Strange Gods: Neopaganism On Campus.

National Review ^ | 9/5/01 | Peter Wood

[marshmallow]

My parents are witches. My grandfather was a witch. My great grandfather was a witch, and his spellbook is my most precious possession. When my partner and I were looking for a Wiccan commitment ceremony, we found important spells in his book."

Mr. Beltane (as I will call him) was angry. He spoke with little gulps that sounded like a prelude to tears as he defended the integrity of his beliefs and his anger was directed mostly at me, because I had been questioning whether "neo-paganism" ought to be one of the officially recognized religions at my university.

Witches and "neo-pagans" are a fixture on many American college campuses. They are part of the florid undergrowth of the contemporary liberal university, which tolerates — or, more accurately, fosters — destructive experimentation with personal identity. Some of this experimentation unfolds in the classroom (see "Outrageous Selves,") but the frivolity sprouts up everywhere. It was in the basement of the campus chapel that day last fall when Mr. Beltane and I exchanged views.

Although I will inevitably upset some neo-pagans in saying so, I don't think these folks are particularly dangerous. Confused, deluded, and generally dim, they gathered themselves like iron filings on the magnetic pole of campus nuttiness and they are content to stay there. Self-identification of fools is probably a good thing, at least in universities.

But I do worry about the campus chaplains who see neo-paganism and witchcraft as just further expressions of humanity's quest for spiritual fulfillment. On the occasion of Mr. Beltane's outburst, several of them were quick to point out that Harvard recognizes witches as a campus religious group, and so do many other colleges and universities around Boston. Somehow that doesn't seem to me the most powerful argument for extending official recognition, but I agree that it means something.

What it means is that religious life at Harvard and many of those other colleges and universities is devoid of intellectual seriousness. (To find the students who are religiously serious, one heads off campus to congregations such as the evangelical Park Street Church.) The widespread recognition of neo-pagans and similar groups shows how far the spiritual immune system of higher education has been compromised. Little inanities that once would have been brushed aside now settle in as opportunistic infections. Many of the clergy seem completely unable to articulate any meaningful difference between the two-thousand-year tradition of Christianity and the ad hoc formulations of late adolescents who freely admit that they are making it up as they go.

I have found, for example, that many campus clergy are ready to accept the Wiccan adage, "Do what thou wilt," which was invented in 1904 by a British libertine named Aleister Crowley ("Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.") as an ethical injunction to be set beside The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Can these clergy draw a distinction between a jumble of magical formulas and invocations to miscellaneous gods and goddesses and the ethical guidance offered by Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism? Is a movement that disdains the goal of intellectual coherence a worthy addition to a university community?

When I have put such questions to various priests, ministers, and rabbis, some have offered good and thoughtful answers but most find the questions unwelcome and beside the point. On campuses across the country, campus ministers often see themselves as champions of tolerance and advocates of diversity, and if some group of students proclaims themselves worshippers of Ba'al, why then, they say, we should invite Ba'al to the table for an ecumenical meal.

So I was hardly surprised when the Episcopalian chaplain took umbrage at my willingness to leave the Wiccans to their own devices without the benefit of formal university recognition. She pointed out that people (like me?) used to burn witches, and that there were crusades against Communists, too, and that I could learn a lot about the ugliness of intolerance by reading Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witchcraft trials, The Crucible.

Neither the inflammatory language nor the reference to the Leftist dramaturge, however, persuaded her colleagues. An Orthodox rabbi offered an especially lucid explanation of why the neo-pagans did not belong in the company of legitimate campus religious groups, and on a narrow vote, the witches were cast out — for the time being.

But as for the broader verdict, I am less sanguine. The ideology of diversity has, for the most part, muscled out simple piety. The stewards of important religious traditions frequently place a higher value on demonstrating their friendliness to other points of view than they place on their own teachings. As a result, religious affiliation becomes a matter not of persuasion but of preference. Religion is part of the student identity kit, rather than an inquiry into the ultimate nature of truth or a teaching about the ultimate nature of right and wrong.

Backing down from ultimate claims is, of course, convenient on campuses that welcome the adherents of dozens of religions, some with histories of mutual enmity. But religious openness doesn't require shutting away or trivializing the deepest teachings of one's own religion. The wisest councilors seem to understand this, and every major faith has its own traditions of religious toleration. The alternative to the Episcopal chaplain's vision of anything goes religious license is not witch-burning or sectarian violence. It is serious intellectual debate about the central ideas of competing traditions.

The infatuation of higher education with its smiling idol, Diversity, however, precludes most serious inter-religious debate. The idol smiles no doubt because he understands the irony. Higher education bows down to Diversity and Diversity renders all the same.

As for Mr. Beltane, I have not seen him since. Perhaps he was swallowed by his grandfather's book. The dean of the chapel who promoted the neo-pagans retired. Their faculty advisor is an eccentric English anthropologist who dabbles in the paranormal. I see him around. The neo-pagan students themselves show up in the news now and then enjoying their bit of notoriety. And higher education, such as it is, continues its wobbly descent into the cultural void.

Peter Wood is associate provost at Boston University.

[Dead Corpse]

From #123
Stayed up all night wondering if there really was a Dog.

[Don Myers]

"YO, dog. Wasssuuuup?"

Storm Orphan, perhaps you have better stay out of this. You are a light-weight.

[Don Myers]

"You'd be off my list, I'm afraid."

That's ok. I was just joking anyway.

[Storm Orphan]

Shhh....I'm on a roll...

Funny you should mention that...

[Don Myers]

"It is an easy road, scorning people and making a general ass out of yourself, all while claiming its in gods name...."

OPH, you start off with name-calling and scorning Christians. And then you say that I am scorning people. Look in a mirror. And look at the posts that I made at which you have scorned. I don't know for sure what religious beliefs that you hold, but I am assuming that you are into some sort of new age Christian religion. YOu have said that you have rejected the Christian teachings that you learned. YOu have taught those same beliefs to your daughters. YOu are responsible for that. So you had better hope that you are correct. Because you are responsible for them.

[Don Myers]

Storm Orphan, go and play with the other little boys. You are making a nuisance of yourself here.

[Don Myers]

I am going to let you two play pat on the back. YOu deserve each other. And I am going to bed.

[Uriel1975]

Messenger of Fear in sight
Dark deception kills the light

Hybrid children watch the sea
Pray for Father, roaming free

Fearless Wretch Insanity
He watches Lurking beneath the sea
Great Old One Forbidden site
He searches Hunter of the Shadows is rising
Immortal In madness You dwell

Crawling Chaos, underground
Cult has summoned, twisted sound
Out from ruins once possessed
Fallen city, living death

Fearless Wretch Insanity
He watches Lurking beneath the sea
Timeless sleep Has been upset
He awakens Hunter of the Shadows is rising
Immortal In madness You dwell

Not dead which eternal lie
Stranger eons Death may die

Drain you of your sanity
Face The Thing That Should Not Be

Fearless Wretch Insanity
He watches
Great Old One Forbidden site
He searches Hunter of the Shadows is rising
Immortal In madness You dwell

Saw Nyarlathotep banner,
Had to post Nyarlathotep liturgy.

This post courtesy of the eldritch forces of the unspeakable hidden dark who have temporarily possessed Uriel's mind before beginning to feed upon the blood of his soul...

(Even Rightwing Calvinist Fundamentalists read Lovecraft as a kid... hey, what angst-ridden, working-class, somewhat literate teenager from the wrong side of the tracks hasn't?)

[Dead Corpse]

... and on that happy note, I think I'm off to bed as well.

Say "Hi" to Abdul Alhazred for me will ya?