Soft Paganism

What is the real religion of America? It is paganism, a soft paganism and a hard paganism. In this essay I will discuss soft paganism, leaving hard paganism to a future essay. Soft paganism is the religion that thinks we are all essentially good, that there is no real sin, that truth lies within our created nature, and that the natural life should be uncluttered by laws, dogma, and guilt.

This religion emerged full blown in the sixties, a religion of free love, do your own thing, and return to nature. In its mainline religious form, churches like the Episcopal Church, it is a religion of comfort, acceptance, and inclusion. In its secular cultural form, it fits perfectly with capitalism, the belief that the meaning of life is consumption, good living, nice house, nice clothes, nice car, best schools, and pleasant vacations. Soft paganism is everywhere, permeating the American soul. It is not, therefore, surprising that there is a growing pagan movement in America. Consider the following quotation by Allison Harlow, a systems analyst at a large medical research center in California. It describes her conversion to paganism.

It was Christmas Eve and I was singing in the choir of a lovely church at the edge of a lake, and the church was filled with beautiful decorations. It was full moon, and the moon was shining right through the glass windows of the church. I looked out and felt something very special happening, but it didn't seem to be happening inside the church.

After the midnight mass was over and everyone adjourned to the parish house for coffee, I knew I needed to be alone for a minute, so I left my husband and climbed up the hill behind the church. I sat on this hill looking at the full moon, and I could hear the sound of coffee cups clinking and the murmur of conversation from the parish house.

I was looking down on all this, when suddenly I felt a "presence." It seemed very ancient and wise and definitely female. I can't describe it any closer than that, but I felt that this presence, this being, was looking down on me, on this church and these people and saying, "The poor little ones! They mean so well and they understand so little."

I felt that whoever "she" was, she was incredibly old and patient; she was exasperated with the way things were going on the planet, but she hadn't given up hope that we would start making some sense of the world. So, after that, I knew I had to find out more about her.(1)

How can we make theological sense of this quotation? Theologically, the living God is known through Jesus Christ who is the Word and Image of God. This knowledge becomes living knowledge when the Holy Spirit witnesses to Jesus Christ, making him real to us. In an analogous way, let us consider the above quotation in terms of word/image and spirit.

In terms of word/image we have two contexts, although they overlap. There is the church, "a lovely church at the edge of a lake, and the church was filled with beautiful decorations." It is also "Christmas Eve" with its often magical sense of a wondrous birth, a primordial family, innocence, tenderness, and heavenly epiphanies. Outside the church there is another environment, the full moon, the hill behind the church overlooking the lake. Physically, the writer moved from one context to the other, from the beautifully decorated church to the world illumined by the full moon.

This movement and the resulting revelation was created by spirit. The spirit took the images and sounds of creation, the moon, the hill, the lake, and in that context, the church beneath her, and created a sense of a presence which then "spoke" to her. What can be said of its message?

First, notice that the word/image essentially contained no suffering and death. The images conveyed the beauty and stillness of creation, the moon, the hills, the lake, the ancient and enduring world unaffected by suffering and sorrow. Furthermore, the writer is articulate, a systems analyst at a large medical center, and attending a "lovely church at the edge of a lake." Doubtless, she belonged to the educated middle to upper class. Soft paganism speaks to the privileged by affirming that their affluence, lovely surroundings, and well-being belong to the natural order of things. The "presence" did that, reflecting the moon, the hills, and the lakes in their ancient and patient permanence.

The event beneath the moon also set forth a world view. It took the Christian world view and placed it in a pagan context. It did so through the words, "The poor little ones! They mean so well and they understand so little." The phrase "poor little ones" defines the people in the church as belonging to the ancient feminine presence. They are her children. Their real sanctuary is the hills, the moon, the lakes, and the trees. The phrase, they "do not understand," implies pity and maternal compassion. This is a maternal feminine religion.

It is significant that this reintegration of Christianity occurred at Christmas. During that liturgical season the faithful of the lovely church celebrated the birth of a child on a starry night so long ago. The manifestation was able to integrate the event of Jesus' birth, but it did not address the central, saving event of Christianity. That central event is the intense suffering and terror of the crucifixion followed by the glory of the bodily resurrection. The "presence" did not integrate that event because the pagan epiphany dealt only with the innocence of childhood and the wisdom of the ancient hills, leaving the rest untouched. As such, it is an inadequate religion. It appeals to the affluent and the comfortable, but has nothing to say to the sinful and the wretched. By contrast, the religion of the crucified has the power to restore the goodness and wonder of creation, but soft paganism will not embrace the sufferings of the crucified.

It might seem that Allison Harlow's conversion to soft paganism entailed a dramatic change. That, however, may not have been the case. It is quite common, normal in fact, for affluent Christians living in nice neighborhoods and worshipping in lovely churches to adopt the attitudes, habits, and life-style of soft paganism even as they take the name of Jesus on their lips. Allison Harlow's paganism was quite likely the simple recognition of how she and her social set had been living all along. In that case, the phrase, the "poor little ones! They mean so well and they understand so little," contains an element of truth. The "presence" believed the parishioners belonged to her by their actions, and since they were unaware of this, they understood so little. In other words, it wasn't that much of a stretch for Allison Harlow to incorporate her former world into her new one.

What is the difference between Harlow's encounter with her deity and the encounters with God as narrated in Scripture. The difference resides in God holiness and transcendence, his moral righteousness, intense beauty, and distance from and authority over creation. Isaiah, as narrated in Isaiah 6, for example, encountered a God who was so holy that Isaiah could hard bear to look at him. He knew at once that he was a man of unclean lips, in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Job, when he saw God, repented in dust and ashes. By contrast, it can be seen that Harlow's deity was a small created deity. She may have been "very ancient” and "incredibly old," but nonetheless, she was old because she was subject to time. She had nothing of the intense glory and power of the One who creates from nothing. As a result, she can not redeem a corrupted nature nor create the new heavens and the new earth of the last day. Like pagan systems in general, the deity was simply creation given a personal quality, a very old woman.

We may now ask, “What was this spirit that gave Harlow her new truth?” It was not the Holy Spirit who witnesses to the redemption of all things as given in Jesus Christ. It was not a saving spirit. It belonged to the created order, and lacking creative power, it could not save. It was not a truthful spirit because it and the pagan system it offers appears to give life but cannot do so because it can neither create nor redeem life. It appeared to understand, but it didn't bring suffering within its purview, nor did it grasp that there is no love without sacrifice. It was not a loving spirit because it did not suffer. It was not a good spirit because it was not loving. It was an evil spirit and it and the system it represents should be avoided at all costs.

Endnote

1. Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), pp. 14-15.