From: kathy@xn.ll.mit.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: The SCA Religion? ( was: Through a looking glass, darkly)
Date: 18 Dec 92 19:23:04 GMT
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA

In article <1992Dec16.210248.3617@nas.nasa.gov> cassie@worf.nas.nasa.gov (Cassandra L. Baldassano) writes:
>Greetings from Euriol of Lothian
>
>In article <cf=nwyC00WB9M2h3kc@andrew.cmu.edu>, David Schroeder <ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>
>I have often consider that the SCA might be a "religion" to some people. But
>by no means a conventional one. Often I hear of people talking about different
>church socials, and how much of a community atmosphere they provide and a
>sense of belonging. This is definitely one of the things that the SCA provides.
>But the SCA also provides a set of guidelines, specifically the ideas of
>Chivalry, Honor, Courtesy and Trust, which I believe almost make it a type
>of "religion".
>
>The biggest difference in the SCA as a "religion" as opposed to a standard
>religion is that it doesn't conflict with most of the standard religions. That
>is why there are so many people of different religious backgrounds in the SCA
>(notably: Christians, Jews, Pagans, Muslims, etc.), and people like me who
>claim no affliation with a religious organization.
>
I think that considering the SCA as a religion is misleading at best, and at 
worst could mutate as the discussion passes from one person to another into 
something furthering the nonsense that some groups have in the past encountered
from outsiders who considered us some sort of cult.  I think that I understand 
what you're saying here, and agree, but for many people, religion is a poor
term to express it.  

To me, and I suspect to most participants in organized religions (or dis-
organized religions, for that matter), calling something a religion implies
that somewhere at the core of its structure is a belief in a higher power or
powers, be it God, Allah, YHVH, or a variety of pagan dieties.  This is an
aspect clearly missing from the SCA.  True, the SCA does present a set of
moral guidelines, but these are behaviors that we as a group decided to
aspire to, rather than having been handed down from a supernatural source.

When you look at the sense of community the SCA provides, I think calling it a
fraternal organization, such as the Masons/Elks/etc., is much more accurate.  
These organizations are not generally considered to be religious in nature
(although I am aware this is a hotly debated point in some circles where the
Masons are concerned.  Please lets not here.), but they also frequently 
exhort their members to uphold some set of moral principles.  

SCAdians are in general astonishingly honorable people, given today's society,
and exceedingly generous to one another.  (I don't mean by this that they aren't
generous to people outside the society, but most are probably more willing to
trust/help a stranger who is part of the society, than a totally random
stranger, because of that feeling of community).  This is the sort of behavior
commonly attributed to mundane fraternal organizations (though never having
been part of one, I can't swear that it happens).  

I think that this may explain a good deal of the difference in attitude toward
recreation that is often commented on, between the SCA and other medievalist
groups.  Our society has is at heart, if not on paper, a fraternal organization
for people with an interest in medieval history, and we are often willing to 
put the fraternal nature of the society above the call of pure historical 
accuracy.  That would also explain why we have people who are very committed
to being part of the Society, even though they might find, or even found, 
another group which fits their interests better, and the people who become
deeply involved even though they can't honestly say that a love of history for
its own sake is one of their driving passions.

							A'isha

[For the record, by comparing the SCA to existing fraternal societies, many
of which are exclusively male, I don't mean to imply that there is or should
be any sexual bias in the SCA.  Unfortunately English just doesn't seem to 
have a word that carries the same depth of meaning as fraternal that isn't in
some way gender-specific.]


A'isha bint Jamil, of the Barony of Stonemarche, in the Kingdom of the East
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Kathryn L. Smith	    System Administrator 		[The text above is
MIT Lincoln Laboratories    					my personal opinion,
Lexington, MA		    ARPANET: kathy@XN.LL.MIT.EDU        not MIT/LL policy]
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kathryn L. Smith	    System Administrator 		[The text above is
MIT Lincoln Laboratories    					my personal opinion,
Lexington, MA		    ARPANET: kathy@XN.LL.MIT.EDU        not MIT/LL policy]