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  y
parents are witches. My grandfather was a witch. My great grandfather
was a witch, and his spellbook is my most precious possession. When
my partner and I were looking for a Wiccan commitment ceremony,
we found important spells in his book."
Mr. Beltane
(as I will call him) was angry. He spoke with little gulps that
sounded like a prelude to tears as he defended the integrity of
his beliefs and his anger was directed mostly at me, because I had
been questioning whether "neo-paganism" ought to be one
of the officially recognized religions at my university.
Witches and
"neo-pagans" are a fixture on many American college campuses.
They are part of the florid undergrowth of the contemporary liberal
university, which tolerates — or, more accurately, fosters
— destructive experimentation with personal identity. Some
of this experimentation unfolds in the classroom (see "Outrageous
Selves,") but the frivolity sprouts up everywhere. It was
in the basement of the campus chapel that day last fall when Mr.
Beltane and I exchanged views.
Although I
will inevitably upset some neo-pagans in saying so, I don't think
these folks are particularly dangerous. Confused, deluded, and generally
dim, they gathered themselves like iron filings on the magnetic
pole of campus nuttiness and they are content to stay there. Self-identification
of fools is probably a good thing, at least in universities.
But I do worry
about the campus chaplains who see neo-paganism and witchcraft as
just further expressions of humanity's quest for spiritual fulfillment.
On the occasion of Mr. Beltane's outburst, several of them were
quick to point out that Harvard recognizes witches as a campus religious
group, and so do many other colleges and universities around Boston.
Somehow that doesn't seem to me the most powerful argument for extending
official recognition, but I agree that it means something.
What it means
is that religious life at Harvard and many of those other colleges
and universities is devoid of intellectual seriousness. (To find
the students who are religiously serious, one heads off campus to
congregations such as the evangelical Park Street Church.) The widespread
recognition of neo-pagans and similar groups shows how far the spiritual
immune system of higher education has been compromised. Little inanities
that once would have been brushed aside now settle in as opportunistic
infections. Many of the clergy seem completely unable to articulate
any meaningful difference between the two-thousand-year tradition
of Christianity and the ad hoc formulations of late adolescents
who freely admit that they are making it up as they go.
I have found,
for example, that many campus clergy are ready to accept the Wiccan
adage, "Do what thou wilt," which was invented in 1904
by a British libertine named Aleister Crowley ("Do what thou
wilt shall be the whole of the law.") as an ethical injunction
to be set beside The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Can these
clergy draw a distinction between a jumble of magical formulas and
invocations to miscellaneous gods and goddesses and the ethical
guidance offered by Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism?
Is a movement that disdains the goal of intellectual coherence a
worthy addition to a university community?
When I have
put such questions to various priests, ministers, and rabbis, some
have offered good and thoughtful answers but most find the questions
unwelcome and beside the point. On campuses across the country,
campus ministers often see themselves as champions of tolerance
and advocates of diversity, and if some group of students
proclaims themselves worshippers of Ba'al, why then, they say, we
should invite Ba'al to the table for an ecumenical meal.
So I was hardly
surprised when the Episcopalian chaplain took umbrage at my willingness
to leave the Wiccans to their own devices without the benefit of
formal university recognition. She pointed out that people (like
me?) used to burn witches, and that there were crusades against
Communists, too, and that I could learn a lot about the ugliness
of intolerance by reading Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witchcraft
trials, The Crucible.
Neither the
inflammatory language nor the reference to the Leftist dramaturge,
however, persuaded her colleagues. An Orthodox rabbi offered an
especially lucid explanation of why the neo-pagans did not belong
in the company of legitimate campus religious groups, and on a narrow
vote, the witches were cast out — for the time being.
But as for
the broader verdict, I am less sanguine. The ideology of diversity
has, for the most part, muscled out simple piety. The stewards of
important religious traditions frequently place a higher value on
demonstrating their friendliness to other points of view than they
place on their own teachings. As a result, religious affiliation
becomes a matter not of persuasion but of preference. Religion is
part of the student identity kit, rather than an inquiry into the
ultimate nature of truth or a teaching about the ultimate nature
of right and wrong.
Backing down
from ultimate claims is, of course, convenient on campuses that
welcome the adherents of dozens of religions, some with histories
of mutual enmity. But religious openness doesn't require shutting
away or trivializing the deepest teachings of one's own religion.
The wisest councilors seem to understand this, and every major faith
has its own traditions of religious toleration. The alternative
to the Episcopal chaplain's vision of anything goes religious license
is not witch-burning or sectarian violence. It is serious intellectual
debate about the central ideas of competing traditions.
The infatuation
of higher education with its smiling idol, Diversity, however, precludes
most serious inter-religious debate. The idol smiles no doubt because
he understands the irony. Higher education bows down to Diversity
and Diversity renders all the same.
As for Mr.
Beltane, I have not seen him since. Perhaps he was swallowed by
his grandfather's book. The dean of the chapel who promoted the
neo-pagans retired. Their faculty advisor is an eccentric English
anthropologist who dabbles in the paranormal. I see him around.
The neo-pagan students themselves show up in the news now and then
enjoying their bit of notoriety. And higher education, such as it
is, continues its wobbly descent into the cultural void.
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