Today’s news that Kenny Klein, Pagan musician and teacher,
was arrested on suspicion of child pornography, raises an important issue that
too many in the Pagan community seem to prefer to ignore, the existence of
predators in our community.
Now, I’m not going to discuss, for the most part, whatever crimes
were allegedly committed by Klein, but rather I want to focus on the bigger
issue, which is the community’s response to things like this. We often hear
stories of a pedophile being caught, or a sexual predator preying on
susceptible victims at Pagan events, or of people leaving a coven because of
the predatory actions of one or more of the coven’s leaders. Often the
knee-jerk reaction is to say “obviously this person isn’t a real Pagan, or they’d
never do these things”. Unfortunately this is, at best ignorant, and in fact it
does much damage to the credibility of the community as a whole.
Worse is when the community, or the leadership of the
portion of it most affected, turns a blind eye to the whole thing, or even
worse still, when they defend the predator. I understand the fear involved –
exposing the act invariably rebounds on the community as a whole, and the
fundamentalist Christians have a field day, attacking us all and painting us
all with the same brush. But ignoring or covering up these problems plays into
their hands even more, because it looks like we condone those acts, accept
them. It makes preying on the weaker members of our community look like normal
Pagan behavior.
So I have a simple suggestion to make – let’s stop doing
that. Let’s stop enabling the predators because of our own fear. Klein’s arrest
is going to make him the poster-boy for fundamentalist attacks on the “evil
Witches and Pagans”, because this time there is no hiding behind the “no true
Pagan” defense. He is a highly visible Pagan, active in festivals and
conferences, a popular musician, an elder of his tradition (Blue Star Wicca).
Any time a predator is convicted or confesses, we need to find the courage to stand up and say “yes, they are a Pagan,
and what they have done is wrong, and we condemn their actions and those of all others who betray the
trust placed in them.” We cannot stick our heads in the sand, like the Catholic
Church did for so many years with the pedophile priests. We need to deal with
the pedophiles, the creepy folk who go to Pagan gatherings looking to get laid
by forcing themselves on someone caught up in the magic, or a little too tipsy.
We need to deal with coven leaders who demand sexual favors of students, while
being careful not to get too puritanical on those traditions that use
consensual sex as part of their craft.
Above all, we need to, for once, show a united front to the
world, one that says that we will not tolerate this behavior in our ranks, that
we will not tolerate those who condone, defend, or by their inaction, enable
this behavior. Predators are found in all walks of life, so we need to stress
that this is not acceptable in Paganism, but at the same time, we must not use
the old feeble excuse of “he wasn't a real Pagan”. We have to own our failures
as well as our successes.
I don’t know for sure whether Klein has actually done
anything wrong – the article about his arrest stated that 25 explicit photos
were found on his computer, and he admitted ownership, that he downloaded them
and also distributed them to others. But at this point, he has not been charged,
and certainly hasn't been convicted. To be honest, it is less today’s arrest
that sparked my little rant here, but the comments I've been seeing online from
people who say he’s been doing this for 20 plus years, while teaching workshops for children and mixing with
families. Some of those comments are from people who claim it happened to them.
If the alleged actions are backed up by evidence, why have community leaders
allowed continued access to children for so long?
In the past, I've heard stories of people who have been
vilified in the community for exposing pedophiles. Now I realize that there is
a fine line between making assumptions and having reasonable certainty, but
when there is evidence, we should not shoot the messenger, and even when there
isn't, it still bears at least taking a look. Somebody can be mistaken,
over-cautious or over sensitive, but if they are sincerely concerned, the
leaders of their group should look into the accusations as fairly as possible,
and where there is evidence, there should be action. Instead we get people
being ostracized and punished for “exposing the group to public scrutiny”… the
same excuses the Catholic Church gave for moving pedophile priests to a
different parish.
Ultimately, we are always going to be under attack from
fundamentalist Christianity – nothing will change that. If in fear of providing
them with ammunition, we try to hide the acts of these predators, we not only
end up giving them more and better ammunition, but we are allowing our own
community to become the victims of pedophiles, bullies, extortionists, frauds
and rapists. Already the damage done by this is evident; the large number of
seekers who shy away from covens and formal training because they've been burnt
by a predator. When we fail to deal with predators, to remove them from our
ranks and bring them to the attention of the authorities, we become their
accessories, their enablers, and we become in part responsible for their
actions, and that carries a heavy coin.
So if you are the victim of a predator, bring it to the
attention of a leader and/or the authorities. If you are a leader, then do not
turn away from those who claim they are victims – lead, and do what is
necessary. We must be careful not to jump to conclusions, but must evaluate the
situation, and decide if action is needed. Above all, we must not delude
ourselves that if we ignore it, it will go away.
