There is a girl who attends youth activities at my church who seems quite taken with Wicca or perhaps other "paganisms," if I may coin a term. I don't know how seriously she takes it all, and I guess I would like to talk about this with some of the pagans here present, or any others who see this kind of interest in pagan beliefs among young folk. I'm not necessarily asking how I can "save her soul," I just find the whole situation interesting and sad, for reasons I will try to explain.
This girl is about 19 or 20 right now, and has been coming to some of our church services for years. She doesn't attend Sunday mornings or with any regularity, as she lives in the inner-city and our church is in a town on the outskirts of the city. From time to time our pastor or another church member will drive in to pick her up, along with her brother. I think she has attended other churches besides ours, so I believe there is a lot of "religion" in her upbringing. In the three years I have attended the church, she seems to have grown rather antagonistic towards its beliefs and teachings, but like many teenagers, she comes more for social reasons, it would seem. Most of the children and teens are from families that don't attend church or have any strong religious beliefs.
The tension is understandable. She is Black, from the inner-city, and an avowed Democrat. I'm sure she has accepted a lot of the political opinions that prevail in such a milieu. My church, generally, is white and Republican. A lot of our members are older and more rural, I personally am a young redneck. Specifically, our pastor and many members profess an old-fashioned Wesleyan/Nazarene religion that eschews theater-going and jewelry and that says women should dress like women (dresses and skirts only please).*
Now my pastor is perfectly willing to politely discuss any doctrinal or political differences one might have. Heck, I disagree with him on some major points of doctrine and he still selected me to be a deacon - twice. Mersades, however, just sits in her seat and grumbles, or makes her own dogmatic assertions to gainsay the speaker. Anything one says that she finds offensive she cannot bear with any patience. I don't wish to be mean, and I say this only to explain the situation, but the young lady is neither articulate nor altogether bright. A more polite way to say it, perhaps, is that she has much opinion, but little understanding. I mean to say that intelligent conversation with her is difficult. This is not merely a matter of cultural difference. I suspect there is something traumatic in her background that causes her to divert her eyes from others when she speaks to them, and gives her a bit of a chip on her shoulder. Last week, in fact, she said during a youth group meeting that she hates some of her family members, and wouldn't mind if they died. Now, I guess teenagers are prone to such drama, but I think we all felt there was more to it than that.
In the past months, she has sometimes worn pentacles/pentagrams and has talked about witchcraft. Interestingly enough, she has also been involved with a Unitarian Universalist Church. It is in this same interval that she begun complaining about our church's beliefs, eg. that we are sexists (guilty), intolerant (not guilty), etc. I really wouldn't mind talking about this stuff with her, but unfortunately, she just can't be reasoned with.
I would appreciate any useful input or just meaningful opinions on paganism as sincere belief versus individualistic rebellion.
*Yeah, I know, before I started going, I didn't think there were any people like that left. Now I've bought into much of it, and married into the rest.
No regrets.
