Commentary on Tolerance

Howdy kids! I normally stay out of the truly controversial (and IMHO adversarial) conversations, but I think it is safe for me to assume that there are few (if any) folks on this list who have been in the pagan community longer than my 41 years. My dears, I have seen, heard, and experienced it ALL. I have survived verbal, legal, and even physical attacks from people who hated me because they THOUGHT I was a Witch (I am a Universalist with Druidic tendencies, but I refuse to be categorized! <wink, wink>). I have lost my home, my business, my bank account, my reputation (no huge loss there!), and very nearly my son's and my life in these attacks. And I have been following these tedious threads for weeks now, and can hold my peace no longer. So, children, here are some words, hopefully, of wisdom from your old Aunt Snyd:
1) Only a Voudon/Voodoo (or any other path, for that matter) practitioner can tell you whether or not it offends them to be called pagan. And please remember, if they say it offends them, it does -- and your thinking it is foolish for them to be offended is not only irrelevant, but additionally offensive.
2) Rabid, ignorant idiots come in all denominations, including your own. And rabid, ignorant idiots with money (read: POWER) are inherently dangerous -- rather like rattlesnakes: they are fat, and love to bask in the sun, but they are also predatory, and slither around, popping up in places where you'd least expect them to be; they are poisonous, but they make enough noise that sensible people can avoid them; non-sensible people will get bitten if they insist on poking at them; and some people will get bitten, even if the people were very careful and were trying very hard to avoid stepping on them. The really dangerous snakes, however, are the copperheads, because they hunt in groups, are fiercely territorial and aggressive, and strike without warning.
3) An adversarial approach will produce an adversarial response -- rather like an eye for an eye, in fact. In the 30+ years I've seen pagan venues crop up across the country, the ones which have been the most successful are the ones which have taken an open, friendly approach with their neighbors, especially if their neighbors were adversarial (and some were). And it didn't hurt to have plenty of bucks in the legal defense fund, either -- just in case the neighbors turned out to be rattlesnakes or copperheads (figuratively speaking, of course).
4) Most people are doing the best they can with the knowledge and resources they have available to them. Most people's actions are motivated by self-interest, nothing more or less. Most people do what makes the most sense to them, given their knowledge and resources, to do, and do not take you into consideration at all when acting/speaking/writing. Most people do not intentionally set out to harm other people. And most people are not attacking you personally, even when they are causing you harm. (But most is not all.) 
5) Whenever you have two or more people in a room, you have two or more agendas, and two or more perceptions of the same events. Conflict is inherent in all life; it is simply inevitable that you will not agree with everything, and that others will disagree with you. Nothing personal, just inevitable.
6) And here are some very interesting statistics for you: According to NAMI (National Association for the Mentally Ill), seven out of every ten people in the general populace are suffering from a mental illness -- four of those are borderline personalities; one is clinically depressed or dysthymic; one is bi-polar; and one is severely psychotic, to include schizophrenic and/or delusional. Additionally, while it has not yet been decisively clinically proven that physical and/or emotional abuse causes mental illness, it has been proven that abuse exacerbates any inherent tendency to mental illness. And, according to an informal study conducted by Robin Wood, author of the only book (to date) on pagan Ethics, "When, Why, If...", approximately 80% of all practicing pagans were childhood victims of physical and/or emotional abuse, and approximately 95% of those suffered that abuse in a mainstream religious setting and/or at the hands of a self-proclaimed "good Christian". And, according to PBS's "Religion Today", fundamentalist religions and/or lifestyles, as well as alternative religions and/or lifestyles, only appeal to less than one out of ten people. You do the math. 
So, kiddies, just relax and quit taking yourselves and the world so seriously. After all, no one gets out of life alive!
Here endeth the lesson. 
Loads of Love & Bright
Blessings, Snyd. :-)

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<> Rev. CYNTHIA "Snyd" LOUIS, MA, BS, CHt, CRBt <>
<>AKA Luinel, Goddess of beautiful downtown Bowling Green<>
<> Metaphysician, Ordained Universalist Minister <>
<> Astrology, Numerology & Tarot, Past Life Retrievals <>
<>Rational Behavior Modification, Actualized Living Plans<>
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