Z is for Zealot
A Zealot is defined by Merriam-Webster.com
as:
1: Capitalized: a member of a fanatical sect arising in Judea
during the first century a.d. and militantly opposing the Roman domination of
Palestine
2: A zealous person; especially: a fanatical partisan <a
religious zealot>
I've been a zealous advocate of many things. For example, I fight for LGBT rights with zeal but I can listen to others and not be closed minded. When I
think about the word zealot my mind automatically goes to those of the
religious nature. I've met Catholic zealots,
Protestant zealots and even Pagan zealots.
To me, a zealot is someone who is so immersed in their own religious
views that they have no room to allow others to have their own views. They do not allow for any open dialog or
discussion. They are the “It’s my way or
the highway” crowds.
One of these would be the folks out at Westboro Baptist
Church (WBC). Classified as Independent
Baptists, WBC is listed as a hate group with the Southern
Poverty Law Center. This group was
founded in 1955 by Fred
Phelps and holds a hard and fast line on interpreting the Bible. Known for picketing the funerals of everyone
from the military to LGBT children, WBC has one other call to fame. Recently it was published that a petition on the
White House site “We
the People”, to legally recognize the church as a hate group became the
most populate petition to date with 297,566 signatures at the time of this
writing.
However I’d like to point out that in my opinion these are not
the only type of zealots out there. As I
mentioned above I believe Pagans can be zealots to.
Take Z Budapest for example.
The action of banning all female identified trans* from her Dianic Wiccan rituals led
to outright protests. If I understand
her logic, she believes that due to some of the rituals of Dianic Wicca being
led skyclad;
the members of her group would be offended if trans* members did not have
bottom surgery. A post by Teo
Bishop on Patheos.com outlined the events he witnessed at the protest. It is indeed a powerful review of the events. Many bloggers took on the story and wrote
about the event. I wrote a piece here.
After this I started to be concerned with Z’s non-inclusion and
felt that maybe this was not the kind of energy that I wanted to be associated
with. Then I saw the announcement on her
Facebook page
that she would put a hex on anyone that changed the words of “We All Come from
the Goddess” to include men/male energy. I was shocked.
I understand feminism.
Feminism is not male hatred, its female loving. To me if you do not have the ability in your
heart to care for others, you cannot care for yourself. That was it for me. I changed my ritual playlist to INCLUDE the
version with “Hoof and Horn” and I do indeed think about being open,
understanding and inclusive when I hear it.
I removed Z from my Facebook friends and stopped following her on
Twitter. That type of energy is
something I do not need in my life.
So you see, you can have zealots all over the spectrum. In this case I’ve addressed only religious
zealots. There are lots of others. PETA for example. I believe they are zealots for animal
rights.
Any time a person takes a cause and closes their eyes to the ability
to see others as the true life energy that they are. You my friend are a zealot.
This is my last post for the Pagan Blog Project 2012. It’s been amazing! I’m looking forward to
2013.
Namaste and Blessed Be
Sosanna
)O(
1 comment
I live in a very small populated area so my community is very small. I have to say the only few zealot I met were Christian. Which I total fine with.
Coffee is on.
Post a Comment