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AR 21:1 - Does culture trump Christian conviction in politics?
In this issue:
CULTURE - "most conservative Christians inevitably acquiesce to secular cultural demands - often by reinterpreting the Bible"
WITCHCRAFT - a sympathetic survey of popular occultic religion in America, and an important account of the Salem witch trials
Apologia Report 21:1 (1,274)
January 6, 2016
CULTURE
Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics, by Mark A. Smith <www.goo.gl/a2JwkB> [1] -- according to the publisher, Smith "argues that religion is not nearly the unchanging conservative influence in American politics that we have come to think it is. In fact, in the long run, religion is best understood as responding to changing political and cultural values rather than shaping them. Smith makes his case by charting five contentious issues in America's history: slavery, divorce, homosexuality, abortion, and women's rights. For each, he shows how the political views of even the most conservative Christians evolved in the same direction as the rest of society - perhaps not as swiftly, but always on the same arc. During periods of cultural transition, Christian leaders do resist prevailing values and behaviors, but those same leaders inevitably acquiesce - often by reinterpreting the Bible - if their positions become no longer tenable. Secular ideas and influences thereby shape the ways Christians read and interpret their scriptures.
"So powerful are the cultural and societal norms surrounding us that Christians in America today hold more in common morally and politically with their atheist neighbors than with the Christians of earlier centuries. In fact, the strongest predictors of people's moral beliefs are not their religious commitments or lack thereof but rather when and where they were born." <www.goo.gl/KKv09r>
In the Chicago Tribune, reviewer Kevin M. Schultz <www.goo.gl/bT71F2> writes that "Smith is after something bigger than just thumbing his nose at those who claim to have The Answer. Instead, Smith wants Americans to take a step back from the culture wars. He wants us to realize that, despite apocalyptic pronouncements that Americans are more polarized than ever before, we actually agree on quite a bit." <www.goo.gl/LXjQ07>
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WITCHCRAFT
Witches of America, by Alex Mar [2]
The Witches: Salem, 1692, by Stacy Schiff [3]
This joint review by Peter Manseau <petermanseau.com> finds that "as cartoonish as the figure of the witch has become in popular culture, it periodically manages to regain its potency." Reflecting on the term "witch hunt," Manseau equates it with "the Internet's mob mentality [which] sometimes makes McCarthyism look tame."
Manseau explains that Mar "provides a view of contemporary witches and the mostly Mugglish lives they lead," while Schiff "digs deep into the dark arts of our frequently haunted past, [and] together they suggest that the common caricatures of witches are much less interesting than reality. ...
"By exploring similarly uncanny landscape from the perspective of the present rather than the past, the journalist and filmmaker [Mar] offers a bookend to Schiff's history. Like a colonial witch-hunter convinced of diabolical doings, Mar insists witches are everywhere - provided you know where to look. ...
"The only difference might be that circa 1692, the notion of receiving 'communications from the other side' was a deadly serious matter, whereas today it is more often met with a smirk or a shrug.
"'The overriding culture trains us to dismiss these stories as New Age babble, signs of wayward fanaticism, rather than greet them with a healthy dose of curiosity,' Mar notes, 'but Americans are compelled by the mysterious more often than we feel permitted to admit.'
"Much as Schiff acknowledges that folk magic seems to have played a role in the Salem witch scare, Mar proposes to take contemporary witchcraft seriously as a sincere religious pursuit - albeit a highly decentralized one that is often difficult to define.
"'Today when people talk about witches - living, practicing witches - they're usually talking about *Pagans*,' [Mar] writes. 'Paganism evolved here over the last fifty years as an exotic, counterculture religious movement imported from England, where a new witchcraft religion called Wicca had been introduced to the public in the early fifties.' ...
"As Mar explains, any given pagan tradition, known as a 'trad,' can give birth to a number of 'lines,' which in turn are further broken down into 'covens.' All of these might claim to be part of an ancient lineage, but more than likely they are at most decades old. ...
