Women in Magic – A Sociology Paper

Why Aren’t There More Women in Magic?

Rick Lax is a professional magician, magic creator and illusion designer. In his article in Wired Magazine, “There Aren’t Many Women in Magic, But Those Who Are Kick Ass”, he raises the issue of the dramatic inequality between men and women in the world of professional magic. If you ask the average American to name a famous magician, they’ll tell you about David Copperfield, Penn and Teller and Criss Angel. If you ask an older American to do the same thing, you may hear the names Harry Houdini, Blackstone or James Randi. Ask that same American to name a female magician, and you’re likely to get nothing more than a blank stare. Our society is slowly becoming aware of institutional sexism in the business world, but finance is practically a feminist paradise compared to the state of the professional magic field. In the public imagination, women just don’t have the skills or stage presence to be magicians.  Lax believes this is “…because girls didn’t have any relatable role models – simple as that”. (Lax 2016) Since there is a dearth of highly visible female magicians, this leads to a feedback loop. Young women have no role models, so very few of them become magicians, which leads to fewer female magicians which leads to fewer role models and so on. However, the handful of women who have made it to the upper echelons of the magic world have had to work so much harder and show so much more creativity than their male peers that they are almost universally amazing.

Western society in the 20^th Century, although far more advanced than it was in the past, still has very specific roles for women and men. There are very clear ideas of what types of behavior the different genders should display. Ritzer calls these ideas “Sexual Scripts” and defines them as: “The generally known ideas about what one ought to do and what one ought not to do as far as sexual behavior is concerned”. (Ritzer 255) We see males as the dominant actors, initiating contact and relationships. Men are tool users and the agents of change in the world. Women are seen as the sustainers of the home and the status quo, but above all else their script calls for them to be passive. They are expected to take the “backseat” in their relationships with men and their interactions with the larger world. This is reflected in the practice of traditional stage magic where “women were impaled bisected and decapitated.” (Lax 2016) In magic, as in the larger culture, men are the subjects and women are the objects. Men have the agency and power and women are involved as the victims and props. Even in partnerships like Mistie and Kyle Knight, whose stage show makes it clear that Mistie is every bit Kyle’s equal, audiences tend to treat her as the lesser partner, or just an assistant. “Obviously that’s hugely frustrating…because I’m very involved in every aspect of the show – writing the script, creating the illusions, building the props.” (Lax 2016)

Magic can be defined as having the power (real or illusory) to affect change in the world. Specifically, it is being able to creat normal changes through extraordinary means, (i.e. bending a spoon with mental powers) or to create extraordinary changes with minimal effort (i.e. walking on broken glass). This plays perfectly into the larger hegemonic masculinity, or “…socially constructed ideas about masculinity that focuses on the interests and desires of men”. Superficially, it is clear that magic itself can be seen as a stereotypically masculine endeavor. If you are asked to “picture a magician”, it is a near certainty that you pictured a well-dressed, well-spoken, intelligent and charming, white male. Our culture has reinforced this image since the very beginnings of stage magic as an art form. Any attempt by women to learn magic would challenge the constraints of emphasized femininity, a focus on “social ability rather than intellect…and on acceptance of the roles of mother and wife” (Ritzer 261). Those girls who show an early interest in magic are met with a bizarre mix of skepticism, criticism and overbearing interest. In a scene familiar to any women who have been brave enough to visit a magic store or club “…a herd of guys appears at her doorstep, offering free lessons, used props and used routines”. (Lax 2016) Instead of offering legitimate interest in the growth of the woman as a performer and eventual competitor, the majority of these male magicians are showing off their knowledge or simply trying to impress the very rare girl in their midst. Even in the magic clubs, the role of women in magic is to admire the men’s skill, or at best, be on stage to make the men look good. To make things worse, “Female magicians are hyperaware of how their male counterparts are seen.” (Lax 2016) and this leads to the type of behavior we see in classic “Stereotype Threat” studies. If students of different races and genders scores are reminded of stereotypes about their group’s performance before a test, their scores will fall consistent with those stereotypes. (Lax 2016)            The constant reminder of the gender stereotypes among magicians is one final roadblock for aspiring female magicians.

