Not Really Clergy - or Pagan
This act by A. J. Drew (no link, because I've disagreed with him for years) is one among many reasons that I am not considered Pagan by many other Pagans, nor clergy by those who profess themselves to be Pagan clergy.
See, I don't support negative actions like this. I see this effigy burning to be over-the-top soul-destroying negative magic, and I sincerely dislike the patterns that flow from this action. Drew's proclamation that this is his way of getting rid of a "pedophile" is vigilantism at its worst.
Had Drew sincerely believed the Frosts were pedophiles, he would have been a witness at their trial. Had any law enforcement agency believed the Frosts were pedophiles, the Frosts would have been arrested and charged and arraigned and brought to trial.
The book that contains the paragraph that Drew claims makes the Frosts pedophiles was written decades ago.
It is old information. It was written for the shock value.
The passing of the years has shown that it is words on paper, not deeds in flesh.
The Frosts were ill-advised to write and publish those words, and, were they to ever listen to me, I would advise them to remove it from future editions, or, if they chose to keep some semblance of it in their book, to tie it more tightly to historical data. Pedophilia has such a flexible definition that a 19 year old could be considered a child under some definitions of it, and yet a menstruating 8 year old would be considered an adult. I know. I've counseled pre-teen mothers, and not one of the men who fathered their babies was labeled a pedophile, or charged with statutory rape.
Did you see the pre-teen? That means these little girls weren't even 13 years old yet, and impregnated by some man. Most of these little girls were impregnated by neighbors, their fathers, an uncle - and not one single man who raped these poor little girls was ever even arrested for rape or on pedophile charges.
Based on the lives and bodies of these little girls who are now mothers (some of them with more than one baby before they ever become teens), I cannot call the Frosts pedophiles. I can't call the rapists of these little girls pedophiles by law, because they haven't been charged and convicted of the act. How, then, can I call the Frosts pedophiles? How can I get worked up over words on a piece of paper, when I've helped a 9 year old little girl learn how to bathe the baby some true pedophile forced on her?
My work is not to go after old data, but to prevent more little girls from being raped by real pedophiles.
Because I do not support Drew's histrionic, vitriolic, vigilante actions, I am a bad Pagan clergy.
Screw him. He's an adult. He can take it.
I'd rather concentrate my efforts on finding and charging and convicting true pedophiles, like the men who fathered the babies on those little girls who haven't even become teen agers yet. Or on the pedophiles who prey on young boys, who can't produce babies to prove they've been raped. Or on the pedophiles who prey on girls too young to conceive, thus not producing the evidence of their rape. Ten year old little girls with babies kicking in their swelling bellies pisses me off. I want to prosecute the man who did that to her. The invisible little boys and girls hurt by real pedophiles make me take action. Those are the pedophiles that anger me and bring out my need to act.
Words on paper? Eh. It comes too close to my need for lack of censorship. I can take or leave words on paper. I cannot take or leave those people who commit the physical acts of harm to others.
And if that makes me not Pagan, or not clergy, in the eyes of drama queens like Drew, then so be it.