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The values that we draw from our religions are certainly part of any political campaign. But we could certainly do without the parading of religiosity, the establishing of one’s religious credentials, the use of religious—and let’s face it, we mean, overwhelmingly, Christian---language.
The mass media has rarely treated Witches and Pagans fairly. We are still seen as either scary, evil and demonic, unreal, or slightly deluded figures of fun, overall. It’s extremely difficult for us to receive the same respect and dignity of other religions.
The U.S. left the track of morality when we invaded Iraq.
Our thin excuse of ‘pre-emptive’ war fell apart when no weapons of mass destruction were found. We abdicated any possible claims to morality at Abu Ghraib. In more than four years of war, we have yet to establish order or basic security—at the price of hundreds of thousands of lives, including uncounted Iraqi civilians and children and more than three thousand of our own soldiers.
In good faith, our young men and women put their lives on the line for policies they were told would benefit our country. Yet in the U.S., the war has starved our resources for every nurturing, caring function of government—from effective response to emergencies like Katrina to even providing adequate counseling and aftercare for our own returning servicemen and women.
From a Pagan point of view, there’s no contradiction between religion and science. Our Goddess is immanent in the earth and the cycles of nature, and the more we understand about the earth, the deeper is our sense of awe and wonder.
In The Spiral Dance, I wrote: “In future or contemporary Goddess religion, a photograph of the earth as seen from space might be our mandala. We might meditate on the structure of the atom as well as icons of ancient Goddesses; and se see the years Jane Goodall spent observing cimpanzees in the light of a spiritual discipline. Physics, mathematics, ecology and biochemistry more and more approach the mystical. New myths can take their concepts and make them numinous, so they infuse our attitudes and actions with wonder at the richness of life.” (Starhawk. The Spiral Dance, p.220)
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