Witchschool dot com update


"an integrated Social and Educational network"

A reader clued me in that Witchschool.com is changing.

Their new website is www.witchschoolinternational.ning.com.

Apparently in cooperation with a company called Liminati, the new site will be an "Integrated social and Educational network" in addition to the school.

I'm not familiar with Ning, but I can tell you that it's hard to beat the advantages of a dedicated domain and your own server space. Over the years, I've had issues with the old Excite Clubs and MSN Communities over what can and what cannot be posted. I've also had potential issues with Mac dot com, which is now becoming Me dot com. That's one reason why Technopagan Yearnings got moved to it's own server space, provided by the nice folks at MacHighway (blatant plug).

While not strictly necessary to a discussion of Pagan religion, most Neopagan faiths are derived from or inspired by fertility cults. Which means that sex is part of the symbolism. And society frowns on adults discussing sex and religion with minors they aren't related to.

*sighs*

And that brings us to a big one. It's something that I had problems with before. And it's something that I have seen destroy more than one online group. It's also why most serious offline groups I know are not open to teens and kids.

There is a huge, ABSOLUTELY HUGE legal liability providing religious information to teens under the age of consent, much less spiritual instruction.

Frankly if a religious group provides such information without the parents/guardians knowledge and consent, they deserve to be sued out of existence.

While people may talk about "religious oppression," the fact remains that our society expects parents to be responsible for the activities and choices of their children. If Junior is playing with matches and burns down the neighbors house, it's not going to be the city's insurance that pays, it's going to be the parents. If little Miss Sweet Sixteen puts her cute VW through the doors of the mall, it's not going to be mall that pays.

And just as we don't expect kids to get their information about drugs and sex from society, we expect their religious (if any) and moral instruction to come from the parents. This isn't oppression. And there is absolutely nothing stopping a seeker from making his/her own choices once they're legally of age.

By my count, a kid stays a teenager for seven years. That's time to be patient. There are some very good reasons and I have written about them before. It's not a matter of keeping the information secret, it's a matter of letting the "adult mindset" kick in, along with adult responsibility and adult discipline. Knowledge isn't mastery. I can't emphasize that enough. I don't think faith should be based on victimhood. And I don't believe faith is something that a teen should hide from their parents.

I can tell you that based on some of the nonsense I've seen, not to mention some of the exploitation and traps, the internet is the last place I would tell teens and kids to get religious training, no matter what the merits. General information, yes, with a little caution (and a great place to start is the religioustolerance.org site), but not specific training. If I had any advice to give teens over the internet, I'd say go study comparative religion. And yes, that should include atheism.

Given all this, the emphasis (recruiting?) on teens and teen studies at the new site is a little disturbing. It takes time to become a priest or minister in any religion because it's never just the knowledge, it's also the experience and context. To quote me, "The Story is Not the Journey."

While I do believe that the internet and the web are valuable tools, they are not replacements for face to face interactions. I don't believe that religion and magick can be taught well over the internet.

Posted: Sat - April 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
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