Pagan Catechetics?

I am currently studying catechetics, which gives me a good opportunity to reflect on pagan and Wiccan religious education.  I'm sure that this audience is well aware that most elders in our community will refuse to take on students until they are at least eighteen and absolutely sure that this is the path that the student wants to follow.  I wrote an earlier post on my experience with Catholic catechesis.  (It wasn't good.)  I strongly disagree with the practice of catechizing children, especially at their parents' insistence and not on their own.

But in any case, let's talk about the difference between theology and professions of faith in religious education.  Now, in most traditionally Christian households, the catechist (be it the parent or someone in the church) usually teaches from a position of faith.  That is to say, they teach by making an example of themselves, living out the life of Christ in their own existence.  The focus is less on actual knowledge of the faith in question and more in moralizing, which is why there are so many adult Christians who have no idea what's in the Gospels or the first thing about sacramental theology, but they know prayers and how to live out the faith.

With paganism, the process is different, but similar.  Most pagans are not born that way (though perhaps this will change), but come upon it later in life.  For most, the first thing they do is educate themselves about the faith by reading.  The actual living out of the faith happens later.  Many pagans are voracious readers.  However, the content that is most readily available to new pagans is somewhat suspect.  No one can argue that, on the whole, most resources available at large, mainstream bookstores are introductory material--basically, how-to manuals on getting started: how to cast a circle, how to honor the Wheel of the Year and so on.  They are books on what Wiccans DO with perhaps a short explanation as to why.  Deeper pagan theology is a bit harder to come by and usually gleaned from a variety of different sources.  Some Wiccans and pagans simply stop after reading a book or two by Silver Ravenwolf or DJ Conway, and no further catechesis occurs.  We are all familiar with these people: we call them fluffy bunnies.  The general opinion on fluffy bunnies is negative, as I'm sure this audience is aware.  But should we really look on them with the disdain that we do?

It's a little unfair to judge pagans for being ignorant or uneducated about their faith when there is no catechetical structure in place.  Pagans who do not have someone in their lives to guide them down the path have to make due with what they have, which, depending on one's area, can be rather dubious information.  With the exception of Cherry Hill Seminary, there is no place for pagans to go to further their education.  It is left up to them to make individual choices about every bit of information they receive.  This naturally results in many different flavors of paganism, which further complicates the catechetical issue.  In every Catholic catechetical class I have sat in on, there is a programmed curriculum based on the students' age that has been handed down from a central authority.  It is obvious why this system would fail in a pagan setting: there is no central authority.

Is there a solution to this problem?  Perhaps.  Perhaps if we hold pagan publishing houses to a higher standard, instead of continuing to purchase from them when they are putting out subpar material to sell more books, we might make room for writers who actually know what they're talking about.  But that does nothing to combat the wealth of bad information available on the internet.  Perhaps we need to change our attitude about people who are new to the faith.  After all, few of them are ever willfully ignorant.  If you consider yourself to be someone in the know, make yourself a resource to the young and new people around you.  Just don't let it go to your head.