Although Lax is a passionate defender of women in magic, and as the creator of the television show “Wizard Wars” on Syfy, has personally done much to raise the profile of female magicians, he does miss some of the larger issues facing women. He focuses on the inter-relationships between the existing male magicians and potential female students of magic, without taking into account the sexual scripts that modern American culture ascribes to both men and women. If performers and audiences don’t address the existence and power of those ascribed roles, it will be almost impossible to create a safe space for female magicians to flourish. Lax believes that girls simply need more female role models, but a deeper understanding of the pervasiveness of hegemonic masculinity points to a more challenging problem. Telling the male members of the local magic club to “cool it” if a girl walks in is only the proverbial band-aid on the broken bone of sexism. Instead, girls should be encouraged to challenge the strictures of the emphasized feminine and allowed to experiment with wielding power, both real and illusory.

In the past decade, neurologists have finally noticed magic and realized that there is a wealth of untapped research material there. Magicians have developed a “folk knowledge” of how the mind works and how it can be fooled by taking advantage of the mental shortcuts our minds use to make sense of the world. In a similar way, I believe that magic has a rich variety of social interactions and problems to study. “Why aren’t there more female magicians?” seems an unimportant question at first glance, but with additional study, it can bring to light many of the assumptions about power, agency, modelling and gender that we carry with us in our day to day interactions.

Nerdcore and the Birth of a New Culture

Scott Dezrah Blinn

World Music – Culture Essay

 

Nerdcore and Birth of a Virtual Community.

 

MC Frontalot can get 3,000 people to make hand signals in unison while shouting “First World Problems”. Jonathan Coulton’s cover of “Baby Got Back” outsold anything “Glee” had on the iTunes charts when his fans discovered that the show had used his arrangement without permission. Paul and Storm tour nationwide to sold out shows with audiences singing along to every single syllable.

 

Chances are, you’ve never heard of any of them.

 

A hip-hop lyrical master from Brooklyn, a Yale-educated singer-songwriter, and an acoustic guitar-slinging folk comedy duo with a background in acapella should have no common thread. In fact, an essay on the expression of culture through music has no business bringing them together.

 

MC Frontalot’s lyrics are rapidfire, clever, delivered in an unrelenting, yet unique cadence that belies the intelligence and thought put into his words. The rhythms are produced by sampling and synthesizers on his albums, but by a full drum kit in live performances. In fact, in opposition to most hip-hop performers, there is no turntable at all. This rapper is backed by a bass, keyboard, and drumkit. Yet his music is still rooted in the traditions of rap culture. Constant name checks to himself and his associates, songs explaining “Nerdcore” and the obligatory braggadocio (“Critical Hit”) are all found in abundance. His music is slickly produced, technologically complex and is a fusion of traditional hip-hop and something new.

 

Paul and Storm are on the opposite of the spectrum. Originally members of an acapella group named “DaVinci’s Notebook”, they are informed by a completely different traditions. In both concert and studio, the entire sound is created by two male voices and two acoustic guitars. They use harmonies and simple chord progressions in a way that brings the lyrics to the forefront. The music is beautiful and catchy, but it’s the words that are the centerpiece.

 

Jonathan Coulton is a prolific singer/songwriter who made his presence known with a challenge, a “Thing-A-Week” podcast, in which he wrote, produced, recorded and released a new song each week for a year. Rather than a rehash of themes and styles, he experimented with style, form, and technology. Creating everything from heartfelt ballads about his first child (“You Ruined Everything”) and childish satires sampling President George W. Bush obsessing about his “duty” (“W’s Doodie”) to lavish ballads about mad scientists (“SkullCrusher Mountain” and “The Future Soon”) start to give hints as to the common thread between these performers.

Culture is changing. Music performance and consumption are innovating hourly. The traditional model of the entertainment industry is a blindly lumbering behemoth, in denial of the fact that it is extinct.

 

In the ashes of a culture dominated by beautiful people and multimillionaire agents, a new way of distributing music has arisen, and with it, the birth of a new culture. Geek music, or as MC Frontalot calls it: “Nerdcore”.

