Fired for your religion

I had the chance to interview Dorothy Morrison yesterday. She's the author of several magical books we stock in my store, and she and K.R. Sellars, author of the Rowan Gant mystery series, are going to be having a book signing with us on August 27th. Dorothy has recently moved to my local area, so I jumped at the chance to interview her. I hope the interview will be online soon.

But what I wanted to talk about here is her experience as a practitioner of a non-majority religion. You see, shortly after her first book, Magical Needlework, was published, she had a local booksigning - that is, in the town she then lived. And immediately thereafter, she was fired from her job running the local Humane Society.

You see, the board of directors knew she was Wiccan, and knew she practiced wiccan magick. They didn't have a problem with it... until everyone else also knew.

This is a kind of discrimination that is particularly pernious. Because it allows those who discriminate to say that they don't have a problem with [blacks, gays, Jews, wiccans], but they need to worry about people who do.

This is the soft bigotry of 'as long as it isn't In My Face'. You know the kind of thing I mean... "I don't care [what people do in their bedrooms, what church they go to], as long as they don't shove it in my face."

Soft Bigotry says "I don't mind sharing the planet with people who are different from me, as long as they agree to pretend that they're exactly like me. Or at least practice their 'differences' out of sight so I can continue to pretend that everyonne is just like me."

What conceited asses. Clue Alert - I hate to hurt your widdle feelings, but it's not all about you. It never was.

Buy Dorothy's books direct from her publisher: