In 2003, a Bush-administration official claimed that Pagans don't do charity work. I have heard this claim in other quarters as well.
However, there is a lot of service to the community and charity work being done by Pagans; it's just that we don't always get recognition, or seek it. There's a fascinating discussion of why there aren't many specifically Pagan charities at the Wild Hunt (see the comments section) and an older Witchvox article from 2003 musing over the very same topic.
Just last week, Jarred at The Musings of a Confused Man highlighted a charity that he is involved with called Kiva, where people can give microloans directly to people in the developing world.
I know personally two Wiccans who go to a homeless shelter to help out on Christmas day. (I bet they don't wear pentagram T-shirts there.) There must be many more.
Pagan chaplaincy for hospitals, the military, prisons and universities is another very important service offered by Pagans, in both the UK and the US, and all the chaplains are volunteers. It can be difficult for chaplains to get recognition, especially in universities.
Lots of covens, groves and hearths hold fundraising drives. Sometimes the charity they give the money to declines it, or doesn't acknowledge to other donors that it is from Pagans.
To me, Christian charities always seem like a thinly-veiled attempt to evangelise. You know, "look how nice Christians are, helping the poor and oppressed; that's why you should become a Christian".
That's why Pagans support (and get involved in) secular charity work: because we're not interested in making converts. And that's why Pagan charities are usually focussed on specifically Pagan issues, because other charities don't address those issues.
In fact, there aren't that many charities specific to other religions either, though many religions have an ethic of service. For instance, Sikhs give 10% (yes, 10%) of their income to charity, but there are no specifically Sikh charities that I know of. Jews are very charitable (Jewish housewives have a row of jam-jars labelled for different charities on their windowsills and put spare change in them, apparently) but I can't think of any internationally-known charity that is specifically Jewish. And so on and so forth for all the other major religions, but no-one accuses them of being away with the fairies and not caring about others. I expect Pagans donate more to environmental causes and animals, but that's good because other people always seem to be raising money for cancer and kids, but never for wildlife or oppressed tribal peoples.
6 comments:
I have recently been confronted on this exact issue , every day for years I have donated time and money and passion to charaties and charitable acts. I am a devoted pagan , I am a mother and I am a hard worker , yet I was told the otherday that pagans didn't do charity..LOL
i don't know if i was more peeved or astonished. Baptist churches will let you volunteer about half the time if they know your pagan , some churches wont let you volunteer if you are pagan , and Catholic charaties don't care who you are as long as you want to help.
*sighs*
Very much unlike some christian charaties I dont discriminate who i help ...Their faith dosn't matter so much as that i help them , that can not be said of a lot of christian charaties , whom you must qualify for and their first question is if you know jesus..
*sighs*
Sorry to rant this is just an active area of my present journey..
I can be a bit over passionate in what I do at times.
I
The three Pagan pride events I have attended in my region (and I understand that this is pretty standard if not universal for Pagan Pride events everywhere) asks that each person who comes bring one non-perishable food item to donate to the local food bank.
Locally, we have a coven and a larger Pagan organization that are setting up a food cupboard.
Another local coven does a lot to support military personnel overseas by collecting and sending much needed personal items to them.
One of our local metaphysical shops asks for a two dollar donation from each person that attends their monthly group meditation session. In the past, these donations were then given to the local animal shelter or another animal rescue program. (I'm not sure where the donations are going right now, as they tend to change on occasion.)
Personally, I answer "yes" to just about any restaurant server or store clerk that asks me to donate a couple dollars to Easter Seals, the Juvenile Diabetes Fund, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, or any other charitable organization they're currently supporting. I'd like to think that over the course of a year, those small donations add up.
In my experience, lots of Pagans are doing all kinds of things to help out. The thing is, most of us don't seem too interested in blaring a trumpet to draw attention to our activities for whatever reason.
@ Mrs Flam: Passionate is good in this subject area, methinks!
@ Seithman: Yes, it's like the story of the widow's mite, isn't it? ;)
I like to think that my charity work is an offering to my Deities and as such I don't need to advertise it. I figured other pagans probably felt the same way I did so it amuses me that Bush or anyone else could make that statement. Now if I'm in the grocery store and asked to donate a few bucks I'll write my Deities name on the donation form. I figure maybe other pagans will see Deities' names displayed and do the same.
To me, Christian charities always seem like a thinly-veiled attempt to evangelise. You know, "look how nice Christians are, helping the poor and oppressed; that's why you should become a Christian".
thats not a very good point, you could insert anything in there in place of christian.
that point reveals more bias than aids your article.
Thanks for your comment, but no, you couldn't insert anything there in place of Christian - many Christian charities have as their object the aim of converting people; and I don't see other religions doing the same.
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