Jason Pitzl-Watters of the Wildhunt Blog recently shared his concerns with me about my recent interview with Karla Poewe on National Socialism via his comments connected with that post. He has also written up a post on his blog that discusses this in more depth which can be found here.
First, I offer my apologies to Jason and others in the Neo-Pagan community for the perceptions that I or Dr. Poewe were saying that Neo-Paganism is to blame for the rise of National Socialism. From my perspective this is not the case, and I repudiate any attempts at historical revisionism, whether from Christians or other religious or spiritual communities. The situation surrounding this tragic period of history is the result of a large number of forces at work in a complex cultural, social, and political matrix. And I do not wish to be construed as saying that Christianity did not have some part to play in all of this, including any contributions to anti-Semitism and the relative silence as this evil grew and exerted its destructive power.
Second, I have worked hard to do credible research and develop sound understandings of Neo-Pagans, and have also tried to develop relationships with those in the Neo-Pagan community. I will continue to strive for these high standards and I ask my Neo-Pagan contacts to be patient and forgiving as a result of this affair. If nothing else, blame it on the poor questioning skills of the interviewer in this case.
Third, I have contacted Dr. Poewe and sent her a copy of Jason's blog post and asked for her to provide me with her thoughts in response that I will post here.
I hope we can move forward positively as we work through this matter together.
2 comments:
Thank you. :)
You are most welcome.
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