From: bwilson@eng.auburn.edu (Brian Scott Wilson)
Subject: Re: Moderation (was Pentagrams)
Reply-To: bwilson@eng.auburn.edu
Organization: Auburn University Engineering
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:26:49 GMT


This is primarily for Ailsa (Walburga Ingsdottir) but I hope it clarifies 
something for those poeple who have been following this thread.

Ailsa writes:

 this is what made me have to come back and answer again.  WHERE is it you 
 live, anyway?  Pplease tell me, so i never move there by accident.  it 
 sounds like one sick, sick community.  the town i live in is ratehr small 
 as towns go, but the general public neitehr knows nor cares what the 
 adult married son of their CPA does with his time, and they certainbly 
 wouldn't not go to one because he (the son, that is) was considered by 
  thise who knew him to be some sort of ne'er do well...


My parents live in Laurel Mississippi. I live in Auburn Alabama.

 i didn't realize that i was still capable of being shocked.  is this what 
 baptists are like?  i went to a baptist church for sunday school as a kid 
 and never guessed.  i thought the hateful types were in the minority, and 
 that most woudl react to findingh out that a churchmember's child had 
 gone astray with compassion, not hatred for the parent.  goddess...  do 
 peopel really act this way?????  i cxan understand refusing to do 
 business with a pagan CPA if your religion says not, but refusing to do 
 business with the parent of a pagan?  and i thought maine is 
 conservative...  i'm not being facetious here, i am truly amazed.  that 
 some wierdos could act that way doesn't surprise me, but that enough 
 could do so, to someone who is completely innocent, is beyond me...

Unfortunately, I live in the SOUTH sometimes known as the bible belt.
Small towns in the south, are pretty much all alike. If you plan to 
Flaunt your religion openly, be prepared to suffer some bigotry. For your
own sake though live in a university town. They are at least enough open
to new ideas so that SCA branches can be maintained. Part of the problem is 
that the people who are considered to be somebody Businessmen, Engineers, 
founding father types, are primarily active in the community and the church.
Should you happen to work in this area, you come under fire. My father is active 
in the community and the church. Right now he is headed to Honduras on a 
Medical aid trip with several doctors and dentists. (my father speaks fluent
Spanish).  Having to explain his Son to every one who wants to know -why that
boy is wearing dresses and hitting somebody else with a stick- gets old and 
can be easily taken wrong.

I myself am an engineer. I don't know if my suppossed religion got me layed off
first, I have a hunch, but it cannot be proved. I am glad to be out of there
anyway, and mostly I would have to think very hard before doing something that
might bring the SCA into a court battle.

Now first off I think that I have given the wrong impression of myself. I don't
have any problem with gay people, I simply fgeel uncomfortable with most of the
gay men I have met. This is my problem, I'll deal with it. I also have no problem 
with most of the pagans I have met. I have friends in both groups.  I also count
Sir Robert hightower (gay), sir Starhelm (pagan), and Sir Tomeki (Black) (lest
anyone think I am leaving some group out) as friends of mine. Soon I will have
Christian, Morman, and Agnostic squires. And before I forget my lady wife is a 
laurel and heavy combat fighter and our Clan has more lady fighters in it than 
any other fighting group in Meridies. I really don't much hate any stereotype
accept assholes.  But when I hear someone say screw the rest of you I'm going 
to do what I wnat to whether or not it's period, no matter who it hurts, just 
because I can, Well then I drop that person into the last stereotype. Now I 
am not saying that you are this type of person. I understand now that you simply
don't understand life in the south. But if I want to continue taking young men
to events who want to one day fight and be a Knight. I have to keep my mundane
reputation unsullied. Who is going to let there 16 year old son go on a camping
trip with a group that thought to be Satanists (The same thing as Pagan to the
eyes of most of the people in the South).

Now maybe better you see my point.  I don't think that the people who hate pagans
are right, but I can better educate them if I am not branded one of them myself.
I stand to lose too much if I am put into the same class as most pagans in the 
south. I only have to look around to see that most of those people who are Pagan
in this area are people that I would not associate with even if I had religion
in common. I think only in Mobile Al, is there an openly accepted coven that has
prestige in the religious community, in all of the South.

Sir Brian 
Knight of Meridies

P.s.  I did not say that my friend was in the closet, he simply is not
sickeningly effeminate. Same for Sir Robert.