrow view, they may have something valuable that I do not. They seem to be living their religion, while I am acting mine. I think that this is an impressive feat and something that I can respect.
Though I feel that I should never look down on another for any reason, this is often a difficult rule to practice. I usually need to know why I shouldn't, when it is not obvious. Here is a why: No matter what else they may do, these people are living a glorious (and seemingly rare) aspect of the human experience. That deserves respect. But beyond that, I can start to learn about this aspect, and perhaps even learn to achieve its positive aspects, by being aware of these people and how they think.
Since it scares me when I find myself enjoying hating someone, it is a relief that instead I can try to focus on a lesson vital to me which they may be able to help me with. Admittedly, this is a mental game compared to Christ-like or Goddess-like love for all humanity, but perhaps it can be a tool to help me on the way.
I hope I haven't freaked anybody out too much here. As I suggested, this is one of my weirder ideas and I'm not sure myself how I feel about it. I do know that there is something basic in the Fundie world view that I do not understand, and I suspect that, besides all the negative things I see, there may be something there that's kind of neat. Maybe I'll figure it out someday. In the mean time, I hope you don't mind my sharing an incomplete idea.
Blessed Be | 