 

What unites these musically diverse performers? How can they possibly be an example of a cultural tradition when they are so rhythmically, musically, and materially different? They have broken new ground in the music world and in doing so, given their audiences the freedom to turn their backs on the pomposity of pop music and charge headlong into music that speaks to who they are.

 

These artists are not signed to any labels. They do not have producers or agents. They have no contracts or record executives giving notes. They create music that speaks to topics they are passionate about: Dungeons and Dragons, video games, zombie movies and true love, mad scientist style. They sing the songs that laud the computer programmer and express the loneliness of the fan at the Star Wars convention. They revel in the joy of fandom and the triumph of a cleverly turned phrase.

 

Because the internet has allowed them to give the music directly to the fans, they are no longer held captive by the whims of what record executives think is “hot” this year. They can speak to the niche, and the niche has spoken back. A handful of independent musicians, working separately have become the voice of a new subculture, the triumphant geek. Twenty years ago, this group was mocked and belittled for its obsessive knowledge of Star Trek and X-Men now, they are a full-fledged culture, with their own rules and behaviors and values.

 

Honesty and diversity are cherished. In modern culture, irony has become the overarching theme. For this group, sincerity is the lingua franca. It doesn’t matter if you’re a computer geek, Trekkie, gamer, or music nerd. If you love something, love it, there is no shame to fandom in this world.

 

While all of these musicians (and many more) have their own followings, the most impressive displays of this new culture happen at three annual gatherings: PAX, WootStock and PAX East. PAX and PAX East are ostensibly gaming conventions started by the creators of the “Penny Arcade” webcomic. While it has many of the typcial features of any industry convention, (booths, brightlights, product demos, desperate sales staff), at night, something amazing happens. The commerce stops, and the concerts start. Every night of a PAX convention ends with a nerd core concert. The audience is rapt and focused in a way that is rarely seen at pop shows. These people are a congregation listening to the words of their preachers. The relief and joy are palpable as the audience feels nothing but acceptance and love from the performers. This is a people used to being mocked by the person on stage and now, the performers are expressing the same passions and insecurities.

 

In a similar vein w00tstock, started by Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek fame), Adam Savage (of MythBusters) and Paul and Storm is a celebration of this new geek culture and art. Billing itself as “Geek Vaudeville” and “Nerd Church”, w00tstock is more focused. Where as PAX is a gaming convention that features music, w00tstock is a music festival that celebrates the best of this new culture.

 

While there is nothing traditional or inherently unique in the musical expressions of this phenomena, I think it is a perfect expression of a new ethnicity, a new nation. These artists, the diversity, the obsession, the joy, the intelligence, the dark humor and silliness, they represent a new culture. One not limited by national boundaries, or religious beliefs, or commercial interests. This is the first true internet culture. Music made possible by the internet, uniting people who were previously isolated by the specificity of their interests.

 

Culture may have been limited by geography before. Your beliefs and tastes were determined by where you were born, and who you grew up with. The internet has changed that. Now you can listen to anything, from anywhere, any time. This group has appropriated the tools and vernacular of the dying American monoculture and created something new. A new culture and new forms of musical expression, but most of all, a home for themselves and others like them.

Dezrah The Strange needs your help!

This is Tardis Jr. He has been an invaluable companion and had become an integral part of the creative and communications reboot that I’ve been working on. Sadly, TJ passed away this weekend due to poor care from his previous owner and some unknown power fault. In the short time he’s been on the Dezrah Magic team, he has become an invaluable asset. He will be sorely missed.

Since I’m a stay-at-home dad, waiter and college student, I don’t have the liquid capital to purchase a replacement and TJ is beyond repair. So far, this is the typical 1st world non-problem that you’ve probably heard 1,000 times.

Here’s the difference. I’m a magican, escape artist, sideshow performer and not a half bad one at that. I’m also a believer in creative solutions. So here’s the deal: If you have a decent (Win7 capable or Leopard+) laptop that you don’t use or are thinking of replacing, I will come to your home, office, Halloween Party, Bar Mitzvah, block party, wedding, lecture, PowerPoint presentation and/or parole hearing and perform for you.

