Pagan ethics statement project

[elfwreck]

In response to a couple of recent abuse cases, some Pagans are working to make a "Pagans against sexual abuse" statement, either for the media or for the internal Pagan community or both. Background info is available at The Wild Hunt blog.

Author Brendan Myers volunteered to host the discussion and created a subforum for related topics. The

Comments

[ragnvaeig]

As someone above noted, not all of us accept the body as divine. I would accept the right of the individual to security of person, as is outlined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, but not the body as divine, because my paganism doesn't swing that way.

There's also no discussion of what will actually be done to combat sexual exploitation. Without some kind of listed consequences--e.g. legal prosecution within whatever jurisdiction is applicable, ostracism from the community--I don't think there's much force behind a statement like this, and there is no clear plan for how to proceed when abusive behaviours are identified. General principles are nice and all, but I'm not convinced this statement will have any discernible effect on any segment of the pagan community.

[sara_super_id]

I agree! I think there should be resources for victims including how to find an attorney that is pagan friendly.

[pinkpolarity]

There's also no discussion of what will actually be done to combat sexual exploitation. Without some kind of listed consequences--e.g. legal prosecution within whatever jurisdiction is applicable, ostracism from the community--I don't think there's much force behind a statement like thisYeah, I agree with this. OTOH, I think the statement does have value on its own, though. Just seeing "coercion" mentioned is a victory to me since so many would discount it. I would have felt very empowered had I read this as a new Pagan, my healing from rape-by-coercion (which didn't happen in a religious context, but knowing that the religion I've chosen says "that wasn't okay" matters) might have gone very differently if I'd read this way back when. There's something to be said for simply knowing that the wider community of your religion doesn't condone this

[elfwreck]

There's also no discussion of what will actually be done to combat sexual exploitation.Still being discussed at Brendan's forum. There's nothing resembling consensus, and it's hard to talk about, considering how many different traditions & local communities are involved

[ragnvaeig]

Ostracism would be nice... not gonna happen. Ever.

Sexual offenders registries. I didn't mean just the pagan community.

...we don't have, nor want, an "ethics police" to manage our community activities.

Isn't creating a statement of ethics at least a demonstration of attempted self-regulation as an organisation?

...it's hard to figure out *what*.

If I might ask, then, isn't it castrated from the get-go?

[elfwreck]

Sexual offender registries only work for those offenses that are actual crimes. A lot of the problems in the Pagan communities--most of them--aren't.

And I don't want informal, Pagan-org run registries without a *lot* of consideration about what it takes to get on the list, and whether/how a person can get removed from it. I *really* don't want to open the communities up for "my ex, he is a total perv and needs to be added to this list."

Isn't creating a statement of ethics at least a demonstration of attempted self-regulation as an organisation?Depends

[ragnvaeig]

Wouldn't the better approach to take then be to raise awareness among potential victims of behaviours to watch out for and how to protect themselves? That might go much further to prevent the problems in the first place.