Pagan Faith Community

The latest entry in The Wild Hunt, my favorite Pagan news blog, got me thinking (as it often does). The entry has to do with a community in Texas that is concerned about proselytizing. No, really! Residents are worried about the motives, the pushiness, of religious adherents who would go so far as to leave a holy book on a stranger's doorstep. Well, okay, the books being left on stoops are Qurans, and in the minds of too many Christian Americans, that's not THE holy book. I've been trying to put my finger on just why this kind of thing pisses me off. It's too pervasive and nasty-minded to simplify into a cogent argument, though. I have a cartoon pinned up in my office, I think from the New Yorker, that shows a spare and forbidding church on a well-kept lawn. It's a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, and there's a No Soliciting sign on the lawn.
That's funny, but maybe not, because I bet you wouldn't have to search hard to find a real-world example of that.
Christians want to proclaim their beliefs, because they think they've got religion right. Interfering with their right to do so provokes claims of persecution and religious intolerance. But then the same people jump all over others who feel the same way, and want to proclaim their religion. Why should they, on their way out the door to distribute tracts, have to trip over some Godless "holy book"?! Where's the respect for other people's beliefs?
I'm tired of it. I'm not going to suggest that Pagans take up proselytizing, because I do believe that people should find their own way to their own beliefs. Nor do I advocate tracting church parking lots with copies of "The Other People." I just think it's time we Pagans claim our place as a "faith community." Too many articles, polls, and studies have an underlying assumption that "religious" means "Judeo-Christian," that "faith" means "belief in Jesus," that "values" means "Judeo-Christian values."
I am a practicing Pagan. I have faith, I belong to a faith community that is vibrant and positive, I consider myself to be very religious, and I have values. I am clergy, an elder, and a leader in my church. Many of us can say the same, but do we say it publicly?
I confess that I often allude to it generally, but not bravely. I decline a position on a committee because I have "so many commitments," not because my clergy leadership roles, both in my church and statewide, require my attention.
That's going to change. You other Pagans out there, I hope you consider following along. From here on out, I'm further out of the broom closet. I describe my religious activities in terms that make it perfectly clear that I am a Pagan, one of many in my area, and that my people comprise a faith community. We're here, we're values voters, we're religious.
Get used to it.