I’ll do close-up for you, my stage show, or if you have something else in mind, I’m open. I’ll travel pretty much anywhere in New England, but long-distances (50+ miles from Worcester) will need some extra planning.

So if you’re interested in having your own personal geek magician on call and have some spare tech lying around, contact me at dezrah@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post. Thank you for your support and please spread the word!

-Dezrah

 

Tardis Jr, RIP…(or get donated to TESLA, whatevs…)

Help me get better!

Here’s the deal. I think I have the content of my show nailed down finally. I like the routines I’m doing and they have some decent audience impact. I’m afraid that I’m not quite getting across what I want to though.

So, here’s the challenge:

I’m going to post the entire show I did for the Boston Skeptics in April, and I’d like your help. Watch the show (as much as you can bear) and let me know what you think. Tell me what you like, what you didn’t like, what works for you and what doesn’t.

I really want to make a go of this, and I know I’m not there yet. Help me make a better show and help rid the world of yet another hack magician. 😉

Here’s the show, enjoy!

Dezrah The Strange vs. Brian Brushwood

Hey everyone, just a quick update. Friend and magic mentor Brian Brushwood just posted a new episode of his show “Scam School” on Revision3. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a fantastic series that shows you bar bets, short cons and tricks that you can use to scam and/or impress your friends. It’s also a ninja-sneaky way to rope people into magic.

Anyways, in the latest episode, he teaches the classic Rope Handcuffs trick and gives yours truly a plug at the end. So do me (and yourselves) a favor. Go watch the episode here or on YouTube and leave a comment saying how much you love the show. Even better, leave an iTunes review for “Scam School” if you’re a subscriber!

Last year in 39 Questions

(Thanks to Stephanie Roy for the idea)

1. what did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
I welcomed my son into the world. I was put under for surgery. I had 4 wisdom teeth removed. I was onstage with a burlesque troop, and other performers I’d never met. I travelled overnight for a gig. I camped with the non-credulous, hung out with humanists and ate with atheists.
2. did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I kept some, missed others, and decided that goals with deadlins are better than resolutions.
3. did anyone close to you give birth?
My wife, (see #1)
4. did anyone close to you die?
A sparrow that I was never had the privilage of meeting, but whose passing rocked me to my core.
5. what countries did you visit?
The only one I ever have. Sigh.
6. what would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Ambition, and enough money to not be stressed.
7. what date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Jan 29th. (See #1)
8. what was your biggest achievement of the year?
Playing the Jerkus Circus with The Steamy Bohemians, and raising Orion. (again, see #1)
9. what was your biggest failure?
Had to drop a class, didn’t follow through on a huge opportunity w/CFI and had to bail on Keith for TAM.
10. did you suffer illness or injury?
Disphagia caused by an irritated esophagus caused by a growth in my stomach lining (Most likely benign. Maybe.)
11. what was the best thing you bought?
A new website http://www.dezrah.com and magic goodies.
12. whose behavior merited celebration?
Amanda’s as always. She gave me my son, put up with my wafflilng and ineptitude, and her patience and openess with me has helped bring us to a wonderful place together.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The state of California. (Prop 8, really?), those who think that freedom of speech/religion only applies to the things they agree with, the nameless ones who should freaking know better, and as always, my biggest dissapointment is myself.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage and food.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The aforementioned missed opportunity with D.J. and CFI. Working with The Steamy Bohemians (TWICE), Karin Webb saying “I like what you did!”
16. what song will always remind you of 2009?
“Single Ladies” by Beyonce, “Just for now” by Imogen Heap and “White Wine in the Sun” by Tim Minchin
17. compared to this time last year, are you:
happier?
Yes, and 2010 promises to be even better.
thinner or fatter?
Fatter, by quite a bit. Sigh.
richer or poorer?
Poorer.
18. what do you wish you’d done more of?
Rehearsal, writing and reflecting. (and sleeping)
19. what do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinating, regretting, wasting time with empty pursuits.
20. how will you be spending christmas?
At home.
21. did you fall in love in 2009?
all over again, for the 10th year in a row.
22. what new foods did you eat?
BRISKET!!!
23. what was your favorite tv program?
Community and No Reservations
24. do you dislike anyone now that you didn’t dislike this time last year?
Yes.
25. what was the best book you read?
Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
26. what was your greatest musical discovery?
Tim Minchin, Kate Bush, Daft Punk. (Yes, I’m out of the loop)
27. what did you want and get?
A straitjacket and 100′ of rope.
28. what did you want and not get?
A trip to TAM, firewalking lessons.
29. what was your favorite film of this year?
Star Trek.
30. what did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I don’t even remember, I probably worked. 33 (I think)
31. what one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More focus and attention to what matters.
32. how would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Whatever wasn’t actually falling apart and was comfortable under my gown/jumpsuit in the fab.
33. what kept you sane?
Amanda
34. which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Depending on your definition of “fancy” that could get me in trouble. 😉
35. what political issue stirred you the most?
Gay marriage, vaccination panic and blasphemy laws.
36. who did you miss?
Old friends, long distant.
37. who was the best new person you met?
Way too many to name, Lainey and Niki, Karin, WWZ guy Mystopher, Stephanie, Angie, hell, everyone at Camp Inquiry.
38. tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009
GET OFF YOUR ASS AND MAKE THINGS HAPPEN! No one’s checking in on you, if you want opportunties, make them. When ever inspiration strikes, create! Don’t wait until later!
39. quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“There’s no such thing as spare time, there’s no such thing as free time, there’s no such thing as down time, all you’ve got is life time! GO!” -Rollins

