Hi Everybody,

This is Steve Thomas (Steve T from the Ecosophia blog.) I wanted to jump in and say thank you very much to everybody who's contributed to the discussion so far!

Here is what I have gleaned so far.

Why did people join?

This is fairly straightforward. People were interested in ADF because they wanted to worship the gods in a religious setting. ADF offered a formal structure, fellowship with others, and a system of training for priests.

Why did they leave?

Here, a medley of reasons:

--The organizational structure was the sort that relies on cliques and the sort of "old boys network" that everyone pretends doesn't exist. (I saw this all the time when I was part of the radical Left in my 20s, for what it's worth, and I utterly loathe this sort of thing. You can always tell who the leader of an anarchist group is-- it's the guy that's standing in front of everyone else proclaiming "We have no leaders!" Humans being humans, there may be no way to prevent the development of an "inner ring" in CS Lewis's phrase, but it's my view that to the greatest extent possible, an organization's formal structure should be its actual structure.)

--The training system was either nonexistent or "under perpetual revision," or else it required some sort of access to the "old boys' network" to access it.

--They had a list of prohibited books. (This is not a red flag. It's a gigantic red banner waving over a red army under a red sunrise.)

--The founder... Good Gods. "Look what I've got"? Really?

--They put politics, and an increasingly narrow and authoritarian politics, before piety.

--Constant infighting.

--Some people describe simply getting a bad vibe at their ceremonies. To my way of thinking, this is an important sign that something is wrong.

--Members are prohibited or strongly discouraged from pursuing other interests, from the Druid Revival to non-Indo-European deities.

--Really, they seem to go to great lengths to police their members minds, and their spirits.

--Someone made the interesting observation that there seemed to be only old-timers and new people. This is definitely a red flag, and fwiw it's also something I used to see in radical left groups--Three or four white-headed old timers who'd been there since 1968 surrounded by several dozen 22 year olds.


Based on all of this, the notes I'm making regarding the as-yet-unnamed new church include:

--Simplify organizational structure. I have some ideas about what this could look like.
--There should be a straightforward and accessible training program for priests, with ordination the end result for everyone who successfully completes the work.
--"Piety, not politics" to be branded on the backside of every prospective member. Or, more simply:
--Unity of Purpose. The purpose of this organization is to worship the gods through group and individual ritual. Nothing else. The church takes no stance on any outside issues whatsoever. Discussion of politics and other outside issues to be prohibited on whatever online forums exist and during all church events.
--Freedom of thought and freedom of conscience. The church does not in any way regulate what its members may read, to what political party they may or may not belong, or what spiritual beings they may interact with.
--No Facebook.

***

...Well, all of that is just a start. It's now much later than I'm used to staying up and I'm becoming a bit delerious, so I'm going to stop here for tonight. To all those reading-- again, thank you. Looking over this post, do you see anything important I've missed?

Of course. You should be able to send me a private message via Dreamwidth.