Pagans have become more sure of their safety yet many are still worried about their freedom of religion rights over the past few years.
There are now several different Pagan organizations devoted to working to preserve our Constitutionally garanteed right to freedom of religion and other rights that we are supposed to have without regard to religion.
W.A.R.D., or Witches Against Religious Discrimination is a group that works with people. PUC PAC, or the Pagan Unity Campaign Political Action Committee, is a groups of Pagans who are working on forming the first group dedicated to fighting for Pagan rights through politics.
There are many other such organizations, which I will be happy to list if organizers contact me with information about their missions.
Two things that are very important in the realm of Pagan rights are education and excercising the right to vote.
Even though many Pagans still abhor the idea of political involvement, letting legislators legally whittle away our rights is much more unacceptable.
Pagans support different political parties. That isn't a problem. At least those people are researching the issues and letting their voices be heard.
Other people won't vote, mistakenly thinking that their votes don't matter. Some believe they're too busy to learn about the issues, the party platforms, or the individual candidates. I think that's sad.
If you want to learn more about the various political parties before the next election, all of the major political parties are linked to from my Women's Issues page.
Women's Issues and Organizations Pagans are forging ahead on the political front. They're forming an organization called the Pagan Unity Campaign (PUC) Political Action Committee (PAC). PUC PAC is a non-partisan, non-denominational organization that will focus on endorsing the candidates most supportive of Pagan rights, educating politicians about Paganism, and lobbying politicians who may be willing to help further Pagan rights.
PUC PAC has an official website, as well as discussion groups and a webring of members' personal PUC PAC sites. Click the graphic above
to visit the website. All of PUC PAC's staff discussion groups are now located at Yahoo! Groups and are private. However, they have a public discussion group called PUCchat. People from the PUCchat list are sometimes invited to become staff members. We also have a group at MSN and one at Lycos, which can be found by searching the Lycos groups. Visit PUCchat Visit PUC PAC at MSN Another Pagan activism and politics community that you might be interested in visiting at MSN is called Activism, Politics and Paganism. Go to Acitvism, Politics and Paganism Anti-Pagan Discrimination Unfortunately, Pagans are still often victims of religious discrimination. Sometimes that discrimination is in the workplace, school, or in the courtroom, especially in child custody cases.
People fear what they don't understand, but they don't have the right to use their fears to justify discrimination.
Sometimes these situations are easily resolved, but not always. That is when contacting groups such as W.A.R.D. (mentioned above) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) may become neccessary. Go to the WARD website Visit the ACLU's website Pagan Public Relations Pagans can do quite a bit to influence the general public's view of Paganism by getting out and showing them that we are normal people who are concerned about the world and the people around us.
Pagans can volunteer in community projects as organized Pagan groups.
Some Pagan groups are now holding celebrations which are open to the public in order to show them what Pagans really do instead of scrificing animals and flying around on brooms.
There is also a Pagan public relations website called 21st Century Witches. The purpose of this site is to show the world that Pagans are really normal people by showing pictures of real-life Pagans. Many of the pictures are of Pagans who are working or spending time with their families.
The site is constantly evolving, so it is never too late to have your picture added to the site. Visit 21st Century Witches |