Dezrah The Strange vs. Amanda Fucking Palmer

It’s true, it’s true! After weeks of frantic e-mails, wishing, hoping, planning and stressing, I was accepted as pre-show entertainment for Amanda Palmer‘s “Cabaret” produced by Harvard’s ART!

I first heard about it on Amanda Palmer’s Twitter feed where she put out a call for street performers and other ne’er do-wells to help build ambiance before the show. On a “why the hell not?” sort of urge, I responded to her and miraculously she gave me the e-mail of the Asst. director.

After a little back-and-forth determining what would be appropriate for the space (glass walking out, street-magic in!) I was invited to join other potential performers at an audition last night. I was up against some serious (and seriously talented) character actors and artists including a drunken ex-pat opera singer, a conscripted Polish WWI veteran/Cubist caricaturist, a two-person, one puppet dirty old man, a beautiful bronze living statue and Meff and JoJo’s Tiny Instrument Revue!

I performed a little forkbending, my bastardized 2-cup version of the cups and balls, Sankey’s Paperclipped and closed with my “match trick” that now incorporated the animated matchbook. I got gasps and applause in all the right places and my “mistakes” were bought hook, line and sinker. I’ve never actually auditioned for anything, certainly not for something as amazing and edgy as AFP and ART’s “Cabaret”. I was terrified the entire time and my nerves showed, but I have to say that the past few months at the Piccadilly have really tightened my routines and burned the moves into my brain. I was able to just be there in the moment and forget about the mechanics.

Nerves aside, I think my set went well, but considering the character and type of performances we all saw that night, I was concerned that I wouldn’t really fit in with what they wanted. I knew for sure that I wouldn’t be hearing from them and was just grateful for the opportunity to audition. It turns out that I was wrong, HOORAY!!! Apparently my strategy of meta-weirdness, (being the most normal person in a room full of weirdos in turn makes one the weirdest person in the room), is paying off.

So now I’m just waiting for the details of my schedule and rehearsals, but the hard part is done. I’ve been paying my dues at the restaurant, getting my chops up, took a chance and somehow fell ass-backwards into awesomeness!

So, if you, or anyone you know is in Cambridge in the next 6 weeks, stop on by (and bring money)! I’ll be outside the theater, so you don’t even have to have tickets to some see me! Of course, you should really, really, REALLY see “Cabaret” but act fast, shows are selling out left and right.

My Thoughts on the Tea Party.

