Dated 06 March 2018
Formal resignation as member of the Executive Committee of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance.
Dear fellow SAPRA Executive Committee members,
Over the past few days, Damon (Leff) has been posting links to articles about South African current events, i.e. land grabs and changes to the Constitution, etc. in the SAPRA group, along with his own personal views on these articles and events. Among these are calls for all white South Africans to take responsibility for the actions of previous white South Africans who are now long dead. Some even fled overseas and are long absent from these lands. These articles and statements are now being made and shared as though the SAPRA endorses them and stands behind them and as if they are the views of the SAPRA itself.
None of the Executive members, to my knowledge, were consulted with regard to whether this viewpoint was to be expressed as an official comment or viewpoint of SAPRA, and in point of fact, I certainly was not.
What this topic has to do with Paganism or Pagan rights, or even religious freedom in South Africa, I do not know. But it does seem to have something in common with witch hunts.
I, as a member of the SAPRA Executive Committee, and anyone else who would dare to disagree or point out the injustice, unfairness and folly of such a trend, essentially expecting people innocent of any crimes to take upon themselves responsibility for the actions of other people, have been met with disparaging and disdainful personal remarks. Specifically in my case, it was publicly inferred by Damon that I “lack compassion for my fellow man” and I “only care about inequality when it personally affects me”. I’m sorry to say that this is crossing the line. Talk about a slap in the face!
Never mind that I do and always have stood for equality, fairness and justice in my dealings as an activist, whether for LGBTI, Pagan, POC, VC or LHP occultists – or in fact anyone, online or off.
Damon, despite his pursuit of legal studies, is unable to explain how he would go about justifying charging a man for his long dead father’s crimes in a court of law, but somehow insists that it is justifiable to argue that every living white South African person assume personal responsibility (i.e. blame and guilt) for the actions of dead people 70 or 200 years ago, or because they are white and “share the same history”.
I find this contemptible to put it mildly, and on several different levels. An organization designed to fight injustice is now instead advocating it. A “human rights activist” studying law to aid the cause of the common man and South African Pagans, is now arguing that innocent people should clothe themselves in guilt for human rights violations they had nothing to do with.
Logic is obviously lacking in these personal debates, in which subtle differences between “taking responsibility for the actions of others” and “accepting guilt” and “accepting blame” in this sense are essentially manufactured in argument in order to bluff people into thinking they should be morally obligated to voluntarily wear the label of human rights abusers and beneficiaries of human rights abuse simply because of the color of their skin!
The irony in this is, that people who think this way simply do not see the inherently racist nature of such attitudes! Rejection of this notion is taken and portrayed as if the objector is a racist or someone without compassion for others! The phrase “white privilege” is then bandied about as if it were an obvious explanation of the objector’s refusal to kowtow to this insult.
Suffice to say, I believe we have reached a point of irreconcilable differences here.
I cannot and never will accept blame, guilt or responsibility for the actions of others, no matter what race, color or creed they were, or how long ago they lived or died, no matter what it is they did – or whatever history they have in common with mine. I do so with an honest and clear conscience, since I have had no part in any acts that led to or empowered the system of Apartheid, nor any say in any consequential or alleged and increasingly theoretical benefits to such acts.
This paradigm and the resulting movement growing around it is steeped in propaganda and a shift in mindset from striving for equality, to self-assumed scapegoating that will lead to even greater persecution and inequality in future – because “they acknowledge it, so of course it’s justified”. This is the insanity of extremist political correctness. Is a burden of unjust and crippling guilt the future people want for their children?
No reasonable person would expect anyone to accept guilt for things they hadn’t done – nor would they try to shame, bully or coerce anyone to if they disagreed. It’s the principle of the thing. I didn’t do it, so why is it necessary that I should accept blame for it? What does my refusal to be blamed for someone else’s actions have anything to do with “compassion for my fellow man”? That doesn’t even make any sense!
And therein lies the purpose of this letter.
Because this is my position, I cannot associate myself to nor serve an organization which makes itself party to such folly, injustice and unfairness, and which promotes it, or otherwise allows itself to be used to promote it.
I hereby regretfully tender my resignation from the SAPRA with immediate effect.
Sincerely,
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2018.