8 — OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — SEPTEMBER 1998

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/ ‘SKEETER BITES
By Skeeter Sanders

Island Pond Sect Anti-Gay —
But Too Weird to Worry About

It was bound to happen
eventually. And at the 19th an-
nual Bread & Puppet Circus in
Glover last month, it finally
did.

No, I'm not talking about
the fatal assault in a camp-
ground near the Bread & Pup-
pet amphitheater. Nor the
flood of hard-core Phishheads
who were on their way to
Phish’s third annual summer
blowout in Maine. Nor the
Rainbow Family folks who
were en route to a New En-
gland regional gathering in
southern Vermont.

Not even the full moon
that lit up the night sky dur-
ing the festival, and was yet an-
other contributor to all the
weirdness that went on.

Most ofyou who read the _
reports in the mainstream
newspapers about the crazi-
ness that went on at Bread &
Puppet this year already know
about those details. But there
was another discordant inci-
dent in Glover that weekend
that the mainstream media left
unreported.

A group of GLBT activ-
ists staged a noisy and at times
heated protest in front of the
Common Ground Cafe booth
in the vendors’ area, urging
festival-goers not to patronize
it.

The reason? The cafe was
operated by members of The
Community, a highly—contro-
versial religious sect whose
views on homosexuality, the
role of women and child rais-
ing puts it far out of the Ameri-
can religious mainstream — So

far out, in fact, that The Com-
munity is routinely branded by
its critics as a cult.

Still known to many Ver-
monters as the "Island Pon-
ders,” after a highly-publicized
police raid on its Island Pond
enclave several years back,
members of The Community ft
a direct descendant of the hip-
pie "jesus Freaks" of the late
'60s and early '70s — believe
that homosexuality is a sin.
They also believe that it is the
role of men to be leaders and
providers and for womento
submit to men's authority,
staying home and raising chil-
dren.

As an eyewitness to the
confrontation between the Is-
land Ponders and the GLBT ac-
tivists at Bread & Puppet, it
was pretty clear to me that
such a confrontation was inevi-
table, for I had my own per-
sonal clash with The Commu-
nity four years ago.

It was at the ill-fated
”Vermont lam” rock festival in
Johnson (That festival was a
colossal flop because it was
held on the same weekend as
the Woodstock '94 25th—anni—
versary bash in Saugerties,
NY). Having moved to
Burlington from San Francisco
just one week prior to Vermont
Jam, I spotted the Island Pon-
ders’ psychedelically painted
bus that was parked near the
main stage.

I knew nothing about
The Community or had even
heard of it. So, assuming that
these were fellow survivors of
the "flower power” culture (a

THE CHOSEN FAMILY

culture which, after 30 years,
still holds a very special place
in my heart), I accepted their
invitation to come into their
bus.

Within minutes, how-
ever, I noticed some uncom-
fortably telltale signs that these
folks were neither Deadhead s,
Rainbow Family, Phishheads
nor neo—Pagans. Rather, I could
see red flags flash in my mind
that this was in fact a religious
group —— but not your average
country church group by any
means.

While I, an unabashed
neo—Pagan who is openly bi-
sexual, was perfectly willing
to engage in an inter-religious
dialogue, the conversation
soon grew heated when the
topic turned to homosexuality.

As the Island Ponders I
spoke with insisted that being
gay meant living a "destruc-
tive, promiscuous lifestyle,” I
countered with equal insis-
tence that my own experience
— which included a 12-year-
long relationship (now de-
funct) with a French—Canadian
man who lived in Montreal ———
proved the wrongness of their
views.

Of course, I knew from
previous arguments with
Christian fundamentalists on
the same subject — as well as
from my own past member-
ship in the Rev. Sun Myung
Moon's Unification Church in
the late 1970s — that there was
no way I was going to convince

(them. But I made it clear that

there was no way the Island
Ponders were going to change

my views, either. And they
sure as hell weren't going to
convert me.

Yet for all of its anti—gay
and blatantly sexist attitudes,
The Community has an even
deeper aversion to politics. Un-
like the Christian Coalition and
other religious—right groups
(which I prefer to call theo-
crats) you couldn't get the Is-
land Ponders to get involved
in a political campaign if your
life depended on it. And for a
good reason.

The Community is pas-
sionately hated by what would
otherwise be their natural al-
lies in the religious right be-
cause its members tenaciously
cling to a neo-hippie lifestyle
— albeit a very puritanical ver-
sion of it. I have learned since
my first encounter with the Is-
land Ponders that they have
been a fixture at Rainbow
Gatherings and Grateful Dead
concerts for more years than I
care to count.

The State of Vermont
isn't fond of them, either. Sev-
eral years ago, law—enforce—
ment and Social and Rehabili-
tative Services agents raided
The Community's Island Pond
enclave amid highly-publi-
cized accusations that sect
members were psychologically
and physically abusing their
children. The resulting scandal
made the sect a pariah among
many Vermonters ever since.

Yes, The Community is
homophobic and sexist. But
because its members nonethe-
less live an unconventional
lifestyle, avoid politics like the
plague and for the most part
keep to themselves, I've left
them alone. I suggest that the
GLBT community do the same.
They're just not worth getting
all worked up in a lather over.

Skeeter Sanders, OI TM '5 newest
columnist, also hosts a weekly ra-
dio program of smooth jazz and
soft R&B on WGDR—FM (91.1)
in Plainfield. The station simul-

casts live on the Internet at x

'www.goddard.edu/wgdr.

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