What does “ecumenism” mean when you don’t “all worship the same god”?<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Scalia, a\/k\/a The Anchoress<\/em>, a Roman Catholic blogger at Patheos, comments simultaneously on posts by another Patheos Catholic blogger and by Star Foster, who manages the site’s Pagan portal.<\/a> Both of the latter, in Star’s words, hold that “My faith is not a matter of style. It\u2019s not like shoes or purses. It\u2019s not a matter of deciding if I want tacos or pasta for dinner. It\u2019s not something I can change on a whim.”<\/p>\n Scalia’s verdict: “Ecumenism has not been able to say that [not all religions are the same];<\/strong> it\u2019s been too busy trying to be all things to all people and placing equal values to things that are not equal in anyone\u2019s mind. It\u2019s been a lie.”<\/p>\n She ends up admiring Star for her honesty, at least<\/a>. But her commenters, many of them, are not convinced.\u00a0 “I couldn\u2019t call myself a Catholic and not tell you that the practice of Witchcraft is evil,” notes one.<\/p>\n Which is why I sometimes wonder why we \u2014 Pagans in particular \u2014 bother with ecumenical and interfaith activities.<\/p>\n It’s true that I do often feel that religious professionals<\/em> have more in common with each other and are more able to relate to one another than their congregants and followers are.<\/p>\n We Pagans do not seek unity with the same fervor that the Christians do (even as they splinter more and more). “Ecumenicism” refers to a promotion of unity, of purpose if not of organization, between different Christian bodies.<\/a><\/p>\n “Interfaith” has a somewhat different meaning.<\/a>\u00a0 At times the two words are used interchangeably, but they should not be. Were it not for the American constitutional tradition of religious freedom (and similar traditions in some other Western nations), I do not think that the Pagans would get a seat at the interfaith luncheon table. (Resolutions passed by the United Nations have no effect that I have ever seen.)<\/p>\n So my title is an editorial rather than a rhetorical question.<\/strong>\u00a0 I have just been going over some material related to the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group<\/a> in the American Academy of Religion \u2014\u00a0 the 2012 call for papers has not yet been posted but soon will be. I don’t know if that topic would fit the “call” perfectly, but a creative person could make it fit. Or write an article for The Pomegranate<\/em>. <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does “ecumenism” mean when you don’t “all worship the same god”? Elizabeth Scalia, a\/k\/a The Anchoress, a Roman Catholic blogger at Patheos, comments simultaneously on posts by another Patheos Catholic blogger and by Star Foster, who manages the site’s Pagan portal. Both of the latter, in Star’s words, hold that “My faith is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,5,4],"class_list":["post-3682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-paganism","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Xo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1189,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1189","url_meta":{"origin":3682,"position":0},"title":"Pagan Content on Patheos: John Muir was Pagan??","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"USA Today's religion blogger, Cathy Lynn Gross, visits the Patheos religion web site and discovers (shock!) that it has a Pagan portal with actual Pagan content.The article that catches her attention is \"John Muir was a Pagan.\"I admire John Muir, but I do not see him as a capital-P Pagan,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1154,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1154","url_meta":{"origin":3682,"position":1},"title":"Patheos’ Pagan Gateway","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have had the privilege of helping to create the \"Pagan gateway\" on Patheos.com, a new interfaith religious portal site designed to help people find \" credible, comprehensive, easily accessible information on religion and spirituality.\"Founders Leo and Cathie Brunnick are trying to create a site that is comprehensive, academically sound,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5867,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5867","url_meta":{"origin":3682,"position":2},"title":"Tarot Cards \u2014\u00a0They Are for Catholics Too","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas L. McDonald, Patheos' \"Technology | Culture | Catholicism\" blogger has a five-part series on the history of the Tarot cards. It starts here. The real history of the Tarot, however, begins in the early 15th century in Italy, and their story is an important part of gaming and cultural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"history\"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2537,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2537","url_meta":{"origin":3682,"position":3},"title":"Blogging: Why Build Somone Else’s Brand?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There is some political name-calling in his post, but Stacy McCain does make one valid point about blogging. If you are going to work for free, why build someone else's reputation rather than your own? I know two people who were writing for The Huffington Post\u2014the site that owner Arianna\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1281,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1281","url_meta":{"origin":3682,"position":4},"title":"Some Newish Online Pagan-Related Magazines","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 The new Pagan Edge offers \"lifestyles and passions of the modern Pagan.\" The special subscription price is good until January 10th.\u2022 Penton has been published in South Africa for a while. They are up to issue 45 and have a nice, straightforward navigation system.\u2022 Sannion links to a possibly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1803,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1803","url_meta":{"origin":3682,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry for a Cool September Day","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Check out Patheos' story package on The Future of Paganism. Solitaries? Personal paganism? What's next? \u2022 Musings on that \"Nazi\" label and whether the climate of the Pacific Northwest encourages \"black metal\" bands, at Bioregional Animism. \u2022 He comes to the festival as a lapsed Lutheran. He leaves as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3682"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3684,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions\/3684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}