Letters
Putting the Fun in Fundie
I particularly wanted to address your thoughts on Fundamentalists and their ability to live the lie, if I may acerbically paraphrase you. My own parents are fundamentalist Christians (though, thankfully, not quite the abortion-clinic-torching Fundies you describe) and I have spent years coming to terms with this energy.
In the first place, you are probably not Wiccan because you were raised that way. When one chooses one's own beliefs it is naturally quite a bit more difficult to accept them as objectively real. They are your own creation, or at any rate your own construct, and as such they are obviously susceptible to human fallibility. When you are raised in a religion and accept it as The Truth, as my parents did, it is a lot easier to live out of that conviction. And I think you are quite accurate in your perceptions that this reality clash is one reason why Fundamentalists are so dogmatic and reactionary towards those who do not share their mind set; even the consideration that they might be wrong or at any rate not universally right, is too threatening to their stability to be permitted.
As to the issue of not looking down on someone else, well, that is a hard one. What has helped me immeasurably in my relationship with my parents is the knowledge that all levels of spiritual maturity need to be experienced by the soul in order for it to grow. But since the soul does not experience the linearity of time, as our ego consciousness does, it does not learn in a linear fashion. Adherence to presently outmoded spiritual forms does not imply a soul that is in some sense retarded in development. Somewhere in the vastness of time, whether past or future relative to my present consciousness I cannot say, but somewhere out there is another incarnation of myself who is living his or her life by the same precepts my parents choose to honor now. My parents may in some distant past or future have already mastered full well the principle with which I currently grapple, and this incarnation they are sitting back and taking a light course load, earning a well-deserved rest.
The Wiccan state, as I perceive it, is in some senses a precarious one. There is an underlying knowledge, in an intellectual sense, that you are in fact making the rules and calling the shots, and this can make our spiritual lives seem like play-acting. We feel we are in a sense hoodwinking ourselves when we call upon the God and Goddess whom we know exist only as an abstraction anywhere else other than within us and every other living being. And yet we are somehow unable at this stage, to fully assume the mantle of our own divinity and get down to brass tacks. The intellectual knowledge has not yet melded with the emotional conviction that will permit a true actualization of the potential within us all. At least, it hasn't yet done so for me.
That knowledge, or should I say, that particular interpretation of the data, has helped me considerably as I struggle with these issues. I hope it may be of help to you.
A. M.
Philadelphia, PA
A Discrimination Alert
from the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance
Ken Clardy is the Wiccan High Priest of Ravenscry Coven in Greenville, South Carolina. He is employed by the Chestnut Hill Psychiatric Hospital located in Travelers Rest, South Carolina as a Mental Health Assistant, trained to work with adolescent boys who are mainly sex offenders.
Ken writes, In November of 1991, a relative of mine (also employed at the hospital) revealed to a patient that I was Wiccan. The patient asked a visiting student minister from Bob Jones University what Wicca was. The minister told the patient that it was devil worship, causing an uproar with several patients.
Ken indicates he did not respond to patient questions as he felt that it was inappropriate to discuss his religion at work. However, he did contact a superior to detail the situation.
Ken says, In the following two weeks I was taken from full-time status to a `call as needed' situation with a loss of benefits. The reasoning stated by the hospital? `Excessive absence and other reasons'. The `other reasons' were later outlined to be items of insubordination to the supervisor.
Ken states, When I told the Personnel Manager, Marilyn Messer about the supervisor's denial of insubordination and questioned the accusation of absences she replied, `This is a dictatorship—not a democracy! It will not be discussed!' At that point several supervisors asked to see my pentacle necklace that I wear under my shirt.
Later I pushed Marilyn Messer to tell me exactly which days I was supposed to have been absent, explains Ken. She refused at first, until I told her I would solicit the help of my attorney. She mailed me a list of days that were inaccurate. Two of the days listed were days that I was there! I checked the patient charts to be sure!
Marilyn Messer told me the time cards would have to be pulled to verify her information, but this is February and they still haven't done anything about it. Tells Ken.
Although Ken is hanging in there he has been experiencing other types of harassment. My name and phone number have mysteriously disappeared from the call-in file box three times. Each time I replace it, it is removed.
A nurse at the hospital accused me of religious discrimination when I refused to stop an emergency group session because there was church that day, Ken stated.
He says he has been passed over to promotion to full time status twice.
I've contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission but they have been dragging their feet on the investigation, he says sadly.
Ken asks that the Pagan Community come to his aid. Please post this information on BBS's, in book stores, send to your contact people, friends and local newspapers. If you have a with an AP service, call WPPA and we will release this article with a lead in on Goddess Worshippers or you can write yourself—just send us a copy.
The people to contact are:
Chestnut Hill Psychiatric Hospital
Attn: Dick Hill
P.O. Box 1005
Travelers Rest, SC 29690
or
Chestnut Hill Psychiatric Hospital
Attn: Marilyn Messer
P.O. Box 1005
Travelers Rest, SC 29690
If you can, send a copy to:
Ravenscry
P.O.Box 2821
Greenville, SC 29602-2812
or
WPPA
P.O Box 1392
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
The Wiccan and Pagan Press Alliance's 1992 Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards
Cast your ballot for the WPPA's annual awards. Please show your support for WPPA member newsletter editors (like me!) by voting. Just send a post card stating who you would like to see win the awards. Presses or individuals with the most votes will receive a certificate of achievement and a custom logo stating they are winner of the specified award.
CATEGORY 1: Reader's Choice
What is your favorite newsletter for 1992 and why? The press with the most votes will receive the Gold Award; second will win Silver; and third wins Bronze.
CATEGORY 2: Pentacle Awards
Vote for your favorite: Cover, Editor/Editrix, Feature Article, Artist* & Writer/Author* (* need not be WPPA members).
To receive notification of winners, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Votes must be postmarked by Samhain, 1992. Winners will be announced three days later. Notification will be mailed two weeks after. All votes are confidential.
Send a letter or post card, including your return address (PO Box and magickal names are OK), with your votes (one per category) to:
WPPA Press Awards
P.O. Box 1392
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 | 
