Pagan Interfaith Exchanges
Edited by Aaron Michael Ullrey
The following Research Reflection is part of an ongoing series spotlighting the academic study of religions.
Certain Bible quotations speak forcefully against “pagans” and “witches,” sometimes even justifying their being killed. Deuteronomy 18: 9-12 (ESV), for example, says, “There shall not be found among you anyone . . . who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.” These quotes fuel threats against contemporary Pagans. This past September, an opinion piece in the Tennessee Conservative—self-described as the largest alternative newspaper for conservatives in the state—quoted Bible passages such as these against witches and pagans and called on locals to protest a kayaking party on a local waterway organized by a group of Pagans to celebrate the fall equinox. On Halloween 2024, a Pagan group ritual in Salem, Massachusetts, which labels itself “Witch City,” was disrupted, and one person was taken to the ER after being confronted by a group wielding a large cross as a weapon. I have served as an expert witness in trials for several cases in which Pagans’ religious affiliation had been used against them. Instances of hostility to their religion have motivated some Pagans to engage in interfaith work.
Bible scholars debate whether certain Hebrew and Greek terms should be translated “pagan” or “witch”, but there is consensus that these ancient terms are different from the contemporary religion of Paganism, a loosely organized group of spiritual paths sharing overlapping elements: drawing on ancient traditions, viewing the Earth as sacred, celebrating yearly ritual cycles connected to seasons, worshipping goddess(es) exclusively or in addition to god(s), and practicing magic. There is no central Pagan hierarchy as there is in some Christian traditions, but there are umbrella Pagan organizations such as EarthSpirit Community that offer retreats, enact public-facing rituals, and disseminate newsletters.
For a forthcoming chapter in the edited volume Beyond Dialogue: New Paradigms in Interfaith Discourse (SUNY Press, 2026), I spoke to five contemporary Pagans active in interfaith work. One interviewee, Andras Corbin-Arthen, founder and long-standing leader of Earthspirit Community, shared that in 1989 he and his wife Deirdre set up a booth about Paganism at the Parliament of World Religions in an exhibition hall where vendors share music, distribute written materials, and answer questions. “It was really fascinating because people would come by and say, ‘Pagans, what do you mean Pagans?’ And then we'd start talking with them and they would say, ‘Oh, so that means I guess I'm a little pagan too.’” Andras found that his ability to speak about his own non-traditional religion gave him an ability to help organizers of some sessions to realize that the central questions they were asking or topics they picked were antithetical to Paganism and other religions, particularly indigenous ones. Making his own religion accessible to others helped Andras build bridges with mainstream religions and native religions.
Holli Emore, director of Cherry Hill, the best known and respected Pagan seminary, notes that, at least for her, the purpose of interfaith work “is to be together and be different and be respectful and courteous and celebrate those differences.” Celebrating difference, Holli related, resulted in two local religious leaders apologizing to her for their previous prejudices against Pagans—one in a public letter and the other in front of his congregation.
Pagans self-define as an Earth-based religion and bring a concern for the environment to their interfaith work; this directs their choices about projects they engage in and links them to environmentally concerned individuals and groups from different religions. Macha, on officer of Covenant of The Goddess, a national organization advocating for Pagan groups, is a strong second-wave feminist; she spoke about working with an environmentally concerned Evangelical Christian man and becoming close to him. She found him “very male entitlement, macho kind of, but tempered by working with teens and loving Jesus. And at the end . . . we formed a circle and we were asked to stand with the people that we felt . . .some kind of alignment. And I stood with him . . . Because . . . his phrase is, ‘We're pissing away God's creation.’” She explained, “Well, that puts us on the same side of some things.”
The Pagans I interviewed find that interfaith dialogue, when it works, creates more tolerance—not just for their religion but for minority religions in general. Interfaith work creates bonds between people who might otherwise feel alienated from one another. These bonds can unite them to work toward a common cause, whether social justice or environmental issues, and inspires mutual protection of each other’s rights. People change when they see new things about themselves, including their prejudices about other religions, or at least their practitioners. Recognizing prejudices is the first step in causing them to fade.