Interview from Across the Water

 

 

B: It was a gradual evolution for me that started with going to college. As I learned about more ideas and more cultures, I began to see patterns in the theology of other groups that I could also see in Christianity. I also started to find online communities that appealed to parts of my soul that I could not reconcile with Christianity but that I loved about myself. (Otherkin and TG Community.) This caused great conflict in me and over time, I came to a very real breaking point where I had to choose between the theology and my life, literally. I had grown very suicidal at the end of my Christian days, and when I finally dropped the theology that I had imposed on myself for 6+ years I found that an open and eclectic Pagan path was much more fitting to how I saw myself, and which gave me more answers that were applicable to my soul.

 

 

B: I have lost some friends, but a lot of my Christian friends hung around, at least in name. One of my best friends once told me he didn’t want me around his future children because I was a degenerate freak because of my beliefs and my path, but ironically we still talk. Christianity has this weird dualism in some ways, where you are to utterly reject parts of people, but still be nice to them or friendly because salvation or their soul becomes the ultimate goal.

 

S: In the UK the media portrays the American bible belt as a kind of religious war zone, is this anything like the reality of living there?

 

B: There aren’t bullets or bombs flying about your head but it can be somewhat constrained. In many small towns like the one I grew up in, it’s very much a religious mono-culture and it’s strictly enforced to the point where if you’re not part of a church you are essentially an outcast. My family moved to the town I grew up in (from about the age of 10 through 18 for me) in ‘91 and are still considered outcasts.

 

S: Many Fundamentalist Christians are against homosexuality, in comparison to Pagans who are generally more accepting regarding it. As a studying pastor what was your view on homosexuality? And has your view changed since becoming a Pagan?

 

B: I was vehemently anti-gay as a Christian, it wasn’t an out-and-out hatred as much as it was based on the fact that the Bible told me it was wrong, and these people were suffering from a deep spiritual perversion and had to be saved. I was part of the Methodist denomination, and at the time, even today, the debate is raging about whether to allow homosexuals into the church or not. As a Christian I was opposed to it based of Biblical principals, because as a Christian I was fundamentalist and took the Bible as literal and inerrant law in regards to this issue.

 

As a Pagan, my view is very much ‘live and let live.’ I am bisexual myself, but as a general rule if two people want to live in a certain way, or want to love each other and it’s causing no harm, I don’t see the harm in it.

 

B: There has been a lot of speculation around about the future of the traditional religions in America. This is mainly due to the fact that while there is always a missionary movement to bring new souls into the church, overall the major denominations are seeing a major decline in their membership. I think that while Christianity will become a smaller demographic in America over the coming years I think the zealotry from the “Christian Right” will continue to be a factor in American politics.

 

While not Wiccan, I think that if Wicca continues to grow as it has as an organized religion, you will see it garnering greater and greater influence. Still for the rest of the Pagan groups I doubt it will ever have serious political validity because its so broad and often unorganized. The reason the Christian Right has such power is that they are a large group of people that follow orders, which, when a few people can control a voting block of millions, makes them quite powerful.

 

 

B: I was a big fan of Intelligent Design as a Christian, and to be honest I still am. I think you can see the spark of the Divine in things, and as a Pagan just as a Christian it always inspired awe and wonder for me in the great similarities one can see in the universe.

 

I don’t see it as really calming down anytime soon, because both sides are so vehemently entrenched on the matter. I do believe that evolution occurs, and I am very middle-of-the-road in my beliefs. I often tell people that denying a god the power to create via evolution is limiting that deity, and that is something I genuinely believe.

 

I have never been involved to the point of picketing or things like that, but I have often participated in informal debates on the topic, as it is still very much in the forefront of religious discussion.

 

B: I respect Christianity for elements of its moral code, and how it is a path that seems to appeal to a great number of people. I cannot help but have some bitterness sometimes over my Christian experience, but I honestly don’t blame anyone but myself for it. I think it is fine as a religion on most points, but I am greatly opposed to its emphasis on conversion and evangelism. To me that, and the fact that it is so willing to try to subject its morality on everything around it, is very unpleasant and undesirable for me. I am not hostile to the belief structure per se, but I find those elements of the structure to be utterly reprehensible.

 

 

B: Its not so bad over here. There is a heavy Christian bias in the culture that I can see at times, but overall I am a pretty happy person. I suppose Pagans here are in many ways, like Pagans everywhere. Most of us live our day to day lives and generally the fact of what we believe never really becomes an issue.