PRIMER

The United States of America was founded, both practically and in spirit,
by the Puritans who immigrated from Europe, especially England.  The
Puritans valued hard work, sacrifice, and adherence to strict Christian
doctrines of belief and behavior, very much influenced by Calvinism. 
Unfortunately, I believe they also tended to be mildly neurotic,
condemning sensual and sexual pleasure, diversity, the expression of
emotions, and other human realities not within their narrow purview, but
which we are finding out are actually quite healthy. The writings of
Oliver Cromwell, Cotton Mather, and other Puritan leaders are perfect
examples of the stiff, unyielding, and intolerant puritanical personality.

Conservative and fundamentalist Christianity in general suffers from not
only neo-Puritan ills, but an arrogant claim to exclusive, universal
Truth, which is a byproduct of it's monotheism, and a penchant for
political jingoism.  All of these undesirable attributes have been
absorbed into the American governmental and legal systems, and have
plagued the American dream of freedom and equal rights for all citizens
since the founding of the Republic. 

Christian morality has been enforced by civil law for two hundred years
despite the theoretical separation of church and state and the religious
rights and freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment.  Such enforcement
has been accomplished simply be ignoring the moral structure of
Christianity when testing a law for religious favoritism.  The morals of
Christianity have been smuggled into law under such anachronisms as
"public decency," and "family values," and by using pejorative but vague
terms such as "indecent," "purient," "obscene," and "improper" to occult
the fact that the particular law enforces one set of moral beliefs over
all others.

It is for this reason that Pagans, who obviously have a very different set
of morals concerning nudity, sex, psychoactives, and other issues, run the
risk, if publically challenged, of becoming religious prisoners.  The
activism required to overturn legal religious discrimination in America
will come from Radical Pagans, who act to reverse centuries of
misinformation, misunderstanding, social marginalization, and political
ostrisism which Pagans have suffered and, because of historical factors,
passively accepted. 

Fortunately, a dynamic process also exists in America, influenced by both
the theory of evolution, which sheds a positive light on social
"progress,"  and our democratic form of government, which contains the
seeds of social equality, that allows the gradual expansion of civil
rights.  But only after a period of resistance and struggle.  There
appears to be an ongoing conflict between those who work for the expansion
of rights (progressives, liberals) and those who defend the status quo
(conservatives).  While the latter may have the dubious purpose of slowing
the rate of social change to a manageable level, it generally creates
heartache, suffering, and a needless series of sometimes violent clashes
with those groups who are working towards equal rights.

I submit, however, that this expansion of civil rights is no less than the
great American project, and that it should continue indefinitely.  It is
hampered only by those who not only want the right to their own beliefs,
but also wish to force their beliefs onto all citizens via the malleable
legal system which they are currently able to manipulate to their own
ends.  This social tyranny, I suggest, is distinctly un-American. 

A look at American history shows how consistent and important the
expansion of rights is.  The original power base in America was the
land-owning EuroAmerican man.  Non-landed men, African Americans, women,
and younger persons were excluded from decision making and politics in
general.  Gradually, more and more groups of citizens were added to the
power base:  landed men, African Americans, women, and so on, in an
ever-widening circle of inclusion.  This is America's great promise, that
we should be and will be a nation of equals.  The project is far from
completed, however, and of this writing, gay, lesbian and bisexual
citizens are the latest group to engage in the struggle between the
spirits of Puritanism and social progress. 

If you are firmly within the inner circle, as, for instance, a
EuroAmerican Christian (or Christianized) male over twenty-one years old
would be, there is less chance you will face experiences of discrimination
or oppression.  Discrimination can be personal or institutional; it can
take to form of a single act of disapproval or refusal of service, or it
can mean that your religious behavior could result in imprisonment.  On
one hand, America stands for freedom and inalienable rights, and on the
other is the ghost of Cotton Mather, lurking in the halls of justice and
political power, soiling every statehouse and city hall.