"Mar became interested in the frequently woo-woo world of modern paganism while filming a documentary on mysticism <www.goo.gl/OoobY7>. Watching a gathering of California witches perform a ritual within a circle of stones, she was surprised to discover that she longed to move out from behind her camera and become an active participant in the ceremony. ...
"In early chapters, [Mar] takes the reader on a tour of various trads, from Dianic Wicca, also known as 'goddess worship,' to the impressively named Ordo Templi Orientis ('Order of the Oriental Templars'), founded by Freemasons in 1906 and populated by the eccentric British millionaire Aleister Crowley after World War I.
"Midway through her odyssey, however, [Mar] announces her intention to 'train in Feri,' a 'Craft' tradition that, according to its twentieth-century founder [Victor Henry Anderson], 'was first practiced tens of thousands of years ago, by a small-bodied, dark-skinned people out of Africa, the first 'Fairy folk' - not to be confused with the winged nature spirits of the same name.' Bookforum, Sep/Nov '15, pp22-23.
In Library Journal (Sep '15 #2, p82) Janet Tapper (Univ. of Western States Lib., Portland, OR) notes: "Former Rolling Stone editor and filmmaker Mar deftly weaves in her own story of agnostic searching as she chronicles the various threads of American pagan belief systems, creating a narrative equal parts diary, history lesson, ethnographic study, myth buster, and pagan gossip. After spending time filming the Feri priest Morpheus for her documentary, Mar found herself drawn to a course of study and exploration of the various pagan sects and magical practices, far exceeding the safety of suburban Wiccan covens. Her experiences and observations, some inspiring, some a tad disturbing, are fodder for reflection on what faith and belief actually mean and how they are influenced by cultural expectation and conditioning. The chapter on Satan and the melding of occultism to devil worship in the mind of the public, fueled by a sensationalist media, is an eye-opening exposé of the effects of damaging religious ignorance and intolerance. VERDICT A top-notch read for pagans and open-minded seekers curious about the fascinating beginnings of American witchcraft and some of the various directions its form is taking.
Publishers Weekly (Aug '15 #4, n.p.) adds: "The book's only flaw is an abrupt ending, leaving many unanswered questions: Does Mar stay involved with the New Orleans branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis? Does she find the revelation she is looking for?"
In a joint review of the same two works in the Wall Street Journal <www.goo.gl/8ffkHu>, Felipe Fernández-Armesto <www.goo.gl/rBWH84> writes that, as portrayed by Mar, "the adepts of Wicca seem led by a mix of tricksters and genuinely self-deluded eccentrics, whose followers are after a life of sensation, not thought. They do little harm except to themselves - to their bodies by sexual excess, to their minds by corrosive drivel."
Of The Witches, he writes that Schiff "provides a trial narrative unsurpassed for detail and impressive for her mastery of the fragmentary and frustrating sources. The effect, however, is unsatisfactory. Although she takes us through the twists and tergiversations of the main characters, she uncovers no new clues to understanding, for instance, the ditherings of some officials and the impassivity of others, or the ebb and flow of zeal among the witch hunters, or the complex networks that might explain how the sides in the trials aligned. ... The explanations Ms. Schiff offers are familiar: The key witnesses were pubescent hysterics or vengeful opportunists. Amateurism or ignorance duped most of the persecuting pastors and judges, while uncritical erudition misled armchair witch hunters who knew everything about witchcraft except that it did not really exist. An atmosphere of terror - of hunger, cold, and French and native enemies - nourished suspicion. Accusations were cloaked vendettas and property grand."
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics, by Mark A. Smith (Univ of Chicago Prs, 2015, hardcover, 288 pages) <www.goo.gl/fsjEzc>
2 - Witches of America, by Alex Mar (Sarah Crichton Books, 2015, hardcover, 288 pages) <www.goo.gl/WptMQi>
3 - The Witches: Salem, 1692, by Stacy Schiff
(Little, Brown, 2015, hardcover, 512 pages) <www.goo.gl/4ocKwB>
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