the first, and biggest, is what I like to call pagan VDs; validation desire syndrome.  It's as if, once a certain point is reached, groups just don't know what to do with themselves anymore.  They've got the monthly rites, they've got the Sabbats down, yadda yadda yadda, and it's like they don't know what to do next.  So they look around at the local major religions, usually Christian, and decide to be like them, but different.  Hence, congregationalist wicca.  And yeah, to people like me, it's like some sort of contagious, nasty disease, one which I really don't want to catch.

It has a feeling that people are numbers, to be added to the list of official 'pagans'.  As is, 'did you see the statistics for pagans/wiccans/druids in Canada?  it's pretty sweet.'  In a semi joking, semi-thoughtful post (what I like to call philopopsical) in a local email list I belong to, someone refered to the christian Right's high birth rates, and lamented the lack of ours.  Wha?!?!?!?  Okay, so the person was sort of joking.  But again, there's a growing sense of some pagan groups comparing us with Christians.

This isn't a competition.  There are no points given out to the religion with the highest conversion rate.  No bonuses in the Summerlands for starting the most churches.

What I was taught about Wicca (and I hedge this, since I've never been one, so I could well be wrong), was that every coven member, every wiccan, was their own priest or priestess.  So where does a congregation fit in?  I mean, if a person's too lazy to take an active role in the working group, why cater to them?  Is there a new category of pagan, that of a non-clergy follower (you can't call someone who doesn't do anything a practioner)?  What role do they fill?  

And most importantly, if a non-clergy layperson can now consider themselves a Wiccan (or a whatever, I guess), doesn't that alter what it is to *be* a Wiccan?  That line about being your own priestess/priest; can that possibly still be true, if you don't have to dedicate or work at becoming a full coven member?

Maybe I'm just full of it tonight, but the subject is really eating at me, though I'm not sure why.