Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

or Shintoism or the Church of England . . . but the important thing it implies is

that a person born into, let us say, the Presbyterian Church is not being odd or

unreasonable if he remains in it all his life despite having lost all faith; he’s

merely being pragmatic. His wife and kids are there; he feels that church is a good

influence on the kids, many of his friends are there. It’s a comfortable habit, one

carrying with it a degree of prestige in the community.

(But if he changes into a saffron robe and shaves his pate, then goes

dancing down the street, shouting, “Hare Krishna!” he won’t keep his Chevrolet

dealership very long. Theology has nothing to do with it.)

One of the symptoms of this Age of Unreason, antiscience and anti-intellect,

in the United States is the very prominent increase in new cults. We’ve never been

without them. 19th Century New England used to breed them like flies. Then it was

Southern California’s turn. Now they seem to spring up anywhere and also are readily

imported from abroad. Zen Buddhism has been here so long that it is usually treated

with respect . . . but still so short a time (1950) that few American adults not of

Japanese ancestry can claim to have been born into it. Ancient in Japan, it is still

a cult here-e.g., Alan Watts (1915 – 1973), who moved from Roman Catholic priest to

Episcopal priest to Zen priest. I doubt that there is any count on American Zen

Buddhists but it is significant that both “satori” and “koan” were assimilated words

in all four standard U.S. dictionaries only 16 years after Zen Buddhism penetrated

the non-Japanese population.

And there are the Moonies and the Church of Scien

tology and that strange group that went to South America and committed suicide en

masse and the followers of that fat boy from India and-look around you. Check your

telephone book. I express no opinion on the tenets of any of these; I simply note

that, since World War Two, Americans have been leaving their “orthodox” churches in

droves and joining churches new in this country.

Witchcraft is not new and never quite died out. But it is effectively new to

most of its adherents here today because of the enormous increase in numbers of

witches. (“Warlock” is insulting, “Wizard” barely acceptable and considered gauche,

“Witch” is the correct term both male and female; The religion is usually called

either the Old Religion or the Craft rather than witchcraft.)

The Craft is by its nature underground; witches cannot forget the hangings

in Salem, the burnings in Germany, the fact that the injunction, “Thou shalt not

suffer a witch to live” (Exodus XXII, 18) has usually been carried out whenever the

Old Religion surfaced. Even during this resurgence only four covens have come to my

attention and, not being a witch myself, I have never attended an esbat (easier to

enter a tyled lodge!).

The Craft is not Devil worship and it is not Black Mass but both of the

latter have enjoyed some increase in recent years.

If witchcraft has not come to your attention, search any large book store;

note how very many new titles concern witchcraft. Most of these books are phony, not

written by witches, mere exploitation books-but their very existence shows the

change. Continue to show interest and a witch just might halfway reveal himself by

saying, “Don’t bother with that one. Try this one.” Treat him with warm politeness

and you may learn much more.

To my great surprise when I learned of it, there are over a dozen (how much

over a dozen I have no way to

guess) periodicals in this country devoted solely to the Old Religion.

Time Span-The Cancerous Explosion

of Government

Will Rogers told us that we were lucky in that we didn’t get as much

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government as we pay for. He was (and is) emphatically right. . . but he died 15

August 1935. The Federal government spent $6,400,000,000 in the last 12 months of

his tragically short life. The year he was born (1879) the Federal government spent