{"id":668,"date":"2010-08-27T13:30:27","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T13:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html"},"modified":"2010-08-27T13:30:27","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T13:30:27","slug":"libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Historically there has been a significant link between Pagans and<br \/>\nlibertarians.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>One of the earliest<br \/>\nPagan organizations, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.caw.org\/\">Church of All Worlds<\/a>, was inspired in significant part<br \/>\nby libertarian science fiction author Robert Heinlein&#8217;s <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein\/dp\/0441788386\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1282931260&amp;sr=1-1\">Stranger in a<br \/>\nStrange Land.<\/a> <\/i><span style=\"font-style:normal\"><span>&nbsp;<\/span>Some of the founding folks involved in CAW considered<br \/>\nthemselves libertarians.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>You can<br \/>\nread about this in Margot Adler&#8217;s <\/span><i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Drawing-Down-Moon-Witches-Goddess-Worshippers\/dp\/0143038192\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1282929389&amp;sr=1-1\">Drawing Down the Moon<\/a><\/i><span style=\"font-style:normal\">. CAW people&nbsp;constituted many of the most creative and energetic people in our community, long published the leading Pagan magazine <a href=\"http:\/\/original.caw.org\/greenegg\/\">Green Egg<\/a>, which is now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greeneggzine.com\/\">an online journal<\/a>, though most members would no longer call themselves libertarians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-style:normal\"><\/span>In addition, I have met a number of libertarian Pagans over<br \/>\nthe years &#8211; far more than would reflect the number of libertarians in our<br \/>\nsociety.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>I think it is because the<br \/>\nlibertarian view of personal liberty appeals to many of us who have been<br \/>\nattracted to a form of spiritual practice emphasizing personal practice out<br \/>\nfrom the guidance of gurus and masters and Higher Human Authorities.<span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">As the wonderful verse goes in the old Pagan song <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YRRqkSsxaOU\">Heretic<br \/>\nHeart<\/a><span>&nbsp;<\/span>&#8220;My skin, my bones, my heretic<br \/>\nheart are my authority.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Many of the old line libertarian Pagans as well as other<br \/>\nlong time libertarians have been pushed out of the Libertarian Party as it has<br \/>\nbeen taken over by right wing authoritarians, such as their <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ajc.com\/bob-barr-blog\/2010\/02\/17\/pagan-worship-at-air-force-academy\/\">deeply anti-Pagan and<br \/>\nproudly ignorant<\/a> presidential candidate Bob Barr &nbsp;as the <a href=\"http:\/\/wildhunt.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/end-of-pagans-in-libertarian-party.html\">Wild Hunt documented <\/a>in 2008. &nbsp;But once Pagans were a significant part of libertarians, just as libertarians<br \/>\ncomprised an important part of the early NeoPagan movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Wild Hunt also reports that a libertarian Pagan is running<br \/>\nfor office in Nevada as a candidate for the Libertarian Party.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>See the June 28, 2010 <a href=\"http:\/\/wildhunt.org\/blog\/tag\/libertarian\">Wild Hun<\/a>t. <span>&nbsp;(scroll down)&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Googling about I found a Pagan Libertarian site that is still active or was recently:<span>&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ladiesoflibertyalliance.ning.com\/group\/paganlibertarians\">Ladies of Liberty<\/a>. &nbsp;But I am afraid with the growing right-wing authoritarian libertarians of the Bob Barr style and the growing disconnect of libertarian ideology and any sensitive discussion of nature and ecology, the two perspectives will gradually separate still farther.&nbsp;<span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Historically there has been a significant link between Pagans and libertarians.&nbsp; One of the earliest Pagan organizations, the Church of All Worlds, was inspired in significant part by libertarian science fiction author Robert Heinlein&#8217;s Stranger in a Strange Land. &nbsp;Some of the founding folks involved in CAW considered themselves libertarians.&nbsp; You can read about this&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Historically there has been a significant link between Pagans and libertarians.&nbsp; One of the earliest Pagan organizations, the Church of All Worlds, was inspired in significant part by libertarian science fiction author Robert Heinlein&#8217;s Stranger in a Strange Land. &nbsp;Some of the founding folks involved in CAW considered themselves libertarians.&nbsp; You can read about this&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-27T13:30:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"Historically there has been a significant link between Pagans and libertarians.&nbsp; One of the earliest Pagan organizations, the Church of All Worlds, was inspired in significant part by libertarian science fiction author Robert Heinlein&#8217;s Stranger in a Strange Land. &nbsp;Some of the founding folks involved in CAW considered themselves libertarians.&nbsp; You can read about this&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","article_published_time":"2010-08-27T13:30:27+00:00","author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html","name":"Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-08-27T13:30:27+00:00","dateModified":"2010-08-27T13:30:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/libertarian-pagans-an-interesting-history.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Libertarian Pagans: An Interesting History"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}