As I sat down to write the seemingly simple introduction to myself, to how my political and religious views influence each other, I started to wish there were an easy way to do this. To be fair, I don’t often consider how my religion influences my political views because my religion influences every part of my life.
I was raised in a fairly conservative household, although we never really discussed politics. I remember asking my dad one year who he voted for, and he told me that it was inappropriate to ask someone that question. I spent my childhood and early teenage years blissfully unaware of opposing political views because we didn’t discuss them. Then again, we didn’t really discuss what my parents thought either. When I hit high school, different worlds of thought began opening up to me and I decided to explore those worlds.
What began as solitary exploration led me to a variety of pagan groups and my experiences with them began to alter my perceptions of my religion. I became more comfortable labeling myself and have finally settled comfortable into accepting that I’m an Irish reconstructionist and a heathen. I follow the lore and teachings of the Irish and Norse deities.
Many of my ethics and political views come from the clan-based warrior societies that these two paths developed in, and I describe myself as independent and moderate. My views are often complicated and are a compound of my entire life: the way I was raised, the religion I became, and my interactions with the world around me. I live these values every day and they are expressed in my actions as well as my views on things like the war in Iraq, abortion, and healthcare reforms.
I’m excited to be blogging with my fascinating counterparts and showing just how varied pagans are politically, and I’m excited that we already have a number of readers who are willing to respond to what we have to say! I enjoy opening up dialogue, even if we disagree. We can’t learn and grow without other people to challenge us, and I look forward to that exchange.
It is nice to see another reconstructionist here. I feel our traditions are under-represented in the pagan community and I am pleased to see two bloggers here now representing us, and their traditions. Thank you for your visibility, and thank you to this blog for allowing for this representation.
Good, thoughtful post, Laura. I’m still not and probably never will be real comfortable with definitions and terms I use of myself but I’ve settled on a few nonetheless, as I show in my own introductory post. Like yours, my views are complicated and I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t think about them.
I must admit, I know scant little about reconstructionist view. So this will be very educational for me. I’m also glad that there are liberals, moderates, and conservatives blogging. The spectrum of discussion will make for great debate and learning.
I agree, we learn so little from those with our same point of view.
Mine as well, and I struggle with the conservatism of those societies and the liberalism I now espouse. I look forward to hearing your moderate take.