I mean, full disclosure, Roz, I come from a family one of whose family businesses is witch-doctoring. I was raised with all this possession stuff and, while I have a very different perspective on it than Christians or Satanists do, I have indeed seen some really hair-raising horrific stuff. Difference is, I think, that I still think mocking is appropriate, that a sense of humor and perspective is called for, and that, yeah, it is really hard to draw the line between the beliefs and experiences of someone like me--who interacts with all of this spiritual skulduggery as a way of life, but isn't, I should hope, a jerk--and someone who, two steps to the east or west, believes that queerness or Lady Gaga listening is a demoniacal affront that must be fought by any means necessary in the name of righteousness. I mean, seriously. And until there's a good way to draw that line--and I don't think there ever will be--what I do in the privacy of my own chapel--or someone else's home, when they call me in to do an exorcism, as I've been called to do in the past--well, I think the lot of us should maaaaaaybe let rationality and empiricism run things, and keep the woo-woo out of politics. My politics run on woo-woo. I'm a religious activist. I'm a seminarian for crying out loud. But the minute I start thinking my religion ought to be legislated, smack me upside the head, you know?
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Date: 2010-06-30 03:33 pm (UTC)Difference is, I think, that I still think mocking is appropriate, that a sense of humor and perspective is called for, and that, yeah, it is really hard to draw the line between the beliefs and experiences of someone like me--who interacts with all of this spiritual skulduggery as a way of life, but isn't, I should hope, a jerk--and someone who, two steps to the east or west, believes that queerness or Lady Gaga listening is a demoniacal affront that must be fought by any means necessary in the name of righteousness. I mean, seriously. And until there's a good way to draw that line--and I don't think there ever will be--what I do in the privacy of my own chapel--or someone else's home, when they call me in to do an exorcism, as I've been called to do in the past--well, I think the lot of us should maaaaaaybe let rationality and empiricism run things, and keep the woo-woo out of politics.
My politics run on woo-woo. I'm a religious activist. I'm a seminarian for crying out loud. But the minute I start thinking my religion ought to be legislated, smack me upside the head, you know?