Religious ridicule, let alone discrimination/persecution, is a horrific thing to go through. At my mundane job (nope paid clergy is very rare among pagans!) my faith was discovered due to my high visibility in our local pagan community, having to take off of work for handfastings, etc. From time to time, someone would ask me about it. I would talk to them outside of work. I told them I don't want anyone discussing their faith where I'm trying to work so I won't do it either. Most people who are of my faith have no problem with it.

On my team of 8 out of 800 employees we would get new teammates from time to time. One newbie I'll call Joe Newbie asked a teammate of mine I'll call Jane about my pentacle one evening. Without thinking about Joe being FRESH north of the Mason-Dixon Line, Jane shortly commented about it. WHOOPS!!! Joe made several derogatory comments in the following 5 or so minutes. Thankfully I only heard his last comment, "I'd better shut up or she'll turn me into a newt and fly off on her broom!" I hadn't heard any other comments, but because I noticed sideways that he was staring at me when he said that - I wrote it down and turned it in to human resources about a ½ hour later when I went on my first break.

It turned out Jane, a hard-core Christian, didn’t think any of his comments should have been voiced and had been notating what he had said in the midst of “updating her work log.” She turned her complaint in almost immediately after the incident. Another teammate who happened to be one of my coveners, had also submitted a complaint as well. She had actually told him that comments like that were mean and didn't need to be going around the team, right after he started! He went on for about 5+ minutes anyway as I was told. By the time I took my dinner one hour later, Joe was in the HR conference room with our supervisor, director, OIC and vice president - he finished out the night and was never seen again. This was a very mild case but 3 complaints of religious ridicule/defamation, PLUS the fact that someone told him that his comments were completely out of place and rude - yet he continued, was enough to get a person fired the same day.
Remember, there are consequences for such actions and you do have the right to seek them out should such a thing happen to you. If you are US resident, your freedom is protected by the US constitution. In the US, you cannot be denied employment or even credit on the basis of your religion. QUALIFICATIONS - YES, religion - no. If you don’t have the qualification of being an ordained Catholic priest, no diocese will employ you. If you apply at a church goods store, they cannot deny you employment if you are qualified just because you happen to be pagan.

At work my coworkers respect my faith because I WON’T discuss it at work. Of course some of my friends occasionally joke with me when I have to take off for religious reasons - BUT - never on the clock and always discreetly! People do ask me about my faith at work when they see my jewelry or have heard a stray comment. I ask them if they want to have coffee sometime because I don’t like people discussing religions where I am trying to work so I won’t submit anyone else to it either.

We would like to send out a message to help members of the pagan community come out of the “broom closet.” No one should ever have to hide their religion for any reason.

The US military will ask your religion in case you die or get killed. Regular civilian employers have no right to ask your religion. Of course if you work at a religiously based business, you won’t get particularly far if you constantly voice contrary thoughts on a regular basis, but any employee anywhere who is constantly contrary won’t ever get far. As long as religious organizations (churches, temples, shrines, etc.) are tax exempt, we have no place bringing up our faith in banks, schools, hospitals, factories, firms, libraries, offices, etc. ad nauseum. As long as we respect these boundaries, we have little to no excuse to “have” to be “in the closet.”

Most people are in the closet for family or community reasons. The are many good resources for outing strategies. Believe it or not, many of them are books geared for older children and teenagers. TEEN WITCH - wicca for a new generation by Silver Ravenwolf is an excellent book for ideas on how to present your faith to your family & friends. There is a whole chapter written just for parents but it really applies to anyone that you are coming out to.

I urge pagans who are “out” to be as “normal” as possible. It’s possible to display your faith without shoving it down anyone’s throat. Wear your jewelry, dress “witchy” BUT ACT like there’s no difference between you and anyone else. When people see a blatant witch acting no differently than them, they will come to understand that religion is the ONLY difference. I put on business attire every day but Sunday. The only visible difference between myself and my coworkers is usually found around our necks or on our hands for those of us that wear jewelry, BUT I dress no differently, I conduct myself no differently while on the clock, I do not set myself apart unnecessarily.

NEVER be sorry or apologetic for your faith! This only breeds victimization. Our fight is very much like the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks was just one person, but by insisting on equal treatment, she forced people to pick up their eyes and admit to seeing a long denied pink elephant. The more “Rosa Parks’” we have in the pagan community, the less persecution and prejudice we will all have to face. The less we will hear of couples having to fight for custody of their own biological children because of their religion, the less situations we will have like the Iron Oak case.

The more visible - as normal, responsible, working people - we pagans are, the more comfortable the environment will become so that more closet pagans can come out without fear of repercussions.

50 years ago many gays married and even had children. Nowadays, they don’t have to get married heterosexually for show or stay completely single. They can have normal relationships just like heterosexuals - of course you can’t bring sexuality into work any more than religion - EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY! The point is gays didn’t get to where they are any faster than “non-whites” got their constitutional equal rights, let alone got them enforced. Both the civil rights movement and “gay rights” movement still have a ways to go due to close-minded NIMBY attitudes, but their progress serves as a good example of what can be accomplished.

We are NOT an organized religion, we have no Pontiff, no Patriarch, no King or Queen, etc.; however, if each one of us does our best to disprove the prejudice without making matters worse, to display ourselves as good human beings then the awareness will spread that we are not bad people.

There are, sad to say, still places in the US where if you are of the wrong Christian denomination people automatically don’t like you. It happens with all faiths in any culture. An Indian friend of mine (I’ll call Ruby) was marrying an Indian gentleman and her younger sister got furious. Her younger sister went to her grandmother and asked how she could be so happy that Ruby - a Hindu was marrying a Sikh. Her grandmother said they are both Indian - at least they can raise their children with the language and the culture. Ruby’s younger sister was shocked until she thought about it and realized that her 98 year old grandmother was more open-minded than she was. (and that Ruby was a big girl and could make her own decisions!)

We will not be taken seriously until the “Dungeons and Dragons,” crunchy-granola, white-light-fuzzy-bunny, weirdo thing is dropped by those who are already out! We will all be victimized until pagans stop conducting themselves in public in ways that may be considered odd or anti-social. If you have a victimization complex, become a Catholic - they canonize their martyrs as SAINTS! If you want to feel victimized and persecuted, but don’t want to become a martyr - go see a psychologist - you have a problem and need help. (or a dominatrix who can role play scenes for you until you have worked it out of your system!) There were enough NON-pagans martyred for social and political reasons during the burning times that we need ZERO pagan martyrs today. Today we need strength.

Being a pagan, to borrow from Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey, is “Responsibility to the Responsible.” If you don’t willingly take responsibility for your own life and therefore afterlife, go join some religion that lets you place responsibility for your life in some other god’s hands because paganism is not for you! (These types are usually called CULTS - very unhealthy!) Even “mainstream” religions say that “God helps those who help themselves.” That’s basically the same thing most pagans believe. Yes, as pagans, we believe that we all carry the power of our deities within and we must call upon that strength within that our deities have given us BEFORE we call upon our deities Themselves.

If you are weak willed, you must look within to find your strength. A weak will wills weak magic! In mundane life, having a weak will means not getting the job you deserve, the wage you deserve, etc. The only thing you get that you do deserve is a lack of respect. When you do find your will, you will finally command that which you deserve and you will find that your magic will improve in effect as well. When people TRULY respect you, they WILL respect your choice of religion regardless of their own personal choice. Don’t let fear and a weak will force you to live a lie! Stand up for yourself and insist on equal treatment as a HUMAN BEING.