Has It Really Come To This?

As of lately it seems that the pagan community had gotten hit by serious blows about sexual abuse by pagans. Over at The Wild Hunt it became a big discussion on how it made the rest of us look bad and encouraged the image that we harm children in our rites. A decision came about to sit down and come up with a statement from the pagan community. Quite a number scoffed at this idea. I myself was ready to sit back and see what happened. People were asked to volunteer to get together and work on this statement. I did not volunteer because I felt it was a bad idea, but hey if people wanted to take on this task I wouldn’t really try and stop them, ya know?

Most recently the statement has been released after the first draft was created. I highly urge all of us to read it, I already have. Now I am going to voice my feelings on this but I still think everyone should read it and make up their own mind, I am simply going to state my opinions. I had concerns about even voicing my opinion after reading the comments. Some people feel a need to jump on a bandwagon and go on an attack if someone even remotely questions anything in the statement. A bit unfair since it’s being released to our community so that we can question it, and without questioning it how can we reach a compromise? Now I realize people worked hard on it but if you put yourself out there you have to be willing to take the criticism, right? And the comments section really seemed to drive one point home.

Ok so my stance is, I am not going to sign it. Not a big deal now but we shall see. My problem is that the pagan community isn’t exactly unified. We are just as divided as the abrahamic religions. We can’t even agree on WHO can claim to be a pagan (not that we can stop anyone from making such claims)! I fear that this statement could cause just another rift within our community. Let’s say a grove decides to make this a part of their mission statement and all members of the grove must sign it. Not a biggie right? But let’s say a coven in the same town decides not to. Pagans are not above being snotty gossipy human beings. Next thing you know the coven isn’t “pagan enough” because they don’t “care enough” about children to sign the statement and make it a part of their mission statement or whatever they have in place.  And if you read the comments section of this recent release, a few individuals drive this point home. They say that signing is voluntary , but will it be in the future? Will I have to turn in my proverbial pagan card 20 years down the road because I never signed?

And what does this statement accomplish? Is it really going to change the minds of our opposers? In my opinion, no. People are going to beleive what they want to beleive. The Vatican could start condemning all the pedophile priests and take active measures to prevent priests from harming children in the future. People will STILL bash the Vatican and Pope. People STILL beleive we worship the Christian Devil no matter what we say or do. People STILL think Halloween is evil, no matter what we say or do. How does a statement suddenly shed light that we are against sexual abuse of any kind? Christian Churches make it clear they are against sexual abuse (accept those cults that engage in polygamy with children) but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen and that some pagans jump at the chance to bash the Christians for it.

Lastly I want to leave with the fact that sexual abuse is not running rampant in our community. Or shall I say that sexual abuse is not being made public within the media?Most of the cases that we know about have not hit national television news like ABC, CNN, or even Fox. They are hitting online newspapers and get the tiniest of blurbs. It’s not like there is some sort of witch hunt occuring across the nation where we feel a real need to stand up and defend ourselves.

Some may be offended by my stance on this issue. I certainly hope not but I want to clarify that I am a survivor of sexual abuse. I have worked long and hard to get to where I am now and don’t really feel that this does anything to protect anyone at any time. It doesn’t keep a sexual predator out of public circles. It doesn’t keep a sexual predator from being solitary and kidnapping their victims, then making claims that it’s a part of their ritual. It doesn’t make anyone safer than we were before. And the idea that a grove, circle, or coven signing the statement to claim they will assist the authorities with bringing justice for victims is ridiculous. People should help because it’s the right thing to do, no matter if they signed a statement or not.

In closing I want to say that the statement itself came out much better than expected. However, it didn’t sway my original feelings on the issue. I also want to mention I hold no ill-will towards The Wild Hunt or anyone who worked on the statement. I may disagree with the statement but I still have strong respect for them all for taking on such a task and working so hard on it.