Culture Blogs
Pagan Activist is a blog for liberal Pagans to write their experiences, calls to action, and inform the general public of what's going on from a Pagan perspective.
Call to Action
Across the Midwest and New England a fight has been brewing between landowners and the Canadian corporation Enbridge. The fight centers on two tarsands pipeline crisscrossing the continent: Keystone XL in the Midwest and Trailbreaker/Line 9 in the Northeast. Enbridge, the owner of the pipeline wants to move tarsands, the most toxic and corrosive oil product on this planet, from Alberta, Canada to the sea. In order to do so, the pipelines will bisect the breath of the United States from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico and to the Gulf of Maine. Leaks will happen in New England and in the Midwest and will impact all of the nation.
(Image source: http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/keystonexl/)
Thousands of people nationwide have been on the forefront of this fight. Thousands more have joined the resistance from Canada. The Canadian insurgence comes from the movement Idle No More (#IdleNoMore) in which many of the indigenous peoples of Canada have reached their breaking point and are now standing up to the Canadian government saying they will no longer permit Mother Earth to be destroyed for corporate profits. Flashmobs have been spotted all over the US and Canada. Drums are drummed, songs sung, hands held as groups of people, normally disconnected from one another, come together in moments of peace and unity in resistance to the global devastation tarsands causes.
Here in the United States, 350.org has been leading the charge against tarsands. Sierra Club has also taken a stance as has the National Wildlife Fund. Thousands of environmental groups have come out against tarsands across the globe. Individuals who will not be affected by tarsands are taking a stand and calling for the end of the West's oil addiction.
To find out more about this ongoing campaign, please see: http://act.350.org/letter/a_million_strong_against_keystone/
Comments
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Sunday, 21 April 2013As a Christian subscriber and reader of W&P, and PanGaia for years now, I find it so interesting to see someone like Mr. Bloch taking over the airspace like so many right-wingers do in my own religion. Odd... never thought I'd see it happen here.
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Monday, 22 April 2013With all due respect, Shawn, as the publisher of those magazines, as well as of this blogspace, I'd like to point out that Mr. Bloch isn't "taking over" anything. I deliberately have invited a very wide spectrum of the political viewpoints which are representative of the contemporary Pagan scene to participate. I do not share the majority of Mr. Bloch's political views, but in the interests of representing ALL of our community, I welcome his participation -- as well as our many MANY liberal and progressive voices. Paganism is growing more politically diverse over time. (For more on what I think about that, I refer you to my editorial in Witches&Pagans #24 "Heathen & Northern traditions http://witchesandpagans.com/Witches-Pagans-Editorial/heathenism-a-return-to-tribal-based-religion-wp24.html
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Monday, 22 April 2013Thank you Anne for supporting and including pagans with differing opinions. Too many people, in my opinion, have confused Wicca and other pagan religions as indistinguishable from misguided left wing political advocacy. After decades of pagans attacking CO2 as an agent for "global warming" we now are told by NASA that CO2 actually causes global cooling. Principia Scientific International Mar 26, 2013. We all support protecting the Earth, but going off half cocked is worse than useless. We need to be working on finding the best way to support six Billion people, not just blindly opposing every rational attempt to do the least harmful solution to a massive problem.
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Monday, 22 April 2013
Greybeard: I welcome all kinds of Pagans here, although you should know that I do not share your skepticism about climate change. Be that as it may, what I *do* try to do is ask our bloggers, when writing about politics, to connect-the-dots between their spirituality and their politics explicitly. Ms. Hill's post (her first one here, so hey, let's go easy on her ok?) didn't tease out that connection well enough, but I'm sure she will in future.
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Tuesday, 23 April 2013Shawn: It's not "taking over" something to ask that an overtly political post have some relevance to religion, when posted on a religious site. I feel that resisting the automatic assumptions that all Pagans are liberals, all Pagans are "environmentalists", all Pagans are Wiccans, etc. is incumbent on all of us if we are to have meaningful conversations.
The fact is, as Anne points out, is that Paganism and Heathenry are far more diverse than many Pagans realize, politically, ideologically, etc. As such, posts like this, which make the unwritten assumption that all Pagans share the same anti-business, anti-oil agenda, should be called out to remind everyone that such assumptions are unwarranted, and that conversations and learning come out of being called upon to defend one's opinions and connections, rather than just putting them out there with the assumption that one is preaching to the choir. -
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Hi Joseph (and Anne),
Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the snarkiness of the original posting.
As a Sophian Christian (and Anglican priest), it is just nice for me to fantasize that there IS such a religion where one could assume that everyone in that religion is an environmentalist, pro-LGBTT, pro-ecofeminist, anti-capitalist,etc.
For decades I thought I was safe in making those assumptions about neopaganism ... but I guess not. Better to see the truth, though, than to have my assumptions go unchallenged!
Peace,
Shawn -
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Howdy, Shawn --
I used to make the same assumptions as you, and was more than happy to do so. (I'm in that "progressive, pro-LGBST, ecofeminist" camp, although as a private businesswoman, I could hardly call myself anti-capitalist.) But, as I've become more active in the community, I have seen a MAJOR sea-change among our adherents, to include a much broader set of political perspectives. I detail my sociological theories about the reason for this change in my editorial (quoted previously above) in the Heathenism issue, so I won't further belabor them here. However, I believe (in brief) that as a religion becomes more mature, it naturally becomes less counter-cultural and more culturally assimilated. I think that's what's going on here, and it bodes well for the longevity of the movement as a whole. -
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And this has what, exactly, to do with Paganism?