Dec 27 2008
Fluffy Bunnies
*Apologies in advance for the blocky nature of the text. There are some technical difficulties on the blog hosting side–we’re working on it.
Fluffy bunnies. The term sounds so innocent, but it’s not exactly a wonderful thing to be called if you happen to be on the pagan path. Essentially, experienced practitioners of various pagan faiths use this term to classify people beginning their spiritual path, those who only wish to include certain pagan beliefs in their practices, people that become pagan for the image or look, and beyond. Because there is sometimes a resistance to paganism in the open, I think some pagans tend to blame others for this negative outlook and as a result the term ‘fluffy bunnies’ has been coined.
The same goes for most other groups, both religious or non-religious. Think about World of Warcraft, and the term ‘n00b.’ Personally, I resent being called such a thing by a thirteen year old gamer when I was a geek back in the pre-’geek is cool’ era, about the time when he was likely born. There are also devout Christians who criticize others of their faith for not attending church as regularly. This is not a phenomenon unique to paganism or religion in general, but when many tend to emphasize inclusion as a spiritual or moral practice, it’s rather noticeable. This also sometimes goes along with the attitude that paganism = Wicca, and that every other pagan aspect is false. To non-pagans, this is like someone saying that Christianity can only be seen as Catholicism, and that all other worshippers of Jesus are not doing the proper thing. To clarify, not all Christians are Catholic, and not all pagans are Wiccan.
While I am using the fluffy bunny term as a general example here, overall I’m trying to say that it’s difficult to learn something new, especially if you are serious about it, when others call you names or exclude you. I’ve seen this happen in games including LARPs. While it can be annoying or cause difficulty for more experienced people to slow down and explain the rules, it just looks and ultimately feels bad to continually exclude someone from any activity due to lack of experience–especially in a spiritual or religious context.
While I don’t exactly agree with everything in the below video, I think it’s done in an honest light and has some value. What do you think?