Neo-Pagans face discrimination and oppression on an almost daily basis.
In part because Pagans, the "country dwellers" were the original
competition of Christianity in the early Middle Ages, our morals and
values have remained marginal and discredited.  If we worship skyclad,
meaning naked, we can be arrested for "indecent exposure."  If we do not
have sexual prohibitions, we can be arrested for "unnatural acts" or
"sodomy."  If we have sacred substances like mushrooms in our circle, we
can be arrested for "drug" offenses.  For whatever reasons we end up
singing our songs together in jail, the source of our legal harassment
will be the virtually invisible center of social and religious right and
wrong in America:  neo-Puritan Christianity.

I am suggesting that 1) religion is much more powerful, influential,
subtle, and ubiquitous in America than it is usually considered to be, and
2) that the travails of Pagan citizens is both an example of the
continuing process of the expansion of equal rights, and a religious
struggle for religious freedom.  That the struggle manifests in the
political realm makes it no less religious in nature.

It would be difficult to even discuss the spiritual nature of, say, sex. 
The concepts of religion has been so firmly entrenched in the ascetic,
conceptual, ethereal camp for so long, it is something of a cultural shock
to find religious persons whose spirituality is expressed in pleasures of
the "flesh."  Not only has deity been cast out of Earth into the distant
heavens, but every major thinker of Christianity, from Jesus to Paul
Tillich has supported and condoned the separation of physical reality from
both religion itself and what I call "mythological reality." 

Mythological reality is the perception of the physical world through the
lens of a mythos.  (And, I might add, this includes the myths of Science) 
Where I may see a snake, a Christian may see a serpent, symbol of
humanity's original fall from grace.  Where I see mental hysteria, others
may see a Satanic conspiracy.  Where I see mental illness and barbaric
cruelty, others may see evil.  Where I experience pleasure and spiritual
health, other may well experience shame, guilt, and temptation to sin. 
Where I see transformation, others may see Apocalypse. 

Physical reality, on the other hand, is the seeing and experiencing of
life as it actually is.  A snake is just an animal with certain
characteristics.  Hysteria is a common human ailment exacerbated by the
Puritanical personality.  Human experience may be shared, but it is
ultimately subjective.  Because something is stated in a book or believed
(and acted upon) by millions of persons does not make it a reality of
Nature, common to all humans, but of the nature of some humans. While each
partakes in the other, humans have a definite historical tendency to see
goblins where there are only the ghosts of their own anxieties.

Pagans tend to live closer to physical reality.  Because Nature is sacred
to us, that is, part of our spiritual ethos, we see through a thinner lens
of personal or collective dogma.  A Pagan requires more observable or
experiential evidence than the word of a book or another person's claim of
authenticity.  We need to see it, touch it, or otherwise experience it
ourselves.  Which makes Paganism about as far away from a "cult" as can be
readily imagined. 

An example of mythological reality and of the sloppy thinking that
monotheistic and abstracted religious people are prone to is the argument
that the beauty and complexity we see in Nature is proof of the existence
of God (meaning the Judeo-Christian diety).  Eventhough Nature itself is
an objective reality that most sighted humans could agree on; how it came
to exist is a purely subjective matter based on individual opinion and
belief.  It is not an objectively obvious conclusion that what we see
around us came to be because it was created by a spiritual being, much
less the spiritual being as described by an one religious tradition.

Another example of Mythological reality is the human body.  Regardless of
our beliefs, we all have bodies.  But they are not all considered equal: 
a male can be topless in a public place, while a female attempting the
same can be arrested and imprisoned for "indecent exposure."  Even
though some heavy-set men actually have larger breasts than some women,
the mere fact of being male exempts them from legal harassment.  So the
important factor is not size; it is gender.  The female breast is,
mythologically speaking, forbidden to display, while the male breast is
acceptable.  Through what historical contortions this came to be true is
not important here.  The physical reality is that female breasts are no
more dangerous or unseemly than male breasts are, and that is why Pagans
do not generally require one to be hidden and one not.  They are both
equal. 

When a woman is arrested for being topless, she is experiencing first hand
mythological reality in legal form.  In this case, the mythos is
neo-Puritan, and states that the female breast must be covered.  That the
law is neither objective nor secular is reasonably obvious, though
rarely fought; terms that clearly reflect the mythos of neo-Puritanism
such as "public decency,"  "family values," "obscene," and "prurient,"
among others, remain generally unchallenged in political discourse.  

