Perhaps because a main difference between Paganism and so many other religions is that the focal point of empowerment and responsibility is you, not someone else (see Part 1,  Paganism Empowers You), Pagans would be less likely to idolize another person (such as Deepak Chopra, above).  Does our own ability to craft our own spirituality, which can include contacting a divine entity, make idolizing another person nonsensical in Paganism?

On the other hand, any spirituality can be used/abused to idolize a human – and there are plenty of cases of Pagan group leaders being idolized (and exploiting their members – especially young female members), just as there are for practically all other spiritualities/religions.  As in all parts of this series, because religions are human creations, they can be complicated and don’t all fit in boxes, so all the differences pointed out are trends, not strict rules.  Also as before, the main differences between Paganism and many other religions are interrelated, so there’ll be a lot of overlap.  Many of them link back to the basic difference that Paganism explicitly empowers you, instead of denigrating you (see Part 1,  Paganism Empowers You).

So it’s not a surprise that this difference is closely related to other differences – especially to the previous difference (Part 2 – no single deity is in complete control of everything).  If one deity is in control of everything, then it’s easy for the church of that deity, or their highest priest, to claim the divine right to of control of everything in real life, and the control of everyone – and be idolized or installed as the authoritarian leader.  After all, no one can claim to be the follower of some other deity (and hence free from control), if one deity is in control of everything and is the only deity which exists.  Such control cannot be questioned, because there is only one deity in control of everything.  This is why monotheistic religions are so easily the willing and powerful tools of authoritarian regimes, including too many examples to count.  Paganism rejects that by having multiple (or no) gods, and hence many other choices as well as empowered members (see Part 1).

Some Examples

Idolizing a person often gives that person immense power, and hence the ability to easily exploit a lot of people for the typical targets of exploitation  – Sex (mainly from young women & children), Money (or work/time/resources) and Power (including votes).  Many of those people idolized in a religion handle this power responsibly or at least mostly responsibly (or at least haven’t been caught/exposed).  Many others abuse their power (here is one of many good resources on this).  The question of which abused their power a lot, or a little, or not at all is not the focus of this post.  The point is that it’s very common in non-Pagan religions for a human to be idolized this way.  Yes, it does happen in Pagan religions too (more on that below), but it seems more common in non-Pagan religions (both for the reasons outlined above and in Part 2), as well as simply looking at the cases which are known.  I certainly do not intend to go over all the examples of people who are revered in a religion, neither today nor in the past (and the number and extent of past cases is even foggier before cell phone video and movements like #metoo).

People idolized by relying on Islam include many cases, examples including Harun Yahya (who controlled a large number of women for sex, many others for money, and so on), and many Ayatollahs, Imams and Caliphs (the image on the right shows some of the ~10 million people attending the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini, with their devotion being so strong that they literally tore the coffin open (I didn’t chose a picture showing that).

Humans idolized in Christianity are perhaps easiest for many of us to think of, with many of us being in Western countries.  Many of these are revered through statues and pictures for your home (easy to buy both online and off), as well as other products (plenty of people my age – especially recovering Catholics, may remember having Pope Soap on a Rope, for instance, and images of pope framed pictures, shrines, pendants, towels, lawn sprinklers, mugs, bobbleheads, and much, much more could fill this post).  Orthodox Christian Kirill was mentioned in Part 2, and many Christian televangelists have a range of products (and devoted followers) much like the pope.  And there are also plenty of examples where this level of devotion has led to abuse and harm in Christianity.

This level of devotion to an idolized human is of course not limited to Abrahamic religions, but spans the human experience.  Similar cases can also be found in Hinduism (such as gurus Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Asaram, and many more), Buddhism (the Dalai Lama), and many more.

But Pagans never do this, right?

Human beings are human, and have in many cases evolved harmful drives, which are present in our brains (especially in male brains).  So no religion nor spiritual path will be completely immune to this.  A better question, perhaps, is which religions make it idolization of humans (and hence the potential for abuse) easier, and which make it harder.  In this post, especially in the post for Part 2, and to some extent in all all 8 parts of this series, I’ve suggested some reasons why Paganism makes those problems a bit less likely – and for many reasons (especially regarding critical thinking), a naturalistic religion is perhaps a stronger deterrent to idolizing a human.  Revering a human can be more or less strong, and can range from very appropriate to harmful.  One could point to my gratitude for people like Carl Sagan, Marie Curie, Richard Feynman, and others as well.

Regardless of that, Pagans certainly can idolize humans, and Pagans can certainly be abusers of that power.  Maybe a lot of the reason why there are fewer well known Pagan abusers is because our smaller numbers make Pagan based abuse less lucrative, and the smaller pool of potential victims makes the abusive cults small enough to usually stay out of the headlines?  For large religions which border on/are similar to Paganism (such as Shintoism), we certainly have examples of idolized humans – such as Emperor Hirohito, who was considered divine himself, and was alive for part of the lives of many of us reading this.  Maybe another factor is that Pagan exploitation using supernatural beliefs (such as some psychic readers, etc.), is often transactional, and hence limited (sometimes) in it’s control of the people involved.

Spirituality, including Pagan spirituality, is often a balancing act between the power of emotion and the deeper parts of our brains, and the safeguards provided by critical thinking.

Why?

As with nearly any aspect of our world today, there are a lot of factors go into the religions we have today.  However, one factor (as Yucca pointed out in that podcast from The Wonder, Season 3 Episode 28), is that of the culture at the time that the religion started.  The worldview, social structure, norms and ways of living are often frozen into the religion, growing more and more out of step with the current world (and staying harmful) as time moves on and human rights improve.  Hence, with many of the main aspects of Pagan religions reflecting hunter-gatherer and early animistic religion, many of the aspects examined in this series fit those societies.  (Footnote – mounting evidence is showing that hunter-gatherer societies were often not so gender stratified as many of us have learned in the past – with men as hunters and women gathering.  Here’s a link.) 

Our Pagan focus on individual freedom and direct spirituality (less likely to be through a hierarchy) reflects a time when there wasn’t a long and extensive hierarchy going up to a king, and there wasn’t enough of a centralized city-state for an authoritarian ruler to command our obedience (and hence become a revered human).  By contrast, the worldview, relationship with the divine, and even the language of many currently popular religions reflects the time in which they arose,  when authoritarian kings commanded strict allegiance to themselves and no others.  In addition to many of the aspects discussed in this series, even basic phrases show this, such as “King of Kings”, or “my Lord”.  We’ll come back that later in this series, I’m sure.

Blessed be!

The Author: Jon Cleland Host

Starstuff, Contemplating: We are assemblages of ancient atoms forged in stars – atoms organized by history to the point of consciousness, now able to contemplate this sacred Universe of which we are a tiny, but wondrous, part.

Dr. Jon Cleland Host is a scientist who earned his PhD in materials science at Northwestern University & has conducted research at Hemlock Semiconductor and Dow Corning since 1997.  He holds eight patents and has authored over three dozen internal scientific papers and eleven papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the journal Nature.  He has taught classes on biology, math, chemistry, physics and general science at Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University.  Jon grew up near Pontiac, and has been building a reality-based spirituality for over 30 years, first as a Catholic and now as a Unitarian Universalist, including collaborating with Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow to spread the awe and wonder of the Great Story of our Universe (see www.thegreatstory.org, and the blog at evolutionarytimes.org).  Jon and his wife have four sons, whom they embrace within a Universe-centered, Pagan, family spirituality.  He currently moderates the yahoo group Naturalistic Paganism.

See Starstuff, Contemplating posts.

See all of Dr. Jon Cleland Host’s posts.