Okay, I know I have friends that support the Tea Party platform, and I’ve been mouthing off online lately, so I think I need to clarify some things.

Yes, I disagree with some items on the Tea Party platform, but that’s the best part of democracy. The disagreement and the conversation are how we find consensus and move forward. I think it’s great that people are being mobilized and taking advantage of their rights as American citizens to protest the government and speak freely. The fact that I disagree with it doesn’t mean that I think I’m smarter, better or more righteous. I JUST DISAGREE. Try to convince me with facts and good logical argument, don’t yell at me and call me the enemy because I’m questioning your beliefs.

My biggest issue with the Tea Party leadership and the Glenn Beck-style demagogues is the use of fear-mongering and stereotypes to gain popular support. Anyone (Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, etc) who uses simplistic caricatures and bumper-sticker jargon to mask the complexity of the actual issues is either being deliberately dishonest or willfully ignorant.  These talking heads are more interested in scoring political points by demonizing the opposition rather than working with the greater community in order to come to functional solutions.

Politics is complicated. Money is complicated. LIFE is complicated. We’re dealing with social, economic and cultural issues that are so intensely and complexly interwoven that making the slightest change in one area can have vast, far-reaching and totally unintended consequences in another. Those who say that all of your problems can be blamed on some “other” group or pinned on one issue are trying to distract you from the real causes of the real problems. It’s hard enough to get together and solve our problems without self-centered glory hounds throwing F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) around to get their names in the paper.

Anyone who’s telling you that there’s a simple answer is selling something.

So, do I disagree with the Tea Party folks? Sure. But I also disagree with the Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Libertarians, Free-Marketeers and Anarcho-Communists. What gets me worried is the substitution of blame, rhetoric and posturing for discussion, debate, consesus, compromise and action.

So look around, chances are that even your supposed enemies have a lot more in common with you than the media would like you to think. We all want to be free to live our lives, find love and happiness, to raise a family (or not), be free to say what we want, worship how we choose (or don’t), and be treated fairly as possible. We’ve all been disappointed by the world around us and we all want to find a better way to do things.

Instead of blame and anger, let’s try forgiveness and dialog.

Of course, this is coming from a godless, queer-loving, communist, libertarian, liar so what do I know?

Speech! Speech!

In the grand tradition of homework as blog post, I offer you this. It’s the 1st draft of a speech I’m planning on giving to my “Effective Public Speaking” Class. Enjoy! (or not)

Every year it seems that some pundit is making headlines by coming out against the “War on Christmas” that’s being waged by the liberals in the government, the ACLU and the most hated of groups, the atheists. We hear them tell stories of the Ten Commandments being forcibly removed from public spaces by god hating liberals and anti-religious zealots. We hear that Christians are under assault from the mainstream liberal agenda and that the “separation of church and state” was never intended to be used this way by our God-fearing founding fathers. The “separation of church and state” was never included in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, declaration of independence or any of the founding documents of our nation. In fact, Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase in a personal letter to the Baptists of Danbury CT, it was never written into any law.

We’re in a crisis, a battle for the very soul of our nation, and the anti-Christian forces are winning the war. If the cable news anchors are to be believed, the horrors of hearing “Happy Holidays” are only the first step down the slippery slope of secularism.

The vast majority of Americans are religious, that can’t be denied. We’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. There aren’t many agreements between those groups to be sure, indeed, there are radical differences that cannot be reconciled, so we clearly can’t create a set of laws that will address all religions, and we don’t have to; since we’re a democracy, shouldn’t it be fair that the majority of voters get to set the standard of belief in the country? The vast majority of us are Christian, so we should be a Christian nation, letting our Christian beliefs inform our policies and practices!

Before I finish that thought, there is one small detail we need to go over. What kind of Christian legislation should we push? We’re Catholic, Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Lutheran, Adventist, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Presbyterian, Christian Scientist, Mennonite and Nazarene. All of these denominations have differences in doctrine and practice that at best caused their adherents to sever ties with their parent churches, and at worst have led to death, torture and atrocities on a scale almost unimaginable today.