Many value judgements of the kind described above are casually made and
written into legal jurisprudence.  They are subtle, ubiquitous, and often
invisible.  Such judgements are based on what I call "deep assumptions." 
Deep assumptions are those which are so entrenched, so commonly accepted
that they are rarely questioned, and any questioning that does occur
receives the dubious distinction of being labeled "fringe" or some other
term designed to devalue and discredit.

Deep assumptions often exist below daily consciousness, deep in the
darkness of our unconsciousness.  Just as the "radical" in Radical Pagan
is based on the Latin word "radix," meaning "root," so it is a radical
enterprise to dig up deep assumptions and question their validity for the
coming century and their effect on individual and social health.  Radical
Pagans consistently and often maddeningly question assumptions that are
made because much of what is considered "common sense" is actually
tradition, or Christian morality, or even superstition.  Often they are
based on fear or threat, the lowest human denominators.  Effective in its
methodology but pathetic in its results, neo-Puritanical and all deep
assumptions are only as good as their ability to survive on a level
playing field, out in the open, exposed to scrutiny and discourse, not
hidden and ensconced. 

The deeper, more occulted the assumption, the more startling the reaction
to its being questioned, and the more resistance to its being challenged.
If an individual reacts strongly to an issue, they may have had negative
experiences with it at some point in the past.  If enough people react
strongly together, the result is hysteria.  Americans are familiar with
religious and moral hysteria beginning with the Salem Witch trials, and it
is easier to acknowledge past instances of hysteria than it is to
realize the extent of hysteria presently.  Although the results and
consequences of moral and religious disputes is usually no longer
execution, prison is a definite possibility, as is the loss of employment,
children, and social standing.  

Hysteria is the closing down of an individual's or group of individuals'
rational thinking processes and the hyperactivity of emotional response. 
Usually a person in immanent danger acts on adrenelan to fight or fly; 
there is no time for hysteria.  Hysteria is usually in response to a
non-life threatening event:  a perceived attack on one's beliefs or
lifestyle.  In other words, the introduction of diversity into an
otherwise homogeneous context.  Hysteria is a failure of clear thought and
reason, a hyper-reaction, a result of a restimulation of a past negative
event or experience.  And on a community, social, or legal scale, it can
be absurd, even dangerous. 

Unfortunately, the American legal system, insofar as it is malleable to
that group which can successfully use it to advance their own beliefs, is
susceptible to hysteria, reflecting hysterical reactions rather than
rational consideration.  The difference between the Radical Pagan position
and that of other "special interest groups" is that Radical Paganism
proposes that all individuals and groups, diverse as they are surely going
to be, have equal rights and freedoms under the law.  

All of this leads us to the contemplation of the most reaction-producing,
hysteria-ridden, and illegal activities discussable.  Although Radical
Pagans may or may not engage in any of these behaviors, they do present
them as issues which may one day be regarded as quaint.  In the flow of
time, cultures change the way they regard what is right and wrong.  Murder
was once thought to be a dirty but unavoidable method of deciding 
conflicts.  In many places, it still is.  Once it was an offense to expose
one's upper legs to public view.  Once a EuroAmerican and African American
could not legally marry.  Young persons were once routinely beaten.  None
of these customs is now in general favor, but they were once the "law of
the land," supported by public opinion and legal jurisprudence.  So there
is an observable movement in America away from discrimination, violence,
and damaging behavior, towards inclusive, peaceful, and supporting
behavior.  It also shows that laws regarded as logical at the time can be
later proven in error.  

A potent example of an hysterical issue is childhood sexuality.  The very
notion that a thirteen year old is a sexual being is so unusual, so new,
so disturbing to so many people that it's rare to even hear the issue
addressed.  Accusations, ad hominum attacks, and all manner of
irresponsible behavior can be expected by anyone who questions these deep
assumptions.  It is my opinion, however, that such questioning is long
overdue.  

Radical Pagans use one ethical and moral axiom to decide whether a
behavior is right or wrong, and whether is should be legal or illegal:
The Rede.  The Rede, also called the Wiccan Rede, is the most complete and
viable statement for determining personal and social ethics that I have
ever seen.  It states, simply:  "If it harms none, do as you will."
Nothing could be more clear yet more complex in its ramifications.