Sitting here on the fringe with my kid, looking at the view

[beetiger]

While I was out in Florida taking my kid to Disney World, a totally canonical American family activity, I got email from Marie, the woman who runs the Sampler project I was raving about. She'd been receiving a number of emails, LJ comments in her community, and an anonymous return of one of the pins I sent for the May Sampler, which had this design. I'd cleared them with her before sending, as she does in fact reserve the right to not accept submissions that she thinks might be offensive. She didn't believe they were. However, some people, or maybe someone and zir posse, did. I can't see the comments, as she deleted them, but they were apparently very inflammatory. When she physically got the return, she decided to contact me in case the people had also been contacting me directly. (They hadn't.)

After a friendly if somewhat confused email from me in response, she agreed to let me keep contributing to the Sampler, though she suggested I not preview my items on the LJ community. ("That might not be good.")

She did send me a summary of the complaints, as follows:
1) satanic symbolism
2) items inappropriate for a child
3) their christian ethics being insulted
4) the business name promotes the demonization of children


Usual policy for the Sampler is that if you receive something not to your liking, you should pass it on or trade it. If it's something you really think no one should have, just throw it out and say "Eww" or something.

This is really a trendy arty community, and I really thought hard to figure out what might have a high "cute" factor even if you weren't pagan.

Then I wake up this morning to find my friends' page splattered all over with this case from Indiana where as part of a divorce settlement, the custodial parents of a boy aren't allowed to teach him their Wiccan beliefs -- when this was not otherwise an issue in the divorce settlement, just the judge's personal thing.

I keep trying to get my head around the idea that people think I'm dangerous to kids, just by existing. I start to get worried that I'm setting my little boy up for trouble, as soon as he opens his little mouth to talk about his day to day life. But when he looks down at his shirt and says "Cat! Star!" and laughs a lot, I just can't see any peril there. And the fact that someone can makes me profoundly sad.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm here to provide the alternative perspective, offered in the spirit of friendship.

First, they were wrong to complain when there is a policy in place for dealing with items they don't want. They could have simply thrown it out if they didn't want someone else to have it.

Fifteen years ago, I would have agreed with them in spirit, if not in their actions. There is a huge amount of "Christian" literature available stating that everything to do with paganism has the actual purpose of leading kids into Satanism, and that the most dangerous form of paganism is the cutsie, cartoony kind expressly because it is appealing to kids. There are whole books on the subject of how the Smurfs showed kids how to perform satanic rituals. The "Christian" publishing industry - and in the States, it's huge and growing - makes an absolute fortune telling people who trust them that paganism = satanism, and that pagans are out to get your kids and turn them to the Dark Side.

The fact is, a lot of people never really question these beliefs. They're raised to believe it, and they do. End of story. I'm not saying that's right or good; just that it is. They're honestly afraid of other faiths leading their kids astray, because in their heart of hearts, they know that they're not perfect Christians themselves and they could easily be led astray themselves.

Anyway. I think these fundamentalist views are becoming more, rather than less entrenched in American society. I wish I could say otherwise, and I wish I had the power and the voice to tell other Christians that they're acting like asses and they should get their heads out of the sand and see all the wonderful diversity in the world. But the very act of me saying those things would have me branded as "ignorable Liberal pseudo-Christian, already deluded." I would be ignored, and perhaps even reviled as attempting to lead their kids away from the One True Way, too.

There's not much you can do, except remember that you're living the best way you know how, and in the end, they can't stop you any more than you can stop them.

I wish I had something more encouraging to say.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

*hugs* You know I have no problems with Christians generally. I have problems with people who believe that it's their job to save the whole world, and that it's their right to have the universe cleaned up to their expectations.

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

You know, I was previously worried I'd look like less of a Christian for doing a blatantly mythological and magic oriented webcomic, but I doubt I'm ever going to be enough of a Christian for the sort of people who read these things and therefor worry about evil influences, so I'm gonna stop caring what they think.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I make sure that my church friends and some of my in-laws are not fully aware of the depth of my depravity, but I do not hide things - I just neglect to mention them to people whose opinions I care about. My pastor? He's a jerk, and I don't want the kind of spiritual guidance he offers, so if he thinks I'm going to hell for playing D&D, he's welcome to his opinion but not in my house or in my face.

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

Luckly, no one 'close' to me is of this sort of mind, though I always worry about my mum seeing some art that may have swearing or violence in it. More the internet furry Christians that I've known in the fandom. Some are... well... an odd bunch.