Religious differences are unlike any other type of belief. There is no arguing with a faith-based position. If you don’t think I can juggle, there’s and easy way for me to prove it. If you think that a single-payer health care system is the best use of our resources, we can use logic, economic studies and small-scale experiments to test the validity and wisdom of that course of action. If I think gravity is the result of a curvature of space-time, there are experiments we can run to test that theory.

On the other hand, If you think that homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed to marry because your holy texts say so, there is no argument I can make to persuade you out of it, no experiment result that you’ll accept. For many, the old adage of “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” still rings true. For all of its benefits, religion is a conversation ender, a consensus killer.

So where does that leave our Christian nation? Cursed by our rock-solid faith to divisive discourse? No, the founding fathers discovered a new way, a noble experiment, tried for the first time in history. In our constitution, they created a list of rights that were granted to all citizens of this country, rights that are inviolate, sacrosanct and central to the core of our civilization. Recognizing both the importance of religion, and its potential to undermine and open society, the very first sentence of the very first Amendment of the Constitution, the first right mentioned in the bill of rights, reads as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

They understood something we have forgotten. The bloody revolutions and usurpations of Catholic Kings vs. Protestant Princes were fresh in their memories. They came from a culture that was shaped by the violence, enmity and oppression born of religious zealotry tied to political power. At worst, if I came out to you right now and said I was an Atheist, I could expect some of you to distrust me, and according the University of Minnesota’s recent research, I could give up any hope of a political career. As unfair as this is, it is a testament to the success of our grand experiment. In the days before our secular society, and even today in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, I would be put to death simply for being an Apostate and leaving the faith of my fathers for another faith, being an Atheist would simply be unthinkable.

So they created a system where the government would have no powers to make any religious law, and more importantly, would not prohibit anyone from practicing any religion. This is the part of the 1^st amendment that so many people gloss over. The “establishment clause” is the ultimate live and let live statement. It is not an indictment of religion, or a ban. It is a protection, a guarantee that no matter who is in charge, no matter what religious group has the majority, NO ONE has the right to prevent you from believing what you want and worshipping how you will. For those few of us with no religious beliefs, or whose beliefs are in the minority, it gives us safe harbor and refuge from the potential storms of religious intolerance. For the rest, it gives the right to practice as they see fit, with no fear of other religious groups crying “heretic” or worse, bringing up charges of blasphemy.

The protection offered by the first amendment goes both ways. You do not have to submit to the religious beliefs of others, but in turn, you have no right to impose your doctrines on them. The fairest way to insure this is the establishment of a “Wall of separation between church and state”. At this point you’re saying, wait, Scott, didn’t you just say that Jefferson wrote that in a letter? That it was never made into law? Wasn’t the country founded by Christians anyways? Don’t we have a history and a culture of being Christian regardless of the specific language of the Constitution? All of that is true, but before I end let me share three more thoughts with you:

One: Jefferson was never able to get the “separation” language into law, but he fully intended the Danbury letter to be public and more importantly, what we would now call a “position paper”. Here’s the full text of the “separation” paragraph: “Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State

Two: To those who are still insistent that our founders intended this to be a Christian nation, I’ll offer this piece of evidence: One of the first acts of congress was a trade treaty, the “Treaty of Tripoli”. We don’t have time for details, but Article 11 is germane to the discussion: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

Three: Search the entire constitution, as long as you want and you will not find the words Christian, God, and/or Jesus. They are simply not part of our most important document.

Taking all of that into account, I think one of the greatest tragedies of our modern political world is that those who should be the most arduous defenders of the protections offered by the 1^st amendment are those who argue most vociferously against it.

The first amendment and the secular society that it spawned are not the enemy of religion, they are the strongest protection and defense we have for our right to practice our faith or to live without it.

Separation is not negation.

Thank you.

Mostly Magic: The Sequel!

Coming this Sunday:

Our second attempt at bringing new magic to Worcester. Come to The Q and support live entertainment and local business:

http://worcesterite.com/forums/general/2010/2/24/magic-weirdness-and-coffee-mostly-magic-returns-q-sunday

find us on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=446340090284

Hope to see you there!