NMR ISSUE 45

Activating Miraculous Success
Astrological Forecast 45
Basic Wiccan Knowledge
Brigit's Well
Delores Ashcroft-Norwicki
Dolphin Magick
Editorial 45
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
How to Celebrate Yule
Journey Down the River A Pathworking
Letters 45
Maat Magick Nema
Other Editorial 45
Oxford's Shiel-Na-Gig
Ritual in Light
Solitaries & Gatherings
Spelle of Contagion for AIDS Research
Spiritual Vampires Marty Raphael
Stonesong
The Call Goes Out from the Earth's Cetaceans
The Circle
The Faery Faith
The Goddess in Motion
The Sacred Pentagram
The Sun Ritual
The View from Handscrabble Creek
The Ways of Old
Thelema and Wicca
Tiger
Vireo, Glowworm and Manta Ray/Stingray
Winter Circle Shawn E. Danahoo
Within My Heart

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REVIEW:
The Other People

By Scot Rhoads

They pollute public places; libraries, bathrooms, schools. Once beautiful trees reduced to little pamphlets telling us how much God loves us even though we are Eeeevil, and even though He not-quite-reluctantly condemns us to eternal torment if we fail to follow His Word, as revealed in the sacred Chick comics. These twelve-page pamphlets are the Fundies' propaganda cluster bombs. They're cheap and expendable enough to carpet public places. They are in a comic format to engage even the semi-literate. They are as brilliant as they are tiresome.

The real tragedy of the Chick comics is that they have much good in them. They can be inspiring, uplifting and spiritual. This can lure some into also adopting their messages of self-hatred, misanthropy, patriarchy, xenophobia, sanctimony, dogma, literalism, narrow-mindedness, millenarism, and Gaiaphobia. And those understandably horrified by the negative messages will often eagerly throw out the positive baby, so difficult to distinguish from the enveloping sea of bath water.

The most annoying thing about them is they work.

Inexplicably, they have had this very effective stage all to themselves till now. Pete Pathfinder of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church in Washington State is trying to make them share some of that limelight. Combining Oberon (Otter) Zell's story with Don Lewis' art, the ATC has created its own Pagan pamphlet, The Other People. As appropriate for Pagans, it does not proselytize, it informs. It does not even come out in favor of Paganism (well, not directly), but rather preaches plurality, open-mindedness, and a more neighborly interpretation of the Christian Bible. It is true to the Chick style, complete with campy comic art and endless Biblical references, even an inside joke or two. And it's cheap$20 for 100.

There are potential problems. It takes up some sensitive issues. Not that it shouldn't, but a God was the liar interpretation of the Garden of Eden story needs a lot more background than a small comic can provide to discourage the whole thing being instantly dismissed as Eeeevil. Still, most of those who would do so would probably conclude that anything which claimed we are not Eeeevil is of necessity Eeeevil, no matter how well supported by their own Bible. But even if this problem does tend to direct the preaching primarily toward the choir, the choir can certainly use the encouragement these days.

Also, it would be welcome if The Other People could distinguish more strongly between the positive spirituality in Christianity and its negative dogma. It does so clearly in the introduction, but less so in the body. Since we can expect anything failing to fully support Fundamentalist dogma to be tarred as anti-Christian, it might be helpful to be more explicit that Pagans are aware of the baby bobbing around somewhere in the Christian bath water. On the other hand, some might feel that being clearer about this could undermine the message by sounding too apologetic.

These are minor issues. The pamphlet's only serious flaw is that it is wrong. The Other People makes the case, based on Biblical references, that we (Pagans, etc., anyone you want, really) are not subject to the doctrine of Original Sin because we are descended from the people created by the Elohim (Pantheon), and not by Yahweh. He created Adam and Eve who sinned by eating the apple, and therefore only their descendants can be subject to Original Sin. We are descended from, or somehow inexplicably affiliated with the Other People vaguely mentioned in the Bible. If a Fundie does miraculously accept the Other People interpretation (not that it's hard to support, just hard to slip past the dogma), this could lead to unanswerable questions of lineage if there were any descendants of the Other People left. Even my sketchy memory of the Bible (supported an acquaintance who cares a lot more about it than I) is that the Flood left only Original Sinners in the world. All the Other People got washed down the drain with the dinosaurs and unicorns.

The Other People does not address this problem, or even mention it. That makes the pamphlet more subversive than informative, and it is very informative. It is difficult to claim otherwise when the pamphlet supports a heretical point with incomplete and self-serving scholarship an approach worthy of Chick!

When Chick does this sort of thing seemingly in every publication, it is annoying. In The Other People it is kind of fun. Of course, it is very disappointing that the conclusion is so easily challenged, but if this is the best that can be done for now, so be it. It is hard not to welcome subverting negativity in the name of such positive goals. And, more important, countering this subversion requires people to think, which is the first step toward healing negative beliefs. I just wish they had to think a little more!

Thanks to this tragic flaw, this preliminary counter-battery salvo in the battle against Chick pamphlets seems unlikely to even find the range; but it should let both sides know that this front will now provide some resistance to hostile Fundamentalism. I can't wait for the next one! Who knows, maybe someday we'll have Gideon's Book of Shadows!

SR