Pagan Accountability

It has been suggested by Sam Webster in his Wild Hunt Article “Accountability in Pagan Leadership,” that the Pagan community faces special challenges because most Pagan groups do not have an economic based accountability. In this more common model of accountability, a leader is given detailed standards and is paid a wage. The wages are suspended or ended entirely if the leader does not meet the standards which were detailed. This model implies that there is a group which pays the leader his or her wage and sets those standards. If we apply this model to a mainstream monotheist religious groups, this implies that the congregation sets up the standards and pays its leader the wage and revokes that wage when the standards are not met. The article points out that Pagan leadership is challenging because the leaders are not paid by the congregation. Pagan leaders are often charismatic individuals who are committed to an idea. They fund themselves and collect followers to their idea. However, no wage is equated to no control. As a Pagan activist I am reminded that I have often asked the question, why don’t we pay our Pagan leaders? Surely if accountability is governed by finance then it would stand to reason accountability would rise with the paycheck.

It seems harsh and simplistic to have everything come down to money but why don’t we pay our Pagan Leaders? It has been my experience that when one of those charismatic individuals comes forward within the Pagan community with an idea that resonates, we of this Western society might be afraid to pay them for their services for the same reason Mr. Webster gives as the reason for the short lifespan of many Pagan groups: We are afraid. If we pay our leaders then their services are no longer a “gift,” their service becomes a commodity and we are the consumer. Or we are afraid that this leader might become too powerful, cult-like maybe, if we were to provide them with the security of our money. They might have resonating ideas, but everyone has ideas and you can’t buy bacon and cook it for dinner with just an idea as your currency. We fear that ideas don’t have financial value.

It is clear that Mr. Webster agrees that fear is the undercurrent for both the success and the failure of the finite Pagan groups. These unpaid charismatic leaders with those resonating ideas can more easily abuse their followers because the victim of abuse is afraid to speak out because the rest of the congregation will side with the leader. If the leader goes, so does the group. Fear keeps the group alive for only as long as the leader is alive. Fear then is its success, but also its ultimate demise because the congregation is afraid to continue with an idea that is no longer unique.

While I would agree that some Pagan Leaders have abused people who trusted them; I disagree that the problem of the abuse of power in the Pagan community and the phenomena of finite pagan groups are intrinsically linked. I also disagree that the abuse of power in religious systems is uniquely a Pagan problem. The reality is that some people will abuse power even in the most well established benevolent setting. It is up to every individual to keep power in check. Every adult needs to accept the responsibility not just for their role as a leader, but as a follower. A person has power over you only for as long as you choose to give it. That may be difficult to hear when one has been the victim of serious abuse, but a victim can flee, a victim can speak out, a victim can testify, a victim can get treatment. A victim can heal and in doing so, can become a leader. They become a leader even if all they do is flee because in leaving the group the abuser no longer has power over them.

So is the problem of the Pagan Community really the accountability of our leaders? It seems that the real issue that Mr. Webster wants to address is our lack of lasting stability. Whether our charismatic leaders abuse their followers or not the fact remains that their unique ideas more often than not die with them. That is clearly the responsibility of the followers. It seems to me that the Pagan community needs to acknowledge that we are afraid to lead.  True courage is defined not by lack of fear, but by acting in spite of it.